Mead for Dummies

( Drink more mead! )

Well not exactly. Mead for newbies maybe. A catchy title is worth a many more words so when you find one, use it!

Mead is a beverage made from fermented honey, and is also often referred to as honey-wine. Traditional mead is very straightforward in concept, it is made with honey, water and yeast. It can't be that simple, can it? Yes, but that is very much just the beginning. But let's start at the real beginning by jumping in the way back machine!

Mead is old beverage. Recent archaeometric evidence, check out the book Uncorking the Past, from the Jiahu region of China suggests that fermented beverages that included honey, rice and hawthorn fruit were produced there about 7000 years ago during the Neolithic era. The chemical analysis undertaken to provide this evidence is based on identifying chemical signatures of residues found in pottery. While not an exact science, ongoing analysis suggests that in addition to the ingredients listed above, other fruits like native grapes, Asiatic cherries or flowers from the geranium family may have also been included in these very old beverages. 

The best explanation of how early humans may have stumbled upon the knowledge that honey would ferment (a process they didn't understand early on, but had enough experience to harness) into a pleasurable beverages goes a little something like this:

A hunter gatherer type happens upon a beehive that had fallen from a tree. The top of the hive was open and there had been rain since it dropped. There was a pool of liquid filling the hive. The liquid smelled sweet so the curious human stuck his/her hand in it and tasted it. Bam, it was sweet and delicious so he drank all he/she could extract! A little while later the imbiber felt a bit funny and maybe a little light on their feet. This was a light bulb moment. Find beehives laden with honey, fill them with water and let them sit exposed to the air for some time and it was assumed that this tasty, and intoxicating beverage, would result. The rest is indeed history!

Speeding through history there is evidence from Greece, India, Scotland, England, the Baltic countries, Russia, Finland, Ehtiopia and many other locales that mead (or beverages fermented with honey) were part of the local foodstuffs and are still important local products. Mead is seeing renewed interest in America, something akin to how craft beer took beer-making back to its roots and has now achieved cult status for many.

So what else do you need to know about mead? Mead comes in a variety of styles. The most common (and popular) are listed below.

• Traditional – water, honey and yeast. That’s it. People interested in mead should try this style to get a baseline for what wine made from honey tastes like. All of the rest of the variations below are riffs on this, using the honey, water and yeast as the starting point.
• Metheglin – contains spices. I made an Orange/Vanilla mead this year that is technically a metheglin. The orange was low volume and the vanilla is a predominant flavor in the finished product. Other spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, tea and ginger are all commonly used. My first mead was a Blackberry with nutmeg so either a metheglin or melomel (up next).
• Melomel – made with fruit. Next to traditional mead this is the second most popular type in my experience. Berries, cherries, currant, mango, etc. These can come dry or sweet depending on the maker’s preference. If made with apples and grapes, see below.
• Pyment – made with grapes or grape juice. I've only had a few of these, one just last night in fact that was rockstar, and this is an area I will experiment with in the coming years. If oak aged it can have a port-like character.
• Braggot – made with hops and/or malt. Another variation I've only had a couple of times, but has intense character. The best one I've had came from Michael at Moonlight Meadery (we’re getting to he and his meads!) and was in an Imperial Stout form. Another area for potential experimentation for me.
• Cyser – made with apples or cider. I am making one of these next weekend, with some cinnamon. Sort of baked apples perhaps.

Mead can be both dry and sweet and this choice is more of a stylistic one than anything inherent in the different styles. You will also find meads that are still, pettilant (very gently sparkling) and those that are full on carbonated. This is again a choice of style, and both choices coupled with the different styles really allow a meadmaker to create unique beverages for different tastes. Additional character can be added to mead through barrel aging, and the results can depend on both what the barrel had been used for previously and the composition of the mead being aged.

Drink more mead!

For me personally mead-making is of particular interest right now. I shared a bit my personal history with mead-making in a recent blog post entitled Sweet Dreams. In that same post I shared the story of making a commercial version of a recipe of my own with the folks at Moonlight Meadery in Londonderry, NH. That new product hasn't yet reached the bottle so I can't tell you anything more about it just yet.

I definitely can share (and have many times in my blog) more about Moonlight Meadery though, and in fact they will be tell all the #winechat participants about themselves and their products tonight (October 3rd) at 9PM EST.

Moonlight Meadery makes a dizzying array of meads covering all of the styles above, except braggot (which they can't make it legally, bah!) and pyment, something they have yet to make, but I have it on good authority that we should expect one in the coming months!

There is a Moonlight mead for everyone. Folks that want to go traditional will dig Sensual. Desire is flavored with a blend of blueberries, black cherries and blackcurrants and is the flagship product from Moonlight. If you are a bit more daring you might try Fury, flavored with a blend of chili peppers. If heat isn't your style then maybe Sumptuous, flavored with mango, might hit your sweet spot. Kurt's Apple Pie never fails to please and when Fall comes to New England then blend of apples, honey, vanilla and brown spices fit right in. Maybe Flirt (apricot), Tease (plum) or Fling (strawberry/rhubarb) would work best for you. All I know is that you WILL find something you like!

( Michael Fairbrother spends lots of time at the tasting bar educating guests about mead. )

The following comes directly from the Moonlight Meadery web site.

It all started back in 1995, when Michael tried a cyser (apple and honey mead) for the first time.  Since that first sip Michael has developed a passion, and a masterful skill at making international award winning meads. Michael Fairbrother has started Moonlight Meadery®, with a mission to bring ultra premium meads to the market place.  It is more than a product and it is more than a process, it's our obsession.

    "Mead to me is passion, it's about living and love, it's about enjoyment, family and friends, and sharing." says Michael Fairbrother, Founder and Mead Maker. 

Our meads will be unique, and unlike anything you have ever tried, you will find it incredible!   We are going to embrace the unique nature of natural honey as minimally processed as possible.

All of that is true, and I know this because I have heard it from the people involved directly. But those words don't really do the product justice, nor do they make the authenticity and sincerity of the Michael and his team at Moonlight real, something everyone visit to experience. When you meet people who are passionate and truly love the work they do you can't mistake it for anything else.

I've written about the meads from Moonlight on several occasions since walking through their door for the first time in 2010, hell I've been inspired by their range of products to make a few crazy meads of my own!

• Local Sips December 2010
• Local Mead Tasting
• Local Mead Cocktails
• Highlights from the Best of New Hampshire
• Second Annual Live Free & Wine Festival
• Moonlight Meadery - Liquid Gold From New Hampshire
• Motherhood and Kurt's Apple Pie
• Mead Free or Die, The Path to Here

My meadmaking bender started in 2011 with my Orange/Vanilla mead. When that little dandy took medals twice in competition I realized I might be on to something. The follow-on projects were a bit less successful, Cherry/Black Currant, Blueberry and Pecan Pie (yes, it tastes weird) and only because I was still learning how much additional flavor I really needed to add to the honey to get a balanced, yet forward result. None of those meads are bad, they are just really light in flavor and didn't meet my expectations.

My cyser using local apple cider, Vermont honey and cinnamon moved me in the direction I was looking for, but still left plenty of room for improvement. I then made a hoppy braggot (riffing on the recipe for a West Coast IPA named Pliny the Elder) that drinks like a dream and needs it own security, finally stepping back to review what I learned and collect my thoughts on where to go next. I consulted the mead-making bible, the Compleat Meadermaker by Ken Schramm, quite a bit during my reflection and just let the ideas flow.

In June my wife and I attended the fifth annual WineMaker Magazine Conference where the yearly competition awards are announced. We also took some Moonlight mead with us to share, something I have been doing for conference trips, including the 2011 Foodbuzz Festival shown on the left. We took home several medals for our meads & wines which of course made us happy. Much to our delight the winner of Wine Maker of the Year was a meadmaker, Godwin Meniru who has his own meadery opening soon, http://www.menirumeadery.com/, from Ohio who makes some pretty mean stuff! We were lucky enough to taste his meads during the trip and I can't wait to see where his exploits take him.

I really cranked up the creative energy since coming home from the conference. To start I made a traditional sweet mead from Vermont honey that is sure to please anyone who gets a taste. The second batch of Orange/Vanilla mead is waiting to be bottled and meads flavored with cinnamon, hot peppers, dandelion & tea, strawberry, hops, sage & lemon and ginger are at various points in the process. I have some unflavored mead that is finished and waiting for infusions of flavor, and boy do I have plans. Tea, other fruits, spices and herbs are all in the line of fire. Like I said, I'm a really amped up to create new and interesting beverages, all in a quest to see what is possible.

Wow, that's a lot of information! I hope you caught all of that and will come back to follow the links to learn more about mead and people who enjoy making it. Tune into for #winechat on Twitter tonight (10/3/2012) to learn more about mead and Moonlight Meadery.

Cheers!

Jason

Cider Free or Die

It looks like finally getting around to joining the BrewFree or Die homebrew club came at the right time. Group buying is one facet to homebrew and winemaking clubs, and when it works, it works really well.

Not long after joining the club I got a note through the club listerv about a group purchase of cider from Sunnycrest Farms in Londonderry. At the price we were quoted for the expected volume we would buy as a group, which ended up being 175 gallons, I calculated that I could buy four buckets for the price of three based on the price I paid in 2009. More liquid gold for the same money? Sign me up!

The day to pickup the cider came and club members from all over the southern tier of NH converged on Londonderry and stood around a raised tote filling buckets for several hours. There was much talk about people’s fermentation plans, what yeast, types of added sugar, do you sulfite or not, etc, etc, and there was plenty of laughter.

There was a healthy mix of experienced cider makers as well as folks trying their hand at it for the first time.With plenty of knowledge to be shared amongst those assembled, there clearly will be much anticipation built up as we all wait to share our creations with fellow club members.

The cider was pouring at about 46 degrees, which is too cold to start with so at a minimum letting it come up to room temperature before pitching any yeast would be expected. The gravity of the raw cider was 1.046 at 46 degrees and the pH was 3.5. 

I also sulfite my sweet cider before using it to ensure nothing unwanted gets a chance to grow. A little pectic enzyme will also go a long way to help foster clearing later in the process. A good stir ensured decent aeration and with that my four buckets of cider would sit for 36 hours before any more attention was required.

As many of the followers of my wine, beer and cider projects have become accustomed, the story always gets more interesting from here. Fermenting four buckets of cider as is would produce a pleasant result, but it isn’t interesting enough for me at this point. So what did I do?

I always add more sugar, acid blend and grape tannin to my ciders. The outcome is much more like an apple wine, but don’t tell my guy friends who love the stuff. They might stop drinking it!

One bucket saw an addition of a gallon of B grade maple syrup and is fermenting with Trappist Ale yeast. Sounds crazy, but in reality I stole the idea from Crispin Cider after sampling a cider of theirs made using similar ingredients.

Another bucket had eight pounds of honey and four cinnamon sticks added to it. It is being fermented with a Sweet Mead yeast. My first cyser.

The two remaining buckets had their gravity increased with white sugar and are fermenting with traditional cider yeast. One will be made still and the other will be sparkling.

Fermentation is winding down for all four batches, but there is much more waiting ahead. Clarification of cider is a notoriously lengthy process, but I still have some from 2009 to drink so I can be patient!

Reports from other club members run the gamut from similar applications of maple syrup, honey, white sugar to brown sugar, amber brewing candy and all sorts of yeast types. The party we are going to have when everyone shows up with cider is going to be epic!

Cheers!

Jason

Finishing the Crispin Ciders

When I first received samples from Crispin Ciders I was very excited. There were 8 styles and breaking it down into a series would give me tasting enjoyment for some time. That time has come, and the end of the road has been reached. And this is made sadder because Crispin doesn’t yet have distribution in New England so I will have to travel to get more when I want it.

Honey Crisp with Organic Cider

This is the last of the large format bottles from their Artisanal Reserve line. I enjoyed these styles the most because they really broadened my understanding of the range for cider. This particular version is made from Honey Crisp apples, a variety we know well from several of the orchards we frequent both in VT and at home in NH.

The nose on this one really grabbed my attention. I picked up pear and watermelon. It pours cloudy (says so on the label for those not paying attention) with a light straw color. It is tart with a healthy bite of acidity and considerable carbonation. I did pick up sweet apple and honey flavors in the finish. I would definitely get this again and could see throwing it at some BBQ chicken & potato salad in the backyard on a hot summer day.

Extra Dry

Almost no aroma was found after the pour. It is almost clear, almost like green tea (thanks Mom!) It is dry and very carbonated. This is definitely more English in style than some of the others with a much drier mouthfeel and some sour in the finish. Flavors of under-ripe pear were most noticeable in the finish.

Light – Bright Over Ice

Light straw in color, dry, tart and heavily carbonated. It is indeed light, very light in fact, but crisp and refreshing with citrus in the finish.

The last two are too light and dry for my tastes, but knowing how my friends have preferences within the range of ciders (dry-sweet-flavored) I make at home I am sure these would be a real pleasers for many others.

Ancient Fire 2009 Dry Cider

I had a bottle of my own dry style cider from 2009 on hand and opened it to contrast the taste and texture to that of the other two reviewed above. The aromas are light and solidly of apple juice. As I have mentioned in the past I make mine still most of the time and that is true for this selection as well. It is dry and tart with savory apple and spice flavors. The finish is pretty short with tart citrus cleaning up during the quick exit. This is not my very best cider from 2009, but it is the simple dry style I was shooting for when I made it. After one full year in the bottle I have not experienced any re-fermentation or any drying which I have seen in the past. I can’t wait to make cider in again this fall and try some of the twists Crispin offers in my homemade product.

Cheers!

Jason


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Spring Comes Alive at Dutton’s

Luck smiled on us last weekend while we were at the house in VT. Early spring weather can be iffy up there, but not on this visit! Saturday brought a warm sunny day, good enough for a leisurely walk and a visit to the local farmstand.

We’ve written about Dutton’s several times before. It is the go to place for fresh produce and fresh baked snacks on the way up or way home from VT. Once you get hooked on stopping at Dutton’s you find yourself planning to be there every time you are in the area.

This time of year is sugaring (maple syrup) season in northern New England. They were between batches at the Dutton’s sugar house, and with the cleaning going on I tried to stay out of the way. I did snap a few pictures that get you thinking in the right direction.

( Grade examples. I am a dark amber guy. )

( Read and waiting! )

( This is the tail end of the last batch, it gets filtered to remove the crystals before bottling. )

All the animals were showing the humans how smart they are by getting out and enjoying the sun. The geese were doing quite a bit of posturing since they had recently hatched goslings. They weren’t too jazzed about the tall guy with the camera. The goats on the other hand couldn’t have cared less that we were lurking about. They were sitting in the sun, cleaning and chewing their cuds. Nice life! The donkey was the star of the show for us though. She was reported to be very shy and didn’t typically let people pet her. I guess she sensed we were good, loving, animal people. She came right up the fence and loved it when Margot scratched her neck. She was so cute!

( Geese can be nasty so I didn't push it. There is a fence in front of me that was cropped out! )

( We all want this life! )

( I wish she could talk. I'm sure the conversation would have been fun! )

Inside we found legions of maple syrup jugs filled and ready to take home. We are almost out of real syrup so we picked up a quart. We also noticed something that we thought for sure was new, but we found out we just hadn’t ever paid close enough attention for. Imported olive oil and 12 year aged balsamic vinegar! The bottles available are refillable and after a taste of the vinegar we were sure we were going to take some of that home. It reminded me of the balsamic vinegars I tasted at Salumeria Italiana in Boston. So rich and thick! They were out of oil but told us to call ahead when we were in the area next and if they have some they will set it aside for us. Will do.

( Ariston's Refill & Save Program for small retailers. Pretty cool! )

One of the things I was on the hunt for was honey. I made mead one time back in 2008 and have been itching to try it again. Using a local honey makes sense for me for a couple of reasons. Generally the local small producers make a pure natural honey with minimal processing and filtering. That purity comes through in the artisanal products I make. Secondly the price is based on limited transportation and that limited transport lowers the environmental footprint. I was in luck to come across three 3 lb containers of pure honey from Young’s Bee Farm in Wardsboro, VT, only about 10-15 minutes from our house. That will be enough honey for me to make a 3 gallon batch of mead, which will be flavored with Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla beans and orange extract, a creamsicle of sorts.

( You will soon be mead for later summer drinking! )

Margot picked a blueberry muffin for a snack and we were on our way. I left with such happiness about spring having finally arrived. When we arrived back at the house we went for a walk and then sat out on the deck in the sun for a couple of hours!

Cheers!
 
Jason

Local Mead Tasting

Margot and I lined up three local meads to taste last night. We went simple with the pairings, aged sharp cheddar from Grafton Village Cheese Company and Double Stuff Golden Oreos. There is a story about the Oreos from our Rum TweetChat earlier in the week. You’ll find the story a bit farther down.

Mead is a fermented beverage traditionally made by fermenting honey and water. There are lots of variations on this basic construction like cysers, pyments, braggots, melomels, metheglins and many others. We mentioned Tej in our first post about the Discovery Series Brew Masters. Tej is an Ethiopian fermented beverage also classified as a type of mead. Wikiepedia has a list of all the types of mead and some history you might find interesting. The oldest record of mead productions from 7000 BC! I have made mead once, technically a combination melomel and metheglin, from blackberry puree, honey, water, nutmeg and yeast. I am planning on a making a vanilla/orange (think creamsicle) mead sometime this year.

When I say local I really mean it. Two of the selections are from Moonlight Meadery located in Londonderry, NH where we live. I could walk there in less than five minutes. I met Michael Fairbother, the owner and mead-maker, at the opening of the new space they moved into right before Christmas. Michael is very active with Brew Free Or Die a local homebrewers club to which I have yet to make my first meeting. The third selection is from Isaaks of Salem in Salem, MA. I heard about Isaaks of Salem through Twitter where Ian, the owner and mead-maker, is quite active.

We tasted them in two rounds, the first without food and to collect notes on the appearance, aromas and flavors. The second round was all taste and pairings with our cheese and cookies. We also paired the second round with the first new episode of season 2 of the FX series Archer, a huge laugh for rough around the edges types like us!

The first mead we tasted was the Moonlight Madagascar. It is made with honey, water, Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans and yeast. This mead is light gold in color and brilliantly clear. Aromas of spice and candle wax were detected. I didn’t initially detect the vanilla aromas as I am used to them but as it breathed a little it came along. It is dry with a delicate texture. We found the honey flavor in the finish along with a bit of alcohol. If you thought candle wax (from the prior sentence) was weird get this, both of us agreed that the flavor of tamale or corn cake was predominant in the middle to the end. It was pleasing but definitely an interesting nuance. I quickly noted effervescence in the appearance during the first round and then again in a taste in the second round. It was subtle, but there.

The second tasting was of the Moonlight Desire. This mead is made with honey wine as well as slightly less than 10% each of black currant, cherry and blueberry wines. The color is of aged dark red bricks. Having made black currant and cherry wines before I noticed the parallel in the slight brown shift in the color. While this might be a sign of age in a traditional red wine, here it is something found in the young wines of those wine types. The blueberry and cherry aromas are wrapped in honey on the nose. This mead has incredible balance with noticeable tartness that transitions to a sweet finish. There are spiced flavors present but the fruit flavors a naked and accessible. The black currant comes through after a second and third taste with dried raisins being the most comparable description. Margot said it tasted like a berry blintz.

This past Wednesday Pam of @MyMansBelly organized a TweetChat with the topic of rum. I love rum and ended up posting three times leading up to it. I have posted lots of recipes for different rum drinks and if you are interested go find the post from the day of the event here. During the event Janis, Brian and I got to tweeting about Brian’s recipe base for Hot Buttered Rum. Janis mentioned that she was putting Southern Comfort in it to which Brian responded, and in his typically snarky way, “oh how delightfully trashy!” We all laughed quite a bit over the comment and Janis said that the acronym DT would now be a code word for all us. Not to let anyone down I used it on Friday when I asked jokingly how I could put a DT spin on my local mead tasting. And then came the recommendation to pair them with vanilla Oreos. It really isn’t a trashy idea and we have used cookies in wine tastings before so we were surely going to give it a go.

The final mead we tasted was the Sweet Tooth from Isaaks of Salem. I met Ian from Isaaks a few weeks back at the Boston Wine Exchange. He was in to share his meads with the shop owners and possibly get them to stock his available meads. Thankfully they did and I purchased both the Sweet Tooth, tasted here, and the Hopp Road Raspberry that will be tasted in a few weeks. This is a classic mead made form honey, water and yeast. Unfortunately the mead poured with a slight haze to it and an appearance of carbonation both visually and on the tongue. I don’t believe this is intentional and the question about the carbonation came up during my first tasting of it as well. Ian didn’t believe he could detect it and conjectured that not everybody might. He is quite right about that and I am sure is keeping track of how often this comes up for future reference. We picked up aromas of golden raisins white flowers, citrus blossoms and vanilla. I picked up the honey flavor in the middle of the sip and found a slight drying, almost like that you get from tannins, in the finish. Margot said it smelled like Sara Lee pound cake. I agreed and thought that might be something that would appeal to a lot of people.

( DT all the way! )

During the second round we didn’t find that the first and third meads were enhanced by or themselves enhanced the cheese or cookies. The Madagascar actually had its alcohol elongated by the cookie and it wasn’t pleasurable. The Moonlight Desire however, was excellent with both. With the cheese the Desire took on an elegance that held me in place for a bit. The cookie opposed the mead with just enough sweetness to match, and the tartness of the wine kept that sweetness in check. We both went back for both of more of those pairings.

I am a big believer that all food products (that aren't going to make you sick excepted) are owed respect and should be used. With that idea in mind I have plans to try some cocktail creations with the Moonlight Madagascar and the Isaaks Sweet Tooth meads. Nothing I am suggesting indicates that I didn’t like them, but I am taking a bet that I can find ways to increase my personal enjoyment of them through a little experimentation. Hopefully Michael and Ian aren’t going to hunt me down and kill me! The flavors of these two meads should make great anchors for drinks with traditionally neutral ingredients, think martinis, and might be accentuated with bitters and some hand infused spirits. This is sure to be a fun way to experiment with local products and who knows, we might even discover a new drink that everyone is going to want to have.

Cheers!

--Jason