Anyone Like To Drink Mead?

Anyone like mead? (Honey wine)... mmm good.. .

I have a bottle of Lurgashall I'm trying now and I must say it's delicious and complex. I'm surprised it's not more popular. [link to www.lurgashall.co.uk]

It's pretty easy to make, homebrewers are allowed a couple hundred gallons a year I think. I plan to make some soon, but I want to read up a bit more on it first.

I hear mead hangovers are nasty, but as I'm not a big drinker and haven't run into that yet.

I use it in cooking too.. I've cooked a chicken basted in mead (excellent) and spiked a beef gravy with it which I simmered sweedish meatballs in that had everyone raving for my 'recipe'. I dubbed my dish 'Meadballs'.



[link to en.wikipedia.org]


Mead variants

* Braggot - Braggot (also called bracket or brackett) marks the invention of Ale. Originally brewed with honey and hops, later with honey and malt - with or without hops added.
* Black mead - A name sometimes given to the blend of honey and black currants.
* Capsicumel is a mead flavored with chile peppers.
* Cyser - Cyser is a blend of honey and apple juice fermented together. See also cider.
* Czwórniak - A Polish mead, made using three units of water for each unit of honey
* Dwójniak - A Polish mead, made using equal amounts of water and honey
* Great mead - Any mead that is intended to be aged several years, like vintage wine. The designation is meant to distinguish this type of mead from "short mead" (see below.)
* Gverc or Medovina - Croatian mead prepared in Samobor and many other places. Word “gverc” or “gvirc” is from German "Gewürze" and it refers to different spices added to mead.
* Hydromel - Hydromel literally means "water-honey" in Greek. It is also the French name for mead. (Compare with the Spanish hidromiel and aquamiel, Italian idromele, and Portuguese hidromel). It is also used as a name for a very light or low-alcohol mead.
* Medovina - Czech, Macedonian (of the Republic of Macedonia) and Croatian for mead. Unfortunately, very few people still brew this for their own consumption. It is not available commercially.
* Medovukha - Eastern Slavic variant (honey-based fermented drink)
* Melomel - Melomel is made from honey and any fruit. Depending on the fruit-base used, certain melomels may also be known by more specific names (see cyser, pyment, morat for examples)
* Metheglin - Metheglin starts with traditional mead but has herbs and spices added. Some of the most common metheglins are ginger, tea, orange peel, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, or vanilla. Its name indicates that many metheglins were originally employed as folk medicines. (The Welsh word for mead is medd, and the word "metheglin" derives from meddyglyn, a compound word comprised of meddyg, "healing" + llyn, "liquor".)
* Morat - Morat blends honey and mulberries.
* Mulsum - Mulsum is not a true mead, but is unfermented honey blended with a high-alcohol wine.
* Omphacomel - A medieval mead recipe that blends honey with verjuice; could therefore be considered a variety of pyment.
* Oxymel - Another historical mead recipe, blending honey with wine vinegar.
* Pitarrilla Mayan drink made from a fermented mixture of wild honey, balche tree bark and fresh water.
* Pyment - Pyment blends honey and red or white grapes. Pyment made with white grape juice is sometimes called "white mead."
* Pó?torak - A Polish mead, made using two units of honey for each unit of water
* Rhodomel - Rhodomel is made from honey, rose hips, petals, or rose attar, and water.
* Sack mead - This refers to mead that is made with more copious amounts of honey than usual. The finished product retains an extremely high specific gravity and elevated levels of sweetness. It derives its name from the fortified dessert wine Sherry (which is sometimes sweetened after fermentation, and in England once bore the nickname of "sack".)
* Short mead - Also called "quick mead". A type of mead recipe that is meant to age quickly, for immediate consumption. Because of the techniques used in its creation, short mead shares some qualities found in cider (or even light ale): primarily that it is effervescent, and often has a cidery taste.[citation needed]
* Show mead - A term which has come to mean "plain" mead; that which has honey and water as a base, with no fruits, spices or extra flavorings. (Since honey alone does not provide enough nourishment for the yeast to carry on its life-cycle, a mead that is devoid of fruit, etc. will require a special yeast nutrient and other enzymes to produce an acceptable finished product.)
* Tej - Tej is an Ethiopian mead, fermented with wild yeasts (and bacteria), and with the addition of gesho. Recipes vary from family to family, with some recipes leaning towards braggot with the inclusion of grains.
* Trójniak - A Polish mead, made using two units of water for each unit of honey.


more info... [link to hbd.org]

and... [link to www.meadmadecomplicated.org]