Sacred Texts  Index  Previous  Next 

sacred-texts |  Web | Powered by Google


Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com


 
 
                       MEAD: THE BREW OF THE GODS! 
                               Lewis Stead
 
 Mead is the oldest alcoholic drink known to mankind. More recently it
 has been taken up in the Pagan and other .alternative. communities
 such as the SCA as a favorite for years. It's a form of wine made
 with a honey instead of grape juice. Mead is most often associated
 with the Vikings and in the Pagan community with modern day Norse
 Paganism or Asatru.
 
 Mead is an important part of the Asatru religion and has a place in
 both of the major Norse rituals: the blot and the sumble. The sumble
 is a drinking ritual where stories, oaths, and poetry are shared and
 mead.s function here is obvious. In this day and age mead is even
 more important to the blot or sacrifice ritual. The blot is actually
 quite simple. A God or Goddess is called upon and a sacrifice is
 poured in their honor. In ancient times this was most often an
 animal sacrifice and blood was poured out onto the ground or altar.
 Today an alcoholic beverage of some kind is the usual sacrifice. This
 is not only an adjustment to modern feelings about animal sacrifice,
 but is appropriate from an esoteric point of view as well. In ancient
 times the Norsemen were primarily farmers and an animal would
 have been a product that they had raised. Also, sacrifices were not a
 wasting of the animal, merely given to the Gods and left to rot, but
 were usually feasts where the Gods got their portion and the humans
 their own. Today mead making has been a frenzied activity among
 Norse Pagans, and it is most appropriate that something be
 sacrificed to the Gods which has been made by your own hands in a
 sacred manner. Mead fits the bill. It has the immediate links to our
 farming ancestors, but it can be easily made from household items
 in even a small apartment.
 
 While we really don.t know a great deal about how the ancients
 viewed mead, other than as an intoxicant, we do have a few clues.
 One interesting item to start with is that mead was apparently
 sometimes strained through rye, which contains the hallucinogenic
 chemical ergot. This may offer some insights into Seidhr, a Nordic
 shamanic practice, and the frenzy of the berserkers. Another
 interesting item is that Frey, a God of farming and harvest, was said
 to have two close companions, Bygvir and Beyla. Bygvir was the
 spirit of the barley and Beyla of the honey . both important Gods to
 brewers and appropriate companions for the God of fertility.
 
 Finally, we have a few myths involving mead directly. Mead was
 known as Kvasir.s blood and it.s primary association was with
 wisdom. Kvasir was a being who was the wisest in all the universe,
 but he was killed and a mead created out of his blood that when
 drank brought the drinker wisdom. Aegir, a God of the Sea, was held
 to be the patron of brewing and the finest of mead and ale for the
 Gods to drink in Valhalla. Odin is said to never eat, but to exist
 purely on mead, just as the Greek Gods had their nectar.
 
 Even if it were not for any mythological importance, mead is of
 interest to the modern brewer because it is easy to produce and
 delicious. One merely introduces a yeast to the sugary liquid, and the
 yeast converts the natural sugars into alcohol. After all the sugar is
 converted, the yeast dies off and the wine can be bottled. However,
 this is not always as easy as it sounds.
 2573
 
 The largest problem in brewing is keeping inappropriate yeasts out
 of the drink. While the correct wine (or beer) yeasts eat sugar and
 excrete alcohol, other yeasts produce vinegar instead. Because of
 this it is absolutely vital to keep all brewing equipment absolutely
 sterile. This is the most important thing you can do in brewing. All
 the great equipment purchased as your wine making shop and the
 finest ingredients cannot beat a glass jar filled with welfare honey
 if the former is contaminated and the latter sterile. There are two
 major ways to sterilize your materials, one is a commercial
 "sanitizer" found in wine making shops. Follow label directions and
 you.re all set. The other is to make a solution of 25% bleach and
 rinse very thoroughly.
 
 Let.s make some cheap and easy mead. You.ll need a large pot, a one
 gallon vinegar or cider bottle, a 4' or 5' length of plastic tubing (try
 .airline. tubing from a pet shop), a balloon or non-lubricated
 condom, a package of wine yeast (not bread yeast), wine bottles,
 corks, a corking device, and 2 1/2 pounds of honey.
 
 First you need to prepare the mixture that will be fermented. Take
 your pot and add the honey and enough water to finish filling up the
 one gallon bottle. Bring these to a boil slowly. If you don.t want
 scum in your mead and it forms on the top, skim it off. You don.t
 need to boil it for any length of time, you just need to bring it up to
 this temperature. Boiling for a while will release a lot of scum and
 additives which you can get rid of right now and it will also allow
 the mead to age more quickly. However, some of this .scum. as I.ve
 called it is made up of those very things which can create flavor
 nuances. I don.t boil mine. When you decide it.s done, let it cool long
 enough so it won.t melt the plastic tubing, then siphon the mead into
 the gallon jug , cap and let cool overnight. The gallon jug is your
 primary fermenter.
 
 Did you sterilize the pot? the bottle? the cap? the plastic tubing?
 No! Pour it out and start again . yes I am serious.
 
 Once the mixture is cooled to room temperature you will need to
 pitch the yeast. Get a small cup half full with warm, but not hot,
 water and add the yeast. Let it sit for about ten minutes and absorb
 water and liven up, then pour it into your gallon jug and mix it in.
 ................................................................................
 2574
 
 As of now your honey and water mixture is now being converted into
 mead. However, this will take about two weeks, perhaps more, to
 complete. During this time the mead mixture will bubble and foam,
 and this is what the balloon is for. Cover the top of the bottle with
 the balloon and about an hour later, when the balloon has started to
 inflate but has not become too stretched, poke a few holes in it with
 a pin. (I understand this may make you wince if you are using a
 condom.) This balloon takes the place of a fermentation lock and
 allows the gas to escape while not allowing air in, thus keeping the
 fermentation bottle sterile. The holes may become clogged with
 foam and you may need to poke a few more. Just remember the
 purpose of this and use your common sense. I.ve accomplished this
 with plastic wrap and a rubber band, but I wouldn.t advise others to
 try unless you.re fond of unmet expectations.
 
 About two weeks from this point the balloon will cease to be greatly
 inflated and will eventually go limp. When it has been completely
 limp for a few days and the mead is clear rather than cloudy,
 fermentation is over. At this point sanitize your wine bottles and
 plastic tubing and bottle the mead. Be careful not to get the yeast
 into the bottles as it.s not exactly tasty stuff. I stop about an inch
 before the bottom of the primary fermenter and we siphon off the
 last inch into cups and toast the new mead. My mead has been very
 tasty at this point, other people describe theirs as tasting like paint
 thinner. In any case, you may not mind a little yeast in your cup now,
 but don.t inflict it on yourself in the future by bottling it.
 
 Wait two to six months and then enjoy. Since the above recipe has no
 additives which would hasten aging, it may take a while for it to
 become truly fine mead, perhaps years. There are a lot of chemical
 additives that one can use to improve the flavor and process. The
 most common and important addition is a teaspoon of yeast
 energizer or yeast nutrient. Others include grape tannin (1/4
 teaspoon), malic acid (2 or 3 teaspoons), tartaric acid (1 to 2
 teaspoons). I recommend all of these chemical additives in your first
 batch, but if you can.t find them you can make do with natural
 ingredients or nothing at all.
 
 One can also add slices of fruit, raisins, or berries for flavor and in
 place of grape tannin. One recipe I know of adds some apple jelly. A
 few lemon peels will substitute for malic acid and a spoonful of
 strong tea will do replace tartaric acid. Hops are a common additive
 and will give the mead a bit of a bitterness to offset the sweetness
 of the honey. The more bizarre ingredient I have heard of was
 Szechuan peppers, use your imagination.
 
 All of the above additives should be made to the honey and water mix
 when it is boiled. Depending on the ingredient, some, such as fruit,
 may have to be boiled in this mixture for a while to break them
 down. Obviously hunks of fruit should be strained out after the
 boiling. Also, all the above ingredients are based on 1 gallon of
 mead, adjust appropriately with the exception of the yeast itself,
 one package of which will do for anywhere between 1 and 5 gallons.
 
 ................................................................................
 2575
 
 Another semi-useful item is sulfite tablets which can be added to
 the mead mixture a day before bottling. This will kill all remaining
 yeast and will assure that you are not contaminated by vinegar yeast
 after bottling or worse that the fermentation process does not
 continue in the bottle, causing it to explode or pop its cork. I don.t
 use sulfite and I.ve heard negative comments about a sulfurous
 aftertaste.  It.s probably the better part of valor to simply wait a
 while longer and make sure the fermentation process is truly ended.
 
 The above instructions also assume you are not interested in
 spending a great deal of money on equipment. The only things you
 really must obtain from a wine making store are the yeast, the
 corks, and the corker.
 
 If you are willing to spend $50 to $100 more you can improve your
 chances of making a good mead by purchasing equipment made for
 the purpose. A balloon works, but it is a poor substitute for a proper
 fermentation lock that is custom fit to a vat built for the purpose.
 Likewise there are many other devices which will useful.
 ................................................................................
 2576
 


Next: In Defense of Excellence (Adrienne, Quicksilver, Ottawa)