Making Mead

Just recently, Russ and I drank a litre and a half of homebrew mead. I will have to abandon modesty here because it was delicious! I brewed it in a bottle cage and it has been fizzing away since I left Santiago. We drank it in a field with cows, chickens and dogs pestering us. It didn't seem too strong but we were a bit wobbly by the end of the night...

The history of this drink is extraordinary. It is the first alcoholic drink ever made. It predates agriculture and has been discovered independently across Asia, Europe and Africa. The oldest archaeological evidence dates to about 7000BC. Modern civilisation might well have started with this drink! In Spanish it is called aguamiel which is a good name as it sums up the ingredients.



Here is how I made mine. I've tried to write the recipe in the style of Sir Kenelm Digby.

1. Taketh a bowl of water and, when it be warm, put some honey in it.

2. In a cup, poureth a little hot water. When the mercury doeth drop under 30 degrees, put to it a spoonful of yeast and one of sugar. Then sealeth the cup with clingfilm.

3. In the bowl of water and honey, skim off the scum. Continue to skim until all the scum be skimmed and no skimming of scum can skim any more scum as the scum no longer will rise.

4. After the cup has been left aside for an hour, add it to the bowl of water and honey. When it is worked up, put it into a vessel of fit size (an old 1.5 litre coke bottle perhaps).

5. Leave it in a bottle cage on your bike, cycle over the Andes, and drink it, in a field maybe, in about 10 days time or when the fizzing has stopped.

For more mead advice see the Mead Maker's Page.