Last weekend, I attended a party featuring home-brewed beer. A fellow party-goer remarked that most home-brewed beer parties usually take the same form: everyone complements the brewer, then proceeds to dump the home-brewed stuff in the sink and head to the keg. But the beer at the this party was actually decent, even borderline inspiring (I swear I'd try to brew some myself if I didn't mind foul smells so much). Anyway, home-brewing is on the rise -- and it may even be responsible for the return of mead, a honey-based alcoholic beverage. According to an article over at Slate, foodies and local brewers (home-brewers included) have spurred a renewed interest in this libation. You may remember mead from such things as the turn of the last millennium, when we all drank some during the banquet celebrating our successful pillage of the enemy castle.
Sadly, the author of the Slate article ultimately concludes that mead is unlikely to re-enter the mainstream completely, so it looks like I'm going to have seek out artisan brewers to get my berry mead. Unless anyone wants to home-brew some for me?
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-28-2008 @ 9:38AM
Iscariote said...
I homebrew, what foul smells are you talking about? The only smells while I brew is the smell of grain and malt. It smells a lot like bread making and then it's beer.
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2-28-2008 @ 9:55AM
Red Icculus said...
I homebrew as well and totally agree with iscariote. It smells a lot like bread rising, but that is about it.
Also, if you are in the Midwest, Oliver winery has an awesome mead. It isn't complex by any means, but it is pleasant and has hints of fruit.
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2-28-2008 @ 10:07AM
diane said...
Unfortunately, I don't know of any *good* meaderies. Most make a sickly-sweet version of it - Chaucer's Mead, here in the Bay Area, being a great example. We make mead pretty often (a nice cyser is in the closet right now ...) but honey shortages are going to be a problem.
If you love mead, save the bees!
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2-28-2008 @ 10:13AM
lisa said...
Far more interesting, regarding homebrew mead, is that you can run it like a ginger beer plants. I got handed a recipe by word of mouth that produces 2pts of strong mead a week from a demijohn.
Start with 3 or 4lbs of honey. Empty a jar into a plastic measuring jug, refill the jar with boiling water and stir in any remaining honey, empty ito the jug, and add two jars of cold water. Mix jug contents and add to demijohn. Repeat until the demijohn is 3/4 full. If not at blood heat, allow to cool. Add a sachet of champagne yeast, fit airlock. 4 weeks later you should have mead at 12% alcohol. Replace whatever you drink with the same 1:3 honey:water mix. Add a few grains of cracked wheat occasionally as yeast nutrient.
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2-28-2008 @ 12:12PM
wynk said...
yeah, I was also going WTF at your comment about foul smells. Brewing beer has some of the most glorious smells in the world. Think baking bread x 10.
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2-28-2008 @ 12:25PM
Big John said...
Thanks for reminding me I need to make a jug of mead in time for the coming of summer!
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2-28-2008 @ 2:27PM
ESC said...
We've actually made mead! It is ridiculously easy - I think we spent $5 on the kit (large glass jug, tubing, stoppers, etc) and another $5 on the honey and yeast.
No weird smells at all, and it actually comes out tasting pretty decent! Easier than beer - and the ingredients are much easier to come by :)
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2-28-2008 @ 3:42PM
Will said...
I love mead! Make it all the time. Check out my mead making site with easy recipes and tips for making mead: http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/index.htm
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2-29-2008 @ 9:19AM
mary said...
home brews sounds so interesting, ive never tried. On a separate liquor note, has anyone ever heard of Domaine de Canton? It's a new ginger cognac liquer...I tried it last weekend at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival and wanted to see what others thought of it. Was a big fan!
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2-29-2008 @ 9:08PM
JD said...
"A fellow party-goer remarked that most home-brewed beer parties usually take the same form: everyone complements the brewer, then proceeds to dump the home-brewed stuff in the sink and head to the keg."
This is the same party-goer that thinks Miller High-Life is a premium beverage and Guinness is the thickest beer ever made, right? That’s a typical response from someone who only drinks BMC.
Homebrewers (in general) make fantastic beer. They are not bound by "what’s popular" so they can push boundaries that most breweries cannot. Sort of like you would not expect Burger King to serve french fries with a vanilla ice cream. Anyone that has mixed the two knows that it’s DAMN GOOD, but sounds too weird to sell. People that always dip with ketchup or, *gasp* mayo, on their fries would gawk as such an idea.
BTW, I have 7 gallons of mead in secondary in my closet right now, and 10 gallons of a 10% dark belgian ale kegged up that would definitely give BMC drinkers something to whine about! ;)
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3-04-2008 @ 6:38PM
Laura said...
Ack! to the "foul smells" of homebrew. That's the strangest way I've ever heard of describing a wort in progress. Our homebrew, while it's boiling, smells kind of like a chocolate malt with lots of malt powder and not very much chocolate. Only warmer. And once, in Belgium, when we drove to the Orval monastery/brewery, we knew we were close before we saw the place because of the glorious smell of malt permeating the valley.
As for mead, my biggest worry about its continuation is the decline of the poor bees. But that's another rant--one that includes my affections for apples, almonds and stone fruits as well--that i'll have to find another venue for.
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