Making Mead

Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey and water with yeast. A glass of lightly chilled mead on a summer's evening is a splendid delight. And yet, of all the crafts of mankind, mead-making is certainly one of the oldest. It is likely that mead was made even before the wheel was invented as stone-age cave paintings depict the collection of honey from bee colonies. The drink made from honey became a staple of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and Renaissance Britain. This practical book will inspire you to take up this admirable craft. It includes chapters on honey selection, mead-making techniques, and forty-two recipes for mead, melomel (using honey mixed with fruit juice), pyment (honey mixed with grapes), hippocras (honey mixed with grapes and herbs), metheglin (spiced medicinal mead), cyser (honey mixed with apples) and other honey drinks.