Mead Lover's Digest #1138 8 November 2004
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1137, 4 November 2004 ("Greg Osenbach")
Meadery and MEad Fest (Mike Faul)
priming with honey (David McDonald)
Meadfest 2004 ("Dan McFeeley")
History Seminar at the Meadfest ("Dan McFeeley")
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe/admin requests.
Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead.
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1137, 4 November 2004
From: "Greg Osenbach" <Greg@carecontrols.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 08:09:01 -0800
I was trying to swing going to meadfest but I just couldn't work it into
my schedule..
Let us all know how it goes!! Cheers!
Spike
- ----Clip------
I was surprised not to see more noise about the event on our favorite
mailing list. Anyway, I'm going and I hope to meet a few mead makers,
whether they are pros or the usual Mead Lovers. I'll bring some of mine
as
well, in case we can find digestor's space and try some home made after
the official tasting (if we still can absorb anything at that time).
Best,
Vince Galet
- -----clip------
Subject: Meadery and MEad Fest
From: Mike Faul <mfaul@rabbitsfootmeadery.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 11:45:08 -0800
I'm a commercial meadery and can answer some questions for you.
Also will be at the Mead Fest today and tomorrow
<Mike
Subject: priming with honey
From: David McDonald <davidmcd@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 23:45:44 -0700
I have a mead which is ready to bottle, and I'd like to prime it with
honey, for carbonation. How much should I use, for a 5 gallon batch?
Thanks,
David
Subject: Meadfest 2004
From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 05:49:04 -0600
The meadfest was great -- lots of meads to try out, lots of
mead folk getting together to talk and swap ideas. For
people like myself who don't get out much, these gatherings
are a wonderful opportunity to meet and converse with people
in person, rather than the usual e-mail exchange. The seminars
were also enjoyable -- Gary Glass' seminar on beginning mead
making was a good one. Gary ran the participants through the
basics of making mead and had them put together a batch. The
panel discussion on meadery operation was enjoyable, and Ken
Schramm gave a spirited presentation on some of the more
technical aspects of a healthy fermentation in meadmaking.
I'll give a rundown in another post on the history seminar I
presented at the meadfest.
On Saturday there was an industry meeting held to form the
International Mead Association, something I think holds a lot
of potential for the mead community. Although the organization
now exists as an entity, the groundwork is still being laid for it.
Bylaws have to be written, papers filed to establish it as a
non-profit organization, and the preliminary results of the
committees will need to be sifted through. The main goals of
the IMA will be education and promotion, and to be involved
in legislation affecting the operation of commercial meaderies.
Right now the IMA committees include membership, organization
and judging at the annual meadfest, marketing, research and
development. At some point there will be an IMA website, but
for the time being news will be announced at the www.meadfest.com
site.
Here's a rundown on the winning meads in the International
Meadfest competition (lifted from Vickie Rowe's report at
the GotMead forum :-) :
Dessert Mead:
Gold: Maxwell Dessert Mead, Maxwell Wines, Mclaren Vale, South Australia
Silver: Lurgashall Special Reserve Mead, Lurgashall Winery, Wess Sussex,
England
Bronze: 2002 Reserve, Redstone Meadery, Boulder, CO
Cyser/T'ej/Specialty Meads
Gold: Cyser, White Winter Winery, Iron River, WI
Silver: Axum Tej, Saba Tej Co (Heritage Wines), Rutherford, NJ
Bronze: Sheba Tej, Brotherhood Winery, Jarrettsvile, MO
Traditional Mead
Gold: Honeymoon Nectar Sweet Honeywine, Mountain Meadows Mead, Westwood, CA
Silver: Dry Mead, Munro's Meadery, Alvinston, Ontario, CA
Bronze: Pirtle Mead, Pirtle Winery, Weston, MO
Metheglin
Gold: Spice Nectar, Mountain Meadows Mead, Westwood, CA
Silver: Kastelanski (Polish mead), Stawski Imports, Chicago, IL
Bronze: Am, Stawski Imports, Chicago, IL
Melomel
Gold: Honeywine and Blackcurrants, Intermiel Inc., Mirabel, Quebec, Canada
Silver: Rosee, Intermiel Inc., Mirabel, Quebec, Canada
Bronze: Honeywine and Raspberries, Intermiel Inc., Mirabel, Quebec, Canada
Varietal
Gold: Mead, Spurgeon Vineyards & Winery, Highland, WI
Silver: Rabbits Foot Meadery Sweet Mead, Rabbits Foot Meadery, Sunnyvale, CA
Bronze: Traditional Honey Wine, Spruce Mountain Meadery, Larkspur, CO
Pyment
Gold: Blanc de Fleur, Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL
Silver: White Pyment Mountain Honey Wine, Redstone Meadery, Boulder, CO
Bronze: Gronowy Poltorak, Stawski Imports, Chicago, IL
Hydromel
Gold: Verge d'Or, Intermiel Inc. Mirabel, Quebec, Canada
Silver: Black Raspberry Nectar, Redstone Meadery, Boulder, CO
Bronze: Sunshine Nectar, Redstone Meadery
Braggot:
Gold: Midas Touch Golden Elixer, Dogfish Head Brewing, Milton, DE
Silver: Mountain Sun Hummingbird, Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery, Boulder, CO
Bronze: Preimium Oak Brackett, White Winter Winery, Iron River, WI
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
Subject: History Seminar at the Meadfest
From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 12:08:29 -0600
Hello all -- this is a (hopefully) brief synopsis of the seminar
I gave on Mead & History at this year's International Meadfest
at Boulder Colorado.
In an odd sort of way, it was almost like a homecoming for me.
I lived briefly in Colorado Springs a number of years ago, and
now reside in Illinois, land of Lincoln, but also land of corn &
soy fields, flat as flat can be. It was really nice seeing the Rocky
Mountains again.
I opened up with a few comments on Robert Gayre's book,
_Wassail! In Mazers of Mead_. Although the book has
been criticized over its dated history, use of the "Aryan theory,"
and some, at times, questionable interpretations of mead history,
this is an important book. During the time of its first publication,
prior to the time when Charlie Papazian and the AHA brought it
back from the obscurity of out of print books, a lot of people
were reading it. I've found that publications that referred to mead
in one way or another during that time all included Gayre's book
as a reference. It was a unique, one of a kind treatise on mead
history. Everyone who wants to get an idea of ideas floating
about in mead tradition and lore should read this book. Gayre
has been influential.
Of course, a good book is a book that engages the person, most
especially one's critical thinking skills. Good reading is not
passive entertainment, such as what is used in much of popular
media, or video games. Rather than disengaging one's sense of
belief, or disbelief, a good book calls the reader to enter into a
dialogue with the text, agreeing or disagreeing, maybe looking
something up to check out the accuracy of the author's statements.
This is what reading Gayre's book can do for you. It's a place to
start with, with emphasis on the word "start." Read the book
critically, think hard about its influence on what is taken for
granted in mead lore and tradition, and go on from there.
(Just a quick aside -- if you substitute the word "Indo-European"
for "Ayran" in Gayre's book, read a bit on contemporary theory
on the Indo-Europeans, you'll be up to speed. "Ayran" is a kind
of a buzz word for all kinds of assocations with the Nazis, which,
if you look at the discussions during the 19th and early 20th
century on the Indo-Europeans and the Ayrans, you'll see this
was the furthest thing from Gayre's mind.)
I wanted to delve into the antiquity of mead, but some remarks
on the nature of history and historical studies, and on culture,
were necessary. History as a discipline looks seriously at
questions such as: Is history a science? What is the object
of study in history -- people, cities, nations, ethnic groups?
Are there historical trends, and what might they be? Mead,
however, is not an event, person, city, etc. It is an item of
cultural interest and there lies the clue to the proper object
of study in the history of mead. Culture is the proper focus,
the cultural value of mead to a particular group. It's not
enough to simply look at historical references to mead, as
interesting as they may be, but to take a broader look at
mead culture, and how it may have related to the culture
of the people of that particular time.
An important consideration in the framing of historical or
anthropological questions is that of contextuality. The
terms and concepts we use in academic inquiry tend to
carry tacit Westernized concepts from our modern era
which can inadvertently skew the answers we find.
In other words, unless careful attention is given to how
these questions are framed, the context they provide
can bounce back answers that suit our modern day
perspective, but have little to do with the people of
that time.
For that reason my suggestion was, rather than ask
"How old is 'mead'?", ask "How long ago were
fermented beverages first made, and what kind of
materials would have been used?" In modern day
thinking, heavily influenced by scientific inquiry,
"mead" is both a name and a category. Ancient
cultures didn't use categories, nor did they answer
to the restrictions of categories. They made what
they liked, according to their customs and traditions.
"Mixed" beverages were common in ancient times,
stuff made from all kinds of ingredients. In our
modern way of thinking, we call them "mixed,"
but from the perspective of the culture of these
ancient peoples, they were as traditional as what
we today call "wine," "beer," or "mead."
By changing the focus from "mead" to honey in a
historical look at the making of fermented beverages,
the playing field is not only broadened considerably,
a line of continuity can be traced out, in a very, very
generalized way of speaking, going all the way back
to the very earliest times. Is "mead" the very first
of all fermented beverages? That's a modern concept.
Was honey used at the time of the first making of
fermented beverages? Hard core evidence is lacking,
but the secondary evidence is very strong, strong
enough to say "yes." In that sense, and only in that
sense, modern day meadmakers can look back through
the tremendous diversity of time frames, cultures,
and ethnic groups, and find a kinship.
There seems little doubt that honey was used in the
making of fermented beverages of all kinds, easily
during Neolithic times and maybe going into the
upper Paleolithic era and beyond. Cave paintings
give ample testimony of the importance of honey
hunting, dating back to 10,000 years ago and possibly
more. Fermentation as a natural process was as easy
to exploit as falling off a log, and certainly would have
been used long before the more established wine and
beer industries of the Neolithic era were established.
The archaeological material I ran through included the
9,000 year old pottery samples from China, which
held residues of a beverage made from rice, grape,
and possibly honey. Artifacts from Scotland include
the Ashgrove site, and findings on the isle of Rhum.
The beverage identified at the Ashgrove site was made
from cereal grain, the herb meadowsweet, and honey
imported from southern areas in the Bronze Age Britain.
It was dated to 3046 years bp (before the present).
Not only was "mead," or what passed for mead in
those times, important to these peoples, they were
importing honey from great distances in order to make
it. The Rhum findings? This was another beverage made
from cereal grain, meadowsweet, and heather honey.
Although it was dated to 3890 years bp, the dating was
through the material surrounding the pottery sherds that
had held the beverage, not the sherds themselves. The
archaeologists who had written the field report had
commented that the sherds themselves, deposited in
a watercourse, were likely older than that.
Celtic graves from the Iron age also give indications of
a mead culture. Chieftains were buried with drinking
implements, including cauldrons that once held mead,
or honey used for the making of mead. The Hochdorf
site had a cauldron that had contained a honey mixed
with approximately 100 different plants -- a very complex
"metheglin." Some of these plants had been imported
from great distances, showing the importance of "mead"
to these cultures, and the lengths they went to in order
to make a mead.
At this point I glance at my watch and realized I was running
out of time. Dang! I had a lot of stuff to present but not
enough time left to go through it all. I ran through some
material showing the diversity of mead culture -- a Jewish
folk tale centering on a blessed mead, ancient Mayan culture
including a mead with psychotropic effects, using poison
from the Bufo Marinus toad, a little on Colonial era meads,
a report on the strong Breton/Celtic mead culture in Brittany
France that Chuck Wettergreen and Wout Klingens found
during their visit to that area (check the MLD archives for
their posts on this) -- that was about it for cultural aspects.
I finished off with a quote from California winemaker Tim
Mondavi, on the change in perspective on the winegrape
that was one of the important factors in pushing USA
winemaking to world class status. Up until the early 1970's,
the winegrape was seen as something fragile, in need of
rescue. This was done through the use of technology, but
because of the negative perspective on the winegrape, it
amounted to overcontrol. USA wines at that time were noted
to be big and bold in flavor, but lacking in the subtleness that
makes for a world class wine, and certainly not something
that could be called a "food wine," i.e., a wine that could
compliment a meal. Mondavi noted that winemakers changed
their perspective of the winegrape to that of a positive, having
intrinisic qualities that needed to be brought out. Technology
was still important, but now it served the purpose of enhancing
the positive qualities of the winegrape.
My personal feeling is that meadmaking is much in the "negative"
era described by Mondavi, where honey is seen as a negative.
Many guidelines for meadmaking tacitly assume honey as
little more than a super saturated sugar solution, with flavor
and aroma contributed by the floral source, but lacking in
sufficient nutrients, acidic quality, buffering agents, ect.,
and requiring technology to "rescue" the mead. By changing
the perspective of honey to that of a unique product of nature,
with unique biochemical properties (I listed some of these,
anti microbiological properties, findings from the University of
Cornell, my own research into acidic properties of honey and
mead), although technology is still necessary, the same potential
for pushing meadmaking towards higher quality is open to
meadmakers.
Whew! Finished with five minutes to spare and apologies to
the next speaker Gary Glass for cutting into his preparation
time.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1138
*******************************