HB: Newsletter: April 1999: The Meading Place

Hogtown Brewers Newsletter

April 1999

The following piece is the start of a regular column (hopefully, but certainly an occasional piece) from Jim Brangan, a good friend and homebrewer from New York. I first met Jim at a MASH (Miami Society of Homebrewers) meeting a few years ago. He was working on a project for his job that required him to be in Miami fairly regularly for most of a year. Whenever he could, he would come to MASH meetings. He is a good brewer, but an exceptional maker of meads and ciders. For those of you that were at the last meeting for the Pale Ale tasting, the Bell's Two Hearted Ale was there because of Jim's generosity. He had written the following piece, and the pieces that will appear in subsequent newsletters for the newsletter of his homebrew club in Long Island. By enticing him with the offer of a complimentary membership in the Hogtown Brewers (basically adding his name to the mailing list), I prevailed upon him to let us reprint his articles here. Hopefully, we will get him to come down at some future point and meet you all. The thing I like most about this is that it's another example of how homebrewers everywhere are part of a larger community in CyBeerSpace. --Mark Tumarkin

The Meading Place
Jim Brangan

In this occasional column, we will explore myths, misconceptions, tips, guidelines, and recipes for making, evaluating, and enjoying mead.

When I tell someone that I make mead, the immediate response is always a puzzled look followed by something like "You make meat?!?"

"No, I make MEAD, M-E-A-D, mead! It is wine fermented from honey."

"Wow, that must be sweet..." is usually the reply.

Then, the education begins.

What does mead taste like? Actually, when I made my first mead, I, like many (most?) other mead makers, had no idea! Trying to describe mead is like trying to describe the taste of beer. Think about an all encompassing description, including American light lager, stout, barley wine, Bavarian wheat, lambic, ... you get the picture.

Mead spans the same spectrum of flavors, but are generally broken down into: still or sparkling, and dry, medium, or sweet. Subcategories of mead define any additions to the 'traditional' mead, such as herbs, spices, fruits, or vegetables. Many of these subcategories have specific style names.

Next month, we'll outline the basics for making your first batch of traditional medium dry mead!

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