The Meadmaker

One of the many questions we always get asked is how to store our mead or how long does it last? Like any product there are some guidelines that will help you enjoy your mead at its best. 

So many choices, so many styles. It can be difficult to know where to start with mead. Over the next few articles we are going to explore some of the basics of storing, serving and drinking mead. But first let’s begin with packaging styles and labels in the Ontario context.  And this is by no means an exhaustive list or the correct way to package rather just a few examples of what the mead explorer will encounter along the journey

Mead spans both geography, time and culture. It would be difficult to define every category in one place. In fact the best attempt we’ve come across is the mead wikipedia article. The article defines many mead variants found around the world. For our purposes and because we understand something better when it is framed in a known context, we’ll define styles based on alcohol categories most people are familiar with.  

The identity of mead can be defined generally by eight features. Any of these topics could form an article in itself so here is a general overview of each element.

In this part of the world it is not uncommon for the word mead to conjure up in the mind images of nordic folklore. One can imagine burly warriors in a mead-place or mead-hall merry making with a king. Imagery that surely has been reinforced in popular stories of our time. 

This is not an easy question.  It is akin to asking what is beer?  The technical answer of course is simple and by now relatively profuse on the web or defined in many well written books.  

We answer what is mead? Classified as a honey wine in Ontario, our meadmaker discusses the three most common discussions about this new beverage.

Vincent chats about the first meads we are releasing.