Mead is an alcoholic drink. It is produced as a result of the fermentation of bee honey diluted with water. Find out what the price of mead is, how many percent of alcohol it contains, where to buy, in the end how to drink mead. Remember - only in moderation!
Mead - półtorak, dwójniak or trójniak - was the favorite drink of nobility and knights in Central and Eastern Europe. It is produced in the fermentation of bee honey diluted with water. It matures from a few months to 10 years depending on the type, and the older the better. Find out how mead is made, what types of mead are and how to serve it.
Mead - types
Depending on the dilution, there are 4 types of mead: półtorak, dwójniak, trójniak and czwórniak.
Półtoraki is diluted to give 0.5 l of water for 1 l of honey. The sugar concentration in the wort of this honey is about 55%. Due to the high sweetening, fermentation takes a very long time, and it does not mature until after 8-10 years of aging.
Dwójniaki are diluted 1: 1. The sugar concentration in the wort of this honey is 44%. It is a sweet drink, it takes about 4 years to mature.
Półtorak and dwójniak are sometimes called royal honeys.
In "trójniak" with 2 liters of water per 1 liter of honey, the sugar content in the wort is 30%. Such honey ferments for 8 weeks and is ready for consumption after one year of aging. This honey is sometimes referred to as semi-sweet.
The least amount of sugar is found in czwórniak, it reaches 24%. Only one of 4 volumes is honey. Such honeys, described as dry, usually mature 6-8 months.
Depending on the thermal treatment of the wort, the following can be distinguished:
- Saturated (brewed) honeywith higher alcohol content, made from honey with a strong taste, such as heather or buckwheat honey. They are produced as a result of fermentation of wort that was previously saturated (i.e. slowly heated for some time).
- unsaturated honey- here honey is dissolved in cold or slightly heated water (up to a maximum of 40ºC). High-quality honeys are used for production, without impurities, with a delicate aroma that it would be a pity to lose in the heating process, e.g. linden honey, acacia honey, clover honey. Such honey has a mild flavor and aroma, but it is thereless clear and unstable.
Mead - recipe
First, we prepare the honey wort. We mix honey and water (according to selected proportions - see above). There are two types of wort to choose from:
- saturated, otherwise known as brewed. This method involves heating honey and water in an open vessel until the desired concentration is obtained.
Saturated honeys get a darker color thanks to the slow heating process.
- unsaturated, prepared by mixing cold water with honey.
Then we inoculate the wort with wine yeast. Under their influence, the sugars in the honey turn into alcohol. Leave the wort to ferment.
Fermentation is carried out in clean, glass, tightly closed gaskets with a fermentation tube at a temperature of 15-20 ° C, the lower it is, the better the drink. The abundant foam appearing, most often the next day, indicates the start of fermentation, the so-called stormy. Depending on the density of the wort, it lasts from 5 to 10 days.
The transition of the wort to silent fermentation is evidenced by the descent and gradual disappearance of the foam on the surface. The silent fermentation period is 4 to 6 weeks.
After the fermentation is over, the first drink should be removed from the sediment. This operation should not be delayed. If the sediment remains for too long, the mead has an unpleasant aftertaste. When the honey is clear, leave it to rest.
The production of mead is called the mead production, and the building where the production takes place - the mead production.
Mead maturation should take place in a dry, dark and cool room with a constant temperature (10-15ºC). Then a flavor and aromatic bouquet is created and the fermentation takes place.
As the drink becomes clarified, another removal from the sediment should be made. We repeat this operation until the appropriate clarity of the drink is obtained. The extraction of young mead is an opportunity for preliminary testing. The more concentrated the solution, the longer the maturation process takes.
When will the honey mature? If the aging drink is sticky and very sweet, it is not yet drinkable. It needs to be corked again. Time and patience are important in mead making.
The finished drink should be poured into bottles. If you plan to store honey for a longer period, it is better, due to the sediment that appears over the years, to keep it in larger 5-10 liter bottles and pour it into the bottles just before consumption.
Mead should have appropriate clarity, propertaste, color and pleasant smell.
Mead - how many percent
The alcohol content is also related to the honey content and the aging time. The older the drink, the stronger it is. So:
- półtoraki power 18%
- dwójniaki - around 15%.
- Trzyniaki has 13% alcohol content
- czwórniaki - 11-12%
Raspberry honey
Different bouquets of honey are obtained by seasoning the wort with fruit juices, e.g. raspberry juice (fruit honey), or spices (root honey and spice-herb honey).
The most common ingredients for the production of spicy and herbal honey are: hops, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, juniper, rose petals, vanilla, almonds, lemon and orange peel.
Due to other additives, wine grape, dogwood, wild strawberry and poppy honeys are also distinguished.
You must do itMead drink - półtorak or dwójniak:
40 ml of mead is mixed with 20 ml of vodka, 20 ml of rum, 40 ml of tonic and 10 ml of lemon juice.
Mead - where to buy
We can buy meads in Poland in most alcohol stores. Their price ranges from a dozen to almost PLN 200 depending on the species. More expensive honeys are, of course, more noble półtorak and dwójniak, which take time to mature.
Mead is no less popular abroad than in Poland. In Norway and Denmark we will meet him under the name of mjød, in Sweden - mjöd. In Finland it is called sima, in Croatia - gverc, in Slovenia - medica, in Romania - mied, and in the Czech Republic, Serbia, Bulgaria and Slovakia - medovina. We can also find him … in Ethiopia - they call him t'edj there.
Mead - how to drink
Good quality honey - półtorak and dwójniak - we drink without additives. However, be careful - he is tricky and it's better not to overdo him! Maybe it doesn't hit the head right away, but it's hard to keep up with, and the hangover lasts up to two days.
We usually season the heated meads with ginger, cloves, cardamom, anise, vanilla, nutmeg, and sometimes with black pepper.
Czwórniak and trójniak will be appreciated especially in winter. Hot, with the addition of spices, citrus peels, fruit juices, they are delicious and warming. We can add them to gingerbread, honey cakes, pour them over fruit desserts, but also meat and poultry just before the end of baking.
Read also: What to eat and drink to warm up quickly? 6 ways to freeze up
You must do itWarming mead with spices
Ingredients:160 ml of mead (trójniak or"czwórniak") 120 ml apple juice or still mineral water cinnamon stick 1-2 anise stars 20 ml lemon juicePreparation method:Pour the mead into a saucepan, add apple juice or water, cinnamon and anise. low heat, stirring frequently, but do not bring to a boil! Remove from heat and season with lemon juice. We serve in glasses made of heat-resistant glass (or in stoneware mugs or clay mugs).
Mead - where did it start
Honey is believed to be the oldest fermented beverage found in the world. The remnants of mead in the clay pots discovered in a Neolithic village in China were dated back to 9,000 years! In Europe, references to honey can be found, for example, in Aristotle (350 BC).
It is known that mead was very popular in Northern and Central and Eastern Europe. Why? It was hard to find vines here. Hence, wine was replaced with more easily available alcoholic beverages: beer and mead.
It all started when it turned out that honey fermented easily. It was enough to mix it with water, pour it into a clay jug and wait a few months. The way was simple. No wonder then that mead making has become very popular in Poland.
The saturated honey enjoyed a great reputation, but it was rarely drunk, most often on the occasion of important celebrations, e.g. holidays, weddings. It was an expensive drink. At the end of the 15th century, honey taverns were created, where only this type of alcohol was served.
However, already in the 16th century, every we althier landowner fed his own honey. In golden times for mead, drinks that were aged in barrels for a hundred or more years were drunk! Mead was also recommended to newlyweds. Hence the name "honeymoon".
In the 18th century, mead was replaced by more and more popular wine, but also vodka, which did not need aging.
About the author
Katarzyna TerentiewManaging editor of Wformie24.pl. A graduate of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw. As an editor, she co-created many entertainment TV programs, in the literary monthly "Bluszcz" and the biweekly "Viva!" she was the editorial secretary. Mother of two full of energy children. He has been spending his holidays sailing for many years.
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