Everything old is new again. King Solomon told us there was nothing new under the sun. Yogi Berra told us about déjà vu all over again. The wise philosophers in Iron Maiden told us that life is like a wheel.
Yes, gentle reader, it seems everything is cyclical. The fashions from decades past pop up on runway models with striking frequency. The disco beats of the 70s reappear on the radio. Politicians make the same old speeches from bygone eras.
Booze is no exception. Our fair province is experiencing a resurgence in what may be the oldest of tipples, made from nothing but water and fermented honey, better known as mead.
Perhaps the increased demand is due to the mead consumption shown in popular media like Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, or perhaps there is truly nothing new under the sun.
For those not in the know, mead is that most ancient of all fermented beverages, with archeological evidence of production as early as 7000BC.
While mead was independently discovered by many ancient cultures, it was the Greek island of Crete that boasts the oldest known records of mead production. Since honey contains naturally occurring wild yeasts, simply leaving a mixture of water and honey out in the summer heat would cause fermentation.
No longer will the local mead enthusiast need to wait for a Renaissance Faire to come to town, as mead is going mainstream in Alberta.
The mead renaissance started back in 2008, just as the world economy was crashing, when a family-operated beekeeping operation in Okotoks decided to make a few extra bucks by producing some hooch from their honey.
Lest you think these pioneers from the Chinook Arch Meadery had it easy, it was a grueling battle with the provincial government, as the Vogon-esque bureaucrats had never heard of mead before, and were loathe to license anything outside of their comfort zone.
Luckily for us, the beekeepers-turned-boozekeepers prevailed, and ended up with the same type of cottage winery license used by the Fieldstone Fruit Winery near Strathmore.
Since Chinook Arch Meadery paved the way back in 2008, Alberta has also been blessed with the Fallentimber Meadery opening their doors in Water Valley in 2010, followed by the Spirit Hills Honey Winery in Millarville in 2012.
Boasting 3 different meaderies within an hour’s drive of Calgary, it is no wonder that Alberta is emerging as the mead mecca of Canada.
Unsurprisingly, Alberta is one of the nation’s top producers of honey, with over 50% of honey in Canada being produced right here in Wild Rose Country. It seems the same rolling prairies that make for great barley production for the beer industry is also optimal for honey production for mead.
While there are hundreds of different styles of mead, they all break down into four major types.
Traditional mead is made from water, honey, and yeast. This style tastes sort of like a light white wine, often compared to a Riesling.
Melomel is a traditional mead that has been flavored with fruits such as apricot, blackberry, blueberry, cranberry grapefruit, mulberry, peach, plum, strawberry, raspberry, pear, and many others. Think of this as the yuk-a-flux of the ancient world.
Metheglin is a traditional mead that has been flavored with herbs or spices such as lavender, nutmeg, vanilla, jasmine, and many others. Adding aromatic spices helps mask the flavor of fermentation contamination, making it popular in a pre-refrigerator ancient Greece.
Braggot is a traditional mead that has been brewed with malted barley and sometimes hops as a bittering agent to make it more beer-like. The hops act as a preservative to help prevent spoilage.
The Braggot style caught your intrepid liquor reporter’s eye, in no small part due to its similarity to beer, so I made sure to seek out the available styles here in Alberta.
The Hopped Mead from Fallentimber is an easy-drinking session brew, meant to be served by the pint instead of in a wine glass. Good on a hot summer day, or for putting on a horned helmet and pretending to be a viking.
The Fallentimber Meadery also produces a more heavily hopped India Pale Braggot, although the sweetness of the honey balances the hop bitterness to much lower levels than a typical India Pale Ale.
Look for mead at the Sobeys Liquor in Chestermere, or check www.liquorconnect.com to search for retailers across the province.
