Mead — Alberta's Gold

By Margaux Burgess

For over ten thousand years people have been producing and consuming mead. Arguably it is the oldest fermented beverage in the world, with the earliest production dating to 8,000 BC.

While often associated with Beowulf, Renaissance Fairs, and Scandinavian folklore, where it is always the drink of choice, mead remains relatively under the radar and is still a rather esoteric beverage choice.

At its simplest, mead is fermented honey. You can imagine how it first came about – honey harvested by some ancient civilization left out in the rain to collect water, some rogue yeast discovering that sugar source, a little bit of time and a little bit of human curiosity.

The fermentable sugars are transformed into ethanol and we have mead. The process is very similar to the fermentation of wine and often mead is labeled as honey wine. Also like wine, mead can be fermented to any level of dryness, from sweet to bone-dry.

Honey really is magical stuff. With approximately the same sweetness as table sugar, it is a much healthier and natural alternative with many uses.

The strong concentration of sugars is inhospitable to bacteria and its ability to pull water from its surrounding area, and hence any microbes present in the surrounding area makes for known antibacterial properties. As far back as the ancient Egyptians, it has been used as a topical antiseptic and antibiotic.

Honey also has a true sense-of-place, that ‘somewhereness’ that means you can get a taste of where the honey came from – its terroir.

Clover honey tastes different from wildflower honey, as honey from Australia tastes different than honey from Alberta. Trace elements from the plants provide these different flavour profiles that are then translated into the glass.

Like different grapes give different attributes in wine, different honey gives different flavour characteristics in mead.

Albertan honey is as good as it gets

Canada is known as a world-class producer of honey, and Albertan honey is as good as it gets. While the winters may be cold, the long summer days and many hours of sunshine make for happy bees that are good producers.

The many fields of clover, alfalfa, and canola offer much quality nectar for the bees to gather and take back to the colony for honey production too.

With such high-quality honey available it was a natural next step to start producing mead. While it has been made in the province for over 20 years, starting with Mazer Art Andrews at Chinook Honey, it is only recently that commercial mead production has started to expand in earnest.

The changes to the local liquor production laws that facilitated the boom in craft breweries has also allowed for the growth of craft meaderies in Alberta.

Traditional mead is made only with honey, and all meads should have a noticeable honey flavour.

Mead is produced in many different styles with varying levels of sweetness, carbonation and strength.

Traditional mead is made only with honey. While all meads should have a noticeable honey flavour, it is often not the only component and there are other styles that incorporate complementary ingredients.

Different honey gives different flavour characteristics in mead."

Mead made with fruit is a Melomel, and this category can get more specific for styles of Melomel. For example, mead made with apples is a Cyser, and if made with grapes it is known as a Pymont. Another category we see in Alberta is mead produced with malt, known as a Braggot.

It is an exciting time for mead in Alberta with producers making a number of styles from a range of local ingredients. Most of the meaderies have tasting rooms and offer tours.