Mead...?

[Anonymous]

Okay, I've seen recipes for the drink "mead" in a few places. My question is is it alcoholic? I wish to take necessary precautions ^^

[Gryphon]

Yes it is.

[Anonymous]

Really? That's too bad  

[RedRonin]

As with any spellwork, though, you're not obligated to follow the ritual precisely.  Not everyone has all of the various and sundry toys and trinkets that many of the published rites require.  Likewise, a Pagans In Recovery group very well couldn't do any kind of working that had alcoholic beverages as part of it.

You can substitute fruit juice, cider, etc. for mead and you'll do just fine.

[Lark]

Yum, mead!  I love the stuff..at least the good stuff.  It's like drinking liquid sunshine.

From Wikipedia:

Mead is a fermented alcoholic beverage made of honey, water, and yeast. Meadhing (pronounced: /ˈmɛ.ðɪŋ/) is the practice of brewing honey. Mead is also known as "honey wine," although this is inaccurate. Mead is a separate and distinct family of alcoholic beverages, completely apart from beer, wine, liqueur, and distilled beverages.

A mead that also contains spices (like cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg) or herbs (such as oregano or even lavender or chamomile) is called metheglin. This word is derived from the Welsh word meddyglyn, meaning "medicinal liquor", as healing herbs were often stored as metheglin so they would be available over the winter (as well as making them much easier to swallow). Slavic miod/med, which means "honey", derives from the same Proto-Indo-European root.

A mead that contains fruit (such as strawberry, blackcurrant or even rose hips) is called melomel and was also used as a way to "store" summer produce for the winter.

Mulled mead is a popular winter holiday drink, where mead is flavored with spices and warmed, traditionally by having a hot poker plunged into it.

-Lark-

[NachtSorcier]

Scott Cunningham's popular book "Wicca" contains a recipe for non-alcoholic mead.  You can find the recipe here: http://www.spiritonline.com/files/messages/9/147.html?0

It seems simple enough to make.

[Lark]

Yum, sounds like a tastey recipe and I agree it could be used in place of mead.

BUT..I would have, if I were the author, not have called it mead since mead by definition is an alcoholic drink.

In the summer at SCA events we often drink something called Sekanjabin which is somewhat like the recipe that Scott gives.

Here's a recipe for a mint sekanjabin:

Water 2 1/2 cups
Honey 4 cups
Wine Vinegar 1 cup
 Mint 1/2 cup

Dissolve 4 cups honey in 2 1/2 cups of water; when it comes to a boil add 1 cup wine vinegar. Simmer for 1/2 hour. Add the mint, stir, remove from fire, and let cool. Strain to remove the mint leaves. Dilute the resulting syrup to taste with ice water (5 to 10 parts water to 1 part syrup). The syrup stores without refrigeration

I also do one using fresh ginger that really tastes wonderful!

-Lark-

[NachtSorcier]

That sounds good, too.  I do enjoy mint.  I'll have to try it some time, maybe this coming Mabon.

[Anonymous]

Red ..... cider is alcoholic too and a good one will knock the spots of anyone.  

Mead is made with honey and was originally brewed by Monks in Devon and Sommerset in South West England.   Its rather strong but very nice and yes, alcoholic.

[Lark]

Red ..... cider is alcoholic too and a good one will knock the spots of anyone.  

Mead is made with honey and was originally brewed by Monks in Devon and Sommerset in South West England.   Its rather strong but very nice and yes, alcoholic.

I love the ciders of Somerset.  They were my first introduction to the alcoholic ciders and I am glad to say that we can now get them here in the States where they are referred to as hard cider.  Most of the cider that we get here is non-alcoholic and really is nothing more than apple juice.  Back when I was a child we used to have a local orchard that made their own ciders in the fall.  I loved walking into their store in the fall when the air was crisp and cool and the whole place smelled of apples from the pressings.

I also had a chance to try perry while I was in England..which is an alcoholic ciderish drink made from pears.

-Lark-

[Anonymous]

Hmm, okay I see what to do now. I've wanted to try it, but my mom was telling me to look deeper into the subject before I did. And I'm very glad I did ^^ Thanks everyone! *much hugs and love to all* :blackcate

[Anonymous]

O.k, this thread is a little old  but being from Somerset I had to add my two penneth:

I love the ciders of Somerset.  They were my first introduction to the alcoholic ciders and I am glad to say that we can now get them here in the States
I also had a chance to try perry while I was in England..which is an alcoholic ciderish drink made from pears.

-Lark-[/quote]

I'd have to agree we make some great ciders...I'm pleased that you all can get them over there.  In the West Country (UK) we practically are weaned off of our milk and put straight onto the apple!

It's interesting that many beverages that masquerade as ciders, actually are perry- apple cider is quite rare.

As for mead, interesting stuff... I didn't know it had its origins round here, I'll have to give it a go for sure.

So, whatever your tipple-alcoholic or not...cheers!

Npf x