BEE Charmers

While not strictly considered a beer, mead is often closely associated with it. Whereas beer uses mainly malted grains for fermentable sugars, mead uses honey. Often meads are made with fruits, grains and even hops to impart unique aromas and flavors. It’s a potent drink, with alcohol levels ranging from 8 percent by volume to more than 20 percent.

The exact origin of mead is lost to the veils of time, but many archeologists believe that, like the best discoveries, it was a sort of happy coincidence.

A common feature of the African plains is the baobab tree. These massive trees have trunks as big around as tanker trucks; its lower limbs are often used by elephants to scratch hard-to-reach places on their backs. Occasionally, a limb breaks off during a scratching session, causing a hollow in the trunk of the tree.

During the dry season, the hollows in the tree trunks make an excellent location for bees to build hives and make honey. During the wet season, those same hollows fill with water, swamping the hives and mixing the honey with water. Windborne yeast infiltrates the honey-water mixture and fermentation begins.

Here’s how mead may have been discovered: The nomads who inhabited the African plains 20,000 years ago sought out the trees for the water contained in the hollows. One day a nomad came across a hollow that had held a beehive and he tasted the water. It was sweet, cool and delicious. After drinking his fill, he began to feel a strange euphoria and attributed it to the syrupy liquid. He drank more and, finding himself unable to walk, lay down for a nap. Unbeknownst to him, he had just discovered one of the world’s first alcoholic drinks.

Today’s mead is a much more sophisticated drink brewed with as much care as craft beer.

“We believe that mead is the next logical evolution in the craft beverage market,” said John Harris, owner of Harris Meadery in Orange Park. “We’re thrilled to introduce a whole new generation to the wide variety of styles and flavors there are in modern meads.”

Ed Stansel, co-owner of The Mazer, a meadery and cidery that is currently building out on King Street, agrees.

“Mead is one of the fastest-growing segments of the craft alcoholic beverage market,” said Stansel. “You can do amazing things with just honey, yeast and water. But we’re also producing a variety of meads using herbs, spices and fruits.”

Like wine, mead can be dry, semi-sweet or sweet. Mead made with spices or herbs is called metheglin; mead that contains fruit such as raspberry, blackberry or strawberry is called melomel. And mead that’s fermented with grape juice is called pyment.

“There are as many and as varied meads as the cultures that have loved and nurtured them for generations all over the world,” Harris said.

The Mazer won’t open until early October and production starts a few months after that. You can taste Key Lime Pie mead, the first mead to be produced commercially by Harris Meadery, at the launch party held 6-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24 at Alewife Craft Beer Bottle Shop & Tasting Room, 1035 Park St., Orange Park. Harris will be on hand to answer questions and serve.