Vintner offers traditional mead

By Nicholas C. Stern
News-Post Staff

Mount Airy

— Mead, a fermented honey beverage, may be the oldest alcoholic drink made by man, its production dating back some 6,000 years.

Beyond studying the history and culture behind the honeyed beverage, Linganore Wine Cellars winemaker Anthony Aellen makes about 7,000 to 8,000 gallons of it each year. He also makes about 120,000 gallons of wine.

Despite the storied use of mead in world culture, most Americans have never tried it.

Aellen thinks this lack of experience presents a great opportunity to not only introduce people to the sweet wine, but also to keep an ancient tradition alive.

The first clues about mead's production might be traced back to cave paintings in Scandinavia that depict the process, Aellen said.

Honey is too sweet to allow yeasts and other bacteria to grow, he said. However, people who processed honey would leave the comb and other honey dregs in vessels that eventually filled with rainwater. The water diluted the honey, allowing fermentation to take place.

Egyptian pharaohs were buried with jars of mead to drink in the afterlife; the libation was considered a gift from the sun god, Aellen said.

The tradition of a honeymoon after marriage can be traced to a Scandinavian custom where the man had to capture his bride-to-be for a month, or one full cycle of the moon, and then drank mead with her to celebrate their new marriage.

Mead and other honey products were popular around the world until the end of the 18th century, when refined sugar took over as a coveted product that became easier for people to buy, he said.

Much of Aellen's mead production goes to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, which ends later this month.

Drinking the beverage helps give visitors the feeling they are in medieval Europe, he said.

Bottles of the mead can be purchased at the winery's tasting room in Mount Airy .

"It's one of those old-time drinks to come back to," Aellen said, "doing the same thing cave men did."

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