6 month tasting - ua-cam.com/video/DvBNqLUuHLI/v-deo.html DARN VICTORIANS! I have been taken in by one of the many Victorian fabrications surrounding Anglo-Saxon history. It turns out, the wonderful story about the origin of honeymoons was made up in th 19th century with no historical evidence for it. They got me!
The mead will be ready maybe by May Day 2021! May-be, you should do a special for May Day! I know there's lots of food history around that special holiday. :)
I think you might get secondary fermentation happening in that bottle you're keeping - so maybe check by loosening the stopper every week or so - see if you hear a hiss of escaping gas. This secondary fermentation can result in a sparkling wine, or alternatively, it can result in the vessel exploding!
As a mead maker, I appreciate your accuracy to the craft. Other UA-camrs that try making mead that are not mead makers are very misinformed or their attempts are so wrong. Many thumbs up to this all!
As a fellow Mazer (it's slang, don't argue :P) I'm curious what you've witnessed these other content creators doing that was so bad! I love a good train wreck story.
@@xCos07 there are various stabilizing agents you can find. Some people also heat treat it, but thats not a great option if you care about preserving delicate flavors.
@@xCos07 If you want to avoid using chemicals or heat (pasteurization) you can try cold crashing for anywhere from a few days to 2 weeks, which will halt the yeast activity and make everything sink to the bottom, then rack it off to a new vessel (sans lees, of course) and put back at room temp with an airlock. If it starts back up, repeat the process.
I'm an old woman now, but used to be a Viking Age reenactor (living history exhibits, domestic life) and made mead often. One time I decided to "fun it up" by adding citric acid. Result: fizzy mead. Everyone loved it. But I went back to making traditional mead afterwards. I used to serve it with Viking beer, cheese and onion soup.
This has probably been said in some way already but, “Lengh” literally means length and in this context could be read as “at length” or “for some time” so a rolling boil would probably be the modern day equivalent. I hope this helps.
I tried this recipe 8 months ago, trying a bottle on the short timeline of the original recipe, and it was passable, but I just opened another bottle after letting it age 8 months and the difference was very apparent. The aging terrifically improved the flavor.
I make this often. I only pasteurize it in the bottle after 5 days to stop the fermentation and keep it sweet and sparkly. As this drink should be. After a few days it tastes great and refreshing.
@@tessylorenzo109 it is safe in 5 days. In fact if you wait longer than that, it will start to become sauer and could make you gassy or worse because of the high amount of yeast. That is why I pasteurize it to prevent this
“Lengh” means ready or prepared, my uncle who is a Norwegian - Irish mix uses this word everytime he makes mead for my dad and mom when they are on their anniversary every year.
Or quicken or proper or to spring. Quicken is another term used in cooking/crafting and can mean to excite. I suppose the definitions diverged at some point when the need arose.
I know that "Boil until it is Lengthy" means to Heat until the water is purified. Old world speech pattern translate loosely as "until it reaches a rolling boil". Yay
@Tasting History needs to comment / tag this -- You answered his video question! Heat "to a roiling boil" isn't really that old-fashioned or imprecise compared to modern cooking 👍 Most recipes that say, e.g., 14-16 min at 420°C are giving that ballpark, because you should really be checking to see if the food's cooking properly. And they presume us modern monkeys don't have the patience to actually stick around the oven ;)
I also had to think of the Dutch word lengen or aanlengen, which means mixing something with water or dissolving something in water or watering something down.
For Lengh, the closest term I can find is gelingen from Middle Dutch (fairly close to Middle English) which means to be pleasing or satisfying. If you take this definition then it would just mean to heat the water until you're happy with it.
My guess is that it means very warm, or simmering. In one definition it referred to a lengh potato to be stuffed, so guessing it would be a bit more than hot enough to serve. Bottom line, bringing the water to a simmer, which from the video looks like you did a bit more than, but at least _not_ a full boil, but verging on it.
Hoobyist mazer (mead-maker) here! The stuff you've made is what's known as a "quick mead" (note: that was originally "quick" as in "not dead," rather than "rapid" - but the double-kenning probably has something to do with its continued use). It was intended as a recreational libation - sweet and, depending on the yeast, often slightly effervescent. Think of it as sort of a dessert drink. It was boiled, due to the fact that a quick mead has a lower alcohol content, and may not kill all the microbes present in a 13th century water supply. As you mentioned, a "full mead" (something more akin to a wine or ale - again depending on the yeast used) usually requires weeks for the fermentation to do its work. It also tends to use a slightly lower ratio of honey to water - perhaps 1:6. Since the fermentation runs its full course (being bottled after all the yeast dies of alcohol poisoning), boiling is less necessary. I'm a bit of a weirdo, and like to split the difference. Here in Canada, where we use a mad jumble of metric and imperial measures, I tend to use a kilogram (2.2 lbs) of honey to a gallon (4.4 liters) of water. For those who are curious, I also use Fermentis Safale s-04 dry ale yeast (one packet - about a good-sized tablespoon - per 6-gallon batch). This is left to ferment for about a month and a half. I like to bottle it just before the bubbling stops - which causes it to retain some carbon dioxide - like ale or champagne. The latter is a finicky business, with factors such as ambient heat, altitude/air pressure and the amount of sugar in the honey all playing factors - so I can't list precisely when to bottle. It's part of what makes brewing as much art as science. Since you plan to lay away your second bottle, and it's been about a month since this post, you may want to check it for pressure. I suspect this mead would have still been fermenting when you laid it down - which means carbon dioxide will continue to build up in the bottle. This can cause the bottle to burst. For beginning mazers, I recommend using PET bottles (the kind of plastic, screw-topped bottles used for soda - available in amber for long-term storage). This way, checking the pressure is as easy as squeezing the bottle. If it's soft or firm, it's fine; if it's hard/starting to push the plastic outward, unscrew the top (a very little at a time) until the gas begins to escape. Repeat as needed until the pressure reduces. Once one gets a feel for when the fermentation is "just done enough," one can switch to glass - which gives the mead a longer shelf life. For my part, I still use champagne bottles - which are made to withstand high internal pressure - just to be safe. A note, too, on boiling: Store-bought honey has been pasteurized, and shouldn't need to be boiled. This may be why you didn't get much foam as you "ever scum it." I far prefer the characteristics of an unpasteurized honey, as the temperatures used in commercial pasteurization can break up a lot of the other organic compounds as well. However, unpasteurized honey can (occasionally) contain the bacterium that causes botulism. Therefore, it absolutely need to be boiled, and you will find that more "filth riseth thereon." This is residual wax, pollen and - crucially - any wild yeast that be living in the honey or the pot. Wild yeasts can create a very different flavour profile from brewer's yeasts, and change your tasty beverage into a waste of time and money. Here endeth the rant. Thanks, as always, for the interesting videos! PS: I would totally buy one of those "Serve It Forth" shirts one of the other commenters mentioned.
@@speurtighearnamacterik8230 Interesting insights! Thanks for sharing! As I mentioned, I like to retain some of the effervescence in my mead, so I can't use a lidded vessel - especially with a cloth, which would allow the gasses to escape - but that sounds like a wonderful option for something that's meant to be served more like a wine than a champagne or beer! I have a few wonderfully decorative swing-top bottles; I may try something like your technique next time one of my friends requests a more vinous option. Regarding a honey and rice option: that sounds lovely! For something with a heartier feel, a low-sugar buckwheat honey would probably provide some creamy, caramel characteristics. A sweeter clover honey or something would make a great dessert option. Your comment makes me want to try the latter - but with the addition of the cardamom and saffron from Max's "Payasam" episode.
The mead you intend to keep for a few months will keep fermenting, Max. There''s still plenty of yeast which did not sediment on the bottom of the bottle/jar and is suspended in the liquid. The pressure may shatter your bottle, so keep it corked with a bubbler for at least a few weeks.
Yup, I came charging in here to make the same warning. Ya don't want a bottle bomb. If you want it carbonated though, a few more days in the sealed growler will do the job!
Good! I did the exact same thing with my first batch and luckily I'm inpatient. I went to open the growler for a taste after a couple weeks and im glad I didn't wait... mead shot out of the growler like a coke and mentos experiment. Best of luck, mead making is a fun hobby. I just "burped" the growler about once a week after that and it ended up with the same mouthfeel as champaign.
@@TastingHistory So glad to hear that. I am another who came to issue the glass bomb warning. In my mead brewing days I would keep the stuff under an airlock (keep checking that the water hasn't evaporated) until enough yeast had settled that I could read a newspaper through the carboy. That usually took months, if I recall correctly.
From my distant memories of studying Chaucer in college, I feel like "as lengh" is probably an archaic way of saying "at length," basically make sure it's boiled long enough to kill anything that might kill you.
@@Hwyadylaw Although lettering mistakes (changes), like not using the anarchic th symbol and instead making it look more pleasing to a modern eye often happen so it could be very possible...
This is the third time I'm making this, and this time I'm getting serious with a batch a month, because what you get out of this recipe after half a year's maturing is a lot better than the sirupy slop you mostly get from the shops. Consistency of white wine with the bouquet of honey, this is IT.
@@concretesailors good question. I'd have to admit I stopped makig more after a few months and this was in the colder season, so I basically filtered it and then left it out on the balcony at 3°C for a couple of days and that worked. As a rule, you would probably heat it up, though.
@@facelessdrone That's right, but don't forget lots of honey, particularly multi-floral types, doesn't 'drain' - it's too viscous and needs to be expressed. Also in medieval times they didn't have hives as we understand them, but rope or wicker constructions called skeps. As there was no way to exclude the queen there was often brood, old comb, propolis etc. mixed in with the honey. The cleanest honey would be stored, the 'stickies' and other bits were boiled to separate the rubbish and made into mead :)
@@facelessdrone bee boxes weren’t invented until 1851. Before that they used skeps. Which are now illegal cause the bees would often die since there is no way to inspect them.
Been at it for a while now, and it just gets more fun over time. I highly recommend you get a mead starter kit and watch a couple how-to videos on YT. It's much easier than you might think and it's a blast.
The Boston molasses flood of 1919 was cleaned with saltwater. Not only because of seawater availability but beccause it cut the molasses. (Off of the streets, the subway cars, etc, corpses, etc.)
The aged mead actually will keep fermenting, lots of yeast will be suspended in the liquid (that’s why it smelled yeasty to you) and will slowly keep working on the sugars. Your mead should get ‘drier’ or less sweet and more alcoholic over time. The other flavours will likely mellow too with time.
In Welsh, the double D is pronounced as a soft "th" (as in "mother"), so meddyglyn is pronounced as if it was spelled methyglyn. It hasn't changed pronunciation too much over time.
Meddyglyn is Welsh for Medicine or 'Healing Drink' lit. translation is Doctor (Meddyg) and Lake (Llyn), meddyglynau is the plural form. Feddyglyn is the mutation (said in a sentence), but really does sound like a pharmaceutical product.
laughing at yourself about the "tiny bubbles" joke is genuinely the most endearing thing I've seen on youtube all week, please never stop being this candid and charming
Here in México is almost completely unknown, I met it for a mdieval festival and loved it, I´m elaborating some mead right now and I hope to do it right. thanks for all of this incredible info.
The boiling was mostly about getting out that honey scum, because when you use the comb honey there is a LOT of wax, bee mess and stuff that comes off which we just don't get with modern honey extraction methods.
I never boil my honey must, although I do prefer to heat and skim. Even with modern honey from the store, this step removes some of the bitter proteins and albumen. The result is a better tasting mead. 30 minutes of skimming is usually enough. Added benefit- if you want to add fruit you can do so without sulfates if you add to hot must, the temperature will kill the wild yeast and bacteria without chemicals.
Yeah, boiling is unnecessary. It strips off oxygen that the yeast will need and removes tasty floral notes. Just gently warm it up enough over low to medium-low heat to liquify the honey and skim-off the foam.
Little fun fact since you mentioned mead in England, Greece and China: Mead is one of the words that we can trace back the farthest. It’s no coincidence that bee is called Melissa in Greek. The “Meli” part (meaning honey) is where Germanic languages got the word mead/mede/met, etc from. The French and Russian words for honey are also directly related to this. But what makes it special is that the word goes back so far that it even shares a common ancestor with modern Chinese, where 蜜 mì means honey. One of very few words where common ancestry or direct relation between European languages and Chinese can be proven. It just shows how important honey and mead must have been to people and how long humans have been consuming it.
That's not actually because it goes so far back - that word is a loan from Tocharian into Chinese, probably from around the 600s. (It further got loaned into Japanese, where it's 'mitsu'.)
Not true, med and meli are not the same. You judge how much some word is old in use in language by how many variations it has in language in history, that is common fact in etimology. Med,mead in slavic languages has a lot of variations. Even animal bear in ANY slavic language is med-jed [honey-eater] or med-ved[honey-see]. In sanskrt it is medhu not meli and slavic language has direct line to sanskrt. Other languages that have closer line to sanskrt like lithuanian also use med, not greek meli. Word med is older than meli.
My grandma used to sing Tiny Bubbles to me when I was a little girl. She even had Don Ho’s record! When you mentioned that song, I was immediately transported back in time. It made me smile! I haven’t thought of that song in many years. Thank you for bringing back happy memories to me. Love you Max! 💜
Shirts, pins and stickers are all dandy when it comes to merch, but honestly, I'd love to see a book/collection of your favorite "do it yourself" recipes from the ages, that we can bring home. A few signed copies would be nifty as well 😉
The constant presence of a Pokemon of some kind in the background is one of my favorite elements of this series, and this one is definitely one of my favorite uses
The hallucinations caused with the Indian type was probably due to a type of honey that is collected in that area of the world that actually has a chemical composition that does cause hallucinations. Watched a cool documentary on it like 4 years ago
I believe the honey is collected in Tibet and then passes through India , I believe the bees collect pollen from hallucinogenic plants resulting in trippy honey , you can actually order it online .
Thanks for this lovely video! :3 I've been making mead in gallon bottles for a few years and my most recent batches were black tea with spices and lavender/vanilla. I did end up back-sweetening them, as using champagne yeast as I did makes it hella dry.
I've been making mead for years. Some notes from experience: I ferment for one week, then rack in the refrigerator for one week. It'll be cloudy but not too yeasty, and fermented mostly dry; add raisins and orange wedges to the fermenting liquid as this will add natural sugars and nutrients for the yeast, without much impact on flavor, besides notes. This will jam your gas trap though ( orange pulp will be forced inside it from the CO2), so use a balloon or condom with a pinhole in the far end as a gas exchanger instead (don't use for other purposes, obviously); pass through a coffee filter, even after racking, before putting it in its final bottle. Happy Meadmaking.
@@JemuzuDatsWho Both of those things don't matter very much. Any of the recipes here on UA-cam will work. I do generally get cheap honey though, b/c I can't be bothered to spend "good honey" money on something I drink in such an unrefined state. If you're racking for months though, go and splurge.
Looking back, I think watching TastingHistory has been the most productive thing I did during quarantine, I legitimately learned so much. Thank you Max!
Aztec hot chocolate! they put cayenne pepper in it... They also beheaded their masses of "lower class citizens" though... so😬😑😐.. but.. anyway.. CHOCOLATE! :-D Also THANK YOU for making this episode! My son and I love watching your vids , he is going to FLIP!
“Lengh” is probably a spelling of the Old English word “lungre”, which meant quickly. Related to Sanskrit “langh”, meaning “to spring”. So maybe a rolling/quick/intense boil?
I'm so happy you acknowledged some of the more modern critiques of the recipe. As a hobby mead maker I always get nervous when non brewing channels talk about brewing because they always miss stuff like that. I don't think I could love your channel more!
I love this aspect of history, I find it fascinating how people in the past did so many different things with such limited tools and knowledge. I am not a huge drinker, but I love the history lesson and bees are amazing!
@@jacobhargiss3839 many ferments that are made without yeast additives and use their own spores are named wild so you are somewhat correct Honey doesn't need it they simply add yeast to be safe because its own ferments can go bad Yeast is simply to control or speed up the process which is common today but still I prefer a pure drink
Modern Mead: Months in the basement, specific measurements to maximize efficiency and chemical balance of the water, sterilize everything, giant list of things to never do. Medieval Mead: Yeah toss it together and give it a week.
You should see the old beer recipes haha, probably the reason Germany set it in law that beer can only be made with certain minimalist ingredients to get rid of all the weird variants knocking around using bark, grass clippings or herbs instead of hops.
Fun fact: You wanna use wine yeast to make your mead (easily ordered online) - if you use regular baking yeast the result will give you a hangover from hell. Wine yeast is also more resistant to alcohol, so you'll have mead with moor oomph _and_ less pain!
Depends on where you want to go with it as to best yeast I like a bread yeast for mead because of the lower tolerance, usually around 9% honey will go very dry with wine yeast the lower tolerance leaves more sweetness.
@@TheSleepyowlet If you go with the recipe in the video, beer yeast would be closest. But I do agree with avoiding baking yeast, some sort of brewing yeast is the way to go.
I am in love with you simply because i searched making mead, your video came up, and in less then 5 minutes you say your putting the entire translation on making mead from the Tractatus Manuscript in the description, thank you my good man Edit: also a Beedrill!!!
Only just discovered your channel (UA-cam recommended this video) and I have to say it looks like a real gem-one of those channels you have no idea you need until you find it. To be honest I was already sold after just a few minutes, and then “tiny bubbles” sealed the deal. Subscribed.
Because it's an incredible story! The wanderer is also an amazing poem of the same era that I discovered literally only because it was included in the back of my paperback beowulf.
I learned how to make Mead back in 2013-14 and made several batches using various yeasts. Dregs from beer, Champaign yeast, and wild yeast. All worked. I did not use a bubbler/airlock, instead I used close weave cloth and the burp method. The flavors were all different, the wild yeast was my least favorite but was still good. I think the reason was because the only real fruit ripening in the area was Mountain Ash so I think I pulled a lot of my yeast from the strains that ferment those berries. The Champaign yeast I drank both young & sweet, and aged, dry & effervescent, which I drank for my birthday two years later... POTENT! Two very large drinking men and little old me got ourselves Schnockered off one champagne bottle; yes very potent indeed. It was divine and smooth, never tasted anything like it. The Mead from the dregs, had a sweet beer like taste, good; great for parties and a little goes a long way. The ageing definitely refines the taste, drinking it young before it loses all of it's sweetness is really good with meals. For the Champaign Mead, I did seal the bottle for aging two years which sat both on it's side and upright depending on where it was the least in the way.
@@linencannon7678 No. It was finished and aging. It was in a regular Champaign bottle designed for the pressure, available at brew stores with bail type caps.
So what you're saying is that my first attempt at making mead using the dry instant rise yeast that is in the tiny bubbles stage right now is going to be OK?
Meddyglyn looks like Welsh to me. Which would make sense since in Welsh it'd be pronounced as Metheglin. I think it's just the same word but 2 different spellings.
Good sir. I would LOVE to see some Pliny the Elder merch. Anything that has some flair to it.😊 or a Tasting history shirt that says "Why go with 'or' when 'and' is on the table?"
I made mead for about 5 years in 1 gallon and 5 gallon batches. The honey ratio can be increased up or down. You can make a stout high alcohol beverage with champagne yeast. Or you can make it light and crisp like a hard cider. When I was in my mid 20's I used to show up to parties with a gallon. People would go nuts for it. I made this one recipe where I would rack it onto apples twice. And add allspice cloves and cinnamon sticks. People refered to it as apple pie.
I love making mead. I have a local beekeeper that I do work for in trade for raw honey. I also have multiple kinds of berries and herbs growing around my property that I use to flavor it with. Depending on how long I ferment it and what berries I use, I usually end up between 18-30% alcohol. My friends love when I have a new batch done.
Just found your channel and absolutely love it!!!!! The “tiny bubbles” had me rolling. Also, agreed, Beowulf is an amazing read! Thank you for what your doing! Awesome work!
Merch Ideas: A single serve Hippocras sleeve or a tea infuser that looks like one Your own spice blends and tea blends or even candles, like Parthinian, or or Tudor etc A calendar with your favourite lithographic recipes for the months Digital wallpaper packs with the same as above Placemats and coasters again with the same
Medieval scholar here: best guess for "as lengh" without doing a lot of research is that "as lengh" is a rolling boil, probably shorthand for something to the effect of "heat the water until it's boiling like it does after you heat it for a long time".
The name Kvasir is really interesting because in Russia and other Slavic countries there is a drink called Квас (Kvass) which is a slightly alcoholic sparkling drink made by fermenting rye or rye bread
Living in Sweden, but they had a supermarket with food and drinks coming from another countries. And there I found a bottle with 2 litre of kvass, with blueberry taste. And man, that was so GOOOOD! If I remember correctly it is done by dark bread, and then fermented yes?
The amount of time needed actually makes sense to me. I was at one time a member of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) and got into making mead. One of the things I heard about was "storm brew" where a beached bunch of Vikings would grab what ever they could and let it ferment for a few days. (pretty sad if you get marooned with no mead.) I imagine mead could be done the same way if you really wanted to do it.
Oo you could check out diaspora Co? They source their spices equitably and pay their farmers living wages. They only do Indian spices though. This is their website: www.diasporaco.com/
I stumbled across your video after listening to a podcast on “Drinking in the Viking Age and the Sagas of the Icelanders” by the Saga Thing podcast. And what a wonderful thing it was. The two complimented each other wonderfully. I look forward to more of your content! Cheers!
When I was in high school back in the 70s one of my friends had a dad who was a beekeeper so we could get free honey. And naturally, being D&D-playing high school kids, we made mead with it. Our technique was pretty crude: we'd mix "about that much" honey with water and boiled it before pouring it into a bucket. Then, not having brewer's yeast, we'd drop a pinch of baker's yeast in there, cover it with some cloth to keep the bugs from drowning in it, and let it sit in someone's garage for two or three weeks. It tasted perfectly dreadful, very sweet, but after a glass or two the alcohol would kick in and nobody cared what it tasted like. So thanks for bringing back those sort-of fond memories. :)
Absolutely delightful, as always! Now I wonder, if this poetry god Kvasir has something to do with russian fermented drink "kvas". However, even if it is likely that the name of that drink originates from the verb "kvasit", which means "to ferment", it is still interesting. This guy Kvasir literally got himself fermented, heh. By the way, as a russian, I would love to see you making kvas on your show! This drink has really deep historical roots and is still beloved in today's Russia. Furthermore, it is relatively easy to make since you basically need only stale rye bread, raisins and water. Despite the unappetizing ingredients it's really good and refreshing. It can be consumed alone or it could be a base for a cold soup called "okroshka" which is also super tasty! In any case, thank you for wonderful content, I am always eagerly waiting for the each next episode))
If you can get it, i would brew a batch of mead with a Norwegian farmhouse ale yeast called Kveik, it ferments fast and quick at high temperature. Easily brewing a batch of ~7-11% ABV ale in about 3 days. A blogger by the name of Lars Marius Garshol has a wonderful beer blog about farmhouse brewing practices that have survived from the middle ages. I imagine that mead brewed with this kind of yeast may produce a closer analog to the kind described in medieval recipes!
@@TastingHistory I wish I could take credit for it, but I just saw some random commenter say it and I concurred 🥺 they'd be straight drippy if you got some tasteful old english font, maybe put a lil chalice from which we could taste this history?
This pretty much the same what my mother used to make every summer solstice here in Latvia. The honey is squeezed out in to the pot with bear hands together with pollen. The important pagan festival Ligo usually is associated with bier but this was a special ancient drink called "miestiņš" in Latvian. For some reason it is the same name as for a small village in Latvian language. It really is made in just a week. BUT it must be drank all in just a 2 or 3 days because after that it too sour and makes you gassy.
@@MsSurikaats Bieži arī saukts par medus miestiņu par cik kaut kad laika laikā gaitā ar vārdu miestiņš sauc saldu alu. Labs dzēriens, īpaši karstā vasarā par cik ļoti dzirkstošs un salds. Nedaudz grādīgāks par dažiem aliem. Nav salīdzināms ar medalu - pavisam cits dzēriens.
Thanks to Google, I can understand your conversation translated into my Native language 'Bengali'. By the way, I am from Kolkata ( formerly Calcutta), a city in Eastern part of India. We are really living in interesting times ! Have a fantastic day !
@@sauravbasu8805 India? I am from Latvia. We are far apart but our cultures still have similar symbols and I bet the old mead making was known in India as well.
@@spiritussancto in theory all you need is a scale for measuring the alcohol content. Write down the weight of your empty and filled fermentation vessel and when fermentation is over, note the weight again. It should be lighter, since CO2 escaped. The difference in weight equals the alcohol in grams per fermentation vessel. Divide that by the liters and you got grams/Liter. That times 0,1267 and you got the %abv. This method isn't that exact, but it's working without tools and has only about 1 to 3% inaccuracy
Man, I just stumbled on your channel and it's sooo funny and instructive. Loved the way you present the videos and the recipes. Thanks for the great content Max. Greetings from a passionate meadmaker from Brazil. Keep serving us forth.
Thanks for the Beowulf shout out. I have read many translations and always enjoy it. It is something more people should give a go. When I was caught reading it over lunch at work, I was met with not but shock as to why I would do such a thing.
6 month tasting - ua-cam.com/video/DvBNqLUuHLI/v-deo.html
DARN VICTORIANS! I have been taken in by one of the many Victorian fabrications surrounding Anglo-Saxon history. It turns out, the wonderful story about the origin of honeymoons was made up in th 19th century with no historical evidence for it. They got me!
It's ok, it's a "sweet" story. 🤓
Bamboozlin' Victorians!
Been there, facepalmed that
I know! Weren't they sneaky those victoriabs?
The mead will be ready maybe by May Day 2021! May-be, you should do a special for May Day! I know there's lots of food history around that special holiday. :)
I think you might get secondary fermentation happening in that bottle you're keeping - so maybe check by loosening the stopper every week or so - see if you hear a hiss of escaping gas. This secondary fermentation can result in a sparkling wine, or alternatively, it can result in the vessel exploding!
Love your channel Shrimp. Also good advice
Heck it's my favourite, friendly forager. Kudos Shrimp, your channel is great.
Crossover of my two favorite food channels!
I was going to write this too! It’s worthwhile advice.
Hi shrump
Idea for merch: Literally just a cookbook with all the recipes you've made so far. You could even title it "Tasting History" :)
Yes please
And also if they can make it so the paper looked aged
I second this.
I would so buy that
I also like the idea of making it look like an aged bound medieval manuscript
As a mead maker, I appreciate your accuracy to the craft. Other UA-camrs that try making mead that are not mead makers are very misinformed or their attempts are so wrong. Many thumbs up to this all!
Thank you!
As a fellow Mazer (it's slang, don't argue :P) I'm curious what you've witnessed these other content creators doing that was so bad! I love a good train wreck story.
How do you stop the fermenting mate? In case I’m going to put it in a sealed bottle to sell it so it won’t explode.
@@xCos07 there are various stabilizing agents you can find. Some people also heat treat it, but thats not a great option if you care about preserving delicate flavors.
@@xCos07 If you want to avoid using chemicals or heat (pasteurization) you can try cold crashing for anywhere from a few days to 2 weeks, which will halt the yeast activity and make everything sink to the bottom, then rack it off to a new vessel (sans lees, of course) and put back at room temp with an airlock. If it starts back up, repeat the process.
I'm an old woman now, but used to be a Viking Age reenactor (living history exhibits, domestic life) and made mead often. One time I decided to "fun it up" by adding citric acid. Result: fizzy mead. Everyone loved it. But I went back to making traditional mead afterwards. I used to serve it with Viking beer, cheese and onion soup.
Fizzy mead sounds really cool actually... and so do you! 😎
That's cool. What's was your recipe for the beer if I can ask. I want to make a brogg
How much citric acid did you use? I have a fairly big bag of it but i only ever use it for cleaning. might as well use it for mead too
Carbonated mead is meant to be getting more popular now. Mead definitely needs a mainstream comeback.
Please i need the recipe!!!
I love that people back then could just feel the mead and be like “ahhh yes, that’s cow degrees celsius”
imperial metric system
I like my drinks penguin turd cold
@@bus8038 aw yes the American metric system, used by Europeans thousand years before the US existed.
@@trollmastermike52845 you're right
@@bus8038 nice edit on og comment
odin: "only a spoonful"
odin: *pulls out a comically large spoon*
When you drink with Odin, use a long spoon.
I can just imagine Odin pulls out a metal bucket with a rod welded to the side
Remember that time Thor took a giant swig from the ocean and now there's tides? The Norse don't fuck around.
@@litchqueenasenath5995 They really don’t, especially their pet snake, Jörmungandr
Odin gargless mead in his eye socket
This has probably been said in some way already but, “Lengh” literally means length and in this context could be read as “at length” or “for some time” so a rolling boil would probably be the modern day equivalent. I hope this helps.
Came here hoping someone had solved it and here you are. Thanks friendo 🤟
I realize this is a year ago. In old saxon, it could derive from 'to attain'. Found it in a reference. Etymology is a fun.
The Swedish word länge, pronounced lenge, means 'at length', so there's probably some connection there.
Thankyou I was looking for this answer 👍
@@HippoOnABicycle Funny thing is: it's Länge in German, too. :)
I tried this recipe 8 months ago, trying a bottle on the short timeline of the original recipe, and it was passable, but I just opened another bottle after letting it age 8 months and the difference was very apparent. The aging terrifically improved the flavor.
I make this often. I only pasteurize it in the bottle after 5 days to stop the fermentation and keep it sweet and sparkly. As this drink should be. After a few days it tastes great and refreshing.
@@0Letten0Hello, it is safe too drink right? Even if you only waited 5 days, i need to make it but I dont have enough time, only 10 days
@@0Letten0Hello, it is safe too drink right? Even if you only waited 5 days, i need to make it but I dont have enough time, only 10 days
@@tessylorenzo109 it is safe in 5 days. In fact if you wait longer than that, it will start to become sauer and could make you gassy or worse because of the high amount of yeast. That is why I pasteurize it to prevent this
@@0Letten0 Thx for responding!! How do you sanitize you utensils before? I dont really have sanitizing powder on hand
“Lengh” means ready or prepared, my uncle who is a Norwegian - Irish mix uses this word everytime he makes mead for my dad and mom when they are on their anniversary every year.
Would love to see that recipe!
Go Norge!
Or quicken or proper or to spring. Quicken is another term used in cooking/crafting and can mean to excite. I suppose the definitions diverged at some point when the need arose.
So your uncle basically gives your mom and dad a honeymoon every year that's so sweet
@@draconovamk3137 agreed, I'm genuinely envious of this family tradition.
I know that "Boil until it is Lengthy" means to Heat until the water is purified. Old world speech pattern translate loosely as "until it reaches a rolling boil". Yay
@Tasting History needs to comment / tag this -- You answered his video question!
Heat "to a roiling boil" isn't really that old-fashioned or imprecise compared to modern cooking 👍 Most recipes that say, e.g., 14-16 min at 420°C are giving that ballpark, because you should really be checking to see if the food's cooking properly. And they presume us modern monkeys don't have the patience to actually stick around the oven ;)
and lenghe is a known alternative lenge, which means roughly length, but with a few weirder connotations, so I think you've got it right
Not so sure if this is true.
@@Aedi "Lenge" means "For long/Long time" in norwegian.
I also had to think of the Dutch word lengen or aanlengen, which means mixing something with water or dissolving something in water or watering something down.
You should have a shirt that say "And so serve it forth" with you holding a plate with medieval trencher full of food
Excellent!
Oh my... I didn't read that very closely and thought you wrote blood instead of food. Would it be better..?
Put it on an apron!
@@Oasisflicka if you are from Transylvania and is a vampire then maybe it would be for you
Thats really cool!
This guy’s positivity is absolutely incredible. Every problem is met with “and that’s ok”. Like a modern day Mr. Rogers.
True story: I met my husband in college because I confessed in my Old English class that I was making Mead in my closet.
more original than showing him your etchings hey....
True love ❤️😂
That's the love story I can get behind. :-)
That's what some of the musicians in my early music ensemble did
We are super nerds. We translated Beowulf on our first dates. 21yrs married. Highly over educated 😉
For Lengh, the closest term I can find is gelingen from Middle Dutch (fairly close to Middle English) which means to be pleasing or satisfying. If you take this definition then it would just mean to heat the water until you're happy with it.
Another possibility is “lenz” in German which is archaic and means spring/ blooming, so it could mean as soon as it begins to boil
@@maxhammer305 Lenz really doesnt make any sense in this case
@@Lord__Gold makes more sense than "being happy with it."
My guess is that it means very warm, or simmering. In one definition it referred to a lengh potato to be stuffed, so guessing it would be a bit more than hot enough to serve. Bottom line, bringing the water to a simmer, which from the video looks like you did a bit more than, but at least _not_ a full boil, but verging on it.
The root of gelingen (to advance, to get on) is lengh which means 'to spring.'
Should definitely at least be simmering.
Hoobyist mazer (mead-maker) here!
The stuff you've made is what's known as a "quick mead" (note: that was originally "quick" as in "not dead," rather than "rapid" - but the double-kenning probably has something to do with its continued use). It was intended as a recreational libation - sweet and, depending on the yeast, often slightly effervescent. Think of it as sort of a dessert drink. It was boiled, due to the fact that a quick mead has a lower alcohol content, and may not kill all the microbes present in a 13th century water supply.
As you mentioned, a "full mead" (something more akin to a wine or ale - again depending on the yeast used) usually requires weeks for the fermentation to do its work. It also tends to use a slightly lower ratio of honey to water - perhaps 1:6. Since the fermentation runs its full course (being bottled after all the yeast dies of alcohol poisoning), boiling is less necessary.
I'm a bit of a weirdo, and like to split the difference. Here in Canada, where we use a mad jumble of metric and imperial measures, I tend to use a kilogram (2.2 lbs) of honey to a gallon (4.4 liters) of water. For those who are curious, I also use Fermentis Safale s-04 dry ale yeast (one packet - about a good-sized tablespoon - per 6-gallon batch). This is left to ferment for about a month and a half. I like to bottle it just before the bubbling stops - which causes it to retain some carbon dioxide - like ale or champagne. The latter is a finicky business, with factors such as ambient heat, altitude/air pressure and the amount of sugar in the honey all playing factors - so I can't list precisely when to bottle. It's part of what makes brewing as much art as science.
Since you plan to lay away your second bottle, and it's been about a month since this post, you may want to check it for pressure. I suspect this mead would have still been fermenting when you laid it down - which means carbon dioxide will continue to build up in the bottle. This can cause the bottle to burst.
For beginning mazers, I recommend using PET bottles (the kind of plastic, screw-topped bottles used for soda - available in amber for long-term storage). This way, checking the pressure is as easy as squeezing the bottle. If it's soft or firm, it's fine; if it's hard/starting to push the plastic outward, unscrew the top (a very little at a time) until the gas begins to escape. Repeat as needed until the pressure reduces.
Once one gets a feel for when the fermentation is "just done enough," one can switch to glass - which gives the mead a longer shelf life. For my part, I still use champagne bottles - which are made to withstand high internal pressure - just to be safe.
A note, too, on boiling:
Store-bought honey has been pasteurized, and shouldn't need to be boiled. This may be why you didn't get much foam as you "ever scum it."
I far prefer the characteristics of an unpasteurized honey, as the temperatures used in commercial pasteurization can break up a lot of the other organic compounds as well. However, unpasteurized honey can (occasionally) contain the bacterium that causes botulism. Therefore, it absolutely need to be boiled, and you will find that more "filth riseth thereon." This is residual wax, pollen and - crucially - any wild yeast that be living in the honey or the pot. Wild yeasts can create a very different flavour profile from brewer's yeasts, and change your tasty beverage into a waste of time and money.
Here endeth the rant. Thanks, as always, for the interesting videos!
PS: I would totally buy one of those "Serve It Forth" shirts one of the other commenters mentioned.
Exactly everything I was going to say. Thank you for sharing with everyone!
@@speurtighearnamacterik8230 Interesting insights! Thanks for sharing!
As I mentioned, I like to retain some of the effervescence in my mead, so I can't use a lidded vessel - especially with a cloth, which would allow the gasses to escape - but that sounds like a wonderful option for something that's meant to be served more like a wine than a champagne or beer! I have a few wonderfully decorative swing-top bottles; I may try something like your technique next time one of my friends requests a more vinous option.
Regarding a honey and rice option: that sounds lovely! For something with a heartier feel, a low-sugar buckwheat honey would probably provide some creamy, caramel characteristics. A sweeter clover honey or something would make a great dessert option. Your comment makes me want to try the latter - but with the addition of the cardamom and saffron from Max's "Payasam" episode.
@@speurtighearnamacterik8230 You bet! The Tastorian community seems to be all about sharing! :)
Thanks for the comment. I have something in my mind. When you say Fermentis Safale s-04 dry ale yeast package, is it a 11.5 grams package?
@@aliyaegearslan5816 11.5 grams; that's correct. Good luck!
"id be much happier with a bellyful of mead"
-whiterun guard
“I’d be a lot warmer and a lot happier with a belly full of mead.”
"You're the new member of the companion, so what do you do? Fetch mead?"
"Mead, mead, mead... would it kill 'em to get some beer every now and then? Stupid bees and their stupid honey..."
-orc bandit
"...and another mug of mead and another mug of mead, warriooor~."
"With three beers down, the orc did frown, amd bid the elf goodbye..."
The mead you intend to keep for a few months will keep fermenting, Max. There''s still plenty of yeast which did not sediment on the bottom of the bottle/jar and is suspended in the liquid. The pressure may shatter your bottle, so keep it corked with a bubbler for at least a few weeks.
100% this. If you've got it in the growler with a lid on rather than an airlock, proceed with eye protection and lots of caution
Yup, I came charging in here to make the same warning. Ya don't want a bottle bomb. If you want it carbonated though, a few more days in the sealed growler will do the job!
I’m leaving the airlock on.
Good! I did the exact same thing with my first batch and luckily I'm inpatient. I went to open the growler for a taste after a couple weeks and im glad I didn't wait... mead shot out of the growler like a coke and mentos experiment. Best of luck, mead making is a fun hobby. I just "burped" the growler about once a week after that and it ended up with the same mouthfeel as champaign.
@@TastingHistory So glad to hear that. I am another who came to issue the glass bomb warning. In my mead brewing days I would keep the stuff under an airlock (keep checking that the water hasn't evaporated) until enough yeast had settled that I could read a newspaper through the carboy. That usually took months, if I recall correctly.
From my distant memories of studying Chaucer in college, I feel like "as lengh" is probably an archaic way of saying "at length," basically make sure it's boiled long enough to kill anything that might kill you.
Seems unlikely. It would be reconstructed as "at lengþe" which is a bit off from "as lengh".
@@Hwyadylaw Although lettering mistakes (changes), like not using the anarchic th symbol and instead making it look more pleasing to a modern eye often happen so it could be very possible...
I concur
UA-cam: "Tasting History has uploa-"
Me: *catapults through the wall to my computer desk*
🤣
Pleb. You should've invested in tech for everyone trebuchets these days.
@@Dan-tk5ti
"What kind of merch would you guys like?"
TREBUCHETS!
@@asdasdasdora 😂😂😂
Yes
This is the third time I'm making this, and this time I'm getting serious with a batch a month, because what you get out of this recipe after half a year's maturing is a lot better than the sirupy slop you mostly get from the shops. Consistency of white wine with the bouquet of honey, this is IT.
I want to make this for exactly this reason. I know a beekeeper too....
Serious question, how do you kill off the remaining yeast when you go to bottle the mead for the 6 month aging?
@@concretesailors good question. I'd have to admit I stopped makig more after a few months and this was in the colder season, so I basically filtered it and then left it out on the balcony at 3°C for a couple of days and that worked. As a rule, you would probably heat it up, though.
I really like how Max changes the pokemon in the background according to the recipe he's doing
The reason for boiling is the honey was full of wax, casings, dead bees etc. Boiling makes all this float to the top :)
Why? You drain the honey when it comes off the comb... that seems so unlikely
@@facelessdrone That's right, but don't forget lots of honey, particularly multi-floral types, doesn't 'drain' - it's too viscous and needs to be expressed. Also in medieval times they didn't have hives as we understand them, but rope or wicker constructions called skeps. As there was no way to exclude the queen there was often brood, old comb, propolis etc. mixed in with the honey. The cleanest honey would be stored, the 'stickies' and other bits were boiled to separate the rubbish and made into mead :)
@@facelessdrone bee boxes weren’t invented until 1851. Before that they used skeps. Which are now illegal cause the bees would often die since there is no way to inspect them.
@@poisontoad8007 Haven't heard some of that jargon since my cousins worked for Ambrosia Honey. Honey farms are awe-inspiring.
He literally said that in the video...
"The Leaky Alehorn" is a freakin amazing name for a bar or pub
DRINK UP BEFORE YOU WASTE ANY!
The leaky couldrun is a pub in harry potter
@@Xrisus94 yep, it's taken....
Sounds more like a personnal problem.
@@nixter8739 ROTFLMAO! Oh the innuendos one could make from this! 🤣
Merch idea: you could make a set of measuring cups that go by Medieval terms so it'll make those recipes easier
With equivalent standard measurement for comparison
second this
Love ii!
"And serve it forth" -- common final phrase of many a medieval recipe, and would make a great T-shirt or apron slogan.
Sometimes I serve it fifth
After replaying Skyrim and now putting in 70 hours into Valhalla, I've been interested in making mead. I just happen to stumble upon your video! Skål
I need to find some nord mead style bottles
I'd suggest Valheim on Steam now..
Skål!
Same!
Been at it for a while now, and it just gets more fun over time. I highly recommend you get a mead starter kit and watch a couple how-to videos on YT. It's much easier than you might think and it's a blast.
I am a beekeeper everything i own ins sticky , embrace the stickiness.
Embrace the Stickiness is a great sex tape title
@@bateman2112 LOL
The Boston molasses flood of 1919 was cleaned with saltwater. Not only because of seawater availability but beccause it cut the molasses. (Off of the streets, the subway cars, etc, corpses, etc.)
@@bateman2112 😳☠️
@@kitefan1 interesting! So salt helps scrub off sugar? I had no idea!
The aged mead actually will keep fermenting, lots of yeast will be suspended in the liquid (that’s why it smelled yeasty to you) and will slowly keep working on the sugars. Your mead should get ‘drier’ or less sweet and more alcoholic over time. The other flavours will likely mellow too with time.
You can use potassium sorbate to stop fermentation.
"I would be a lot warmer and a lot happier with a belly full of mead."--Guards Of Skyrim.🙂
I was scrolling for so long for a Skyrim comment.
@@straggerthelupinragi1337 and you found that. congratulations.
Finally another elder scrolls nerd!
@@Thecircustapes yes. 😂
Im here for the nord mead and skyrim comments
Merch: Aprons that say either:
"Serve It Forth"
Or
"Go home, parmesan, you're drunk"
Go home, parmesan, you're drunk on a shirt!
wait which vid is the parmesan quote?
@@paulinasrr The Tart de Bry episode.
@@Ndstars1 thank you!!!
YES, PLEASE.
In Welsh, the double D is pronounced as a soft "th" (as in "mother"), so meddyglyn is pronounced as if it was spelled methyglyn. It hasn't changed pronunciation too much over time.
Jesse, we need to cook methyglyn
Meddyglyn is Welsh for Medicine or 'Healing Drink' lit. translation is Doctor (Meddyg) and Lake (Llyn), meddyglynau is the plural form. Feddyglyn is the mutation (said in a sentence), but really does sound like a pharmaceutical product.
And so the modern word metheglin is really just the anglicised form of meddegylyn.
laughing at yourself about the "tiny bubbles" joke is genuinely the most endearing thing I've seen on youtube all week, please never stop being this candid and charming
Yes! So cute!
I completely agree. I stumbled upon it and he's awesome
I would second that. He's genuine af, and needs to hold onto that and keep being himself. I'd toast his health for that little bit alone!
I loved it too
Tiny bubbles~
“The Leaky Alehorn” sounds like the name of a pub
Or the name of a @tastinghistory cocktail
Or something you need antibiotics for...
@@paulfeist Lol
"Ye Leaky Alehorn"
Probably just down the alley from the Broken Drum.
This show is so freaking cool! I'm a professional chef and an amateur history buff and you combine the two so well!
Agreed, such a wholesome and purely interesting channel!
Same my fellow chef brethren
Im an amateur chef and professional historian and i feel the same way lol
Here in México is almost completely unknown, I met it for a mdieval festival and loved it, I´m elaborating some mead right now and I hope to do it right. thanks for all of this incredible info.
I would like to try pulque and see how it compares to mead.
I love how they say "cast". Makes it sound like they're throwing these ingredients in some of fancy fashion.
The wording of old recipes is always fantastic.
They know they're creating food magic! ;)
"as cold as milk when it cometh from the cow" LOL Lukewarm it is
😂
The boiling was mostly about getting out that honey scum, because when you use the comb honey there is a LOT of wax, bee mess and stuff that comes off which we just don't get with modern honey extraction methods.
U can use common sense and context clues to figure out that it literally says it on the recipe lmao
I never boil my honey must, although I do prefer to heat and skim. Even with modern honey from the store, this step removes some of the bitter proteins and albumen. The result is a better tasting mead. 30 minutes of skimming is usually enough. Added benefit- if you want to add fruit you can do so without sulfates if you add to hot must, the temperature will kill the wild yeast and bacteria without chemicals.
Yeah, boiling is unnecessary. It strips off oxygen that the yeast will need and removes tasty floral notes. Just gently warm it up enough over low to medium-low heat to liquify the honey and skim-off the foam.
I stumbled across one of your videos and now I'm binge watching them.... you've rekindled my joy in cooking and history of modern foods, thanks 💖
Little fun fact since you mentioned mead in England, Greece and China:
Mead is one of the words that we can trace back the farthest. It’s no coincidence that bee is called Melissa in Greek. The “Meli” part (meaning honey) is where Germanic languages got the word mead/mede/met, etc from. The French and Russian words for honey are also directly related to this. But what makes it special is that the word goes back so far that it even shares a common ancestor with modern Chinese, where 蜜 mì means honey. One of very few words where common ancestry or direct relation between European languages and Chinese can be proven. It just shows how important honey and mead must have been to people and how long humans have been consuming it.
cool!
That's not actually because it goes so far back - that word is a loan from Tocharian into Chinese, probably from around the 600s. (It further got loaned into Japanese, where it's 'mitsu'.)
@@ヲン-d2d Yes, but even the Tocharian words that a lot of European words are derived from are very rarely related to modern Chinese words.
@@ヲン-d2d that’s right
Not true, med and meli are not the same. You judge how much some word is old in use in language by how many variations it has in language in history, that is common fact in etimology. Med,mead in slavic languages has a lot of variations. Even animal bear in ANY slavic language is med-jed [honey-eater] or med-ved[honey-see]. In sanskrt it is medhu not meli and slavic language has direct line to sanskrt. Other languages that have closer line to sanskrt like lithuanian also use med, not greek meli. Word med is older than meli.
My grandma used to sing Tiny Bubbles to me when I was a little girl. She even had Don Ho’s record! When you mentioned that song, I was immediately transported back in time. It made me smile! I haven’t thought of that song in many years. Thank you for bringing back happy memories to me. Love you Max! 💜
Love that!
My grandparents used to sing that as well! edit: Whoops - wrong bubbles song
@@workingguy-OU812 happy memories! 😃
Shirts, pins and stickers are all dandy when it comes to merch, but honestly, I'd love to see a book/collection of your favorite "do it yourself" recipes from the ages, that we can bring home.
A few signed copies would be nifty as well 😉
Definitely signed books!
Ooh, I like this idea!
I love the Beedrill in the background! This sounds like a nice basic recipe to try. When I get a bigger place I might give this a try.
The constant presence of a Pokemon of some kind in the background is one of my favorite elements of this series, and this one is definitely one of my favorite uses
"So that's what we're making today! Er, not a baby."
Darn. Wrong site.
🤣
Maybe when he does something related to Jonathan Swift
the icon just makes it better 😂
Not even an actual bun? 😉
@@TastingHistory onlyfans when?
Sounds like a golden name for a bar...
"Where are we going?"
"To the Leaky Ale Horn!"
It sounds like a ripoff of that bar in harry potter.
"Drinks so smooth you'll swear your horn must be leaking!"
😆
Highly recommend Valhalla in York, Old England. They serve amazing mead in horns there, everything is viking there
OMG Max needs to call his new bar the Leaky Ale Horn.
The hallucinations caused with the Indian type was probably due to a type of honey that is collected in that area of the world that actually has a chemical composition that does cause hallucinations. Watched a cool documentary on it like 4 years ago
Any chance you remember the name of that documentary?
I believe the honey is collected in Tibet and then passes through India , I believe the bees collect pollen from hallucinogenic plants resulting in trippy honey , you can actually order it online .
Hallucinogenic honey.
Yeah, it exists lol
@@markcharles1041 pollen must have taken from a nearby poppy farm :D
It exists but IIRC it is pretty toxic
Thanks for this lovely video! :3 I've been making mead in gallon bottles for a few years and my most recent batches were black tea with spices and lavender/vanilla. I did end up back-sweetening them, as using champagne yeast as I did makes it hella dry.
I've been making mead for years. Some notes from experience: I ferment for one week, then rack in the refrigerator for one week. It'll be cloudy but not too yeasty, and fermented mostly dry; add raisins and orange wedges to the fermenting liquid as this will add natural sugars and nutrients for the yeast, without much impact on flavor, besides notes. This will jam your gas trap though (
orange pulp will be forced inside it from the CO2), so use a balloon or condom with a pinhole in the far end as a gas exchanger instead (don't use for other purposes, obviously); pass through a coffee filter, even after racking, before putting it in its final bottle. Happy Meadmaking.
I am never, ever going to make this, but yet I still found these tips really interesting to read!
Thanks, I meaded that.
what ratio of yeast to honey solution do you use, and what sort?
@@JemuzuDatsWho Both of those things don't matter very much. Any of the recipes here on UA-cam will work. I do generally get cheap honey though, b/c I can't be bothered to spend "good honey" money on something I drink in such an unrefined state. If you're racking for months though, go and splurge.
My vote for a pinned comment
Looking back, I think watching TastingHistory has been the most productive thing I did during quarantine, I legitimately learned so much. Thank you Max!
Definitely the most productive thing I’ve done 🤣
What's everyone's favorite historic drink of choice?
This and Hippocras are the best. This Thanksgiving we're making both and serving Parthian chicken and herb torte.
@@FelixWheatfield sounds delicious, I hope you have fun (both when cooking and eating).
Aztec hot chocolate! they put cayenne pepper in it... They also beheaded their masses of "lower class citizens" though... so😬😑😐.. but.. anyway.. CHOCOLATE! :-D
Also THANK YOU for making this episode! My son and I love watching your vids , he is going to FLIP!
Mead, because I've been able to make 18% cysers. Also, because it's so easy.
Etruscan beer
Might have already been said, but a good apron would be a great gift idea! Maybe feature a couple of options for recipes printed on them.
“Lengh” is probably a spelling of the Old English word “lungre”, which meant quickly. Related to Sanskrit “langh”, meaning “to spring”. So maybe a rolling/quick/intense boil?
Its a variant if lencg, long. Until the water has been heated for a long time - boiling
"These two jerk dwarves weren't done with their killing spree" - I had to double check I wasn't watching a D&D video, lol!
Since D&D was inspired by Northern European mythos, you weren't really wrong.
Get a copy of the Edda and read it. It's the OG fantasy fiction.
Such a nerd, so quirky
@@Hin_Håle and don't be surprised if you recognize some of the names of the dwarves when they are named
@Theron Mendrije Nah nah, what you're supposed to say is "huh?"
I'm so happy you acknowledged some of the more modern critiques of the recipe. As a hobby mead maker I always get nervous when non brewing channels talk about brewing because they always miss stuff like that. I don't think I could love your channel more!
Thank you! It’s funny, I consulted with 5 different mead makers for this episode, and none of them could agree on anything 🤣 It’s obviously an art.
@@TastingHistory Speaking as a commercial mead-maker, I agree that mead-makers never agree.
I love this aspect of history, I find it fascinating how people in the past did so many different things with such limited tools and knowledge.
I am not a huge drinker, but I love the history lesson and bees are amazing!
"So that's what we're making today. No, not a baby"
Damn...
Who'd be the mom? 🤔
^^^ Speaking of merch ideas! Should totally be on a t-shirt
Yeah I want his babies too
@@Ntrooh we eat the baby's ribs after the sacrifice
@@nevaeh9125 Sacrifice to whom?
The reason to avoid DI water for any fermentation is because the yeast needs minerals for a healthy fermentation. They also impact the end flavor.
Weird, Ive done it with and without distilled water and noticed practically no difference.
yep, i have an advanced taste pallet. the taste comparison for me is like a new drink all together
Honey can ferment fine without any yeast
Thats the old wild way of doing it and also more risky .
@@DEATH14269 well it does still need yeast, its just that unpasteurized honey often has wild yeast spores already in it.
@@jacobhargiss3839 many ferments that are made without yeast additives and use their own spores are named wild so you are somewhat correct
Honey doesn't need it they simply add yeast to be safe because its own ferments can go bad
Yeast is simply to control or speed up the process which is common today but still I prefer a pure drink
Modern Mead: Months in the basement, specific measurements to maximize efficiency and chemical balance of the water, sterilize everything, giant list of things to never do.
Medieval Mead: Yeah toss it together and give it a week.
Modern mead: Chill and serve this delicate concoction in your finest crystal.
Medieval mead: FILL THE COMMUNAL MEAD TANK AND DUNK YOUR HORNS
You should see the old beer recipes haha, probably the reason Germany set it in law that beer can only be made with certain minimalist ingredients to get rid of all the weird variants knocking around using bark, grass clippings or herbs instead of hops.
Fun fact: You wanna use wine yeast to make your mead (easily ordered online) - if you use regular baking yeast the result will give you a hangover from hell. Wine yeast is also more resistant to alcohol, so you'll have mead with moor oomph _and_ less pain!
Depends on where you want to go with it as to best yeast I like a bread yeast for mead because of the lower tolerance, usually around 9% honey will go very dry with wine yeast the lower tolerance leaves more sweetness.
@@TheSleepyowlet If you go with the recipe in the video, beer yeast would be closest. But I do agree with avoiding baking yeast, some sort of brewing yeast is the way to go.
I am in love with you simply because i searched making mead, your video came up, and in less then 5 minutes you say your putting the entire translation on making mead from the Tractatus Manuscript in the description, thank you my good man Edit: also a Beedrill!!!
MERCH: Classic cook accouterments with phrases in ancient languages, like "Kiss the Cook" in Latin, et cetra
Only just discovered your channel (UA-cam recommended this video) and I have to say it looks like a real gem-one of those channels you have no idea you need until you find it. To be honest I was already sold after just a few minutes, and then “tiny bubbles” sealed the deal. Subscribed.
Thank you!
I did read Beowulf in high school but it was one of the few required readings that everyone actually liked.
It's even better in its native language
Because it's an incredible story!
The wanderer is also an amazing poem of the same era that I discovered literally only because it was included in the back of my paperback beowulf.
@@erickchesnut8527 ah yes... Ancient Elven...
I love how the Beedrill is in the back - very appropriate for Honey Mead
Definitely need some "Serve it forth" merch in old fashioned handwriting
Futhark isn't too hard to look up.
I'd love aprons and oven mitts or towels with period quotes or recipies!
Good idea on the period recipes!
To add to this idea, maybe fancy posters of said recipes or common unit conversions in cooking?
I learned how to make Mead back in 2013-14 and made several batches using various yeasts. Dregs from beer, Champaign yeast, and wild yeast. All worked. I did not use a bubbler/airlock, instead I used close weave cloth and the burp method. The flavors were all different, the wild yeast was my least favorite but was still good. I think the reason was because the only real fruit ripening in the area was Mountain Ash so I think I pulled a lot of my yeast from the strains that ferment those berries. The Champaign yeast I drank both young & sweet, and aged, dry & effervescent, which I drank for my birthday two years later... POTENT! Two very large drinking men and little old me got ourselves Schnockered off one champagne bottle; yes very potent indeed. It was divine and smooth, never tasted anything like it. The Mead from the dregs, had a sweet beer like taste, good; great for parties and a little goes a long way. The ageing definitely refines the taste, drinking it young before it loses all of it's sweetness is really good with meals. For the Champaign Mead, I did seal the bottle for aging two years which sat both on it's side and upright depending on where it was the least in the way.
Thanks, insightful
How often did you have to burp the champagne? Did you burp it even during the aging?
@@linencannon7678 No. It was finished and aging. It was in a regular Champaign bottle designed for the pressure, available at brew stores with bail type caps.
I like the cloth cover method on purple grape wine. Add sugar till a quail egg floats
So what you're saying is that my first attempt at making mead using the dry instant rise yeast that is in the tiny bubbles stage right now is going to be OK?
Meddyglyn looks like Welsh to me. Which would make sense since in Welsh it'd be pronounced as Metheglin. I think it's just the same word but 2 different spellings.
@Jim Ski it's actually more like the th in "that"
Good sir. I would LOVE to see some Pliny the Elder merch. Anything that has some flair to it.😊 or a Tasting history shirt that says "Why go with 'or' when 'and' is on the table?"
Excellent 😁
Maybe something about drunk serpents
Yeah! And the one time he said "we do not use less butter in this house" I think? I need that too!
If your wondering "why make mead?" Its simple. Its delicious, there isnt anything else like it and it gets you sauced.
What other reason does one need?
Haha 'sauced'...I like that
I can wholeheartedly endorse this with some pretty awful, sickly memories
Why make mead? Well, my good friend, you simply must have never tried it.
I made mead for about 5 years in 1 gallon and 5 gallon batches. The honey ratio can be increased up or down. You can make a stout high alcohol beverage with champagne yeast. Or you can make it light and crisp like a hard cider. When I was in my mid 20's I used to show up to parties with a gallon. People would go nuts for it. I made this one recipe where I would rack it onto apples twice. And add allspice cloves and cinnamon sticks. People refered to it as apple pie.
I love making mead. I have a local beekeeper that I do work for in trade for raw honey.
I also have multiple kinds of berries and herbs growing around my property that I use to flavor it with.
Depending on how long I ferment it and what berries I use, I usually end up between 18-30% alcohol.
My friends love when I have a new batch done.
My dad and his friend do beekeeping and I'd love to make a bottle myself someday!
@@Professor-fc7vc It's not really that hard. Just takes a bit of experimentation to get it to taste how you want.
Just found your channel and absolutely love it!!!!! The “tiny bubbles” had me rolling. Also, agreed, Beowulf is an amazing read! Thank you for what your doing! Awesome work!
"The Welsh word for drunk literally translates to 'meaded.' Hm, how Welsh."
As a history guy, I very much enjoyed this. Cheers! 🍻
Merch Ideas:
A single serve Hippocras sleeve or a tea infuser that looks like one
Your own spice blends and tea blends or even candles, like Parthinian, or or Tudor etc
A calendar with your favourite lithographic recipes for the months
Digital wallpaper packs with the same as above
Placemats and coasters again with the same
I like these.
The "Tiny Bubbles" joke made my dad laugh hysterically from the other room while I was watching this. Bravo, sir. Bravo.
I greatly appreciate how you spoke of Mead's significance in many cultures, and it was great fun seeing the actual brewing process too
Medieval scholar here: best guess for "as lengh" without doing a lot of research is that "as lengh" is a rolling boil, probably shorthand for something to the effect of "heat the water until it's boiling like it does after you heat it for a long time".
"The Leaky Alehorn" sounds like a tavern in a fantasy game.
I like it!
lemme just... *yoink* that name for some tavern in my novel.
Also what happens to your junk if you drink too much ale.
"How did you come by the name?"
"You know, that obvious drinking lie? ...I'm not drinking THAT MUCH, my horn is just a bit leaky."
Put that on a shirt, it would be a awesome merch
Did I just leave my online class to watch medieval mead? Yes, I did, and I'm proud of it.
And that’s okay
Plot twist
He's the teacher
Thanks!
Thank you!
Genuinely wish I were friends with this man in real life. He is seriously the most delightful person!
The name Kvasir is really interesting because in Russia and other Slavic countries there is a drink called Квас (Kvass) which is a slightly alcoholic sparkling drink made by fermenting rye or rye bread
That was what immediately sprang to mind for me too!
Omgs, you're right. Been making Kwass for years, never noticed.
"Kvasir" sounds an awful lot like kvass, a Slavic fermented drink.
Living in Sweden, but they had a supermarket with food and drinks coming from another countries. And there I found a bottle with 2 litre of kvass, with blueberry taste. And man, that was so GOOOOD! If I remember correctly it is done by dark bread, and then fermented yes?
@@Necronomous i saw some dude on UA-cam do it that way
Well, Kvassirs mead is made of blood...and kvass is often made with beets....so red.....
@@ryanrodriguez7911 Ah, with bread yes?
@@meikajorgensen8411 Ah, so beets as well? Nice.
The amount of time needed actually makes sense to me. I was at one time a member of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) and got into making mead. One of the things I heard about was "storm brew" where a beached bunch of Vikings would grab what ever they could and let it ferment for a few days. (pretty sad if you get marooned with no mead.) I imagine mead could be done the same way if you really wanted to do it.
Not exactly merch, but a product idea: Historic spice blends. Would be kind of cool. you could partner with a boutique spice company :D
That would be cool!
Yes, just yes
Hippocras! Christmas is coming 😉
Oo you could check out diaspora Co? They source their spices equitably and pay their farmers living wages. They only do Indian spices though. This is their website: www.diasporaco.com/
@@TastingHistory Honestly I have no idea how to buy things like saffron and would seriously consider buying from an expert like you! :)
“And then Odin, played by Anthony Hopkins..” 🤣 Professor Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf is my personal favorite
Have you read John Gardner's "Grendel"? It's a retelling of the Beowulf myth from Grendel's perspective. Concise but both amusing and philosophical.
Ok, no one's acknowledging that Beedrill doll? Then I will! ADORABLE!
And on theme!
@@rebekahleota6847 Exactly!
Thank you so much for pointing it out I am so happy now
He has a plushy in all his videos actually. All on theme
He’s always on point with the Pokémon 10/10 wholesome
I stumbled across your video after listening to a podcast on “Drinking in the Viking Age and the Sagas of the Icelanders” by the Saga Thing podcast. And what a wonderful thing it was. The two complimented each other wonderfully. I look forward to more of your content! Cheers!
When I was in high school back in the 70s one of my friends had a dad who was a beekeeper so we could get free honey. And naturally, being D&D-playing high school kids, we made mead with it. Our technique was pretty crude: we'd mix "about that much" honey with water and boiled it before pouring it into a bucket. Then, not having brewer's yeast, we'd drop a pinch of baker's yeast in there, cover it with some cloth to keep the bugs from drowning in it, and let it sit in someone's garage for two or three weeks. It tasted perfectly dreadful, very sweet, but after a glass or two the alcohol would kick in and nobody cared what it tasted like.
So thanks for bringing back those sort-of fond memories. :)
Absolutely delightful, as always!
Now I wonder, if this poetry god Kvasir has something to do with russian fermented drink "kvas". However, even if it is likely that the name of that drink originates from the verb "kvasit", which means "to ferment", it is still interesting. This guy Kvasir literally got himself fermented, heh.
By the way, as a russian, I would love to see you making kvas on your show! This drink has really deep historical roots and is still beloved in today's Russia. Furthermore, it is relatively easy to make since you basically need only stale rye bread, raisins and water. Despite the unappetizing ingredients it's really good and refreshing. It can be consumed alone or it could be a base for a cold soup called "okroshka" which is also super tasty! In any case, thank you for wonderful content, I am always eagerly waiting for the each next episode))
If you can get it, i would brew a batch of mead with a Norwegian farmhouse ale yeast called Kveik, it ferments fast and quick at high temperature. Easily brewing a batch of ~7-11% ABV ale in about 3 days. A blogger by the name of Lars Marius Garshol has a wonderful beer blog about farmhouse brewing practices that have survived from the middle ages. I imagine that mead brewed with this kind of yeast may produce a closer analog to the kind described in medieval recipes!
thank you for being so respectful about the history behind it.
really its very much appreciated :)
One type of merch you seriously need to look into is "Tasting History" branded medieval, ancient, and renaissance spice blends.
Tasting History Oven Mitts would be an amazing flex
I’ll need to find someone to make those. Good idea!
Yaaaaasss. Seconded!
@@TastingHistory I wish I could take credit for it, but I just saw some random commenter say it and I concurred 🥺 they'd be straight drippy if you got some tasteful old english font, maybe put a lil chalice from which we could taste this history?
This pretty much the same what my mother used to make every summer solstice here in Latvia. The honey is squeezed out in to the pot with bear hands together with pollen. The important pagan festival Ligo usually is associated with bier but this was a special ancient drink called "miestiņš" in Latvian. For some reason it is the same name as for a small village in Latvian language.
It really is made in just a week. BUT it must be drank all in just a 2 or 3 days because after that it too sour and makes you gassy.
nezināju, ka TAS ir miestiņš! paldies!
@@MsSurikaats Bieži arī saukts par medus miestiņu par cik kaut kad laika laikā gaitā ar vārdu miestiņš sauc saldu alu.
Labs dzēriens, īpaši karstā vasarā par cik ļoti dzirkstošs un salds. Nedaudz grādīgāks par dažiem aliem. Nav salīdzināms ar medalu - pavisam cits dzēriens.
Thanks to Google, I can understand your conversation translated into my Native language 'Bengali'. By the way, I am from Kolkata ( formerly Calcutta), a city in Eastern part of India.
We are really living in interesting times ! Have a fantastic day !
@@sauravbasu8805 India? I am from Latvia. We are far apart but our cultures still have similar symbols and I bet the old mead making was known in India as well.
We know you are from Latvia because you said "here in Latvia..."
@@0Letten0
Biggest mistake I ever made: "meads like beer right?“ and proceeding to drink it like it was. My liver disagreed loudly.
Thanks, you just made my day :D:D:D:D
Sounds like mead is closer to barley wine than beer
first time i made cider i didn't have the tools to test alcohol content. it tasted like 5-7%, it was actually closer to 12%. oh god the hangover...
@@spiritussancto in theory all you need is a scale for measuring the alcohol content. Write down the weight of your empty and filled fermentation vessel and when fermentation is over, note the weight again. It should be lighter, since CO2 escaped. The difference in weight equals the alcohol in grams per fermentation vessel. Divide that by the liters and you got grams/Liter. That times 0,1267 and you got the %abv.
This method isn't that exact, but it's working without tools and has only about 1 to 3% inaccuracy
Its made like wine but taste like beer
“I wonder if Vilod is still making the mead with juniper berry mixed in."
"This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here."
“I’d be a lot warmer and a lot happier with a belly full of mead” -Whiterun guard
"...mead, mead, mead... kill him to get some beer every now and then? Stupid bees and their stupid honey...
Mead something?
Let me guess... someone stole your sweetroll...
Man, I just stumbled on your channel and it's sooo funny and instructive. Loved the way you present the videos and the recipes. Thanks for the great content Max. Greetings from a passionate meadmaker from Brazil. Keep serving us forth.
Thank you!
Thanks for the Beowulf shout out. I have read many translations and always enjoy it. It is something more people should give a go. When I was caught reading it over lunch at work, I was met with not but shock as to why I would do such a thing.
I love the tematic pokemons plushies of each episodes behind him
We try :)