Nov 3, 2014
Many fermented beverages claim to be the oldest fermented beverage, with wine and beer being common contenders for the title. Unfortunately, since there is a lack of archaeological research into the history of mead, mostly because of the lack of commercial interest, mead makers don’t have much in the way of evidence to fight for the title. However, mead makers can count on the fact that honey was the first logical fermentable ingredient to work with. Since mead is not a well-known beverage in Canada, aside from wanting to know what mead is, many people have asked us about its history. There is much debate and speculation about the true history of mead since since it has appeared all over the world in different civilizations. In fact, people from paupers to pharaohs have been enjoying the nectar of the gods for millennia. Since there is no definitive history of mead, here are just three examples of its possible origin: 1. Mead originated in the African bush more than 20,000 years ago. According to this version of history, mead was created in the hollowed-out crowns of the Baobab and Miombo trees. During the dry season, wild bees would nest in the hollows of the trees and make honey; during the rainy season, the hollows would fill up with water. By combining water, honey, yeast, and time, mead was born that was then collected by early African tribes and bushmen. In addition, the knowledge of making mead was taken by those that left Africa to travel the world. 2. Mead originated 8,000 years ago on the Island of Crete. Currently, the oldest known record of...
Oct 26, 2014
Mead, wine, and beer aficionados commonly debate the origins of the beverages and which one is technically the oldest fermented beverage. All three beverages are based on the same principles: that yeast, when given access to a sugar source, will ferment the water or juice to create an alcoholic beverage. Each drink has thousands of years of history, so why isn’t mead a household name? Why mead fell out of the public eye It’s thought that a combination of factors resulted in the decline of mead, including the rising price of honey and falling price of sugar, French specialization in fine wines, and the acceptance of hopped beers between the thirteenth and fifteenth century. As Ken Schramm (a mead expert and author of The Compleat Meadmaker) writes, the Scots also perfected whisky-making around this time period, making mead one of the lesser-known beverages in Western countries by the time the 1700s came around. (For various reasons, including availability and traditions, other countries still drink mead or mead-like beverages more commonly than North America and western European countries have until the last decade or two.) Mead is coming back The resurgence of mead began in earnest in 1986, when Pamela Spence founded the American Mead Association. By 2003, 70 meaderies existed in the US alone, and at this time, over 200 meaderies are listed on the American Mead Makers Association website in the US alone, with over 40 meaderies internationally, including us at Sunset Heights Meadery. The problem with exact definitions With this resurgence in popularity, mead makers are hotly contesting the exact definitions of different types of mead, coming...
Oct 18, 2014
On September 27th, 2014, we attended the UNB Homecoming wine tasting event. The event consisted of patrons trading tickets for glasses of product from a handful of vendors, including (but not limited to) Sunset Heights Meadery, Red Rover Brewing Company, and Gillis of Belleisle Winery. At the event, we served: Queen’s Nectar (7.5% ABV, apples and honey) Denim (5% ABV, blueberry) Tart’n (5% ABV, cranberry) Naughtea (5% ABV, green iced tea) Shipwreck (5% ABV, dry-hopped) For this particular pouring, the crowd favourites were Shipwreck and Naughtea, with Tart’n also proving to be a tough act to follow. While the atmosphere was more intimate, different from that of past events and pourings, we still thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone and introducing them to the wonderful world of mead! Our next event is the Fredericton Poutine Festival, and we can’t wait to meet a whole new crowd of...
Oct 4, 2014
As more people discover a previously unknown sensitivity to wheat, rye, and barley, gluten-free desserts, drinks, and snacks inevitably follow the appearance of celiac-friendly foods on grocery store shelves. After all, nobody likes to live on a restricted diet without being able to indulge now and then! As many people living on gluten-free diets know, it can be hard to find craft brew drinks that really satisfy. Gluten-free beer, wine, and spirits are now available more widely than ever before, but what drinks are safe for celiacs or those sensitive to wheat and related foods? Beer (Gluten-Free Brands) In general, beer is not a good beverage for those watching their gluten intake. Beer is typically made with barley, one of the foods that can trigger a reaction in those sensitive to gluten! Historically, it’s been hard to find gluten-free beer, but more recently, various craft beers have begun to fill a much-needed void in the drinking world. While some gluten-free beers are bland, many are surprisingly tasty and liquor stores are starting to take note and order them. Make sure you check whether a beer was made with specifically gluten-free ingredients if you are a celiac sufferer, as some gluten-free beers have the gluten filtered out and this filtering process doesn’t always work smoothly. Wine (Most Non-Dessert Wines) While wine itself is gluten-free, certain brands of dessert wines aren’t safe if you’re looking to reduce your gluten intake. Added colours and flavours like those found in sweeter wines can contain gluten, and while the amounts may be in trace quantities, true celiacs who have severe reactions to even trace...
Sep 26, 2014
Many people are aware of the global decline in bee population, although not of the very serious impact on the environment (and even our own survival). Due to colony collapse disorder (CCD), many bees leave their hives only to never come home. While there are many possible causes of the disappearance, from the use of neonicotinoid insecticide to mites, scientists still can’t find one definite main factor. To help honey bees thrive in your own backyard to help bring populations back up, here are 6 simple things you can do: 1. Avoid using commercial pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides. The use of insecticide has contributed to the problem of dying bees (and to health problems in humans and other animals as well). While there is much debate about how much its use affects the bee population, there are still plenty of benefits to enjoy by not using products containing insecticides. Whenever possible, look for organic ways to encourage your garden to flourish. 2. Let your lawn overgrow now and again. Bees love visiting clovers and dandelions. While your lawn may be unsightly for a while, just think about how much good you’ll be doing for any busy bees in your area. Since honey bees travel nearly 5 kilometres from their hives to harvest, you’ll help make their trip to your yard well worth the effort. 3. Plant bee-friendly flowers. If you want to breathe some life into your yard and help honey bees, you can do some landscaping. You don’t even have to do anything too difficult – just buying some pots of flowers for your deck or placing them along...
Sep 18, 2014
When people think of honey, they mostly think of it as something to spread onto your toast. Yet, here are many products made from honey and beeswax out there that cater to a wide number of wants and needs. In fact, here are just four examples of honey products. 1. Lip Balm If you want to keep your lips soft and healthy, buying lip balm that includes honey as an ingredient can help. Many lip balm honey products contain a number of oils and other ingredients to boost the nourishing power of the honey, such as shea butter, canola oil, propolis, and more. For those that want to make their own products, you can find DIY guides online to learn from. However, to keep it nice and simple, you can use honey alone applied directly to your lips. 2. Cleanser For people that want to add that extra radiance to their skin, using honey as a moisturizer or cleanser can help. Using honey as a cleanser helps to gently remove dirt without stripping your skin of essential oils and leaves it feeling soft and smooth. Raw honey is gentle enough that it can be used by people with sensitive skin, rosacea, and eczema. However, using honey to wash your face will not remove makeup, so you will need to use other products to do this first, if you wear makeup. While you can buy moisturizing honey products on the market, you can also make your own at home. Fortunately, there are a number of DIY recipes you can find online to work from. 3. Medicine Honey has been used for centuries...
Sep 18, 2014
On Sunday, Sept. 7th, we attended AbilityNB’s 14th annual Feast in the Field. We were armed with five of our flavours for general consumption, but it paid off to follow us on Facebook or via email, too! The five standard flavours we poured included: Queen’s Nectar (our base mead, made with apples and honey) Denim (refreshing blueberry) Tart’n (attention-grabbing cranberry) Naughtea (a green iced tea developed in-house) Shipwreck (our India Pale mead) The day was gorgeous and bright, if a little nippy in the beginning. While working at our booth, we had the pleasure of providing samples to countless people (often repeat visitors). We enjoyed seeing your positive reactions to our mead and greatly appreciated the feedback. In fact, some of our tasters even wrote out our name on the ballot for “best drink” (we weren’t listed on the ballot since we were only licensed to sell very shortly before the event). While serving, we were asked many questions, such as: Q: What is mead? The simple answer is that mead is a fermented beverage made from honey. To learn more about the history of mead, check out our Mead History page. To learn more about different types of mead, check out our blog post, “From Fruits to Grains: Types of Mead”. Q: What does mead taste like? We were asked this question a lot. Many people tried to draw comparisons between mead and other types of drinks, such as wine, beer, and cider. While mead may share some characteristics with each drink, it is something that stands firmly on its own. Wine is a fermented beverage made with fruits like...
Sep 10, 2014
The art of pairing food and beverages is as difficult as you want it to be. From wine and cheese pairings to cocktails and party snacks, people have been pairing their drinks with their food for as long as we’ve had choices about which alcoholic beverages to consume! Some people approach it like an art with experimentation and boldness, colouring outside the lines. Others scientifically evaluate the exact reaction between alcohol flavourings and taste buds. Most of us just grab a bottle of whatever seems like it might go well with the meal we happen to be cooking. Here are some tips to help you start tasting mead and food combinations. You’ll probably want to reference our guide to mead varieties as you decide which meads to serve with your planned dinner. Try spicy and fruity flavours together Whether you’re pairing a light, fruity sauce with a spicy capsicumel mead made with hot peppers or spicy foods like Mexican foods with fruity, sweet melomel meads, spice and fruit naturally pair well for a refreshing and invigorating combination. Dry meads taste good with cheeses Think wine and cheese – dry wines are often served with cheese, so why not try dry meads in the same way? There are all kinds of mead flavours that seem dry, from blueberry show meads to hopped cysers. Much of your decision on which cheeses to select will be based on what particular dry mead you want to try. Try fruit meads with matching desserts The natural sweetness of a fruit-based dessert complements fruity meads based on the same flavours. For instance, try a sweet...
Sep 2, 2014
Throughout the history of mead, it has gone through revivals where it was sought after for its association with royalty and luxury and lulls where it was brewed underground in monasteries, not made for popular consumption. Similar to the revival of wine in the 1970s in California and the resulting worldwide popularity of carefully-crafted wines of all types, mead is currently on the cusp of a boom in popularity. One factor holding people back from drinking mead as a daily beverage is the fact that many people simply don’t know what types of mead are available. They don’t know whether mead is sweet or dry, and they don’t know what mead flavours to expect. Worse yet, if you’ve never had mead before, drinking one bad mead (or the memory of drinking bad mead years ago at festivals or from a friend’s home brewery) can put you off the drink entirely. In reality, like wines or beers, there are so many varieties of mead that even if you don’t like one type, there will probably be another that could become your favourite evening drink! Here’s a simple guide to the most common varieties of mead. Traditional or show: the basics go a long way If you want the basic mead, a traditional (or show) mead is made with honey, water, and yeast – that’s it. Don’t be fooled into thinking this means all traditional meads taste the same, though; many beers are brewed with the same types of yeasts and grains, but taste very different due to variations in the fermenting time, temperature, and so on. Also, the many honey...
Aug 25, 2014
Whether you are interested in keeping bees as a hobby or business or you just enjoy the outdoors, it’s essential to recognize the various critters who share your world. When it comes to telling the difference between honey bees and bumblebees, it’s common to see the wrong pictures displayed for both. In fact, even popular media has been known to use the wrong images when sharing reports featuring bees. To help identify bumblebees and honey bees, here are points to look out for: Honey bees Shorter, wasp-like bodies about 2-2.5cm Fuzzy torso, streaked abdomen, and thin wings Live in hives with potentially up to 50,000 individuals Can only sting once since it will result in death (only females can sting) Communicate with other honeybees through “dancing” Have shorter tongues and prefer shallower, open flowers Produces a surplus of honey for the colony The queen can live between 2 to 5 years Overwinters with the queen Bumblebees Fatter, rounder, and fuzzier bodies ranging 2-5cm Yellow, orange and/or black in colouring with thicker, blockier stripes/bands Live in nests with 5 to a few hundred individuals Can sting multiple times if aggravated and will not die (only females are capable of stinging) Do not “dance” to communicate Have longer tongues so can enjoy a wider range of flowers Do not produce a surplus of honey Do not overwinter with their queen (the queen hibernates alone) While coming across either a bumblebee or honey bee may seem scary if you’re up close and personal with the bee, it’s important to remember not to panic. In most cases, if you leave these types of bees alone,...
