05-09-2009, 06:55 AM
From Wikipedia:
Mead is a typically alcoholic beverage, made from honey and water via fermentation with yeast. Its alcoholic content may range from that of a mild ale to that of a strong wine. It may be still, carbonated, or sparkling. It may be dry, semi-sweet, or sweet. While it is often referred to as "honey wine",[1] technically mead is no more a honey wine than beer is a malt wine.
Depending on local traditions and specific recipes, it may be brewed with spices, fruits, or grain mash. It may be produced by fermentation of honey with grain mash;[2] mead may also, like beer, be flavored with hops[3] to produce a bitter, beer-like flavor.
Mead is independently multicultural. It is known from many sources of ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, although archaeological evidence of it is ambiguous.[4] Its origins are lost in prehistory; ""it can be regarded as the ancestor of all fermented drinks," Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat has observed, "antedating the cultivation of the soil."[5] Claude Lévi-Strauss makes a case for the invention of mead as a marker of the passage "from nature to culture".[6]
[url][/url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead
.
Mead is a typically alcoholic beverage, made from honey and water via fermentation with yeast. Its alcoholic content may range from that of a mild ale to that of a strong wine. It may be still, carbonated, or sparkling. It may be dry, semi-sweet, or sweet. While it is often referred to as "honey wine",[1] technically mead is no more a honey wine than beer is a malt wine.
Depending on local traditions and specific recipes, it may be brewed with spices, fruits, or grain mash. It may be produced by fermentation of honey with grain mash;[2] mead may also, like beer, be flavored with hops[3] to produce a bitter, beer-like flavor.
Mead is independently multicultural. It is known from many sources of ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, although archaeological evidence of it is ambiguous.[4] Its origins are lost in prehistory; ""it can be regarded as the ancestor of all fermented drinks," Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat has observed, "antedating the cultivation of the soil."[5] Claude Lévi-Strauss makes a case for the invention of mead as a marker of the passage "from nature to culture".[6]
[url][/url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead
.