Do you know mead? It's definitely not just your Grandma's dessert wine. Mead has a storied history spanning over 9000 years. Get to know mead; where it came from; what to look for in a mead; and it's many names & varieties here and around the world. Learn a bit about how to pair mead, how to serve mead, a little about Tugwell Creek mead, and most important... Where to buy Tugwell Creek Mead. www.tugwellcreekfarm.com

1. Western Canada’s First Meadery
Tugwell Creek Honey Farm & Meadery

2. Introducing…
Bob Liptrot -Meadmaker
-keeping bees since age 7
-Masters degree in Entomology
-making mead for over 30 years

4. HISTORY OF MEAD
The "Man of Bicorp" holding onto lianas to gather
honey from a beehive as depicted on an 8000-
year-old cave painting near Valencia, Spain
•oldest fermented beverage - Neolithic period
• festivals and religious drink
•
Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Scandinavians, Assyrian, Inc
as, Aztec
• aphrodisiac
• life, wisdom, courage and strength
• origins of the word Honeymoon
• popular until the 18th century

5. The Origin of Recipes
•As early as the 1700’s
•why we have chosen particular recipes.

6. A 9,000 year history of mead
*fermented beverages confirmed from residue on pottery shards
*research conducted by archeochemist Dr. Patrick McGovern, Penn
State U.
*Neolithic village site of Jiahn, Henan province, N. China
*Compounds identified by G & L chromatography-mass spectometry,
infrared spectometry & stable isotope analysis
*main compounds included rice, honey and hawthorn fruit
Prehistoric meads at Jiahu paved the way for proto-historic second
millennium cereal based alcohols of Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties
1250-1000 BC
*liquid samples found in 3000 year old bronze jars
*rice and millet wines

7. A 9,000 year history of mead
Proto-historic alcohols in china were known as Jui and Chang
*produced by mold saccharification (breakdown of carbohydrates in grain
to simple fermentable sugars)
*yeast then enters the process adventitiously starting fermentation
Parallel prehistorical and proto-historical mead evolution
*resinated mead wine inside two jars excavated at Hajji Firuz, Iran 5400
BC
*earliest confirmed barley beer excavated at Godin Tepe, Iran 3500-3100
BC
Recent historical evidence of mead
*Egyptian examples of honey and or mead
*5th dynasty Ne-Woser-Re at Abusis
*18th dynasty vizier Rekhmire at Thebes

8. A 9,000 year history of mead
*the Hochdorf tomb from around 540-520 BC Celtic/Greek
-brass cauldron 104cm dia. X 80cm h. 500 l. vol.
-nine drinking horns 5.5 l. vol. each
Old English references
*tales of King Arthur 5th-6th century
*old English epic poem Beowulf 8th century
*Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”
14th century

9. Mead in brief decline
*approx. 1500-1600 AD with the introduction of sugar cane from India
and the new world
The recent history of mead
*enjoying a comeback as an offshoot of the wine and ale industries
*aprox.200 plus meaderies in N. America
*receiving publicity from movies books etc.

10. QUALITIES TO LOOK
FOR
-Mead . . . ranges from
very dry to very sweet
-Some products are ale
like
-Some are fortified
-Others like white or red
wines
-Fruit, herbs, vegetables
or spices can be added
-If it is fermented with
honey, it is mead
-higher fruit and honey
content-intensify
flavour

11. The Origin of Mead Names
Names relate to the ingredients
Hydromel - means water honey in Greek
-French name for mead
Melomel - Honey wine using fruit
-depending on fruit base, more specific names
Metheglin –originated from folk medicine
-derived from Welsh (meddyglyn)
- (meddyg) healing + (llyn) liquor

12. The Origin of Mead Names
Great Mead - aged several years
Short Mead - meant to age quickly
Sac Mead –derived name from fortified sherry
-bore nickname “Sack” in England
-derived from Welsh (meddyglyn)
- (meddyg) healing + (llyn) liquor
Braggot- -Welsh origin (bragawd)

13. VARIETIES OF MEAD
Sac Mead - 20-25% more honey and water (Sauterne-like)
Melomel - Honey wine using fruit excluding apples or
grapes
Metheglin - Honey wine made with any herbs, spices

14. VARIETIES OF MEAD
Cyser - Honey wine made with apple cider or fresh apple
juice
Hydromel - Light honey wine 10% alcohol or less
- May include any ingredients from other
categories

15. VARIETIES OF MEAD
Hippocras - Honey wine made with grape juice and spices
Traditional Mead - Honey and water fermented together
Bracket or Braggot - Honey wine made with malts and grains

16. VARIETIES OF MEAD
Pyment - Honey wine made with grapes/grape juice
Morat - Honey, water, and mulberries
Tej -Honey wine made with Gesho
-spontaneous fermentation

17. OTHER
MEAD VARIANTS
Acerglyn- maple syrup and honey
Bochet- made with caramelized honey
Braggot- honey, hops and or malts of grain
Black mead- blackcurrants and honey
Capsicumel- addition of chili peppers to mead
Cyser- apple juice and honey
Hydromel- light low alcohol mead
Melomel- fruit juice added to honey

18. Metheglin- herbs and or spices added to mead
Morat- mulberries blended with honey
Omphacomel- honey blended with verjuice
Oxymel- wine vinegar and honey
Pyment- honey with red or white grape juice
Rhodomel- rose hips, petals or rose attar and honey

19. ETHNIC VARIANTS
Balche- Native Mexican mead
Czworniak- Light Polish style mead
Chouchenn- Traditional mead from Brittany
Dandaghare-A mead of Nepal
Medovina- Eastern European variants of traditional regional
meads
Medovukha- Eastern Slavic variants of local meads
Myod - Traditional Russian meads available in three
major varieties

20. ETHNIC VARIANTS
Midus- Lithuanian term for mead infused with herbs
and fruit, sometimes distilled
Pitarrilla- Ancient Mayan mead using wild honey and
balche tree bark
Poltorak- Aged or great style Polish mead
Sima- Low alcohol lemon flavoued Finnish mead
Tej- Ethiopian meads fermented with wild yeasts,
gesho root and or grains
Trojniak- Classic Polish mead

21. OUR PHILOSOPHY
-Our meads -primarily from our own honey and berries or from
Southern Vancouver Island
-not certified organic
-bees forage on wild plants of S. Vancouver Island
-all fruit is unsprayed - sulphites- far less than in grape wines

22. What does Vertically Integrated Mean?
•Keeping your own bees
Fill up boxes naturally
•Source of honey
•Mountains, clean
•Blossoms, Fireweed, Blackberry
•Non-agricultural
•Non-genetically modified
•25K radius
•Handling raw product
•Preference of style
•Amount of honey used
•Strong sense of aromatics, complexities

23. HOW TO SERVE MEAD
Temperature-
-serve at cellar temperature
Storage-
-once opened, will keep for up to 2 weeks
-fruit based meads –treated like high quality grape
wine
Cellaring-
-straight honey meads will cellar up to 20 years
-some fruit meads become more sherry like
-sweeter meads more Sauterne like

24. Pairing –
-fruit meads pair well
with spicy foods
-like a dry sherry, with a
cheese course
-pastas and light meats
-sweet meads are good
with dessert

25. Where To Find Tugwell Creek Meads?
GREATER VICTORIA: SOOKE: TOFINO:
Beacon Landing Liquor Store Buffy’s Liquor Store Clayoquot Wilderness Resort
Cascadia Beer and Wine - Quadra Street Castle Beer and Wine Long Beach Lodge
Cascadia Beer and Wine - Hatley Park Markus’s Wharfside Maquinna Liquor Store
The Cask & Keg Liquor Store Seventeen Mile Liquor Store SALTSPRING ISLAND:
Fairmont Empress Hotel Sooke Harbour House Fulford Inn Beer and Wine Store, Fulford
Four Mile Liquor Store Stone Pipe Grill Harbour House Beer & Wine, Ganges
Hillside Liquor Store MALAHAT / COWICHAN VALLEY: The Local Liquor Store, Ganges
Hotel Grand Pacific Beverly Corners Liquor Store Upper Ganges Liquor Store, Ganges Road
Laurel Point Hotel Bistro La Pommeraie VANCOUVER:
Liquor Depot Malahat Mountain Inn Liberty Wine Merchants – Granville Island
Liquor Express - Tillicum Mall, Keating The Honeypot Liquor Store Liberty Wine Merchants – Point Grey
Liquor Plus - Douglas Best Western Cowichan Valley Inn Liberty Wine Merchants – Park & Tillford
Liquor Plus - Saanich Centre NANAIMO / NORTHEAST ISLAND: Raincity Grill
Liquor Plus - Royal Oak Coast Discovery Inn, Campbell River Salt Tasting Room
Liquor Plus - Cobble Hill & Duncan Crossroads Liquor Depot, Nanaimo Burgoo Restaurants
Loghouse Pub Beer and Wine Store Ladysmith Liquor Depot Regional Tasting Lounge
The Marina Restaurant Landlubber Pub Liquor Store, Nanaimo
The Penny Farthing The Village Liquor Store, Parksville
Spinnakers Beer & Wine - James Bay Wellington Liquor Store, Nanaimo
Spinnakers Beer & Wine - Vic West Wheatsheaf Beer and Wine, Nanaimo
Spinnakers Pub
The Strath Beer and Wine Store