Making Mead

One of mankind’s earliest alcoholic beverages is still popular with industrious beekeepers today

- Jeff Hampton

One of the perks of keeping bees (or having a local source of honey) is the opportunity to try new things with the honey and beeswax that might otherwise be cost prohibitive.

My father and I keep four hives and have found many uses for the honey we extract since we started in 2012.

We’ve given wax to a relative for her skin creams, made lip balm, and melted it to “paint” on new frames for the beehives. The latter encourages the bees to make use of the new sections, as they are attracted to beeswax and will harvest it for re-use.

It is also said a half-teaspoon per day of local honey taken year-round will help reduce seasonal allergies, due to the tiny doses of local pollen found in the honey.

Another use for the honey is making mead — it is considered one of the oldest known intentionally alcoholic beverages in human history.

Our interest in mead was piqued when a friend named Chuck brought us samples of homemade mead in a variety of flavors. It was smooth, interesting, flavorful and intriguing.

We accepted his challenge to try making some of our own. After a bit of research, the first two batches I attempted were a basic “show” mead — a simple traditional recipe — and a Bochet (burnt honey) variety.

Be forewarned, this is not a hobby for those who need instant gratification. Honey takes a long time to ferment, and the entire process took about a year.

The wait was worthwhile. They turned out so well, we were hooked.