Mead is arguably the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage. It dates back to the Neolithic era, prior to the advent of agriculture. It was very popular in medieval times and was called ‘nectar of the Gods.’ People kept bees to provide wax for candles so naturally there was plenty of honey around.
During the Great Depression my maternal grandparents, James and Nora Larcombe, brewed mead at their property at Reedy Marsh, near Deloraine. Honey and its by-product of mead added a little sweetness to life in those bleak years.
I’m not sure what sort of honey they used, but I’m pretty sure blackberry would have featured. My mother had a nasty memory of Nora asking her to move a hive and being told off when she was stung, and (not surprisingly) dropped the box. 🦟🦟 The poor woman had lots of kids, so no wonder she was short-tempered.
At the end of WWII The Mercury newspaper asked for recipes for mead. It had become unfashionable, and people with knowledge of the brewing process were disappearing. Oh my word, doesn’t that first example sound heavenly with all the spices? I’m tempted to try it. The one for mead wine using both hops and yeast would not be so fragrant or sweet, but is probably similar to the recipe my grandparents would have used. I can’t imagine them doing anything very complicated.
Unfortunately, straight after the recipes were published there came a severe warning from the excise man!
‘In the recipe competition in The Mercury this week my attention has been drawn to the published recipes for honey mead and mead wine. It is probable that both products, if made in accordance with the instructions would contain considerably more than 2pc of proof spirit, in which case the persons concerned may find that they have manufactured an excisable product and have thus committed a breach of the excise laws, for which a heavy penalty is provided.‘
T. B. SIMONDS, Collector of Customs (Mercury, March 7 1945)
Oh for heavens sake Mr Simonds! 🤬 I wonder whether The Mercury was asked to supply the names of contributors? There may have been a return to the days of hiding barrels of ‘moonshine’.
Tassie’s famous Leatherwood honey is probably too precious to be used for commercial quantities of mead. However, the following picture was posted on the social media site Reddit, by a home brewer.
Recently a lovely Tasmanian lady called Jo Carswell knitted a jumper for my associate, Editor Des. It has a Leatherwood flower motif on the back. Des loves fortified drinks of any kind and since he is a bear, mead would be his perfect tipple.
I am delighted that there has been a resurgence of interest in mead products, especially with Tasmania’s boutique breweries.
For ten facts you may not know about mead, CLICK HERE.
What an amazing woman raising ten children. The air is clean and crisp in Deloraine. A nip of mead would have helped.
Yes Jo, sadly my grandmother Nora died from asthma when she was 44. Her youngest child was only 5 and my mother had to return from working in Melbourne to look after her siblings.