Want to make mead like a Viking? Well, there are varying levels as to how far you can go to truly “go Viking” when making mead. Really, it’s simple when it comes down to it. Mead is by definition fermented honey water. Add water to honey and it will literally ferment on its own (provided you’re using clean, non-chlorinated water and raw, unpasteurized honey) due to the yeasts and fermentation-enhancing microbes that occur naturally in honey.
However, it takes a bit more than just adding honey to water to make a flavorful, well-aged mead, but the fact that honey can naturally ferment into mead on its own is evidence in itself that mead would have been readily available to Viking-age peoples.
More on the making of mead soon, but what exactly do we mean when we refer to Vikings or “Viking-age peoples?” Stereotypes and modern misconceptions aside, the word Viking covers a pretty broad swath of peoples, cultures and time periods. Were the Vikings marauders from northern Scandinavia who struck fear in the hearts of people in the British isles and continental Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries? Yes, but only if we’re referring to a fairly small subset of early Scandinavians-those adventurous enough to travel the seas and go “a-Viking.”
They were as much traders and settlers as they were raiders. In the original use of the word, both the noun and verb form were used— a víkingr was a person (usually a young man in the prime of his life) who traveled for adventure, and perhaps because his prospects for prosperity at home were slim; a víking was the person who took part in these adventures. Since the word Viking has become so ubiquitous, scholars have broadened its use from referring to this relatively small group of raiders and traders to include a large set of early Scandinavian and northern European peoples.
The Viking Age is generally thought of as being from 780-1070 AD, as this was the period when Vikings left Scandinavia in hordes to explore (and yes, plunder) neighboring lands. As their presence (begrudgingly) began to be accepted, they settled, returned home to bring family members back with them, and set up bases to explore even further, establishing trade routes throughout Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East. Hence, people we now refer to as Vikings spanned a fairly large region and were active far beyond 1070 AD.
Because of their extensive trading routes, they would have had access to a wide range of ingredients beyond what they could grow in their homelands. Many of these ingredients showed up in their meads, ales and other alcoholic drinks (according to archeological evidence).
Common fruits they would have eaten and brewed with, according to the Viking Answer Lady, include raspberries, elderberries, hawthorn berries, cherries, sour cherries, bullaces, cloudberries, strawberries, crabapple, rose hips and rowan berries. They would have used a variety of herbs for flavoring, bittering and preservative effects as well. Hops wasn’t commonly used in ale or mead until around the 16th century. More likely they would have used herbs such as meadowsweet, yarrow and henbane (now considered poisonous but only in very large amounts).
Due to trading, they would also have had access to exotic spices such as cumin, pepper, grains of paradise and cardamom. Honey would have been fairly common due to foraging from wild hives, rudimentary beekeeping practices, and trading. Springs would have been coveted and safeguarded due to the minimal availability of clean water in ancient Europe. Otherwise, water would have been boiled either before or during the brewing process to remove contaminants.
But what about the one ingredient that is absolutely essential to making mead? We’re talking about yeast of course, the catalyst of the fermentation process. Although brewers in the Viking age and earlier found ways to use the active yeast from ongoing ferments to start future brews, it wasn’t truly understood as a separate substance until much later in history when Louis Pasteur performed his innovative experiments on the fermentation process in the 1800s.
The Vikings, and many other early peoples, thought of yeast and fermentation as mystical and treated the process of initiating fermentation with reverence. Most mead fermentations would have either been initiated by drawing in wild yeast from the raw honey, fruits and herbs, and floating in the air itself.
Over time, they would use the same stir stick (often called a totem stick or magic stick) or fermentation vessel, which would become caked with dried yeast over time, causing each subsequent fermentation to happen quicker. The unique yeast strains developed this way would be passed along as family heirlooms. Some yeast strains passed down from Viking times may even still be used in Norway today.
As a modern brewer, you can purchase a wide range of packaged yeast strains for brewing mead, wine and beer. However, it’s just as simple today as it was in ancient times to procure your own wild yeast, so why not give it a try and invoke the brewing spirits for your own unique brews? I’ll walk you through the process for initiating a wild fermentation that can then be made into any type of mead you desire, and then provide you with some recipes for making your own Viking meads.
Wild yeast gets a bad rap in modern homebrewing. Because commercial yeast strains have been developed in laboratories for specific flavor profiles and other parameters, brewers are encouraged to sanitize excessively and bring mead to high heat levels (and then cooling) before adding yeast to kill off any wild yeast or other microbes.
Traditionally, the entire goal would have been to keep these yeasts and microbes alive, as they wanted to harness these “brew spirits” for a strong fermentation. There’s nothing wrong with using wild yeast in a modern fermentation – as a matter of fact, it can make for a more interesting and intimate experience.
To initiate a wild fermentation you’ll need the following equipment and ingredients:
Your
Conversions form 1gallon to 5 ha as few issues. First, 40oz of juniper berries is WAY to much. Second, 5 pounds of honey in a 5 gallon batch will result in the most bone dry mead ever made. You should multiply your 1 gallon ingredients by 5 for the 5 gallon which would result in using about 12 pounds of honey.
Iceland was an important part of the Viking empire. Your backstory must be updated to be taken serious by any now-a-day viking.
I love your book and will be making meads soon and making videos on meads on my YouTube Channel. Hail Odin!!
Careful with what this article says. The author thinks 5 pounds of honey is a gallon. In his 5 gallon recipe he calls for “ 5 pounds (a little over a gallon) of wildflower honey “. Well I’ve been a beekeeper for more than 20 years. And anywhere in the world, a gallon of honey weights approximately 12 pounds. Honey can have a slight variance in weight to volume. This is why honey is sold by weight not volume. But you will never find a gallon of honey that only weighs 5 pounds.
I can’t find anything online about Bryggjemann. I want to verify what you say about it. What are your sources?
I’m eager to start making my own. Thank you for the great read!
Hi Jereme, just starting as a beekeeper and looking for mead recipies this looks a great place to start real Mead! I have made it with bought honey and brewers yeast before and have made sweet heavy Mead and light almost champagne like sparkling Mead both from the same recipie, one in a hot summer one over winter. I want to try natural mead from my honey and love your instructions.
Looks like the quantities for 5 gallon batches are off. If you need 1 qt of honey for this recipe for 1 gallon then 1.25 gallons is needed for 5 gallons and a gallon of honey in these here parts weighs 12 lbs so, 1.25 gallons would weigh about 15 lbs, not 5 lbs. Similarly, if this recipe calls for 4 oz of juniper berries for one gallon then for 5 gallons you would need 20 oz, but the recipe calls for 40 oz… so for five gallons there would be too little honey (an ABV of about 4.5%) and way, way too much juniper… Of course, if the 5 gallon recipe is “correct” then the 1 gallon version is a very different mead..
I am really interested to try this recipe but it doesn’t say how long it takes for the mead to ferment naturally without adding extra commercial yeast. Is there an estimate for how long it should ferment? And once it’s fermented, how do I store it to save it in its fermented state?
I have prepared kefir almost the same way…
I know it’s not the original subject, but I’d like to share my experience.
With the help Google´s translation service.
Kefir
1,000 ml of milk (i did with any milk of cows and different portions, according to the availability of milk, at that time.: whole milk powder – I reconstituted the milk with water filtered by gravity filter, made in clay. -, pasteurized, skimmed or whole milk in tetra pack type pack). I think that better results will be obtained with fresh milk.
The utensils cited here can not be made of metal.
I used a returnable soda bottle, made of plastic.
Heat the milk to body temperature and add the kefir. Leave there for 24 hours or until the whey is separated, protected from the direct incidence of light. I kept the bottle in the kitchen cupboard. And I only removed the cap at the moment of consumption.
Separate the kefir from the thick, slightly aerated and acidulated liquid that has formed. Enjoy your food.
But one day, I decided to put that bottle inside my car for a week, as follows:
a bottle of milk and kefir, being fermented all these days;
the other bottle, only with the milk already fermented (for about 36 to 40 hours), WITHOUT kefir (there must be some kefir corpuscle left, I just removed the main colony);
I live in Piracicaba / SP, a city with high average temperatures and easily ranging between 24 and 34 ºC … oh, the car was under the sun, almost all day.
The result was incredible: a liquid thicker than the previous ones, slightly gasified and acidulated. The acidity increases as the days go by.
When I took a portion for my consumption (+ – 200 ml – I decided to test one portion at a time) as would the flavor with added common sugar, then sweetened, on another occasion, molasses sugar cane. It was very tasty. I asked myself, “What if, to these mixtures, I add a tablespoon of brandy?” Indescribably good. I can even say it was perfect.
Really curious about the mead recipe but the numbers don’t add up?? Is this a typo?
4oz times 5 gallons is 20z not 40 oz
I’m curious why you recommend using only five pounds of honey for the five-gallon batch? I’ve never seen a five-gallon recipe that called for fewer than 10 pounds of honey, and it doesn’t convert mathematically from your one-pound recipe.
I would like to do a 3 gallon batch but notice the ingredients Don’t scale up.
What would you recommend for a 3 gallon batch?
Thanks in advance. Daniel from Frostproof.
Love the article, it’s always fun to read on Norse brewing!
One thing, about hops, there is a medieval mention by Simon of Genoa that hops was used by the Gauls to flavor mead, and in Graveney, York a viking transport vessel was found loaded with hops… also I’ve read a number of references that while hops was not used in England until late middle ages, it was used in Europe, maybe even back to prehistoric times! So a hopped mead might not be unthinkable :) And sure is tasty, as I know fro experience…
If you like, I collected my research here: https://www.academia.edu/31052051/Of_Hony_-_A_collection_of_Mediaeval_brewing_recipes
why Danemark is in Poland?
Great information. I have always wanted to find out what it was and how to make mead. A Facebook Friend posted the Norsetradesman article and I wanted to let you know I will be brewing my first batch this year. Thanks for Sharing.
Hi, I am researching Viking Age food and so for I have never seen any valid sources on Viking age imports of exotic spices. The cumin is the one most often cited, but that source is at best a misinterpretation for caraway, but even so it is often said to have been found at Oseberg, which does not include it in its original report on botanical remains.
Good read but you do realise that the arrows on the map are completely wrong, the Swedish mostly went West not East, the runestones will confirm this. Meads with fruit in are melomel, not mead with fruit. This is why calling something honey mead is unnecessary as mead made from honey and water. For the same reason we do not call wine, grape wine.
