Drink like a Skyrim Nord with mead
As you wander across Skyrim, you’ll frequently come across a beverage called mead. It’s an ancient drink that’s the booze of choice for warriors and Dragon Born. Fortunately, you don’t have to travel to Tamriel’s northern province to sample this yourself, should you want to wet your whistle like Ysgramor himself.
So what is mead exactly? Well, at its most basic it’s a type of wine made with honey instead of grapes. It’s quite possibly the oldest alcoholic drink, dating back to prehistoric times. Unlike other popular liquors, mead doesn’t require agriculture. All its ingredients are readily available in the wild.
To make mead, you pour a quantity of honey into a sanitized container, then mix in filtered water and winemakers’ yeast. You then leave it to age for a few months. The end result is a pale golden liquid that tastes similar to grape wine, though with notes of honey in the background. It can be either sweet or dry, and sparkling or flat. It also has a similar alcohol content to wine.
Given its relatively simple ingredients, mead was a popular drink throughout ancient times right up until the middle ages. Especially in regions not conducive to grape growing. The Vikings loved it so much, they believed that in Valhalla the honourable dead would feast on an incomparable mead served from the teats of the magical goat Heidrun.
Yet by the early modern era, the drink had fallen out of fashion. Replaced by newer liquors like ales, wines, and especially spirits. However, there has been a renewed interest in this ancient beverage, thanks in large part to the explosion of high fantasy in popular culture. Skyrim certainly has played a large part in that.
A small but vibrant mead industry has been springing up across North America. Especially in wine growing regions like California and Niagara. Places that already have established apiaries to provide bees to pollinate fruit trees and grape vines. Mead remains a popular home brew beverage in many Slavic countries, as well as Finland and parts of East-Africa. Several mead festivals have also cropped up, such as the Mazer Cup in Colorado, which is the largest mead tasting event in the world.
Like beer and wine, there are many different styles of mead to choose from, to suit a wide variety of tastes. Its flavour can vary depending the type of honey used, as well as other ingredients added during fermentation.
If you’ve played Skyrim, Ralof speaks fondly of one with juniper berries in it. This is known as a metheglin, which can contain many different botanicals including ginger, tea, orange peel, spices, and of course juniper. If you flavour it with fruit, you get a melomel. Welsh Braggot combines mead with hops and malt to create a slightly sweet beer-like drink which is naturally carbonated.
Despite its renewed popularity, mead can still be a bit tough to find in North America. Many liquor stores, even large chains, don’t carry it as a regular product. If you’re looking to sample the original nectar of the gods, your best bet is to look for a local meadery. Many will be happy to give you a tour and let you sample their different varieties. You can even learn to make it yourself with a few simple supplies. So drink up Nord brothers and sisters. Just make sure you sober up before fighting any dragons.
