Team Mead

Most people think of mead as an overly spiced and unbearably sweet beverage found only at Renaissance faires, but there is a whole world of delicious, easy-to-drink mead, both sweet and dry. Along with beer and wine, it is one of our most ancient drinks. Dozens of different styles of mead exist, from a type made with mulberries to another using honey and apple juice fermented together.

Team Mead was inspired to have a crack at it after Team Bee accompanied our local beekeepers’ guild to Rabbit’s Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale, California. We chatted with the owner and acclaimed mead maker, Michael Faul, and realized that basic mead was not hard to make: Honey, water, and yeast are all it takes. The One-Block Feast shares the easy steps to making a delicious batch. “I was really surprised by how well it turned out,” says Brianne McElhiney, Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief. “We’ve tasted quite a few meads that were like cough medicine. But ours tasted pretty good—light and refreshing and easy to drink.”