The need for mead
Game of Thrones spurs beekeeper to join in revival of ancient tipple
IT is regarded as the oldest alcoholic drink in the world.
But mead fell out of fashion as sugar replaced its key ingredient of fermented honey, leading to a rise in sales of beer and wine.
Now mead is making a comeback and soaring sales have led one small Scottish brewery to launch an expansion plan in a bid to meet growing demand.
Its new popularity is being attributed to fantasy TV drama hit Game of Thrones, which helped to push sales up by 42 per cent last year.
Beehive Brae, based in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, started off with more than 200 hives which produce honey for export before branching out into mead and honey beer. Now it has l aunched a crowdfunding appeal to help build new fermenting and conditioning tanks.
Beehive Brae chairman Mike Lees said: ‘Many of our contemporaries in the UK are reporting a surge in sales since the show started.
‘A drink that was once considered the poor relation to beer, wine and spirits i s now f i nding a new audience.
‘Game of Thrones and similar fantasy dramas are helping to introduce mead to trendy twenty and thirty-somethings.
‘In America, the same young people attracted to the craft beer market are also sampling mead and that’s what we hope to recreate here.’
Mead, which is a combination of honey, water and yeast, dates back around 11,000 years in China and nearly 5,000 in Europe.
Authors who have referenced it include Tolkien, Dostoevsky, JK Rowling and Chaucer. It was often drunk during wedding celebrations and the married couple would be given enough for one cycle of the moon, giving rise to the term honeymoon.
But the rising cost of honey forced medieval drinkers to seek alternatives and the drink’s popularity declined.
Beehive Brae’s chief executive and founder Warren Bader added: ‘We’re struggling to keep up with the demand for both our mead and honey beer products using our current facilities.
‘The key driver for our business is to protect dwindling honey bee populations and the move away from just honey has helped us become more profitable.
‘We want to protect bees and shows such as Game of Thrones has given us the chance to do that with mead.’