Brewing with bees
Honey wine, also known as mead, karri or nectar of the gods, is a mixture of fermented honey and water – and is said to be the oldest alcoholic beverage.
“The problem is that the minute you say ‘honey wine’, most people immediately think it’s very sweet – which is indeed the case with 99% of the products,” explains Dr Ernst Thompson, owner of Cape Town Meadery. Ernst makes beer, gin and sparkling wine with honey.
The business originated from a merging of two of Ernst’s great loves: his doctoral studies on fish farming, which focused on enzymes and biotechnology, and his parttime honey-farming enterprise. He used traditional African methods to develop a honey sparkling wine – an innovative addition to the international mead industry.
Many other new products have seen the light over the past three years, since the Covid-19 pandemic compelled them to focus on the South African market.
One major selling point of mead is the sustainability aspect. Cape Town Meadery uses honey from Zambia, where it is collected in forests. The production of honey therefore protects the indigenous plant life, uses soil more effectively than commercial agriculture and requires much less water.
Not only on the box
For the chilly winter months, Ernst recommends the honey-wine glühwein – a winning combination of sweet and spicy flavours. Although it is still regarded as a niche product, the popularity of this drink is increasing, largely thanks to the centuries-old folklore around honey wine.
“The worldwide market for mead is very large. In the US, it is the alcoholic industry that is growing the fastest, and this has much to do with pop culture and Game of Thrones. But traditionally it is widely consumed in Europe, particularly Germany, Austria and Poland, and is strongly associated with the Vikings,” says Ernst. “It is in fact an authentic African drink.”
It’s thought that the roots of mead lie in Africa and that the Khoi began making karri centuries ago.
A South African twist
Braggot is yet another exciting product from Cape Town Meadery. It is a honey beer made by fermenting a 50/50 mixture of barley and honey.
Probably one of the most famous brewers of honey beer was the friar named Tuck in the legend of Robin Hood. “By the Middle Ages, honey had become too expensive and beer was
far cheaper to produce, but people just didn’t want to let go of mead. So they started adding honey to their beer to ferment,” says Ernst.
Braggot usually has a higher alcohol content (8–10%), but local beer drinkers prefer lighter beers with a lower alcohol content, he explains. Therefore his company recently launched a brand-new authentically South African braggot.
“We decided to make it for South Africa and forget about how it is made around the world. So we made a lager-style beer for the local market containing 4,5% alcohol.”
To share the fascinating history of mead, Ernst and his team focus on educational tasting sessions. “You take a seat for two hours and we tell you the whole history of mead while we taste 12 different products.”
Visit the them in Maitland, Cape Town, and attend a tasting session on Saturdays. Book at
capetownmeadery.com/ mead-tasting.
Contact capetownmeadery.com @cape_town_meadery
Cape Town Meadery
WIN
One lucky reader will win a gift set from Cape Town Meadery containing a bottle of Alvearium Mead Gin and a four-pack of Braggot Lager. Visit platteland.net, click on “Win” and fill in the form using the keywords “Winter” and “Meadery”. The closing date is 25 August 2023.