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How do you drink your Mead?

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Hey William,

Don't forget that while mead was revered by the Gaelic people, there's plenty of others around the world that were making and drinking mead as early and earlier than the Gaelic people so just about any glass is fair game!

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
I'm currently using two different glasses for mead. The first one is a small 4 oz silver cup with grape leaves inlaid on it. It's kind of fun to have a couple glasses after a epic day at the salt mines, the whole ritual of pouring the mead and feeling the silver cup cool off is enjoyable. My other is a antique stein with a pewter lid. At one time someone scratched the date 1884 into the lid, not very well, probably a bit drunk by the way it turned out. I'll use the stein for special occasions, birthdays, new years, full moon or whatever. I've noticed that if it holds mead I'll drink from it so i have to add a couple coffee mugs and juice glasses to the list. ;D
Beeboy
 
I'll frequently open a bottle of mead or wine at dinner. What we don't finish at the meal, will often be finished off later in the course of our evening.

I bought several glasses that have a very similar shape to a wine glass without the stem to make it top heavy.

Having kids in the house has meant that we've lost several to breakage.

The vessel is less important than the substance of what is in them.

Give me a glass, horn, flagon, paper cup of mead, and I'll be happy.
 
I'll say again that if you want to be able to recognize and identify the subtleties of mead, a wine glass is the tool to use. Ken Schramm states this in his book, The Complete Meadmaker, and I agree.

A clear, clean wineglass will let you see the color, clarity, brilliance, consistency, leggy-ness and coating characteristics of your mead. It will also concentrate the aroma, nose and bouquet of the mead to a point where you can discern various characteristics of the mead, especially the honey and other ingredients that were used in the making. Metal and most materials other than glass have a unique smell, and impart aromas that are not part of the mead itself.

If you’re going for mass swill-age, then of course it doesn’t matter what you are drinking from. However, if you’re looking to accurately identify the nuances of a particular mead you are tasting for evaluation and comparison, then glass is the way to go.

Nice goblets by the way!!!!


Cheers,

Oskaar
 
I'm in agreement with using wine glasses for mead, in fact, I like similar shaped glasses for beer. My favorite is a Stella Artois tulip shaped glass, holds 33 cl with a little to spare. Perfect for a single 12 ounce bottle of beer (takes some patience waiting for the head to foam down enough to fill the glass) or for a goodly portion of wine or mead.

I also have some nice stein/mugs, picked up at a Rennaisance fair, nice dragon motiffs. There's also a larger tulip shaped snifter glass I use for beer -- holds two 12 ounce bottles, perfect for a pint.

Once in a while, I'll use a drinking horn for beer, mostly for the fun of it. A drinking horn is the worst vessel for really taking your time and evaluating the beer, but that's not always the point of drinking. There's the careful sniffing and sipping, and then there's having fun with friends. It's tulip shaped glasses v/s steins and drinking horns. Either one lends itself to the particular occasion.

My thought is that if you've got quality stuff to drink, surround it with good food, good friends, and a good vessel to drink out of.

Of course, a nice pint, or good mead or wine, is also nice to have at hand when posting to the forums. ;D
 
Ah yes,
but since Mead is a Gaelic drink,
and although the Vikings were 'close' geographicaly,
a 'horn' isnt quite proper.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I gotta quibble here. Although the continental Celts seemed to prefer vessels based on Mediterrean styles, they also used drinking horns. The most famous were the ones found in the Hochdorf grave site, and from the contents of the cauldron at the site, they were for drinking mead.

The Insular Celts of the British Isles are loosely divided into two language groups -- the Goedelic, or Gaelic speaking Celts, and the Brythonic Celts, generally associated with Cornwall, Wales, also Brittany. I don't have much info on their drinking habits, but mead was definitely known to both groups.
 
Well I kinda like the wine glass behind the goblets, that looks like about one serving.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Philip
 
Hello guys... being of the fairer sex.... I drink my mead out of a Pilser glass. I've never been fond of the tankard style mugs... and I'm not viking enough to drink from a horn. Even at ren faires I've got my drink out of a pewter looking (actually stainless) goblet... and as I've not had mead long enough to enjoy it at ren faires, but I will this summer... I'll prolly use my metal goblet.
And I like mine ICE COLD, sometimes even so cold I've put ice cubes in it to keep it chilled. I'm sorry guys... I don't like warm alch. drinks.

Enjoy the day...
:-* Suzy Q
 
Excellent point Master McFeely.
There are a few 'oddities' found at Hochdorf.

The link below is an excellent source of information for all reading this thread.
Be sure to use the embedded links on the site.

http://www.iath.virginia.edu/Barbarians/Essays/drink_main.html

I was fortunate enough to have a bottle of "Fairy Dew magical Honey Tincture" 'December 02' purchased from Meadful Things last night.

One thing we all CAN agree on is that Mead, Meade........ect is truely the drink of the Gods.

All have a blessed and peacful Holdiay.
 
Well, my wife and I are going to be getting some of those new, fancy martini glasses where you've got a bowl to put ice in and the main part of the martini glass without a stem...

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/itemgroups/1092_0.asp?query=viewall

Also, I'm finding that I'm liking my meads more room temperature or slightly chilled allowing more of the honey aromatics to come through...

Talon
 
Very Nice! I'd never seen anything like that... those are very interesting display pieces as well as practical.

The more i think about it, the more I agree with the preferances for glass so that you can admire the colour and clarity of meads. But I do so enjoy the mass and heft of ceramic . I will have to try both and see what my perferance is. Unfortunetly the only other times ive had mead I was camping over winter solstice...so shame-full as it is I've only ever experianced mead in an enameled camp mug.

But that said, good mead is still good mead what ever the container :D
 
Depends on what and when I'm drinking :o)

For tasting purposes, I have a small-ish brandy snifter that works well, but is a little awkward for every-day use. For just drinking, I usually prefer a slope-side type lager glass (dunno what else to call it; mine has a sort of straw thing woven around the bottom half that keeps tables clean and landings cushioned :o). If not that, I have.. what could best be described as a glass coffee mug with an added sloped rim, making it a little larger than a coffee mug, and a little smaller than a glass (again, dunno what else to call it). Hooray for Cost Plus World Market.

I have a big face (comes with being big), and, for some reason, find wine glasses a little uncomfortable, even though I do appreciate their use in tasting.
 
My Grandmother was born in Sweeden and over christmas we drank Mead from drinking horns and had Glug from a traditional Sweedish earthin crock set ...... boy was I happy that night hehehe
 
I'm more in kin with Oskaar & Dan, wine glass for me. Smooth textured wine glass being a must. My Meads are enjoyed coupled with culinary art, amoung other things not to be mentioned here.... ;) Certainly there is no intention of casting shadows on the horns and such. All personalities and characteristics have their place. But, in my case, horns would not set nearly as well with Magret de Canard aux Epices.
 
Here it comes . . . . DUCK . . . whew! Would it be too late to cry fowl?

Bon appetit!
 
WikdWaze said:
Here are a few ideas.
Genuine article
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~cmw/1995/Horn.html

Fancy
http://www.waterhawkcreations.com/drinking.htm

Lees fancy
http://home.earthlink.net/~odindis/horn.html

Period correct replicas, even come in my size!
http://www.highfiber.com/~bohemond/Bootshop/horn-page/horn.html

Given the prices on some of these, a hollowed-out log doesn't sound too bad anymore.
Click to expand...


Good links !!!

Here are a few more that offer some interesting Drinking Horns.

http://www.highfiber.com/~bohemond/Bootshop/horn-page/horn.html
(I want the Sutton Hoo Horn !!! ;D )


http://www.warhorse.com/wassail.html


Very nice stuff... (Goblets and Steins and Horns...Oh my!) ;D
http://www.german-toasting-glasses.com/renaissance_drinking_horns.html


http://www.hoofnet.com/hornshoppe/


http://www.stagmancreations.co.uk/horns.htm




* art *
 
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