Make Mead Like a Viking: Traditional Techniques for Brewing Natural, Wild-Fermented, Honey-Based Wines and Beers

Jereme Zimmerman

Oct 2015 · Chelsea Green Publishing

About this ebook

A complete, practical, and entertaining guide to using the best ingredients and minimal equipment to create flavorful brews—including wildcrafted meads, bragots, t’ej, grog, honey beers, and more!

"A great guide . . . full of practical information and fascinating lore."—Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation

Ancient societies brewed flavorful and healing meads, ales, and wines for millennia using only intuition, storytelling, and knowledge passed down through generations―no fancy, expensive equipment or degrees in chemistry needed. In Make Mead Like a Viking, homesteader, fermentation enthusiast, and self-described “Appalachian Yeti Viking” Jereme Zimmerman summons the bryggjemann of the ancient Norse to demonstrate how homebrewing mead―arguably the world’s oldest fermented alcoholic beverage―can be not only uncomplicated but fun.

Inside, readers will learn techniques for brewing:

• Sweet, semi-sweet, and dry meads
• Melomels (fruit meads)
• Metheglins (spiced meads)
• Ethiopian t’ej (honey wine)
• Flower and herbal meads
• Bragots
• Honey beers
• Country wines
• Viking grog

And there's more for aspiring Vikings to explore, including:

• The importance of local and unpasteurized honey for both flavor and health benefits
• What modern homebrewing practices, materials, and chemicals work—but aren’t necessary
• How to grow and harvest herbs and collect wild botanicals for use in healing, nutritious, and magical meads, beers, and wines
• How to use botanicals other than hops for flavoring and preserving mead, ancient ales, and gruits
• The rituals, mysticism, and communion with nature that were integral components of ancient brewing

Whether you’ve been intimidated by modern homebrewing’s cost or seeming complexity in the past or are boldly looking to expand your current brewing and fermentation practices, Zimmerman’s welcoming style and spirit will usher you into exciting new territory. Grounded in history and mythology, but―like Odin’s ever-seeking eye―focusing continually on the future of self-sufficient food culture, Make Mead Like a Viking is a practical and entertaining guide for the ages.

"Adventurous mead makers or brewers who want to move beyond the basics will find plenty to savor here."—Library Journal

Ratings and reviews

Book has interesting material. However, I purchased this book with the intention of placing it in my Family Library so my wife could have access to it while we make mead... only to discover the author has disabled Family Library on this book. Um... way to be super-paranoid about some words. Seems like a really strange attitude. If the author thinks a stance like this will encourage more book sales... that's a Nope.

I have used referred to this great book for a number of years of meade making. I found that the first wild-fermented meads were poor quality, but if I use the same culture of yeast over and over, the third generation of meade starts to taste wonderful.

The book does a great job providing the history of mead. Unfortunately the meadmaking process is poorly described and hard to follow. I do not recommend this book.

About the author

Jereme Zimmerman is a writer and traditional brewing revivalist who lives in Berea, Kentucky with his wife Jenna, daughters Sadie and Maisie, and herds of wild yeast that he corrals into various fermentation creations. He writes for the New Pioneer, Backwoods Home, Hobby Farms, Mother Earth News, and other magazines. He is a popular public speaker, presenting and holding workshops across the country on topics such as fermentation, natural and holistic homebrewing, modern homesteading, and sustainable living. His first book, Make Mead Like a Viking, was published in 2015.