Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/491440
CENTURIES BEFORE SHAKESPEARE DECLARED 196 These days, though, mead is one of the hippest craft beverages out there, thanks to a resurgence in popularity that has seen the number of United States meaderies skyrocket over the past few years. In fact, a 2014 survey from the American Mead Makers Association found that mead sales shot up 130 percent between 2012 and 2013, topping growth rates for beer, wine, distilled spirits, and hard cider. Among the newest of those meaderies is one right here on the North Shore. "It's exploding and it's mak- ing a comeback," says Deb Clapp, who owns 1634 Meadery with her husband, Dan, the company's chief mead maker. At its most basic, mead is made by fermenting water and honey into a wine-like beverage. But the addition of different yeasts, fruits, and spices means the possibilities for mead styles are almost endless. "a quart of ale is a dish for a King," before swashbucklers swilled rum, and even before Jesus turned water into wine, there was mead. The alcoholic drink, made from honey fermented with water, was the nectar of the gods and the brew of the ancients, from Pliny the Elder and Aristotle to warriors immortalized in the Old English poem Beowulf.