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didn’t really think I was going to like it. Don’t get me wrong – I was thrilled to be invited to a tasting at the Cape Town Mead Company. I love learning how things – specifically alcoholic beverages – are made. But in this case I expected it to be more of an educational outing than a delectable tasting flight. I did indeed learn an awful lot about mead but perhaps the most important thing I learnt was that I actually really enjoyed sipping it. Mead – a fermented blend of water and honey – is generally cited as being the oldest alcoholic beverage of them all and it is highly likely that it was first produced right here in Africa. The Khoisan called it !karri and probably stumbled upon it accidentally, perhaps when a beehive filled up with rainwater and they drank the fermented results. For centuries it ruled as the most popular kind of booze but gradually mead was usurped by beer and wine – beverages that are cheaper and easier to make, and whose production carries a far smaller chance of getting stung by swarms of angry bees. Although the category is showing huge growth in the USA, here in South Africa mead is an extremely niche beverage. It is so niche in fact, that if you start rummaging around Google, searches on mead in South Africa will generally all lead you back to the same man: Dr Ernst Thompson. REVOLUTIONARY FERMENTATION Ernst launched Cape Town Mead Company in 2018, but he was no newcomer to bees or the science of fermentation, having studied under renowned mead pioneer Dr Garth Cambray. Dr Cambray took an interest in bee-keeping and mead-making at university, going on to obtain a PhD on the topic then inventing a revolutionary way to ferment honey andwater. Honey is notoriously difficult to ferment. While it is basically pure sugar, something that yeast adore, it is also seriously lacking in nutrients for said yeast. Dr Cambray’s patented continuous fermentation system allows different yeast to work to their own strengths. Some thrive in a low sugar environment and can tolerate high alcohol levels, and so they hang out near the top of the fermentation tube. Others would struggle around higher ABVs and need copious amounts of sugar to survive. They congregate at the bottom of the fermenter, a transparent plastic tube topped with what looks like a two-litre Coke bottle. A honey-water solution is gently pumped into the bottom of the tube, gradually making its way through the various yeast colonies before emerging from the top as mead. The real key though is the nutrient mixture the yeast are fed – something that is understandably a trade secret. The patented fermentation device has been licenced to just a few locations around the world – Cape Town Mead Company is one of those places. The fermenters are hooked to the back wall of the tasting room and while Ernst allows photos, he requests that we don’t post videos of the fermentation in action or give up too much information on how it works. He needn’t have worried. I have had the fermentation tube explained to me before by its creator and even with Ernst’s more layperson-friendly explanation, I’m still not entirely sure what’s going on. What I do know is that, remarkably, the mead leaves that tube at around 18% ABV, with fermentation taking just 24 hours – an amazing feat when you think that red wine, whose alcohol content is several points lower, takes closer to two weeks to complete. THE CHAMPAGNE OF MEADS The 30-litre fermenters are at work 24/7 but the products that come out of the top have different destinies. Some are back-sweetened with honey, some are blended with fruit, some are aged in oak Mead is an extremely niche beverage HONEYED WORDS Much like craft beer when you’re just getting into it, mead-making comes with its own baffling lexicon. Here’s a cheat sheet to get you started: BRAGGOT A mead made with malt as well as honey, described by the BJCP as “a harmonious blend of mead and beer”. CYSER A melomel made with honey and apples, generally cider apples. MAZER Historically a wooden drinking vessel often used for mead, now used to refer to a mead-maker as well. MELOMEL A mead made with fermented fruit alongside honey. PYMENT A melomel specifically made with grapes – the finished product can be red, white or pink. Honey and water flow through the continuous fermentation system (right) and emerge 24 hours later as mead, which is pumped into a conical fermenter to await blending and bottling Yeast sediment in the neck of the bottle during the riddling process I ontapmag.co.za | Summer 2021 | 33