Welcome to Stumble Inn

Debbi and Ray welcome you to Stumble Inn to our little website of Mead.

Mead is an alcoholic drink produced by the fermentation of a diluted mixture of honey and water,

sometimes with added fruit, flowers, herbs or spices.

The strength and the taste can vary greatly depending on the ratio of honey to water,

this will also determine how long the mead can take to mature, anything from a few months to 10 years or more.

Spiced mead is known as metheglin and is reputed to have medicinal powers.

Mead flavoured with fruit is called melomel but if its made using apples it is known as a cyser

and when mead meets ale it becomes braggot.

Mead is believed to be the elixir of health, fertility and longevity, it is also claimed to have restorative and

aphrodisiac properties and is possibly the oldest alcoholic drink on earth.

In sacred Norse ceremonies, drinking horns filled with mead were shared and passed around

as part of the ritual, a drop always being left at the end for the gods.

The Term honeymoon is said to have come from ancient Norse marriages where the father of the bride would supply

a 'moon's worth' of mead as a part of her dowry to ensure virility, fertility and a fruitful union,

it was believed if they drank mead for that entire month after the wedding, the first born would be a son.

Archaeologists have found traces of honey and indications of fermentation in Chinese pottery

dating back to 7000 BCE and origins of mead can be traced back to the African bush more than 20,000 years ago.

In Celtic and Anglo-Saxon literature, such as the writings of Taliesin and Beowulf,

mead was the drink of kings and thanes. The ancient Greeks called mead ambrosia or nectar and it was believed

to be the drink of the gods, which descended from the heavens as dew, before being gathered in by the bees.

During the Middle Ages, even Queen Elizabeth had her own mead recipe.

Mead today is enjoyed by everyone at any time of the year, but especially during the

Winter and Summer Solstice's, Pagan Festivals, Handfasting's and Sabbatts.

Poland is one of the world's biggest mead manufacturers on an industrial scale

as it is so strongly identified with their country.

All the meads that we source are made using the traditional methods.

Drink Mead and Hail the Ancestors!

Huzzah!