It is generally believed that beer, mead and wine had a major part to play in the formation of civilization.
It is impossible to tell which came first, so I am not going to even touch that. Most early fermented beverages were mixtures of fruits, barley and honey. This makes perfect sense because barley and honey taste nice and fruits add nutrients that help fermentation (not to mention that yeast grows on grapes naturally).

In early civilization, these hybrid styles were simply called “Mmm good” or “delicious,” but in our advanced times, we feel the need to differentiate styles with rules and classifications. Two important hybrid styles are the Braggot and the Melomel. A Braggot is a mead/beer hybrid and a Melomel is a mead/fruit (wine) hybrid. Inside of those classifications, it can get a bit crazy. This was the case at the last Homebrew Association of Manatee and Sarasota (HAMS) meeting.

In HAMS, we have what we call the EDGE project. This is basically where we focus on a particular style or ingredient and meet to compare our creations. Think mad scientists all trying to outdo each other. At the March meeting, we had two EDGE project tastings on the same night. I am going to focus just on the mead hybrid creations from both projects.

We had three Braggots with varying amounts of honey added to them. The fun part is that they all started off with the exact same barley malt. Scott’s Braggot had the least amount of honey in it and sour cherry added to it. His was sour/tart with an excellent carbonation and color profile. Arne’s Braggot was 50% grape seed blossom honey. His had a big malt taste and a strong noticeable alcohol taste. Arne is an expert mead maker and currently awaiting his Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Mead Judge certification. He knows more about meads than anyone I have ever met and yes, Arne is his real name. Our final Braggot came to use from the HAMS club president, Mr. Mike Wood. Mike has been brewing for longer than I have been alive, and at the Best Florida Beer competition this year, he won 11 awards including a 2^nd Best of Show. His Braggot had the best aroma and most prominent honey taste of the three. He used 3lbs of orange blossom honey—a personal favorite of mine.

Finally, we had two Melomels in the group. Martin brought his cranberry/raspberry Melomel and it was
fantastic. The cranberry and raspberry flavors melded with the honey so well. The color was beautiful and the aromas were spot on. The only bad thing we could taste was a bit too much alcohol flavor. Second, was a blackberry Melomel presented by yours truly. I started with 3lbs of orange blossom honey, 64oz of apple juice and a small container of blackberries. This turned out fantastic. The color was beautiful and the taste was like honeyed apple cider with a hint of blackberries. The only issue with mine was a slight sherry-like taste on the finish. This can be helped by boiling the mixture before fermenting.

I would definitely suggest that anyone curious about home brewing should start with a mead. Once you
gather the ingredients, the process takes less than 30 minutes and you almost always come out with a tasty finished product. The Melomel project got me into mead making and now I have a 6 gallon batch fermenting with locally grown lemons. If you are curious about home brewing, find your nearest homebrew club. They will be glad to help you get started.

Beer blogger Alex Smith is a Level 1 Cicerone Certified Beer Consultant at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits on 37th St in Sarasota. Follow him on Twitter @abcbeeralexs