Did Vikings Drink Mead?

In Vikings by SkjaldenMay 18, 2018 The Vikings loved to drink alcoholic drinks, and not only did they brew their own Viking mead, beer, and ale they also imported wine from areas such as Francia (”France”). Mead was not cheap to brew, and it was certainly not an everyday thing for the Vikings unless they had the silver for it.

Before modern-day sanitation practices became common, drinking water was a dangerous proposition so Vikings consumed beer and mead as their primary forms of hydration. Low-alcohol beers were enjoyed by the whole family all day to ward off thirst. Higher alcohol beers and mead were reserved for celebrations and religious events.

On special occasions in the house of the lord, the Vikings would have drunk a stronger mead, which was probably between 10 and 20 percent. It was made by blending two or three pounds of honey with a gallon of water, and then adding other flavourful plants to make different varieties.

Mead – The Iconic Viking Drink Mead, an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey and water, is thought to be the world’s oldest alcoholic drink, predating both beer and wine. It has long been associated with the Norse people but analysis of pottery vessels found in China suggest it might have originated here up to 9000 years ago.

By now, we’re well aware of the Vikings’ proclivity for drinking. And since they spent many days battling the elements of Mother Nature, it’s only fair to assume that the alcohol provided some much-needed warmth. Vikings brewed their own beer, mead, and wine.

Vikings often drank out of cattle horns that were fashioned for holding their favorite drinks such as mead and beer. They often drank from the horns in short amount of time because the base—that is, the tip of the horn—was pointed, not flat. Drink ware in Viking households could have also been from wood or clay.

The most famous mead known to the Viking was the Mead of Poetry, which gives anyone who drinks it complete mastery of the spoken word. This mead has complex and divine origins. The original nectar the formed the basis of the mead first came into being at the conclusion of the war between the Aesir and Vanir gods.

The Vikings had another advantage on their side, a powerful drink deeply integrated into their religious and cultural life: mead. According to Viking legend, mead originated when two warring factions of gods signed a peace treaty and spit into a bowl to seal the agreement. From the bowl was born Kvasir, the wisest of all men.

Viking Beer – Viking Children Drank Beer Every Day ! There is no doubt that the Vikings loved to drink, but they did not just drink mead as some people might have been lead to believe. Honey was not something that was easy to come by, which made mead a drink for more special occasions such as feasts and rituals. What drinks did Vikings drink ?

• A bucket or carboy to hold the fermenting mead.
• A hydrometer to allow you to calculate the alcohol by volume (ABV) level and see if the batch is still fermenting.
• A siphon to allow you to transfer the liquid without disturbing the sediment that builds up.

Viking drinks: beer and mead. Apart from milk and water, which are staple drinks for most civilisations, the Vikings were also fond of beer and mead. Beer is made by fermenting barley with water to produce an alcoholic drink. They probably would have known about adding hops for flavour too.

Viking rituals for paying homage to Norse gods and spirits were sacred, and old traditions dictated the manner in which certain rites were performed. Although there are obscure references to the practice, it is improbable that the questionable Viking practice of drinking blood ever occurred.

How is mead brewed?

Mead is not brewed by the fermentation of water and grain or water and grapes, which is the case for beer and wine, but instead, it is brewed by fermenting honey, water, and either herbs or fruits, but sometimes grain can also be used.

We do not know where exactly mead originates from, but there has been found archaeological evidence from both Europe and Asia. Mead can be traced back more than 10.000 years, so it has been popular for a very long time, even though it has not received the proper attention in many years.

When it had drained as much honey as possible, the combs and even the entire beehive was crushed and put into a pot of water, to get every drop of honey out. Honeycombs. The raw honey was used to make the highest quality of mead, and the honey-water was used to produce a mead of lesser quality.

The oldest alcoholic beverage in the world. Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world, and its popularity has been steadily increasing in recent years, and the series Game of Thrones, which first aired on April 17, 2011, might have had an influence on its revival. Mead was the favorite drink for many of the Vikings, …

There has been found drinking horns that were ornamented with both silver and gold, and drinking horns that were just simple polished horns with little to no decorations. Photo: Katrien Berckmoes. Regardless if drinking horns were for the common folk or not, it was not the only drinking vessel that was used.

Mead (”Old English: medu, meodu”), (Old Norse mjöð), (”Danish: Mjød”) is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey, water, and yeast, and if you want more flavors, you can just add different herbs, fruits, grains or spices, so you can tweak it to your liking.

The drinking glass vessels were called ”hrimhaldar” in old Norse, which means frost-cups, and they came in pretty much all shape and sizes, and some of them were even made specifically to appeal to the Nordic culture. Photo: Natmus.

What kind of mead did Vikings drink?

Mead is a high gravity alcoholic beverage brewed using lots and lots of honey in place of malts or barley.

Vikings mostly drank ales, sometimes called Norse ales. These ales were typically homebrewed by the women of the household.

Wine was mostly produced in other, more temperate areas of Europe, where grapes grow best.

Beer was consumed daily in Viking culture and was the primary form of hydration.

Surely you’ve seen Viking drinking horns and large goblets on tv, but what did Vikings really drink their beer from?

Most cultures have a toast that is made before sharing a drink. You’ve definitely heard “Cheers” and probably the Spanish “Salud,” but what about the Vikings? Does this near-universal tradition apply to them?

Because their water supplies were so often dangerous to drink, Vikings brewed low-alcohol beers for kids to quench their thirst.

What was the drink of the Vikings?

Though drinking could be a mundane part of everyday life for the Vikings, it could also be an essential part of ceremonies and rituals. Alcohol was an essential part of the sumbel, or symbel – a communal drinking event held in the mead hall of a liege lord, which were an important part of the Norse-Germanic culture.

There is a reason why Vikings raising ale horns in a mead hall buzzing with merriment is still an indelible image on the collective imagination. In the rest of this article, we will take a look at some of the Vikings’ favorite drinks. Mead. Mead is one of the world’s oldest alcoholic drinks and goes back to Neolithic times.

It was said that great poets were blessed by Odin and shared in his mead, while less-talented poets only got the spittle that Odin dropped behind. Ale. Ales and beers were probably the most plentiful drink for the Vikings.

While it would be seven centuries or so before the discovery of microorganisms, pre-modern peoples like the Norse were adept at manipulating microbiology, such as using yeast or bacterial cultures to make bread, yogurt, cheese, poultices, and various forms of alcohol.

Vodka – or voda as it was first called – originated in what are now Poland and Russia around the dawn of the Viking Age. While more of a crude brandy than today’s vodka, and still often intended as medicine, it became instantly very popular with the Swedish Vikings who penetrated eastward.

Apples were widely available in the Norse world, and apples ferment with no help from humankind. All the Vikings would have to do is crush these surplus apples, let the juice sit, and then enjoy. Under Rollo the Walker (the mastermind behind the second siege of Paris in 885) Vikings settled Normandy.

Though mead is an ancient drink and is heavily associated with the Vikings, for the Vikings, it probably was not an everyday beverage. The amount of honey needed to supply everyone would have been challenging to harvest.