On this episode, we swing on over to Fargo and talk with Susan Ruud of Prairie Rose Meadery about mead. Be seure to check out our Facebook page for the latest photos and updates. Facebook@theombibulouspodcast

Cheers!

Mead

SPEAKERS

Susan Ruud, Connor Brekke

Connor Brekke  00:03

Hello everyone and welcome back to The Ombibulous, a show where we discuss a variety of topics about alcohol. From beer styles, the brewing process distillation, in spirits, even liquor laws, there's a fascinating world to discover. On today's episode, we learn a bit about the ancient beverage of mead. Joining me today is Susan Ruud of Fargo, North Dakota's very own, Prairie Rose Meadery. I'm your host, Connor brekkie. Let's all raise a glass to The Ombibulous. 

Connor Brekke  00:38

Welcome back to the showroom, buddy. Today I'm joined by Susan Ruud of Prairie Rose Meadery here in Fargo, North Dakota. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me over.

Susan Ruud  00:48

I'm excited to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Connor Brekke  00:52

And then we're going to talk about one of our... well, my kind of weaknesses here... mead. I love it. It's a... it's a really great beverage. Got a lot of history to it. And yeah, let's have at it. What is mead for the audience?

Susan Ruud  01:07

Well, in its basic sense, mead is fermented honey. So that base of everything is honey. People will call it a honey wine, but where wine is made from grapes or other fruits. Mead is the majority of the fermentable, honey, and then you'll add some other fruit or spice to change it up or fruit and spice or you can do so many things with it.

Connor Brekke  01:26

Yes. And you guys have quite a few different flavors on the menu. But we'll touch on that a bit later here. So it's an old beverage. It's been around for a while.

Susan Ruud  01:36

Yeah, there's probably history of it about a little over 9000 years ago in the pyramids. And then there's conjectural and history of it about 40,000 years ago in Africa. So yeah, very old.

Connor Brekke  01:50

Because we're just looking at some pictures. And there's pottery that dates back from at least 7000 bc in China. So kind of like the proto-mead. I mean, it's a bit different back then. But

Susan Ruud  02:01

hey, well, originally they would have made it probably I mean, they're using natural yeasts. And so might have been a little more sour than ours, it would have been, it would have taken local fruits and spices and stuff and thrown it all into a container along with whatever honey they could find. They would have done that probably Initially, it was originally found by a beehive getting what else tree splitting open or water getting in somehow. And they came along and Oh, hey, let's try this. And oh, that tastes good.

Connor Brekke  02:36

Everybody loves alcohol, that hasn't changed. It's funny how that works. Because Same thing