Viking Beer & Mead | How to Drink

so if you can't already tell this one's going to be a bit different earlier this week I made a drink I called the Horn of aore in an episode that was sponsored by Ubisoft to coincide with the release of Assassin's Creed balla so my original plan for that episode involved um a pretty long segment of me tasting various beers and Mees to try to find Viking esque bottles that are commercially available basically um I was trying to help you guys drink Viking stuff well I put that whole episode together and it was 57 minutes long and that is that that is just too darn long so I chunked out all the tasting stuff and now I'm looking at it and I think it's got value on its own didn't have an open or close anymore because it was shop for different episodes so this is that um but I think it's kind of cool and so that's what this episode is this is going to be me in search of Viking beers and Meads so today on how to drink how to drink like a viking Vikings are frequently associated with me me me was mostly reserved uh for either like the wealthiest of Vikings or for festivals and holidays um Mead by the way hugely varied in fact I could do an entire episode just detailing the different types of Meade but at their most basic level Mead is going to be made by taking some quantity of honey mixing it into some water introducing yeast either intentionally or by spontaneous fermentation from Wild yeasts and letting it get boozy after they had it all fermented they would then a lot of times go back and add other things to flavor it um frequently it be further flavored with herbs or spices or bitter ing agents flowers anything really um and I wanted to have a few examples of commercially available Ms on hand to talk about and and here's what I I brought actually so let's taste some Meads and I specify commercially available because like yeah I mean I'm going to get some comments I'm sure about like oh you could have made your own oh you could have gone to this little local meery or something like that of course I could and so can you but this was stuff that I was able to find with a little bit of digging at a gr at a liquor store um I don't want to be doing stuff on the show that is just like completely inaccessible to anybody but the most you know you happen to be in the right place at the right time it be useless information right uh well let's start with this this will be my Baseline I'm I'm pretty familiar with this one um and I like it so let's have a sip of Viking Blood Viking Blood has a reddish color um it is a traditional Meade from a recipe from around 1700 and it's got a little bit of hibiscus and a little bit of um hops in it hops would not have been out of the question for Vikings but not the only kind of bittering agent that they would have used HPS is fine hibiscus as well I think is fine Vikings got all over the place um so I I don't think it's out of the question that a hopped hibiscus uh Mead would have been in the purview of a very wealthy Viking at all I'm going to say it's heady but I don't know if I know what that means it kind of attacks the senses in a pleasant way it is warm in your mouth I mean it just sets all of your like sinuses on fire briefly it's not very alcoholic it's just something about that hops and hibiscus and and also the sweetness of Honey which is sweet in its very unique way honey is like I often describe it as being somewhat metallic and I don't think that that's entirely incorrect um it has like a a little bit of a it has a a honey taste to it and this does taste like honey and I like that because this is a mead that tastes like honey not all Meads taste like honey and if you want a baseline Mead that tastes like honey and is made the way that a me should be and that it's commercially available I don't think this is a bad choice this is probably for me this is my stock standard me when I need a mead I start there it's delicious too I mean it's super good this is bees defun natural fermentation from pollen leaven sparkling me from Canada and look at that it is just slightly cloudy almost colorless aggressively fizzy I mean like ala Els are fizzy these two Mees are a thousand miles apart from each other they couldn't be further apart I should have poured less cuz I didn't bring a dump bucket which means I'm going to have to drink all of this I won't make that mistake yet it is incredibly dry there's no sugar left in there at all the yeast have onto town and it has some I'm going to say Esters I think I'm right when I say that it has some unusual Esters has a weird kind of burning plastic or rubber aftertaste oh man yeah I'm not a fan I'm sorry I'm sorry bees to fun maybe these have gone off maybe they've been in the bottle for too long it's worth noting too these sparkling Meads I don't think Vikings had and that that's something that I think is um probably disappointing because when you think of a flagen of me you think of a froth Al like drink right like a foamy beer just because of the way fantasy is always portrayed it but no way not at all um and and to get that kind of Fizz you need airtight secondary fermentation um I don't think that the Vikings were going to do that I don't think that they had the ability to do that make these bottles like this no I don't think so I could be way wrong um and I and please let me know if I am but I don't think so I think you're going to have like partially open fermentation for the most part I cannot drink this there are a few things that I will just dump out man I really don't like that stuff it's an acquired taste now both of these come from the same metery this one is called what do they call this one night eyes a sparkling apple Cherry sumac Rose hiip Mead now what I think about that the sparkling part okay probably not but Apple Cherry sumac rose hips whatever that's the thing right like I don't think that the Vikings were precious about how they make stuff um and I'm going to come to that talk about that more when we get to the to the ale so that's why what I was shopping for was kind of weird combinations sort of renegade stuff I've never seen anything so aggressively carbonated particularly when you're talking about natural carbonation um in my light it is just unrelenting Fizz um if I open that cork all the way the cap all the way it is just going to explode I'm trying to get it to chill out [Music] man this insane this is insane how did you do this I don't know enough about fermentation but I feel like this should be virtually impossible no no no no no no using it like a regulator try to pour a little maybe that'll help you know reduce the volume in the bottle right crying out loud it's unreal so here we are this is um Night Eyes from Enlightenment metery it has an aggressively tartness to it it has almost I mean no sweetness at all it just tastes like very bitter cherries or very tart cherries I should say NOP bitter tart tart really tart the cherries are really up front like tart intensely tart cherries and then there is a bitterness to it at the very finish there yeah oh there's an unusual aftertaste um little vix Vapor Rub action at the very finish there onto my last me this is dagger this is from the same metery this is from Enlightenment metery now this is some weird stuff and that's one of the reasons I I actually think it's really cool this is tarte Cherry fur Hemlock tarot chamomile Mead okay all that that that Conifer Pine stuff the fur and Hemlock okay so here's here's the thing we're going to talk we're talking about Viking uniquely Viking meat because me's made everywhere certainly Vikings drank me like very standard meat right but what do you what would Vikings do when they made meat what would Vikings do when they made ale they did some weird stuff as far as I've read this would be to me something that would be only made by Vikings it's like a unique norely Norse flavor profile as far as I can tell oh my God it has such an intense smell you get cherry and like pine tree so aggressively and so hard on the nose of this um and what's funny when you taste this some people will tell you that oh Jinn Jin tastes like pine trees no man Jin tastes like Jin this tastes like pine trees this really truly tastes like pine trees it is wow is it dense how much's the proof on this cuz it's not high proof right it's only 15% alcohol 30 proof actually that's pretty strong it comes in tart and then quickly this Conifer flavor comes in and it the volume gets turned up on that Douglas that fur that Hemlock which poisonous curious about that the volume gets turned up very fast and it's like you go right past Pleasant into oh man too much too much and then it's lingers there for a tick and then it comes back down and on the way back down it's like oh that's actually kind of nice again where it interplays with the Cherry uh um and you get a different part of the Cherry there I don't know what the chamomile is doing or the tarot I couldn't tell you off the top of my head what those two things actually really taste like the whole thing is quite medicinal you know it is I mean if you talk about like medicinal spirits of the Dark Ages like this is something that I yep absolutely this is 100% um from what I know from what I understand I can't say for sure that this is an exact rep recipe but yeah man some weird like Woods Alchemist Druids going to be up there Brewing this in a pot yes this sounds this is this this is that I think the tarot is the bitter part it's so bitter right away but then need you to get cherry and fur or Hemlock who could distinguish that's some weird stuff oh you put too much in though you get like a it's almost like a brain freeze for your throat it's just like oh man no wonder it comes into such a weird little skinny bottle because like a sniff is all you need certainly there are other Mees out there and that's without diving into the really hard to find locally produced stuff or the stuff you make yourself but I really wanted to focus on stuff you'd have a chance of finding at a store somewhere near home um all these came from as wines so if they deliver to your state you're in luck now mostly Vikings drank ale not me and I do mean mostly like more than water it's a common thing you're going to hear about ancient peoples that they didn't know much about disinfecting water but the beer was clean so they drank that instead and there is a lot of Truth there so what was Viking ale like well the first thing even though they considered ale and me to be a gift from the gods and a matter of religious importance they they weren't precious about what went into their Brew so looking to Modern definitions of this style beer versus that style of beer is not going to be much of a help right uh but it does seem that Viking o was mainly brewed using barley as a grain Source they did sometimes use hops for bittering but not exclusively and maybe not even that often they also really liked Spruce and Pine and especially Juniper actually there's a juniper bitter style of beer that is still produced in Finland called Sati um I'd love to get my hands on some to try it but it is mighty hard to find it's also true that they didn't exclusively use barley for the mash and from my reading on this uh which could be incomplete but then how would I know um it seems that every Brewer and every settlement or town would probably have their own approach and frequently would produce stuff that we would now consider really Renegade hybrid stuff barley apples pears any fruit tree Parts honey anything that they could coax into fermenting that would on balance produce something likable um and remember of course that beer is kind of an acquired tast so a local expression could be about anything and anything could be likable if you've been making it for a while you know anything could go into it right and that I think actually it makes Meade produced really mainly from honey um although we had some examples here that weren't but Mead really produced mainly from honey more rarified and desirable I think that all the Viking a lot of the Viking talk about me and this love of Meade is really aspirational I think it's about you know we got to get the gold man we got to get the me we got to get that money and then we'll be living on the easy street where the Mead flows like ale what I can say for fair certain is that they didn't make loggers um loggers use a different kind of yeast uh that is not isolated until like the 1800s so the question I think is thinking keeping all this stuff in mind if you go down to your beer store you go down to the bottle shop and you want to buy some commercially available ALS that would be you know Viking appropriate what should you buy I'll tell you what my thinking is my thinking is that you should look for ALS with a particular eye towards wild fermentation and really atypical ingredients not that they didn't have alses that would have been made you know strictly from barley they probably a lot of their ale maybe even most of it uh would have been strictly a barley but what makes it uniquely Viking would have been these really weird uh anything goes Renegade bruise I think right that's what is uniquely Viking I bought all these beers uh in my Viking ale hunt let's taste some of them I can't promise I'm going to do them all and uh see what they're about okay let's start with this um this is just Belgian ale so what is this this is lafin Dand I picked up one Belgian ale because a Belgian ale is not wrong a Belgian ale would have been a pretty good example of an ale of its age I think oh this one's ready to go wo oh man what a wonderful smell light and color good God that's delicious that's nice I like that oh there's so much apricot I mean like really strong apricot notes is that made with apricots is that just like a magic thing I would not be surprised if they were using apricots in this bral spices bottled fermented um delicious and probably appropriate to a viking style of Ale uh the ale they would have drank every day no certainly not hey you're raing an ABY somewhere might find some Belgian ale okay this is one this is um I might pronounce this wrong I think it's TS or trugs independent Brewing wild elf they put this out every year it's like a Christmas offering it's a wild ale so they use the wild yeast bre chries and honey this just on thematics alone I feel like this is maybe the most Viking ale I have tart very Cherry is that like almost lime like yeah almost a little bitter bitter it's got some unusual characteristics there's like a dark chocolate finish to that like a very bitter dark chocolate this is another one the wild Beer Company Bliss secret spices roasted apricots wild yeast that sounds like Viking ale to me you know the recipe might change but the chemistry doesn't right ale is kind of Ale Through the Ages that's very dry and earthy H that's a ooh almost tastes like mushrooms that's a really unusual beer I would imagine as you traveled from Village to Village or uh thing to thing you would find different styles made by the uh Al wives did they have Al wives they might have I don't know if I'm mixing up Game of Thrones and uh and actual history right there this is Lost Abbey ghosts in the Forest Oak Aged wild ale I like Lost Abbey it's a wild ale it's aged in Oak barrels now would Vikings age their alses they might you know by the end of the winter they probably haden't been brewing all winter by the end of winter it'd probably be pretty old right cloudy nice totally drinkable I like that it's tart but in like a pretty pleasing way it's not overpowering at all I like a sour but I don't sometimes I've had some sours that are like oh boy little too much I like that it's kind of citrusy in its flavor and you know not having a lot of citrus around if I'm waiting for that Midnight Sun to show up finally you know waiting for the end of winter that's probably a refreshing treat or meal haven't touched this one yet upend sour Al's foraged yeast I find that fascinating yeah they forged the Smoky Mountains brought back some strain and made beer with it it's pretty wild there's something there the idea of a fored yeast and you don't know what you're going to get and what you get is what you get that's light it's really light there's not like a lot of bite or Funk there I mean it's Pleasant it's like uh oh it has a weirdness there I don't know the word for it it does have a strangeness there's a little bit of um a little cheesiness to it I don't know uh all right splash of water and then the last two are two that I actually really like and I've had many times two of my favorite be honestly let's start with the Bell Haven I like Bell Haven Scotch ale Scottish ale if I'm not mistaken involves the toasting of The Barley it's night and day it's just like Woody Earth War tones I mean it's nothing like these other guys each of these have been really unique the wild stuff does have tend to kind of approach like a sourness right like it's kind of a sour a lot of them are more sour all right my favorite beer ice stock we heavy now Ein stock is Icelandic and they do have a viking on the bottle um oh they have a couple of other beers that I think are less Viking uh but the we heavy I think this one's pretty Viking and it's a Scotch ale so this is toasted barley with Icelandic uh Angelica which is apparently a fabled herb that Vikings used as currency so this one might be real Viking is too right beautiful color just absolutely gorgeous amber color [Music] I love that beer it is just so texturally it's really I mean almost a cream ale right I mean it's not but it has a creamy texture to it it is delicious um physically smooth it's not bitter it's not sour it is just a cozy glass of delicious oh there such like a macadamia nut finish there sometimes ha all right we've opened a lot of beers well thanks for watching and I hope you dug it it's a weird thing but maybe straight beer Wine and Spirits reviews is something I can consider doing more of if you guys are real into that I don't know if you're enjoying the show though please do me a favor and do that like comment subscribe business that everyone else is asking you to do uh I'm on Twitter at howto drink I am on Instagram at howto drink and patreon at patreon.com how drink and twitch at twitch.tv/ Greg from HDD if you want to see more of this kind of thing let me know but but also here are some other episodes you might enjoy or not I don't know who knows any that look good to you that look good that one

Channel: How To Drink

Views: 416,413

Keywords: htd, how to drink, mixology, tape brothers territory, alcohol, liquor, bartending, mixed drinks, how to, how to make, spirits, bitters, drink, cocktails, cocktail, classic, recipesvideogame drinks, video games, mead, gaming, what did vikings drink, mead tasting, ale comparison, beer taste test review, what is mead beer, is mead wine, ale review, beer review, mead review, mead tasting history, assassins creed valhalla, what did vikings eat, what is mead, what is ale, drinking beer

Id: 66Oiql5Z_dE

Length: 18min 40sec (1120 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020