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Mead, an ancient alcoholic drink made simply out of water, yeast and honey, is a trend on the rise, bringing together backyard beekeepers and homebrewers to make the sweet drink.

(Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

You might not hear a lot about mead, but you probably will soon. It seems like just last year that hard cider took the stage as the newest ancient-fermenting-process-gone-wild, but with a simpler recipe, and a longer history, mead is now stepping up to the plate.

"Mead is the new cider," said Cameron Larson, operations manager at Bee Thinking, a beekeeping supply store. His store primarily sells urban beekeeping supplies out of a cozy S.E. Hawthorne storefront, but has been slowly pushing mead, an ancient alcoholic drink made of honey, yeast and water. After seeing what was in his opinion poor quality mead (and an open market for innovation), he decided to start teaching people how to make the drink themselves.

The process is simple: Combine honey, yeast and water in a large container and let it sit for a least a month. While there are some tips and tricks to the process, which are best learned in a class like Bee Thinking's, it's otherwise pretty straightforward – much simpler than brewing your own beer.

Given its simplicity, you might expect to see liquor store shelves lined with mead. Instead, Larson explained, you get a paltry assortment of bland attempts. But that could all soon change. "Mead has never been made on a commercial scale in the U.S.," he said. As of 2009, there were 90 meaderies in the country. This year, there are 200, with 150 more in the works, he said. "It's absolutely exploding."

Those figures include Salem's Honeywood Winery, which has been in production since 1934, as well as seven other producers in Oregon and 12 more in Washington. Portland is slowly climbing aboard as well, with places like up-and-coming Fringe Meadery, which has been handcrafting small batches for the last five years.

Larson smells a trend waiting to happen, and his intuition is easy to trust. The upstarts have quickly outpaced the veterans, setting up the Great Mead Renaissance of the 21st century. "All these people are young, they get it," he said. "That's the class of people we need to take it seriously."

Mead seems like a "Portlandia" episode away from being elevated to the status of "hip," and subsequently derided as "hipster." It's a blessing and a curse that creates a competitive field of innovators, saddled with the lofty expectations of a trend – just ask cider.

It's best to look past the ensuing buzz surrounding mead. Beyond the trendiness, there are real benefits for bee populations at play. Homemade mead is best with homemade honey – a backyard project that reduces overall hive failure rates, and makes for a happy and robust bee population. Equipment to start hives can be found at your local beekeeping supply store like, say, Bee Thinking, which suddenly seems to be in a very nice position.

"I think a lot of people are looking for something more interesting," Larson said, himself included. The shelves in his store are lined with some of the better concoctions he's found, but he could soon dedicate a wall – or a whole new storefront – entirely to mead. But the real beauty of the drink is that you can make it yourself with little effort and cost. "You can make it in a bathtub if you wanted to," Larson said. "And that's part of the whole lure."

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MEAD MAKING CLASS

When: Saturday, March 15, from 6 to 9 p.m.

Where: Bee Thinking (1551 S.E. Poplar Ave.)

Tuition: $75 (includes equipment and instruction)

--Jamie Hale