Brian E. Clark

Special to the Journal Sentinel

In the Middle Ages, mead was a popular alcoholic drink for royalty, the clergy and the masses alike.

Which is a major reason Colleen Bos, who earned two graduate degrees in medieval studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich., gravitated to this ancient libation.

“Mead got its start because honey was easy to gather and ferment,” said Bos, who runs the 4-year-old Bos Meadery on Madison’s hip E. Washington Ave. strip just down the road from the State Capitol. It’s one of a handful of meaderies in the Badger State, which some say are the new “thing” for millennials who’ve tried microbreweries and distilleries.

“But mead pretty much died out, except as a curiosity in the United States and Europe until about 30 years ago as an offshoot of craft brewing,” Bos said.

“Now meaderies are popping up all over the country and a lot of people are making it at home,” said Bos, who serves on the board of directors for the American Mead Makers Association. “There are meaderies now in every state. It’s wild.”

Bos said she makes her mead by fermenting honey, water, yeast and a range of fruits, spices, grains and hops. It has a similar alcohol content to wine (11-14% ABV) and dates back well before the Middle Ages.

In Norse mythology, whoever drank the special mead made from the blood of the wiseman Kvasir received poetic inspiration and became a skald, or scholar.

In Asia, pottery bearing traces of mead date to 7000 BC. It was also popular in India 3,000 years ago and is purported to be the preferred drink during the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, which lasted from roughly 500 to 300 BC. In Ethiopia, a mead drink called tej has been popular for centuries, Bos said.

A Roman recipe for mead by naturalist Columella from A.D. 60 went something like this: “Take 18 ounces of rainwater kept for several years, mix with 11.5 ounces of honey. Expose in the sun for 40 days and then leave on a shelf near a fire. If you have no rain water boil spring water.”

Bos grew up near the town of Paw Paw in southwestern Michigan, which is home to a number of vineyards. She was a gardening buff and self-described chemistry nerd.

During high school, she lived in Spain as an exchange student. As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, she studied history and was fascinated by a course on the relations between Muslims, Christians and Jews in Spain during the Middle Ages.

Later, at Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, Mich., she delved into the university’s collection of Cistercian manuscripts. That Catholic order was founded in 1098 and focused on piety through manual labor and agriculture. In the process, the monks became experts at brewing ales, ciders and meads, among other beverages.

“Kalamazoo is also the home of Bell’s Beer, a great microbrewery and one of the first to open in the Midwest,” she said. “They made about every concoction under the sun that you could ferment. The time I spent in Kalamazoo studying medieval history, reading about mead in Beowulf and hanging out at Bell’s led me down this path.”

Bos taught medieval history for several years at Western Michigan and then moved to Madison in 1999 to work at Epic Systems, the electronic medical records giant. During that time, she became a self-taught home brewer and eventually took a commercial beer-making course from the Siebel Institute in Chicago, which she said gave her the technical knowledge to ferment mead on a larger scale.

Unlike beer, she said mead is not heated. Doing so would make the drink lose the “aromas that make local honey really special.”

“But you still really have to be aware of the science behind the yeast and fermentation process so it stays clean and tastes good,” said Bos, who figures she brewed “nearly every type of beer that exists” before she discovered mead.

She said Bos Meadery makes 10 bottled brews and can have 20 other flavors available at different times in the tap room.

“We’re not afraid to play around with tastes,” she said. “We have one coming out that’s infused with cocoa nibs and vanilla beans, so it’s dessert-like. Another is planned for December with spruce chips and juniper and rose petals that’s very botanical.”

Bos said her meads, which are on the dry side, carry the flavor of the flowers that bees use to make honey.

“It’s the ultimate terroir,” she said. “The bees are out feeding on the landscape, so what you are getting is an exact representation of that land. That’s why wildflower honey in Wisconsin is very different than wildflower honey in California.

“People love the idea of farm-to-table eating and this is field-to-glass drinking,” said Bos, who gets her wildflower honey from a farmer in Oxford and clover honey from Mount Horeb. All the other nectars she uses are from Wisconsin. The exotic herbs and spices come from out-of-state, she said.

Her meadery is in the old Gardener’s Bakery Building, 849 E. Washington Ave., across the street from a new apartment and condo high-rise that is home to a Korean fusion restaurant, a grocery story and other shops on the main floor. It’s also just down the street from the Robinia Courtyard, which has a trio of restaurants.

“We get a lot of foot traffic from people who see our sign,” Bos said. “Many are millennials who are into experiences and trying new things. So we’re a good fit.”

The meadery tasting room is in the Tamarack Gallery, operated until 2012 by artist John Griggs. Photographs of old-growth forests by the now Seattle-based Griggs line the walls of the meadery and will be on display through December.

The space also serves as a film and music venue, hosting everything from loud punk to jazz to acoustic bluegrass. “We want to be a place for art, music and artful beverages,” Bos said.

More information: The Bos Meadery tasting room is open 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2-9 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Flights of four, 1.5-ounce flavors are $7, 3-ounce flights are $13 and 750-milliliter bottles are $16.

Tours are offered at 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

Getting there: Bos Meadery, 849 E. Washington Ave., Suite 116, Madison is 90 miles west of Milwaukee via I-94 and Highway 30.