Drinks by theme

Mead Recipes From History: Hydromel, Metheglin and Spiced Honey Water

Mead recipes from Digby’s 1669 book: a weak hydromel for the Queen Mother, Gower’s herb metheglin, a warm morning cup and an alcohol-free honey water.

Updated October 29, 2026

Digby’s weak hydromel in a greenish hand-blown beaker, with a dark green corked bottle and a honey pot in a leaded window.

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A greenish hand-blown beaker of clear pale gold mead beside a squat dark green corked bottle and lidded cream honey pot on a worn oak sill in a leaded window recess.

Wine, Beer & Mead · 56 days 7 hr 30 min total

Digby’s Weak Hydromel, a Light Mead of 1669

A gallon of light, gingery mead at about 4.4% ABV: one part honey to eighteen of water, boiled an hour with ginger, clove and rosemary, from Digby’s 1669 book.

Clear golden metheglin in a white blue-banded handled cup with a blue ring inside, beside a white globular bottle and rosemary, bay and thyme on oatmeal linen.

Wine, Beer & Mead · 70 days 3 hr 20 min total

Gower’s Metheglin, a Herb Mead of 1669

Honey stirred into a decoction of rosemary, bay, thyme and marjoram, boiled slowly, skimmed clear and fermented: Sir Thomas Gower’s pale metheglin from Digby’s 1669 book, at about 8% ABV.

Clear golden honey ale in a tall narrow conical stemmed glass, with a mottled green earthenware jug to one side, a wooden bowl of malt and three dried hop cones on pale wood against a blue-gray wall.

Wine, Beer & Mead · 112 days 3 hr 40 min total

Gower’s Ordinary Drink, Small Ale and Honey

A very small ale with a gallon of honey to every eight, worked with yeast and left three months: Sir Thomas Gower’s everyday drink from Digby’s 1669 book, at about 8% ABV.

What is the difference between mead, hydromel and metheglin?

All three are honey fermented in water, and in Sir Kenelm Digby’s The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digby Kt. Opened, printed in London in 1669, four years after his death, the names overlap. His weak hydromel boils with ginger, cloves and rosemary, and the metheglins he collected carry herbs by the handful.

Strength was the brewer’s choice. Digby’s weak hydromel takes one part honey to eighteen of water and ferments out at about 4.4% ABV by our arithmetic, the strength of an ordinary beer. Sir Thomas Gower let the drinker pick anything from a third to a sixth part honey, “according as you would have it strong, and soon ready.”

Every recipe here comes from Digby’s book, and one stops before the yeast goes in, for a spiced honey water with no alcohol.

Thus was the Hydromel made that I gave the Queen, which was exceedingly liked by every body.

Sir Kenelm Digby, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digby Kt. Opened (London, 1669), pp. 36–37

How strong was old mead?

Anything from ordinary beer to strong ale. By our arithmetic from the honey in each recipe, Digby’s weak hydromel comes out at about 4.4% ABV, and Gower’s metheglin and his honeyed small ale at about 8%.

Did people drink mead in the morning?

Some did. Digby’s recipe for Mr. Pierce’s white metheglin ends with two ways to take it early: a large draught with toast when dinner would be late, or a pint warmed with an egg yolk and fresh butter, to “drink it warm in the morning fasting.”

A plain pewter cup of opaque pale yellow warm mead with butter beads and a faint wisp of steam beside golden toast on a square wooden trencher, on dark oak by a leaded window.

Hot Drinks · 10 min total

Warm Mead with Egg and Butter, Digby’s 1669 Morning Draught

Mead warmed gently with an egg yolk and a knob of fresh butter, drunk hot first thing: a morning cup from Sir Kenelm Digby’s 1669 book, at about 10% ABV.

Can you make mead without alcohol?

Stop before the yeast. Digby’s weak hydromel is honey boiled an hour in water with ginger, cloves and rosemary, and taken off and chilled at that point it is a lightly sweet, spiced honey water with no alcohol in it.

A thick greenish hand-blown beaker of clear pale gold honey water stands beside a brown stoneware honey pot and a board with ginger slices, a clove and rosemary against a sage-green wall.

Alcohol-free version

Sodas & Soft Drinks · 3 hr 10 min total

Spiced Honey Water from Digby’s 1669 Mead

Honey simmered in water with ginger, a clove and rosemary, then chilled: Sir Kenelm Digby’s weak 1669 mead, stopped before the yeast goes in.

Did the Vikings drink mead?

In their poems, mostly. Norse verse gives mead to gods and poets, while the drink at every feast was ale, and nobody in the Norse world wrote a mead recipe down.

Ale, mead, milk and whey in the Norse world are in What Did the Vikings Drink?.

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