Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [55]
I had not come to the monastery for spiritual reasons, or so I thought. Why, then, had I found myself at Buckfast Abbey, asleep inside a small, spartan room? I had traveled all this way from America to the Devon countryside in the southwest of England to see a man whom I had admired from afar for many years. I must admit that the admiration was not one that at first seemed to be a profound calling. But for a kind of reason that always seems mysterious to me, I had appointed myself seven years earlier to make the pilgrimage to this place, across the Atlantic, to meet and be in the presence of Brother Adam. Why? Because Brother Adam and I shared a rare interest in making and appreciating honey mead, a fermented “wine” of honey and water. Mead enjoys a tradition preceding beer and wine. There are very few people who know its secrets. For years I have been slowly trying to discover and unravel them.
Born in 1898, Brother Adam had retired from a life of devotion at Buckfast Abbey, a life that began upon entering the monastery at the age of 12 after having emigrated from Germany to England. His interests led him to study and breed honeybees for more than 75 years, traveling hundreds of thousands of miles throughout the world to crossbreed his very personal collection of bees. The hybrid Buckfast bee is known throughout the world for its favorable characteristics and resistance to disease and parasites.
In his own small but magnificently significant way, Brother Adam had helped assure fruit, vegetable and nut harvests throughout the world by developing bees that survive to pollinate flowers and assure crops.
Brother Adam’s mead-making began as a pleasant byproduct of bee breeding in 1940. When I visited in 1993, it was still a tradition at Buckfast Abbey, reserved for moderate enjoyment by monks at the monastery. For over 50 years he had found the challenge of making traditional mead a side interest, much as I have found brewing and drinking beer and mead a side interest of mine and one of the many intriguing and beguiling aspects of life.
Brother Adam
Far more than a mead maker, Brother Adam provided me with an insight into devotion. A man of 95 years, his spirited walk and generous hospitality were mere reflections of a long and meaningful life. His memorable voice, though somewhat unclear with age, was a reflection of unfathomable knowledge, patience and sentience only devoted persons possess.
I spent all of my morning pouring through Brother Adam’s file on mead making—short articles on the subject, references, recipes, experiments and formulations recorded over the past 30 or so years. They all fit into a small hatbox. The formulations were rather simple. Experimentation was indeed part of the progression over the years. Yet there were no copious stacks of recipes or piles of research papers. Brother Adam’s procedures were as modest as those of any modern-day homebrewer or mead maker. He “brewed” mead in 60-gallon batches and fermented it in large oak barrels. Wine yeasts were used, but were often difficult to get in England during the early days of mead-making at the abbey. Nutrients were essential, and his experimentation with small amounts of cream of tartar, ammonium phosphate and citric acid provided the vitamins needed for complete and dependable fermentation.
Light clover honey was found best for dry and/or sparkling meads, while darker honeys such as the abundant heather honey found throughout Britain was more suitable for sweeter,