It’s a little-known fact that we may owe our entire tradition of drinking to the simple honeybee. The oldest fermented beverage in the world — discovered recently in China — was a combination of rice, honey and hawthorn fruit or, in other words, a form of mead.

While the word is European in origin, many cultures independently developed forms of mead, including the aforementioned Chinese wine and Ethiopian Tej. Mead is still relatively rare in the U.S., but a cottage industry of meadmakers — both amateur and professional — has sprung up in the past several years. Drawing on mead’s romantic connotations and the relative ease with which it can be made, countless websites and forums have posted recipes, which span the distance between the delicious and the gro­tesque.

I fully admit to having never made mead, or any homebrew wine or beer, but I’m more than willing to act as Virgil to your honey-swilling Dante as we embark on our meaden voyage to the wild, weird land of apiary brews.

The basics of any mead recipe are honey, yeast and water. These can vary in proportion, but generally, you want a huge amount of honey and an even larger amount of water. One recipe suggests four gallons of water to 12 pounds (four quarts) of honey. This can be scaled down.

Mix the honey and water over medium-low heat, removing foam as it occurs. As in vodka, the difference between a great mead and one that’s just, let’s say, meadle-of-the-road (I swear, I’ll quit with the puns soon) is good (read: non-tap) water.

The next step is the fermentation. Add some yeast to the mix and let it react for several weeks, until it’s ready to bottle and drink. As with all fermented drinks, the yeast will eat up sugar, leaving alcohol behind. The first thing to note before taking this step is that “yeast” is no longer the stuff you buy to toss in your hypothetical bread machine.

Each kind of fermentation comes with its own kind of yeast: sherry yeast, champagne yeast, ale yeast and mead yeast. Guess which one is preferable (actually, several mead makers have also pointed out the virtues of champagne yeast.)

Mead variations generally fall into two categoies: 1) changes to accommodate a larger scale of production or a sweeter/drier taste (determined by type or quantity of yeast) and 2) the addition of fruit or fruit wine to create different flavors of mead. I’ve seen recipes for things as easy as mead with apple juice used instead of water and as exotic as mead made in a coconut shell.

If you’re not interested in making your own mead (or if you are but want a professional reference point), you can try checking out Earle Estates, a meadery located just on the far end of Lake Seneca in the upstate New York village of Penn Yan. One of a handful of U.S. meaderies, most of which are located on the west coast, Earle Estates has a laundry list of meads — ranging from basic honey mead to alliterative blends that pair mead with their extensive collection of fruit wines. (Think “Cherry Charisma: 30 percent cherry wine, 70 percent mead. Good with chocolate, lasagna.”)

Visit soon, you say?

Oh, I think you should go immeadiately.

Questions about a particular drink or liquor? Let me know at mixology@cornellsun.com