With an extensive background as a Massachusetts insurance executive behind him, William Deyesso resides in New Hampshire, where he gardens and raises animals. Serving on the board of Hobbs Tavern & Brewing Co., William Deyesso enjoys sampling local craft beer and mead varieties.

Classified as neither wine nor beer, mead is made from fermented honey and yeast, with fruit flavors often added after the fermentation process. With the oldest discovered mead vessels dating back 7,000 years to ancient China, the brew predates wine and beer and was popular within disparate cultures.

Among those who imbibed mead were the ancient Romans, Egyptians, Mayans, and Vikings. The ancient Greeks enshrined the drink as a potent ambrosia, or “nectar of the gods,” that was a mainstay in religious ceremonies.

Mead developed in early England as an alcohol that often incorporated herbs and spices and was considered medicinal. The name given to this class of meads, “metheglin,” even comes from the Welsh for medicine. For connoisseurs, one of the draws of mead is its sheer diversity, with the taste depending on the type of honey fermented and local bees’ specific diet of pollen and nectar.