Cocktail writer and beverage expert Fred Minnick's book Mead is a comprehensive guide to the world's oldest alcohol. Mead, or honey wine, is a storied drink of history and literature, with appearances in Beowulf and Queen Elizabeth I's glass. Minnick explains the drink's variants and production in detail, down to the habits of the bees, and offers instructions and suggested materials to brew your own, as well as helpful tips from professionals. He explores how mead has been imbibed around the world and over millennia, from ancient Greece to present day Ethiopia, and includes cocktail recipes inspired by each culture, like the Viking Toddy. The book also suggests livening up drinks with mead infusions, mead bitters and mead foam. Informative, useful and clever, Mead is a perfect gift for the person who's already mastered mixology or homebrewing beer. --Katy Hershberger, freelance writer and bookseller