The Legend of the Pictavian Ale

Scottland

The Picts were a proud and independent people living in the Highlands of northern Britain from ancient times in the land then known as Pictavia. They were known for tattooing themselves blue, for being fearless and ferocious fighters, and for making the best Mead in all the ancient world. They stubbornly kept the recipe for their Sacred Mead a secret from all outsiders.

Norsemen raiders and explorers came ashore in the 9th century looking to plunder and possibly to build settlements. The Picts fought bravely, but were ultimately outmatched by the equally ferocious Scandinavian Vikings.

History records that the Vikings decimated the Picts during these raids.

History also records that after slaying most of the Picts, the Vikings kept alive the High King of the Picts and his 12 year old son. The leader of the Viking war party issued an ultimatum to the High King of the Picts, demanding that the Pictish leader would either give the Norsemen their recipe for the Sacred Mead, or else be forced to watch the Vikings torture his young son for days before his death would ultimately come. To this terrible decision, the High King of the Picts replied—You've put me in a terrible place. I cannot bear to see you torture my son—but neither can I bear for my son to see me betray our ancestors in giving you the secret recipe. I will do this—if you will put my son to death quickly without torture, so that I do not see him suffer long, and he does not see me dishonor our ancestors by giving away the secret recipe—then I will teach you how to make our Sacred Mead.

The Vikings agreed to this and hogtied the young boy hand and foot before throwing him off of the high cliffs into the rocks and waves of the North Sea, by which the young man was quickly dispatched. When the leader of the Vikings told the Pictish High King that his demands were met and he was now required to reveal the recipe, the King quickly stood up and shouted, Now you Viking demons will NEVER get the recipe!! At this, the much smaller Pict King bull rushed the Viking leader and the two of them both went over the cliff with the same results as the young boy.

Thus was the secret recipe kept secret. Or was it? We know now (and the Vikings certainly knew even then) what ingredients the Picts used in their Sacred Mead. They were brewing their Mead with a small, purple wildflower that grows all over the Pictish/Scottish Highlands. But this flower when grown in the wild often has a fungus that grows on the stalk, called an ergot, that is deadly toxic when ingested. The mystery of the Picts' Sacred Mead was not regarding the ingredients, but rather in how the Picts used these ingredients without poisoning themselves to death.

Not poisoned to death—but also not chemically inert. Scientists and chemists now understand that when the Picts brewed their Sacred Mead, there were still potent chemicals left behind in the drink. The Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman, using the same Ergot that grows on the Scottish wildflowers, first synthesized LSD in 1938. Historians are now sure that the Picts were enjoying a Mead that was a potent psychedelic drink with a naturally occuring LSD.

Our interpretation of the Picts' Sacred Mead is free from LSD—but still rich in the spirit of the Scottish Highlands.