The man behind magpie mead – steve merr, better known as magpie, tasted mead for the first time in 1990 at a renaissance festival. It was a drink he immediately liked. Lack of a commercially available, quality product, motivated him to set out to find out about it. Magpie researched centuries-old texts and obscure information resources, trying to find information and recipes for mead. His findings motivated him to try his hand at making mead.