Mead Could Be the Next Big Craft Beverage

From fortune.com

Craft beverage enthusiasts are constantly on the hunt for new experiences and the next big trend. But recently, more of them are turning toward a beverage dating back to 7000 BC: mead.

“Craft mead is hardly a blip on the radar of the craft beverage movement, but I think that plays to our advantage,” says Aron Wehr of Wehrloom Honey, a craft producer in Robbinsville, N.C. “Because our products appeal to craft drinkers, we feel we can win market share from all these growing categories. With craft beverages seeing growth year after year, we’re not trying to beat any of them, but if we can just take customers from each of these vast groups, we can expect to see exponential growth.” Wehr recently launched a Wefunder crowdfunding campaign to capitalize on this predicted growth in order to build Asheville, N.C.’s first mead taproom.

                                     A carafe of mead, a sweet yellow honey wine.   Getty Images

These days, a new meadery is opening every three days on average, with the current number of meaderies surpassing 500, as approximately 200 more await federal license approval—a 2,233% increase since 2003, when America had only 30 meaderies.

Styles include three subcategories of traditional mead, fruit meads, and the all-encompassing “other mead” style, which refers to many of the modern meads popping up on the market that use non-traditional ingredients like peppers, lime juice, or spices. Vicky Rowe, executive director for the American Mead Makers Association, says the organization has seen increasing enthusiasm among both consumers and producers from the 21–40 age group. “If our current growth continues, we’ll see the industry double in size in five years, though we’ll still be much smaller than the other craft beverage industries,” Rowe says.

Billy Beltz, cofounder of Lost Cause Meadery in San Diego, underscores “the growing trend for locality and ‘sense of place’ that has been talked about a lot in food and beer and wine lately, and mead is the perfect example of that.” Lost Cause just released a fortified mead, similar to a port wine, which Beltz says is rare for the industry. The business is also dabbling in mead research, testing different nutrient protocols for mead.

                                                      Mead and pancakes.    Getty Images

Mead’s foundation in honey perpetuates the inaccurate perception that meads are too sweet and too thick, or only drinkable in the winter or around a fire. In fact, many meaderies are striving to redefine this versatile beverage, which can be light, effervescent, and low in alcohol.

Honey also has plenty of health benefits—another factor in mead’s increasing popularity—being rich in antioxidants that can help lower blood pressure. “With the health benefits from honey, mead is hot right now,” says Ayla Guild, owner of The Hive Taproom in East Troy, Wis. "The only limiting factor to the expansion of the mead market I see is the availability of quality honey, especially as the honeybees struggle nationally. As beekeepers ourselves, we see how the bees have many issues plaguing them, and while they are resilient creatures, we worry that the current methods of shipping bees all over the country for pollination services is unsustainable long-term.”

Dedicated festivals are popping up, and the drink is being added to the agenda at other craft beverage festivals more frequently, too. But the mother of all mead festivals is MeadCon, put on by the American Mead Makers Association and taking place in March 2020 in Broomfield, Colo. The next iteration will mark only the third year of this event, which AMMA’s Rowe describes as “a two-day event with speakers for individual mead enthusiasts and professional mead people talking about everything from how to make a better mead, mead history, techniques, equipment, mead and food pairing, and it changes all the time.” The association’s other main focus next year? “To get mead its own place in the industry, separate from wine at the federal level,” Rowe says. “This is an ongoing effort.”

https://fortune.com/2019/12/22/mead-craft-spirits/

Superstition Meadery Owners Aim to Make Mead the Hottest Holiday Drink

From signalsaz.com

Ten years ago Prescott residents, husband and wife Jeff and Jen Herbert were planning a Thanksgiving dinner and wanted everything to be homemade. Jeff decided to concoct a beverage that paid homage to Jen’s family’s roots in Vermont, and used an at-home brewing kit she’d given him to make a maple-flavoured mead – an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with water and other flavours.

By 2012, the couple, encouraged by friends, turned what had started as a hobby in their garage into Superstition Meadery, a Prescott, Arizona-based mead-making company that generated $2.7 million in revenue last year. The business sells its creations in 375-, 500-, and 750-milliliter bottles directly to meadery visitors and alcohol retailers around the country. This past May, the Herberts were together named the Small Business Administration’s small-business person of the year.

Mead is hardly the staple that wine is, but it is gaining ground-particularly as U.S. consumers have become increasingly experimental in their alcohol-consumption tastes. “We were always the kind of folks who would rather drink an imported beer or microbrew instead of a Bud,” says Jeff, whose mead comes in flavours like maple, blackberry, and peanut butter and jelly. “I wanted to apply all these crazy ideas to home-brewing.”

Superstition is now among the five largest mead producers in the country, according to Vicky Rowe, the executive director of the American Mead Makers Association. But it’s not the only company finding success at the bottom of a honey jar.

What’s old is new

Mead, which dates back to ancient times, has seen a rebirth in recent years. During the 20th century, about 64 meaderies opened in the U.S., but that number jumped to 118 between 2015 and 2017, Rowe says. She adds that about 90 are set to open between 2018 and 2020, bringing the total number of meaderies in the country to more than 600.

Tracking the consumption of mead is difficult, because the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the government agency that regulates alcohol, doesn’t distinguish mead from wine. “We are kind of the redheaded stepchild of the alcohol world,” Rowe says. However, sales of off-premise mead -that is, mead that’s sold through retailers instead of a meadery- have increased by about 30 percent in the past five years, according to research firm Nielsen. Last year, the off-premise mead industry generated $9.3 million in sales, a 7.9 percent increase from the year prior.

Part of the appeal of the mead business is that honey -for all the challenges confronting the nation’s bee population- is in high supply in certain pockets of the U.S., such as Michigan, Washington, and California. Many mead producers are headquartered in those states, which also have long-standing agricultural industries and less stringent regulations on alcohol production, Rowe says.

The mead trend is also a result of changing tastes. Like the Herberts, plenty of consumers are keen to try something new-even if it is 4,000 years old. “Millennials and Gen X-ers, who are really big on trying new things, really kicked it off,” Rowe says. “It’s definitely helped the mead industry, and we are seeing those same age groups open meaderies themselves.”

A holiday tradition

Thanksgiving is always a special time at Superstition, Jeff Herbert says. Not only is it the anniversary of that fateful holiday dinner party that kicked everything off, but it’s also the company’s biggest sales season. The Herberts typically release special flavours so customers can stock up for the holidays. This year, they experimented with three barrel-aged payments, or meads made with added grapes or grape juices.

Superstition generates a lot of its holiday business from tourists, who descend upon Prescott for Christmas-themed events, Jeff says. He notes that mead’s high price point often makes it something consumers drink on special occasions, like Christmas or New Years. The company expects to book about $3 million in revenue this year, about 25 percent of which will come from November and December sales.

Modern appetites

That’s not to say getting to this point has been easy for Superstition’s founders. In the early days of the company, neither of them knew a thing about mead, besides what they had attempted in their garage. Jeff pored over mead-making books and trade magazines to learn more about the industry, and sought professional training to learn how to start and run a brewing business.

He enrolled in Chicago’s Siebel Institute of Technology in 2010, where he took three days of courses on professional brewing. He learned what it takes to fund a business, which pipes and electronics he needed in the meadery, and how to run a restaurant. Meanwhile, Jen, who had worked in risk management, safety protocols, and other areas that affect the business.

While the couple now has a better handle on many of the meadery’s early challenges, the cost of mead’s ingredients, especially honey, continues to be a concern despite the plentiful supply. (The company gets its honey from many different sources, primarily within the U.S.) Special ingredients that add flavour, like saffron or vanilla, further add to the expense. Superstition charges from $15 to $48 per bottle; the product’s novelty allows the company to command the relatively high price. Still, mead is not something people consume on a daily basis, Jeff notes.

Fortunately, Superstition is located in a town with heavy foot traffic. And it’s preparing to open a 3,500-square-foot space next spring in downtown Phoenix that the Herberts say will be the first mead and food pairing restaurant in the world. That should help raise the profile of mead, they say. “The key is getting people to try it,” says Jeff. “There is great range-dry and sweet and carbonated. They will find something to fall in love with.”

https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/superstition-meadery-owners-aim-to-make-mead-the-hottest-holiday-drink/

Prairie Bee Meadery: It’s like tasting 'Saskatchewan in a cup'

From theprovince.com

The family-owned Prairie Bee Meadery is the province’s first craft meadery.

Mead is a perfect Christmas sipping around the fire drink.
It’s a pretty new venture in Saskatchewan — only a handful of businesses make the fermented honey wine — but more promise to spring up as the province’s cottage wine and microdistillery industry keeps growing.

In 2016, the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority announced forward-thinking changes aimed at these industries. The new regulations were intended to make it easier to get started as a craft alcohol producer in Saskatchewan by providing a competitive mark-up structure, while reducing red tape and streamlining marketplace access.

The family-owned Prairie Bee Meadery is the province’s first craft meadery and takes pride in hand-crafting small batches using the best clover, alfalfa and wildflower honey available from the family’s bees.

Crystal Milburn owns Prairie Bee with her husband Girard and her parents Vicki and Dennis. The honey and much of the fruit comes from the family’s chemical- and pesticide-free orchards, called Grandpa’s Garden, west of Moose Jaw.

Crystal Milburn, along with her family, owns Prairie Bee Meadery. The family’s orchards and beehives are near Caron, while a tasting room and retail shop is open seven days a week at 23B Main Street North in Moose Jaw. Richard Marjan / Supplied photo

Crystal said it’s important to honour the mead making craft, along with the family’s agricultural roots.
“Because we’re working with honey, we‘ve got a real reliance on our bees and our origins in farming and fruit growing. We really want to keep it local. We want it to be something that’s made here: Saskatchewan in a cup.”

Saskatchewan-grown fruits (like sour cherry, haskap, raspberry and strawberry) are added to the wines before fermentation to create a variety of flavour profiles. The meads’ flavour profiles range from sweet or dry, to light or bold. They source fruit from elsewhere in Canada when necessary — such as B.C. cranberries for Christmas mead.

Crystal’s parents began making “really good” mead at home with all the honey from their bees and her mom soon decided opening a cottage winery was the way to go. Crystal, Girard and their four children moved from Alberta to the farm to run the business. They brought in Dominic Rivard, an internationally renowned fruit wine specialist, to help them develop the mead recipes and launched Prairie Bee Meadery in 2016.

                                         Honey bees Gord Waldner / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

The goal is to keep Prairie Bee in the family. That means they’ll stay small enough so that the current family members can maintain the business without requiring a lot of outside help.
“My parents feel strongly that building this business is a legacy for us and for our children,” says Crystal.

Visit Prairie Bee Meadery’s tasting room in Moose Jaw located at 23B Main Street North or the website for online ordering and a list of other Saskatchewan retail locations: prairiebeemeadery.ca.
Group tours and wine tastings at the farm and orchard can also be arranged during the summer and fall.

https://theprovince.com/opinion/columnists/flat-out-food-prairie-bee-meadery-its-like-tasting-saskatchewan-in-a-cup/wcm/1022c888-1dc0-4f9a-8be5-80fc2d0456ac

4,000 Years In, Bringing Innovation To Mead (Yes, Mead)

From pymnts.com/news

It is hard to call mead a trendy beverage — since it’s been around for at least 4,000 years, first showing up in ancient Egyptian texts described as the beverage of the gods. Still, it is younger than both beer and wine (which are 5,000 and 6,000 years old respectively) and never quite achieved the same cultural ubiquity of either. The honey-based fermented beverage (sometimes called “honey wine” though dedicated mead drinkers affirm that mead is a fundamentally different drink than wine) has been something of a niche or regional favourite for the last five or so centuries.  

But the 21st century has seen something of a mead renaissance. During the whole of the 20th century only 64 meaderies (breweries for mead) were open in the U.S. In the first 20 years of the 21st century, that figure has more than doubled to 118. How much more mead people are drinking is a bit harder to track — since the ATF does not distinguish between mead and wine — but according to Vicky Rowe, executive director of the American Mead Makers Association, Americans’ thirst for the product is clearly growing.

“We are kind of the red-headed stepchild of the alcohol world,” Rowe told INC, noting that despite its outside status, the sales of off-premise mead (mead that’s sold through retailers instead of a meadery) have shot up around 30 percent in the last five years.

Last year, the off-premise mead industry generated $9.3 million in sales, a 7.9 percent increase from the year prior. 

And rising to meet the nation’s rising need for mead are Jeff and Jen Herbert, who 10 years ago started on the path to being one of America’s premier mead makers — a journey that as of last year saw their business, Arizona-based Superstition Meadery, bring in $2.7 million in revenue. That, incidentally, is enough to make Superstition Meadery one of the top five mead businesses in the nation, an accomplishment rendered slightly remarkable by the fact that neither Jeff nor Jen Herbert were actually looking to get into the mead-making business when they made their first batch a decade ago. They were just looking to make a beverage for their “all homemade” Thanksgiving dinner of 2009.  

What they learned was that they liked making mead a lot, and started pursuing it has a hobby in their garage until about 2012, when family and friends suggested there might be a business in it. And so the Herberts became professional mead makers — and set about innovating a product with a 4,000-year history to introduce it to consumers. Because, as Jeff pointed out, consumers are drinking differently than they have in the past. Extrapolating from their own habits around consumption, the couple realized they wanted something new, and thought lots of other consumers likely did as well. What mead offers, he said, is an entirely new canvas to experiment with flavours and the entire drinking experience itself. 

“We were always the kind of folks that would rather drink an imported beer or microbrew instead of a Bud,” said Jeff. “I wanted to apply all these crazy ideas to home brewing.”

Crazy ideas that have translated into maple, blackberry, and peanut butter and jelly flavoured meads flowing from Superstition Meadery.

More than that, Superstition Meadery has also sought to position its drink not so much as a daily use item so much as a special occasion one, a reality cemented by the fact that their product comes at a high price point. Superstition sells its meads priced from $15 to $48 per bottle depending on what specialized ingredients are included in the blend (saffron, for example, costs more than vanilla). That high price, incidentally, reflects the high cost of small-batch production and the fact that the firm’s main raw material is honey, which is abundant but not cheap even at wholesale prices.  

At that price point, Jeff noted, most customers aren’t drinking mead with dinner every night, but the holiday season is annually a very busy time as consumers stock up on gifts and specially-flavoured meads for their own consumption during the season. The company expects to book about $3 million in revenue this year, about 25 percent of which will come from November and December sales.

And the Herberts are looking to expand, with plans to open a joint restaurant and meadery in downtown Phoenix sometime in 2020. Because, according to Jeff Herbert, the only thing standing between customers and a long, loving relationship with mead is the simple fact that most consumers have never heard of it or tried it before. And, after a few thousand years, he thinks now is the time to really start getting the word out. 

https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2019/4000-years-in-bringing-innovation-to-mead/

Schlafly Beer to Release Low-Calorie, Low-Carb Lemon-Lime Mead Spritzer

From riverfronttimes.com

If there was one alcohol craze that dominated 2019, it was the increase of hard seltzers flooding the market (and our livers). Now, Schlafly Beer is hoping to bite some of that same gluten-free and calorie- and carb-conscious market with a spritzer of its own.

Dubbed Boomerang, the first flavor of Schlafly's mead spritzer, lemon-lime, is set to be released on tap and in cans at both brewery locations this Friday. The spritzer will also be available in retail stores in mid-December.

"Hard seltzers and spritzers have been huge, but we feel like there's a segment of consumers out there who are interested in something that's locally produced and a bit more artisan-produced, and that's how we approached Boomerang," says Schlafly lead brewer Jared Williamson. "From a brewers' standpoint, I really wanted to do something in this category but go about it in a different, more crafted way than anyone else is doing so far."   

     At under 100 calories, Boomerang is poised to compete with the current hard seltzer craze.                                                            Liz Miller    

Williamson says the line will grow to include more flavours over time, but what unifies them all is an incredibly simple list of ingredients and low calorie and carb count. The introductory lemon-lime flavour, for example, is made with just mead (water and honey) and natural lemon and lime flavours. Zero sugar is added to the spritzer, which clocks in at 90 calories and only three carbs per twelve-ounce can. At 4 percent ABV, the gluten-free sipper is lightly carbonated and offers a refreshing change of pace from the sometimes overly boozy flavour of hard seltzers.

"For people who don't know what mead is, this isn't going to be a normal mead, but for people who do know what it is — fermented honey — this is a really interesting kind of addition to this whole seltzer and spritzer category,"  Williamson says. "We're using honey, water and citrus flavour and fermenting it with yeast; it's very simple and classic, but also a new-school presentation."

Mead even inspired the drink's name: When you throw a boomerang, it eventually comes back around to you, much like, Williamson says, the recent comeback of mead, an ancient beverage. Boomerang isn't the brewery's first foray into mead, but it's the only "sessionable" and completely dry offering that Schlafly has released in cans.     

"People think about meads and they think about these really sweet red wines, which is what they were traditionally, but this is completely fermented out, so when it hits your palate, there's perceived sweetness, but then it dries out really quickly," Williamson says. "It's not like drinking a sweet beverage by any means; it's very crisp and refreshing, and then it has that citrus pop. The end beverage is something unlike I've ever had."

Well before the December release, Schlafly has been testing various flavours of the mead at both local beer events and through R&D with family and friends. Lemon-lime was deemed the "champion" as it's a familiar flavour, but Williamson says that customers can look for new flavours in 2020, including possible berry and tropical mead spritzers. He says the brewery will likely be testing new flavours at future beer events and festivals around town.     

"We were the first craft brewery to open in the shadow of Anheuser-Busch and now we're trying to do something new in the industry with these spritzers and seltzers and thinking a little bit outside the box," Williamson says. "We don't want to just be the next spiked water. This is the hottest thing since IPAs in the beverage industry. We're excited with what we've come up with this year and to get to market before the year's even out."

Packaged in classic twelve-ounce beer cans, Boomerang offers something else that most hard seltzers do not, as Williamson notes:

"These will fit your Koozies!"                                  

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/foodblog/2019/12/02/schlafly-beer-to-release-low-calorie-low-carb-lemon-lime-mead-spritzer

                                                                                                       

Bring on the mead: NY state now licensing farm meaderies

From stockdailydish.com

New York state is offering new licenses to operate farms for the production of mead, an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with water.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that applications for operating farm meaderies are now being accepted. The Democrat says the move builds on New York‘s standing as the nation‘s leading craft beverage state and the top honey producer in the Northeast.

Cuomo signed legislation in December that authorizes the licensing of farm meaderies for the production and sale of mead made exclusively from New York-produced honey.

Farm meaderies are allowed to sell their products by the glass or bottle from their manufacturing facilities or tasting rooms, along with any other wine, beer, cider or spirits produced by a New York state farm manufacturer.

https://stockdailydish.com/bring-on-the-mead-ny-state-now-licensing-farm-meaderies/

Mulled Mead Glows Up

From sandiegomagazine.com/Blogs

Meadiocrity Mead’s glühmet, or mulled mead, is a unique treat for blustery days

Move over, hot toddies. Hot mead is here and—spoiler alert—it might be the Next Big Thing.

Mead is often referred to as honey wine, but that’s not quite accurate. It’s categorized as wine due to lack of a standalone segment in the United States’ alcohol industry, but the mead-making process is more similar to beer and the end result evokes an agricultural terroir akin to cider. Honey is the main fermentable sugar and the alcohol content ranges from very low (3% ABV) to fairly high (20% ABV), with most falling somewhere in the middle.

While mulled mead shares quite a few similarities to the traditional toddy (honey, lemon, spices, and, of course, alcohol), mead’s relative obscurity has stifled more mainstream acceptance. San Diego is home to a small handful of meaderies, and one of these early local adopters is San Marcos-based Meadiocrity Mead, who recently released their take on glühmet, or hot mulled mead. (“Glüh” or “Glüeh” translates to “glow” in German, which references the now-antiquated method of plunging a red-hot poker into the beverage to heat it up.)

                                                                 Photo by Beth Demmon

“Mead is easy to make, but hard to make well,” comments Mark Oberle, one of Meadiocrity’s co-founders. He posits that a lot of people who say they don’t like mead just haven’t been exposed to a well-made option. Their tasting room at 1365 Grand Avenue, Suite 100 opened this October and offers around a dozen different meads, all made with San Diego honey. Like other hot libations, Meadiocrity’s glühmet (Oberle pronounces it “glue-meat”) is only available at the source.

To make glühmet, Meadiocrity starts with a semisweet 12.5% ABV base mead and adds orange, lemon, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, and allspice. It’s kept warm in an electric coffee percolator before being transferred to the final drinking vessel, which comes as a 2-ounce pour for $4 or 6-ounce pour for $9. The heating process does diminish the alcohol content slightly, but the final 12% ABV still falls well within the standard range for meads.

At first sniff, the aromatics are overwhelmingly lemony with the spices taking a slightly muted role. The fruity characteristics continue their domination in the flavour as well, but thanks to the smooth sweetness of the honey and elegantly restrained supportive spices, it never seems overly tart There’s an unmistakable bite to it, which one can expect from pretty much anything 11% ABV or above. But it drinks easily, maybe even a little too easily for 12%. I could see myself accidentally ordering a few of these, especially during this cold snap San Diego is experiencing. I’ve had a lingering sore throat for a few weeks, and glühmet is way more soothing (and delicious) than the cough drops I’ve been relying on for relief.

My only advice for Meadiocrity is to zazz up glühmet’s presentation a little more. A stick of cinnamon or orange slice garnish would add a festive flair to an already fun and unique beverage. But I can live without the panache. The experience is worth seeking out and far from mediocre.

https://www.sandiegomagazine.com/Blogs/The-Tap/Fall-2019/Mulled-Mead-Glows-Up/

Minnesota Is Ready for a Mead Boom

From minnesotamonthly.com

The honey-sweet drink is beginning to swarm the Twin Cities, and we’re here for it

Mead has been around about as long as humans have been drinking alcoholic beverages.
Excavations of ancient Egyptian tombs have unearthed mead, and a form of the honey liquor was enjoyed in Neolithic China. Aristotle refers to mead when discussing the very nature of sweetness. In Norse mythology, mead was said to inspire poetry. Perhaps most famously, mead plays a central role in Old English epic poem Beowulf, where it serves as the medium through which legendary stories are traded.
It’s the common ancestor of beer, wine, and cider. And yet mead has remained on drinking culture’s fermented fringes, at best a fourth-string intoxicant. It enjoyed a popularity bump in the middle of the decade, thanks in no small part to the popularity of Game of Thrones and mead-swilling fan-favourite barbarian Tormund Giantsbane, plus a few odd mentions in the Harry Potter series. But this year’s Minnesota State Fair marked the latest evidence of mead entering the hive mind.

The Fair’s vaunted 2019 beer list featured a standout from Sociable Cider Werks: Honey Bee Lavender Honey Mead. In the sea of 53 shandies, dessert beers and experimental IPAs, it was this mysterious, yet eminently familiar, drink that sparked the most curiosity.

Sociable Cider Werks’ Mead for Speed    Courtesy of Sociable Cider Werks

Put simply, mead is honey fermented in water. As malt is to beer, apples are to cider, and grapes are to wine, honey is to mead. Microbes feast on the honey, creating a wine-like elixir that can be combined with fruits, juices, and even hops to create an incredible variety of flavours.

“There’s over 200 varieties of honey in the United States alone, so that’s 200 varieties of mead you can make right there,” says Joshua Eckton, owner of White Bear Meadery in White Bear Lake. “You can blend honeys, you can use different yeasts to change the characteristics, and of course there are different fruits and spices you can add in. There’s quite a range.”

Eckton, a mead homebrewer with three decades of experience, opened White Bear Meadery in June, the first mead-only taproom in Minnesota. White Bear’s meads show off the drinks’ versatility and seasonality. Their traditional meads are clear and served slightly chilled (Valhalla and Freya). One mixes apples and cinnamon in a toddy-like delight (Spiced Eple). Another infuses coffee into a caramelized honey wine (Berserker).
It’s only now that Eckton sees a viable business opportunity. Less than six months after opening, he’s seen craft beer adventurers, some with hundreds of taprooms visited, wander in to try the next evolution in the local beverage scene.

“Everybody knows about beers and wines, and mead’s getting into the spotlight again,” he says. “People are saying, ‘OK, that’s another craft beverage.’”

Eckton estimates 90% of his clientele still don’t know what mead is, exactly. Over the years, locals became acquainted with the beverage at the annual Minnesota Renaissance Festival. There, costumed fairgoers revel in the medieval appeal of mead, drinking it from horns as Vikings would. The association between the Renaissance Festival and mead began in 1971, when festival organizers reached out to drywall contractor and hobby meadmaker James E. Bird, asking him to make a drink for their 21+ attendees. J. Bird Wines became a commercial winery in 1984, and they’ve been the Ren Fest’s mead supplier the whole time.

“It’s amazing how many people don’t know what it is, but yet how old it is and how popular it was,” says Matthew Winters, current co-proprietor (with James E. Bird’s granddaughter Jessie) of J. Bird Wines, based in Cambridge. “It’s a simple thing of saying, ‘Mead was the first alcohol that was ever created, so every other alcohol ever created was the bastard child of mead.’ So, you should at least try it to know where all the alcohol started.”

Winters knows that, in order for mead to have a renaissance all its own, it needs to get out of cosplay culture and into the mainstream. That means larger commercial companies need to normalize mead as a regular offering before people stop seeing it as a novelty. But the lack of consumer awareness, high price of honey, and lengthy fermentation time are all obstacles to this breakout.
“With beer and wine, you can pump out large quantities, and it can be good relatively quickly,” Winters says, noting that J. Bird meads sit for three to four years. “People want it quicker. But now people are starting to realize that, if you want something good, you can wait for it.”

                      WineHaven’s Stinger Honeywine mead           Courtesy of WineHaven 

Along with Sociable, J. Bird Wines, and White Bear Meadery, commercial producers fermenting honey into mead in Minnesota include Waconia’s Schram Vineyards, Minneapolis 'Urban Forage and Chisago City’s WineHaven Winery and Vineyard. Opened in 1995, WineHaven has built its reputation on the success of its internationally awarded Stinger Honeywine mead.

“[Mead is] one of those beverages that, frankly, I’m not sure why it disappeared,” says WineHaven winemaker Kyle Peterson. “Prohibition had something to do with that, but it was the beekeepers who kept that tradition alive.”

Beekeeping has been a tradition at WineHaven throughout the generations, and this close connection to the honey and its source is, to Peterson, what separates their mead from the field. He remembers his grandmother telling stories of Queen Elizabeth and her royal recipe for mead, marvelling at the drink’s significance in royal weddings (giving us the term "honeymoon"). “There’s this huge, huge culture to mead that most people, to this day, aren’t even aware of. It used to be bigger than beer, and it’s nice to see it’s getting its moment again.”

Lou Karp, the man behind Sociable Cider Werks' mead program, went to meadmaking school two years ago. At the time, mead was growing faster than  any other alcoholic beverage market. Until hard seltzer blew up, that is. Still, Karp believes mead’s White Claw moment awaits.

“It’s just a novelty to people right now,” Karp says. “A lot of commercially available meads are extremely sweet and super high in alcohol, and that’s not what we’re making. We want to make something that’s accessible to everybody.””
In addition to Honey Bee Lavender Honey Mead, Sociable released a low-ABV canned mead (Mead for Speed) in January to help the drink mount the comeback it deserves. But Mead’s growth velocity ultimately lies in the public’s willingness to give it a try. Minnesota drinkers are known for being omnivorous, so it’s only a matter of time until mead is dusted off and held, once again, to the same heights as beer, wine, and cider.
“It’ll definitely continue to rise in popularity,” Karp says. “We just gotta get it into people’s hands.”

https://www.minnesotamonthly.com/food-drink/drinks-cocktails/minnesota-is-ready-for-a-mead-boom/

Return of the drink loved by Vikings and ancient Celts

From bbc.co.uk

                       A long-lost tradition of making mead has been revived in the Perthshire hills

                                                                   Christopher Mullin      

High in the hills above Pitlochry in Perthshire a former soldier has embarked on a new mission to revive an ancient Scottish drink.

Mead, which is made from fermented honey, was much loved by Celtic tribes and Viking warriors.
But, over the last few centuries it has largely disappeared with beer, wine and whisky knocking it off its pedestal.

However, Christopher Mullin has now restarted mead brewing in Scotland and is recreating recipes dating back thousands of years using archaeological evidence.

His army career as an intelligence officer took him to numerous military headquarters around the world, but after retiring from the armed forces he has now set up his own base, the Rookery, in a converted stable building amid the hills and forests of Glen Brerachan.          

Christopher's interest in mead stems back to his time studying Gaelic at the University of Aberdeen when he learned about it through studying Beowulf and other early literary works from across the British Isles.

There was one other key reason for its appeal - honey.

                                       Christopher Mullin foraging for ingredients of the drink

                                                                    Christopher Mullin

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Kitchen Café programme, he said: "The process I use is not unlike making wine as I ferment the sugars in water but my sugar source is honey. That's absolutely sacrosanct. It must be honey.
"I don't add white sugar. I don't add anything else as a fermentable. "

He added: "Honey is almost like a magic potion. It's an amazing product to work with. It's malleable, it lasts forever, you can get different varieties of flavour, it's resistant to infection and it is anti-bacterial.
"One of the things I am really proud of is I don't use any chemicals in my production process. I don't use fining agents but more importantly I don't use sulphates or preservatives because honey itself is a preservative. It's just a wonderful thing to work with."

Much of the honey used is sourced from an apiary just a few miles down the road from the Rookery. The location of the business also makes it an ideal location for foraging for other key ingredients.
"I add adjuncts which is a brewing term for things to give the mead additional flavour," said Christopher.

"Most of these come off the hill that we brew on. Most of my adjuncts are native species, such as mountain ash berries or hawthorn berries, because I am really interested in the history and archaeology of Britain.
"Most of what I do either was definitely done by our ancestors or probably done by them. The evidence I use goes back 4,500 thousand years and people have been around here for a good 10,000 years before that. I gather things our ancestors were out picking at similar times of year to me to make similar products."

                                     The Vikings were fond of the odd tipple or two of mead

                                                                     Getty Images

In the Rookery a new concoction with its origins in the Bronze Age is currently brewing. It is based on archaeological evidence of mead production gathered from the Machrie Moor standing stone site on the Isle of Arran.
Christopher said: "It is a honey and grain and flour brew which is what most of those really old brews were. I have brought together two of my hobbies - making booze and archaeology.
"Sometimes it is an interpretation so I am getting close to what was maybe being made thousands of years ago. But this one, which should be getting released next year, is as close as possible. It is not an interpretation it is practically a reconstruction. "

                                            Christopher Mullin is making mead from a Bronze Age recipe                                                                                         Christopher Mullin

Mead was the drink of choice for the elite for the early people of the British Isles, but by the Middle Ages imported wine from the Mediterranean had become more common.
However, Christopher said the real decline in mead's popularity can be linked with changes in the way beer was produced, which vastly increased its shelf life.

He said: "The big game changer for mead is the introduction of hops. Once hops comes in beer lasts longer. It now becomes a commercially viable product made by men rather than women at home.
"Beer becomes cheaper so you can now get drunk on a penny instead of a shilling. And economics takes over.
"So mead falls by the wayside and becomes a niche historical curiosity. And that takes us to the modern day where you have got in the UK probably about five or six of us making properly made meads and I am the only one in Scotland. I am the Scottish mead industry right now."

And Christopher said it is something that is definitely worth bringing back.
He said: "The flavours that are possible are just legion. From dry and herbal through wine like and sharp. Through fruity through complex through focused through sweet. It's just a great thing to be experiment with and play with.
"It's great in cooking too. Where you can use beer, wine, sherry you can use meads. The best bit though is you get to taste the past."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-50488465

Best Reasons To Purchase A Beer Drinking Horn

From thedubrovniktimes.com

The beer drinking horn is linked to the Vikings, greatly admired for their fierce and courageous qualities. A beer drinking horn is a drinking vessel that’s made of animal horns like cattle. While Vikings are warriors, traders, and explorers, they also loved to drink alcoholic beverages like beer and mead.

Beer drinking horns embody the Vikings’ admirable qualities and traditions. For this reason, serving drinks in a beer drinking horn is a unique and meaningful way to celebrate achievements and important events in your life.

                                                                       Shutterstock

Below are the best reasons why you should buy a beer drinking horn.

Unique Event Theme

A Viking-inspired theme won't be complete without a beer drinking horn. It's a unique concept that’s gaining popularity, especially during weddings. What’s more, a beer drinking horn is a nice giveaway. Telling your guests that they can bring home their beer drinking horn after a wedding reception is a unique and memorable way of ending your celebration.

Here are some examples of events or occasions where you can implement a unique Viking theme:

● Wedding: If you're looking into a unique and memorable wedding theme, having a Game of Thrones theme is a great idea. Feel a real Viking feast by serving your guests beer in drinking horns, which are perfect for cold beverages. Enjoy and relive the Medieval times, using such a unique drinking vessel.

● Bachelor's Party: Whether bachelorette or bachelor party, having a Vikings theme would make the ambiance unique and cool. Just imagine yourself and your closest friends tossing and drinking endless amounts of beer until you're all satisfied chatting and bursting into laughter.

● Children's Party: For children's parties, drinking horns can hold juices, smoothies, or other favourite drinks for everyone to enjoy. Ask the kids to wear Vikings costumes and send out Viking giveaways. With the matching holder, the kids can set their own drink down so it doesn’t tip over.

● Halloween Party: This occasion is a great chance to take selfies or photos of people wearing the coolest costumes ever. So why not take the opportunity to wear a Viking costume and flaunt your polished beer drinking horn? It's such a great idea to celebrate Halloween.

● Christmas: If drinking beer, wine, soda, or juice in a glass feels too “ordinary,” consider switching things up with beer drinking horns. This item will surely make your Christmas eve more exciting and magical.

Best Pairing for Grilled Food

Drinking horns go well with grilled foods, like barbecue and steaks during festive celebrations on various occasions. For instance, a citrusy and bright American pale ale has strong hops notes that dance with the best spices of grilled foods and barbecue sauce, making a great drink pairing. Beer malt perfectly matches with the savoury meat.

Feel the unique drinking experience and savour the delicious taste of meat, best paired with your beer drinking horn to hold your beverage.

Encourages Conversation

Surely, you'll have a lot of guests on your special day. While you might know all of them, they might not know each other as much and feel uneasy around unfamiliar faces. Break the ice with beer drinking horns. Serving beverages in beer drinking horns can be a great conversation starter.

Here are the things your guests would love to talk about while seeing such unique drinking vessels:
● The uniqueness of the drinking horn
● First-time experience of using a beer drinking horn
● Eagerness to use a similar theme on their next event

Experience Pride While Drinking from a Premium Vessel

While drinking wine, beer, or any other beverage in a glass can be elegant, many people are already used to such a drinking vessel. Drinking in a unique and premium-quality drinking horn will leave the person feeling more special in your gathering. Treat your guests extra special by choosing only the best drinking horns.

Here are the qualities of a high-quality beer drinking horn:

● Safe to Use: A high-quality beer drinking horn is double sealed with a modern and safe sealant to ensure safe use and no leaks.
● Handcrafted: A high-quality drinking horn is made by hand to ensure it is well-crafted.
● Sustainable: Horns were obtained from family farms specializing in horn crafting for sustainability and respect for animals. Only deal with a trusted seller who can provide proof of using only sustainable horns to consumers. One way to check is through the company’s website.
● Durable: Choose one with a resin-based material to prevent warping, contracting, and expanding.

Conclusion

Drinking horns have been around for ages. These drinking vessels were used by Vikings a long time ago, and modern celebrations can benefit from beer drinking horns, which embody quality, pride, respect, and appeal.

https://www.thedubrovniktimes.com/lifestyle/feature/item/7734-best-reasons-to-purchase-a-beer-drinking-horn

It's back! Beat the crowds and take a sneak peek inside Thor's Tipi in Lincoln

From lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news

There are a few surprises this year

Thor's Tipi are back and this year Lincolnshire Live got the chance to take a sneak peak behind the tent curtain.
The pop-up tipi is open from Friday, November 8 until New Year's Eve.

Two interlinked canvas tipis form the Viking-themed bar, which this year celebrates a brand new layout, a bigger selection of beers and an even bigger menu.

Last year's The Cheese Cave has been replaced by the street food vendor The Sausage Grill, which is usually based in St Marks.
The new and improved menu boasts a wide variety of drinks this year, including hot cocktails such as the Thor's Hot Toddy and hot ciders including the Caramel Apple Cider.
A selection of mead will also be on offer this year, including the tipis very own Thor's Mead and Viking Blood Mead.

             There's a new and improved drinks and food menu (Image: Lincolnshire Live)

There is also a brand new Thor's photo booth, meaning you can take home a memento of your night for just £3.

Alex Hardcastle, national events manager for Thor's Tipi, said: "We're extremely excited about the opening this year.
"Every year we aim to improve and this year I believe is the best year we've ever had. We've developed the menu and we've tweaked our hot drinks so you can choose to add shots of alcohol.

               Thor's Tipi opened at midday on Friday, November 8 (Image: Lincolnshire Live)

"We also have Viking drinking horns this year, so basically anything you can buy in a pint, you can drink from a horn. There's a great selection of local ales and we have our Thor's pale ale. The Cheeky Imp ale will also be on offer this year.

"We sell more hot chocolate in Lincoln than we do anywhere else, so we have a section of our menu called Cocoa House and that includes drinks like the Choco-Hazelnut Cocoa and Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. We've really taken the feedback we've received from both customers and staff alike and made some great changes that we're hoping will be popular in Lincoln."

                           Viking horns will be available this year (Image: Lincolnshire Live)

The bar will be family friendly with children allowed in until 9pm and you can also bring your pet pooch along too.
The tipi will be open 11am till 11pm Sunday till Thursday and 11am till late Friday till Saturday.

https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/its-back-beat-crowds-take-3516394

All About Cakes and Ale (or Cakes and Wine)

From patheos.com

I was recently asked about the origin of the phrases “cakes and wine” and “cakes and wine.” Both phrases are common in Modern Witchcraft circles and have been a part of the Craft for at least the last 70 years, and most likely before that. So why do we use these terms and what is “cakes and wine” all about?

                                                                   “Scones and Ale”

The term “cakes and wine” in relation to Witch ritual first shows up in Gerald Gardner’s 1954 book Witchcraft Today. Gardner’s first reference to cakes and wine is to refute an author of the time who suggested that Witch ritual resembles that of the Catholic Church:

“There may be a fertility dance, but the other rites are simple, and with a purpose, and in no way resemble those of the Roman Catholic or any other Church that I know. True, sometimes there is a short ceremony when cakes and wine are blessed and eaten. (They tell me that in the old days mead or ale was often used.) This may be in imitation of the early Christian Agape, the Love Feast, but there is no suggestion that the cakes turn into flesh and blood. The ceremony is simply intended as a short repast, though it is definitely religious.”

Just a couple of pages later Gardner mentions Modern Witches performing a Yule ritual and ends that paragraph with “The Cakes Wine and Ceremony follows.” In other words, “cakes and wine” has been around since people started publicly identifying as Witches in the early 1950’s.

Cakes and wine is obviously shorthand for “communion bread and wine,” and if you’ve read anything about the Witch trials of the early Modern Period you might have noticed that Christians seemed convinced that witches were imitating and mocking the eucharist and the communion ritual. There are even stories of witches stealing “the hosts,” which generally taste awful so that seems completely nonsensical to me. Gardner references this ideas in 1959’s The Meaning of Witchcraft:

“The taking of wine during the rites is part of the ceremony; it consists usually of two glasses at the most, and is not intended to be a ‘mockery’ of anything, still less a ‘Black Mass.’ In fact, witches say that their rite of the ‘Cakes and Wine’ (a ritual meal in which cakes and wine are consecrated and partaken of) is much older than the Christian ceremony, and that in fact it is the Christians who have copied the rites of older religions.”

Cakes and wine (or “cakes and ale” which is my preferred term for reasons we will get to below) involves the sharing of food and drink, most often near the end of ritual. While the ceremony is called cakes and ale, any sort of food stuff works as a “cake.” Over the years my coven has used all manner of baked goods as cakes. Cookies, rolls, bread, and cupcakes all come to mind, along with fruits and vegetables. For ale we’ve used wine, cider, mead, beer, milk, and sparkling grape juice. Any kind of liquid can be used as ale, though wine is probably the most traditional. A completely alcohol-free cakes and ale ceremony is acceptable and is a must for covens with recovering alcoholics. (I have a great deal of sympathy here since my own mother is an alcoholic.)

At its core, cakes and ale serves as a celebration of the abundance and fertility of the earth. We are able to eat cakes because the earth provides us with grain and all the other things necessary to turn that grain into something edible. Most of us also see cakes and ale as a tangible gift from the gods.

Because they are a gift from the gods, cakes and ale serves as a moment of thanksgiving during Witch ritual. We thank the gods for what they’ve given us, and our thanks help to sustain them in turn. When handing out cakes and ale, I’m reminded of all the other gifts that my Lord and Lady have given me over the years (my coven, the Craft, and dozens more). We should be thankful for what we’ve been given, and cakes and ale provides an opportunity to do just that.

The Pagan group the Church of All Worlds has a saying that I’ve always found applicable to cakes and ale: “Water shared is life shared.” While my coven’s cup is generally filled with wine instead of water, the sentiment is still valid. Groups that share food and drink with one another generally stay together. Sharing cakes and ale is a way for a group to bond and forge the ties that will keep them together.

The phrase cakes and ale is a traditional English one that means “the good life,” (1) and there are few things better in life than enjoying good food and drink with chosen family while in a magickal space. The phrase first showed up in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in 1602 in the line “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” Because of the deeper meaning of the phrase cakes and ale, I find it preferable to cakes and wine, though the latter is nearly as common in witchy circles (with wine also being more common in my own chalice).

                   The Lord of Misrule in Shakespeare’s (Edward de Vere’s) Twelfth Night

Though Gardner called the ceremony “Cakes and Wine” he also mentions “cakes and ale” in The Meaning of Witchcraft (where it was most likely picked up by other Witches):
“In the old days, they tell me, ale or mead might be used instead of wine, any drink in fact that had “a kick” in it, because this represented “life”. I wonder if this is why Shakespeare used the expression ‘cakes and ale” as a synonym for fun which was frowned on by the pious?”

Cakes and ale serves another purpose in ritual: it’s a great way to ground. After an hour of raising energy and praising the gods, putting some food and drink in the belly is an easy way to come back down to earth, so to speak. Eating and drinking help reconnect us to the physical world, which is so easy to forget about while in the magick circle. In the few instances when I’ve left a ritual without receiving cakes and ale, I’ve found myself a little out of sorts.

Before being consumed in ritual, the cakes and ale should be blessed by whoever is leading the ritual. When with my coven, I generally use the beverage that was activated in the Great Rite and then pass that cup around the circle. At large gatherings I use individual cups for everyone, blessing them with my athame, which still usually has a bit of the liquid held by the cup in the Great Rite. My wife suggests passing around the cup before the cakes to avoid food particles getting in the wine.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2019/11/cakes-ale/

Celebrate veterans and rescue rabbits with this mead

From gainesvilletimes.com

Once I entered the giant Total Wine & More shop in Brookhaven, the first question I asked one of the employees was, “Where’s your mead section?”
The first staff member stared at me blankly. 

“What’s mead?” they asked.
“Honey wine,” I replied.

I figured this person must be new, so I asked for assistance from another employee. It took three tries to find someone who knew what I was talking about.

This is a massive wine shop full of styles that I can’t even pronounce. You would think they would know what mead is. After all, it’s one of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages, dating back to ancient Greece, Africa or northern China depending on who you ask.
I asked Blair Housley, mazer (mead-maker) and owner of Etowah Meadery in Dahlonega about his experience educating the general public on mead.
It turns out, Housley comes across many people on a daily basis who have no idea what he’s selling.

                Etowah Meadery's Cane Break session mead. - photo by Nick Bowman

“Around 80% of my customers have never heard of it or tasted it,” Housley said. “I tell them it’s wine made from honey. It’s always a learning experience for patrons.”
Since 2018, he has been canning his mead and sending it off to wine shops around Georgia.
Never having tried mead from a can before, I jumped on the opportunity to grab one of Housley’s meads.

Housley said he was inspired to begin canning his mead after people kept asking to take the drinks to-go from the taproom. Since the mead on tap was either nitrogenated or carbonated, he didn’t feel comfortable sending it off in bottles. The carbon dioxide in the drink has the potential to put pressure on the cork, causing it to explode.

So far, canning the mead has proved a success.
Loving all things tart, I decided to indulge in the meadery’s Cane Break, which is made from Georgia raw honey and black currant.
Housley said he chose to incorporate black currant into the mead as a means of offsetting the sweetness of the honey flavour with the tart, bitter berries. 

Initially he made a full-version mead that came out at 12% alcohol by volume. He soon found out that a lot of people enjoyed it, but they wanted a lighter taste.
Housley decided to make this one of his session meads, which means he bumped the alcohol content to 6.5%, making it a little lighter and easier to drink.
The final version of Cane Break morphed into a sweeter version of the original.

Although the drink is undeniably sweet, it’s on the dry end for mead. It has a beautiful semi-tart black currant punch on the backend.
You’d be hard-pressed not to enjoy this mead. Even if you’ve never tried mead, this offers something that’s easy-drinking and not overly sweet.

If you take a look at the can, you’ll see a rabbit holding an American flag. The can’s art was designed by Grant Searcey, who recently died from cancer. Housley said Cane Break is one of the last pieces Searcey created. 

Cane Break holds additional significance to Housley because it supports veterans and a domestic rabbit rescue group.
A portion of the proceeds from Cane Break are donated to local veteran organizations and the Georgia House Rabbit Society in Marietta.
Housley and his wife currently live with four house rabbits.
“We wanted something that would honour veterans and my wife for the rescue efforts and desire she has for house rabbits,” Housley said.

The name of the mead was also influenced by rabbits.
Cane Break comes from the canebrake rabbit, also known as a swamp rabbit.
“These are the rabbits that grew up in the thickets of cane along the Etowah River,” Housley said. “Native Americans and early settlers hunted this rabbit.”

If you’re ever in Dahlonega or near a Total Wine & More shop in Georgia, I urge you to try this mead. I don’t like to throw out the words “unique” or “special,” but this drink definitely falls into that category.

Etowah Meadery is located at 3003 Morrison Moore Parkway in Dahlonega. For more information about Housley’s tasty mead, visit etowahmeadery.com. 

https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/life/kelsey-drinks-beer/celebrate-veterans-and-rescue-rabbits-mead/

“A Real Expression of Irish Terroir” – Kate Dempsey, Kinsale Mead

From fft.ie

When was the last time you tasted mead? If Denis and Kate Dempsey have their way, this honey-based drink (which averages 12% ABV) is about to follow in the footsteps of craft beer, cider and gin by undergoing a renaissance here in Ireland.

Kate and Denis hail from Coventry and Rosscarbery in West Cork respectively. They both worked in IT before being converted to mead on a trip to the US. “We’d heard about it in history and in literature, but we didn’t realise how delicious and versatile a drink it was until we tried craft mead in the US,” says Kate. “Then we were hooked.”

When an opportunity to take voluntary redundancy came up at work, the couple decided they were ready for a change. They started making meads with different honeys, fruits and botanicals at home and in 2016, they moved to West Cork and opened the Kinsale Mead Company – the first new meadery to open in Ireland for 200 years.

They now produce four types of mead. Their traditional-style Atlantic Dry Mead is made from raw orange blossom honey, water and yeast. They make two melomel styles, which involves fermenting the same orange blossom honey with fruit. For the Wild Red Mead, the honey is fermented with Wexford blackcurrants and dark cherries and for the Hazy Summer Mead, it’s fermented with six ripe summer berries.

“We also have a fourth small-batch mead made from West Cork honey,” says Kate. “Our Wildflower Mead is probably the first commercial mead made from Irish honey in centuries. It’s only for sale in our meadery and online.”

Currently, the Kinsale Mead Company sources its orange blossom honey from a family-run company in Spain while Paul Kelly at Chanting Bee Apiary in West Cork supplies them with the honey for their Wildflower Mead.
The fermentation process they follow is not dissimilar to wine. Honey is mixed with warm water and a wine yeast is added to it.
“We use frozen fruit for the melomel meads,” says Kate. “As the fruit defrosts, the juice is released and mixes with the honey and water. We control the temperature every day so that we get a smooth ferment. When it reaches the level of alcohol and sweetness we want, we bring the temperature down, rack off the lees and filter. Then we leave the meads to mature for six to 18 months before bottling them by hand.”

Kinsale Mead is finished dry because pairing the mead with food is important to Kate and Denis. “We would like to re-establish some of the terroir around mead,” says Denis. “There used to be so many meaderies in Ireland and if mead had developed in the way wine has developed in France, we’d now have meaderies all over the country, with regional varieties being paired with local food.”
“Mead is wonderful for food pairings and cocktails and a great alternative to wine,” adds Kate. “We are eager to collaborate with chefs and mixologists to bring this light, refreshing drink back into the mainstream.”

Based on their experiments to date, they have found their Atlantic Dry Mead pairs well with salty foods such as olives, oysters and blue cheese as well as making a great mule-style cocktail.
“Our local chocolatier uses our Wild Red Mead in his chocolate fillings and mixologists have used it in everything from spicy gins to Irish Manhattans,” says Kate.

The pair believe their Hazy Summer Mead could become the Irish answer to Pimm’s, and often suggest their Wildflower Mead as a chilled after-dinner drink served with salty cheeses or something creamy like a crème caramel.

Kinsale Mead Company has already won an impressive array of awards. “Our Hazy Summer Mead won gold at the 2019 International Mazer Cup which is like the Olympics of Mead,” says Kate. “We’ve also won Gold and Silver at Blas na hÉireann, gold at the Free from Food Awards and recently a 2 star Great Taste Award for our Atlantic Dry Mead. We are proud to be able to say that we are making world-class meads from our meadery here in Kinsale.”

Their meads are stocked on a growing number of shelves. “We are stocked in around 170 places in Ireland and we have recently ventured into the UK,” says Kate. “You’ll find us in SuperValu, O’Brien’s Wines, independent off-licences and speciality food stores.”

Their plans for the future involve exploring the world of mead even further. “We want to make more unique Irish meads as well as innovating with barrel aging,” says Kate. “There is also so much wonderful Irish food out there and we want our meads to be paired with it to give a true sense of place, a real expression of Irish terroir.”

https://www.fft.ie/a-real-expression-of-irish-terroir-kate-dempsey-kinsale-mead/29261

Couple aims to create Japan’s 1st meadery

From the-japan-news.com/news

CHICHIBU, Saitama — A couple in the town of Ogano, Saitama Prefecture, has produced samples of mead using local honey and spring water, taking the next step toward fulfilling their dream of opening a meadery.

The alcoholic beverage was created by Elena Kudo, 31, and her husband, Hiroki, 34, who runs an information technology company. Elena and Hiroki asked a sake brewery in Kitakata, Fukushima Prefecture, which has experience making mead, to produce the sample for them.

                                Elena Kudo displays a sample bottle of her mead at the                                                                                     town office of Ogano, Saitama Prefecture.

                                                      The Yomiuri Shimbun

Mead is made by fermenting honey with water and yeast used for wine.

After tasting the mead, Ogano Mayor Shintaro Mori said, “With its slight sweetness and fruitiness, it’s delicious.” The town will assist the couple in procedures to apply for use of the spring water as well as introducing local beekeepers, with an aim to help the mead become a local specialty.

Elena was born in Moscow but raised in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. She studied at Tokyo University of Agriculture and, seeking to take advantage of what she learned, moved to Ogano with her family in January to make mead.

The couple has already leased from the town office the gymnasium of a closed junior high school to use it as a brewing factory.

There are several criteria to obtain a brewing license, such as a constant scale of production. The couple is applying for a brewery license with an aim of setting up Japan’s first meadery, selling mead with an alcohol content of 8 percent to 10 percent in 375-milliliter bottles.

https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0006100539?fp=3020fa0b1037492798c75a2035e4b82c