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/