Kiwi uni students create a buzz in the market with mead RTDs

From nzherald.co.nz

A couple of university students are taking the craft Ready To Drink (RTD) industry back to the future with one of the world's oldest beverages.

With the market booming throughout New Zealand, many are entering the game with new twists on the classic mixer.

Wilbur Morrison and Edward Eaton, however, are doing something different, and are stirring the honey pot, instead of the drum.

"Traditionally mead is a sort of desert style wine, very sweet and high in alcohol," Eaton said.

Wilbur Morrison and Edward Eaton are producing something unique in the RTD market.     Photo / Supplied 

 

"But we're trying to modernise that and bring it into the 21st century by creating a low alcohol sparkling mead, that's low in sugar."

Dating back thousands of years, brewing mead from honey is an age old classic.

Consisting of Native Kamahi Honey and Hawke's Bay lemon, The Buzz Club's Session Mead revolutionises the historic drink, and instead sits uniquely on New Zealand shelves.

"It's a got a light honey nose, a sort of touch of floral," Morrison said. "A lot of people expect it to be really rich and sweet but actually it's light and refreshing."

After becoming part of his parents' bee keeping business, Morrison said the inspiration for mead came out of pure chance.

The Buzz Club has begun distributing throughout areas of Christchurch.

Photo / Supplied

"My parents started beekeeping about three years ago and it wasn't going very well, so I jumped in and used my life savings to buy into the business which I ran while I was at uni. I used to get my mates out to come and help keep the bees, and one day one of them said have you heard of mead, to which I said never."

Morrison paired up with longtime family friend Eaton, and they then together began experimenting with their new found fascination.

"So it started out with just a couple of months of us brewing in Wilbur's parents' office," Eaton said. "Lockdown put a bit of a hold on things, but then as we started to get more serious we started creating products that we thought were really good, and it's been a learning curve ever since."

Now marketing their first final product, the friends produce what they believe to be something special.

Eaton said showing New Zealanders that mead and honey can be used for something different, was a key part of what drove them.

"We aren't trying to make another 10-pack that's there to be binged on and just to be drunk. It's a mead first and we want to show that, we really want to bring something different to the table."

Filled with rules and regulations, Morrison said alcohol and craft RTDs was an industry that towered high at first.

"It's definitely intimidating. There was a lot of nights sitting on computers and reading Government documents but I think you get your head around it in the end."

However, Eaton said the sense of community amongst the craft market is strong, and competitors aren't afraid to lend a helping hand.

"We've been in contact with a lot of helpful people in the brewing industry and found a lot of mentors that have been a massive part of getting us to where we are."

Auckland University School of Chemical Sciences senior lecturer Lisa Pilkington, is researching honey mead and said The Buzz Club's product is just what we need.

"When I talk to people about mead, it's definitely not a super fashionable drink so there's a wide open market for it to be reinvented," she said.

"It's really taking something that's traditional and turning it into a lifestyle, 21st century product and really in tune with the trends."

Pilkington said mead enables a special position in a booming industry.

"You've seen the recent growth of the craft beer industry and now the movement towards lifestyle drinks and RTDs, so I think this a very new and unique take and there's definitely not anything like it on the market. I think it will be very popular."

The Buzz Club has begun distributing throughout areas of Christchurch, and aims to fill shelves throughout the country during the New Year.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/kiwi-uni-students-create-a-buzz-in-the-market-with-mead-rtds/SLEX7UD4I64LJ76QAHUF2RALXM/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatcha Brewing, Honey?

 From porchdrinking.com

While it has been used for thousands of years in brewing, honey is an up and coming star of the craft beer world. Brewers are becoming more aware of the myriad possibilities it presents. Honey provides multiple potential contributions to beer depending on how and when it’s used in the brewing process and has a dizzying range of flavors. Factors such as terroir, the botanicals visited by the bees, and even the time of year the pollen was gathered all affect flavour. So what exactly does honey do for beer, and why do breweries use it?

Honey, the Most Ancient of Fermentables

The main reason honey has been used in beer throughout history is because it’s a fermentable sugar. Honey contains approximately 40 percent fructose and 30 percent glucose, along with traces of other less fermentable sugars. Mead, arguably the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage, is a type of wine made today primarily, or solely, from honey. Historically, though, honey was mixed in with fruit, malted grain and any other flavoring or fermentable ingredient to make what was essentially a barley wine.

Getting enough sugar from malted grains to ferment into beer takes a good amount of human intervention. For honey, the bees have done all the work for us. Sugar (about 50/50 fructose and glucose) is also used in beer by some brewers as an affordable method for boosting ABV (alcohol by volume) while also drying out the mouthfeel. The advantage of using honey is that it often leaves some residual sweetness and aroma behind due to sugars it contains that are too complex to fully ferment.

The Vast World of Honey Flavors

The geographical region and temperate climate where pollen is gathered by bees and the type of botanicals they visit all play a role in what type of honey is produced. For example, honey produced from wildflowers such as clover tends to be very light and delicate; honey gathered from buckwheat produces a dark honey with a molasses-like flavor and consistency. Humid locales also produces a more moist honey than arid environments.

If you really want to get an idea as to the many flavours of honey, check out this Honey Varietal Guide from the National Honey Board that is used by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), or check out this Honey Flavor Wheel produced by UC Davis. Overwhelmed by the range of possible flavours? When tasting honey, honey sommelier Alison Conklin of the National Honey Board suggested in a recent media presentation breaking your reaction down to the 4 Fs: “floral, fruity, funky or a favorite that you cannot put your finger on.”

Photo by Pikist

How to Bee a Good Brewer

After choosing the type of honey, brewers have to decide exactly how and when to add it to the beer. Honey is full of acids, minerals, vitamins, yeasts, bacteria and enzymes. These can all potentially help or harm a beer. Pasteurizing honey by adding it during the “hot side” of brewing (boil through flameout) can kill any wild yeast or bacteria, but it can also reduce or eliminate the honey’s delicate aroma. Some brewers choose to add it to the “cool side” after cooling down the wort to fermentation temperature. Although there is a chance wild yeast and bacteria can cause off flavors in a “cool” fermentation, many brewers and mead makers think it’s worth the minimal risk.

One final use for honey in beer is bottle-conditioning, to provide natural carbonation. In order to provide a shelf-stable product, most commercial brewers force carbonate with CO2 before bottling or canning. Some brewers prefer to carbonate their beers as close to how Mother Nature intended. Breweries that employ natural carbonation of their beers through honey include The Ale Apothecary and Cellador Ales. Paul Arney of The Ale Apothecary employs 100% natural carbonation in all of his beers. Sometimes fruit juice is used for this process, but it’s often honey. Kevin Osborne of Cellador Ales told us in an email that “it felt like a shame to add sucrose to a product that we tried hard to source the best malt, hops, barrels, and fruit for.” He also feels that honey “leaves the perception of sweetness or fulness in the finished project even after all the sugar is fermented out."

https://www.porchdrinking.com/articles/2020/12/21/whatcha-brewing-honey/ 

Christmas pudding and mead, perfect together

 From yadkinripple.com

By Bill Colvard

It’s a shame that the tradition of a Christmas Pudding never quite caught on in the United States. It’s not that Americans aren’t aware of Christmas pudding, or plum pudding, as it’s sometimes called. We’ve all seen Dickens “A Christmas Carol” way too many times for that. But still, a lot of us have never eaten one. And that’s unfortunate.

Christmas puddings have been around at least since the Middle Ages when they were boiled in cloth bags, and there are as many recipes as there are families who make them, but two elements never change: dried fruit and plenty of alcohol. Currants, raisins and prunes are the most usual dried fruit. In fact, the name plum pudding comes from raisins, which were called plums in pre-Victorian England. Port, sherry, mulled wine, rum and brandy are the most common forms of alcohol used in Christmas puddings, but it is really surprising that mead, which is just as “Merry Olde England” as Christmas pudding itself, is rarely used. That, too, is unfortunate.

Besides the history of Christmas pudding and mead being so compatible, the taste is not merely compatible, it’s a marriage made in heaven.

Mead, which in its purest form is honey and water fermented into a beverage that is essentially honey wine, predates medieval times. It is often claimed to be the first form of alcohol known to humans. Sometimes, fruit, spices or herbs are added to create varying flavours.

Windsor Run Cellars in Hamptonville makes several meads, and their “Honey Moon” golden mead, according to their website, “offers the lingering richness of sweet wild flower honey, warmed by the addition of our very own hand crafted liquor.” The description is accurate, and Honey Moon’s flavor profile is perfect for Christmas pudding.

Windsor Run is a distillery as well as a winery, and also offers a distilled spirit made from honey. Called “Killer Bee,” it is not only a distilled spirit made from honey, but a distilled spirit made from the honey of “Africanised” killer bees.

Again according to Windsor Run’s website, Killer Bee is “… a quite smooth liquor, bearing a distinct honey aroma, and a subtle honey flavor, which is altogether pleasant by itself in a glass or snifter, while remaining an interesting and highly flexible mixing option.”

It turns out one of those mixing options is Christmas pudding. Soaking the dried fruits destined for a Christmas pudding in Windsor Run’s Honey Moon golden mead and then dousing the finished pudding with Killer Bee for a glorious flambé has all the components of a spectacular finale to your Christmas dinner.

Since the late Victorian period, it has been customary to prepare Christmas pudding on the Sunday prior to the beginning of Advent, which is four or five weeks before Christmas.

The prayer for that Sunday in the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer (as it was used from the 16th century, and still is in traditional churches), reads like this:

“Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

It must have seemed to Victorians that the church itself was commanding them to “stir up” a pudding. The Sunday before Advent is still known as “Stir Up Sunday.”

Everyone in the family, especially the children, should give the pudding a stir to bring good luck in the following year, preferably stirring from East to West, in honor of the direction in which the Magi will soon be traveling.

It’s also customary to insert a sixpence into the pudding, and the lucky recipient of the coin when the pudding is served, can expect to be “plenteously rewarded” in the coming year. Hopefully, that reward will be substantial enough to repair any dental damage resulting from chomping into a sixpence. Other tokens are also known to have been included in Christmas puddings, such as a tiny wishbone (to bring good luck), a silver thimble (for thrift), or an anchor (to symbolize safe harbor.) This tradition is totally optional. If you have any qualms about extraneous coinage, Monopoly tokens or poultry bones threatening the lives of your family, by all means, leave them out.

Unlike cooks in the United Kingdom and countries which formerly comprised the British Empire, you may not have a pudding basin. You’ll need one. Since only the upper classes had ovens back in the day, Christmas puddings are steamed in a pot of boiling water on top of the stove. The steaming requires many hours, and you need a vessel capable of handling that.

You can buy one, but if you order it online, give it plenty of time to be delivered. It’s probably traveling a good distance. Historically, pudding basins were ceramic or metal, but are now sometimes plastic. The plastic ones have the advantage of coming with a tight-fitting lid which simplifies steaming and storage. But for an American who has never experienced cooking something on the stove-top in a plastic container, it is a harrowing five hours of constant worry that one’s glorious pudding is, at any moment, collapsing into a puddle of molten plastic. Ceramic vessels are less expensive but require a somewhat complex structure of parchment paper, foil and kitchen string to cover the basin, make it airtight, and lift it out of the boiling water. There are plenty of YouTube videos that explain the process. It’s difficult to explain, but once you’ve seen it, it’s easy to do.

You may already have a vessel that can be appropriated for steaming your pudding. A stoneware or Pyrex bowl of the proper size and shape could easily do the trick. Do NOT attempt to use a plastic bowl that wasn’t expressly made for the purpose because it obviously will not possesses the Christmas magic to defy the laws of physics and melting points. Even with a purchased plastic pudding basin, place it on a saucer or a steamer insert or something to keep it from touching the bottom of your pot during steaming. Even Christmas magic needs a little help.

When the big day comes, decorate your Christmas pudding with a sprig of holly, just like Mrs. Cratchit did in “A Christmas Carol.” Mrs. Cratchit was surprisingly nonchalant about strolling to the dinner table bearing a flaming pudding doused in accelerant, considering the prevalence of tenement fires in Victorian England. You should perhaps be more careful. Be especially careful of dangly sleeves and long, flowy hair.

There’s going to be plenty of drama without setting yourself or your house on fire. And if you really love your guests, offer them a glass of “Honey Moon” mead as a dessert wine.

Christmas Pudding

Serves 8-10

1-¼ cups currants

1 cup golden raisins

1 cup roughly chopped pitted prunes

¾ cup Windsor Run Cellars Honey Moon Mead

⅔ cup all-purpose flour

2-⅓ cups fresh breadcrumbs

14 tbsp. coarsely grated lard or vegetable shortening (freeze overnight to make it easier to grate. Beef suet is traditionally used and can be ordered online, but like a pudding basin, takes a long time for delivery. Do not use butter. The melting point is too low.)

¾ cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. baking powder

grated zest of 1 lemon

3 large eggs

1 medium apple (peeled and grated)

2 tbsp. honey

½ cup Windsor Run Killer Bee Distilled Spirits (to flame the pudding)

Directions

You will need a 1.7 litre/3 pint/1-½ quart heatproof pudding basin, and also a sprig of holly to decorate.

Put the currants, golden raisins and scissored pitted prunes into a bowl with the Mead, swill the bowl a bit, then cover with plastic wrap and leave to steep overnight or for up to a week.

When the fruits have had their steeping time, put a large pan of water on to boil, and prepare your pudding basin for steaming.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the remaining pudding ingredients (except the Killer Bee Spirits.)

Add the steeped fruits, scraping in all the Mead with a rubber spatula, and mix to combine thoroughly, then fold in coins or charms if using.

Scrape and press the mixture into the prepared pudding basin, squish it down and put on the lid if you have one. Otherwise do the foil and parchment paper origami explained above. Place in the pot of boiling water with the water coming halfway up the basin and steam for 5 hours, checking every now and again that the water hasn’t boiled down too much. Once an hour is probably good.

When it has steamed for 5 hours, remove carefully and, when manageable, unwrap the foil. If you have a tight-fitting lid, put it on. If not, use foil to seal up the pudding as airtight as possible. Store in a cool, dark place until Christmas Day. Every week or so, splash a bit of Killer Bee Spirits over the top and seal it back up. You don’t want the pudding to dry out. As long as it stays moist with liquor, it won’t spoil.

On Christmas Day, steam again, this time for 3 hours.

To serve, remove from the steaming pot, take off the lid or covering, put a plate on top, turn it upside down. Then remove the basin – and you’re almost there.

Put the sprig of holly on top of the pudding, then heat the Killer Bee Spirits in a small pan, and the minute it’s hot, but before it boils – you don’t want the alcohol to burn off before you attempt to flambé it — pour the hot Killer Bee Spirits over the pudding. Now light the pudding, preferably with a long kitchen match. Remove the holly before flaming if it makes you nervous. A healthy respect for fire and liquor’s properties as an accelerant is a good thing.

Traditionally served with Hard Sauce, which you can easily make while the pudding is steaming, but you may prefer whipped cream (use some Mead instead of vanilla extract) or ice cream.

Make ahead: Make the Christmas pudding up to 6 weeks ahead. Keep in a cool, dark place, periodically dousing with a bit of Killer Bee. Then proceed as per the recipe on Christmas Day.

Freeze ahead: Make and freeze the Christmas pudding for up to 1 year ahead. Thaw overnight at room temperature and proceed as per the recipe on Christmas Day.

Hard Sauce

¼ pound butter (1 stick), at room temperature

6 to 8 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar

2 tbsp. (or more, to taste) Killer Bee Spirits

Cream the butter and sugar together thoroughly. Beat in the spirit, a little at a time, until the mixture is quite smooth. Serve by spoonfuls over individual slices of pudding.

https://www.yadkinripple.com/features/lifestyle/18544/christmas-pudding-and-mead-perfect-together 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Brew Your Own Mead at Home

From greenmatters.com

Mead, otherwise known as honey wine, is one of the more popular alcohols favored by home brewers in recent years. Its novelty in today’s culture is juxtaposed, and perhaps even underscored, by the fact that it can be traced back to the time of the Vikings, around 8,000 years ago But the secrets to brewing this lost libation are no real mystery. In fact, the recipe for mead has been studied and utilized by amateur methiers (brewers of mead) for centuries. and now you too can make mead in your own home. 

What is mead?

Mead is one of the oldest fermented beverages on Earth. There is evidence that it was brewed as early as 15,000 BC, during the time of the Vikings. Back then, they drank mead from cow horns and goblets, usually as an alternative to water which, lacking the heat and antibacterial qualities gained by mead’s fermentation process, was actually much less safe to drink back then. Mead was also made in Ancient Greece, where it was known as “the drink of the gods.”

Unlike wine, which is made from fermented grapes, mead is made from fermented honey. Modern home brewers and winemakers have rediscovered the secrets to brewing this ancient beverage and have begun experimenting with it using all manner of ingredients. New styles, trends, and creative approaches have given rise to mead’s renewed popularity. 

How to make mead

Home mead-making requires a number of ingredients and tools that will help aid in the process. There are many mead kids available on the market, many of which you can buy through reputable online sources like homebrewing.org. The bulk of what comes in these kits includes, a large plastic pail, glass carboys, a big pot, and a mead-making book. 

Like all forays into home brewing, a pre-made kit may be the best way to get started. Then, once you learn the ropes, you can alter the process, ingredients, and brewing time to suit any number of different permutations. 

Find the best possible ingredients

The first step in the process is to gather your ingredients, namely honey, which you will want to get from reputable sources. Like most home-brewed alcohols, mead does not require any sort of complex ingredients, not at the start anyway. All you will need is water, yeast, and honey. That’s all. 

Different kinds of honey will provide different depths and degrees of honey flavor, though much of that will also depend on the brewing process itself. Regardless of what type of honey you use, it’s always best to look for honey from local or sustainable sources. The fresher and more natural the product is, the more refined and nuanced the end-result will be. 

Sanitize everything

Keeping errant bacteria away from your brew is essential to creating the right type of fermentation in your mead. The smallest speck of the wrong bacteria can ruin an entire batch of mead, wasting time and potentially expensive ingredients. Make sure all your tools and vessels have been completely sanitized by either boiling them in hot water or washing them with a special wine-making sanitizer.

Boil the brew

According to the folks on Brew Your Own, making a 6 gallon batch of mead begins as follows: First, boil 1.5 gallons of water in a large pot and then add about 1.5 gallons of honey to it once it's off the stove. There are different schools of thought as to when this honey should be added, however. Some say that it can be added while the pot is boiling, while others argue that doing this wipes out all the floral accents in the honey. If you’ve bought a specific type of honey because you like those accents, it would be best to preserve them by adding the honey once it’s off the stove.

Fruit or herbs can be used at this point to further flavour the honey, though most methiers agree that creative additions should be saved for the second batch. That way, you don’t run the risk of over spicing or over flavoring your first batch. Remember, basics first, experimentation later. 

Cool it down

Once your honey is mixed in, add three more gallons of cool water to the pot. This can be either filtered or spring, just don’t use regular tap water that has chlorine in it. Any unwelcome chemicals might foul the process. Take the liquid’s temperature and once it measures between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, add the yeast. According to the gathered brewers on GotMead.com, temperature ensures the perfect temperature to keep the yeast alive and healthy. Then, pour the mead into your pail or glass jug.

Source: iStock

Measuring alcohol

Many mead kits will come equipped with a hydrometer, which you will use at this point to measure the alcohol content of your brew. Once you have measured and mixed it, seal the top of the plastic pail or glass jug with an airlock top. Most kits will come with this type of top as well because it ensures that some air escapes during the fermenting process. Within the next 24 hours, the fermenting will begin. 

Low and slow fermentation

Mead’s first ferment takes about a month, at which time you can begin the process of siphoning the brew off and into a secondary container. This process, also known as “racking,” leaves most of the fermented sediment on the bottom of the first container. Cover the second container with another airlock and let the mead sit for another month. You can let it go longer if you want to deepen the flavor. Once it’s ready, feel free to siphon it into bottles and cork them.

https://www.greenmatters.com/p/how-to-make-mead 

 

A Brief History Of Mead

From heritagedaily.com

Mead or “honey-wine” is a fermented honey drink with water that has been produced for thousands of years throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.

Mead – “fermented honey drink” – derives from the Old English meodu or medu, and Proto-Germanic, *meduz. The name has connections to Old Norse mjöðr, Middle Dutch mede, and Old High German metu, among others.

The earliest recorded evidence dates from 7000BC, where archaeologists discovered pottery vessels from the Neolithic village of Jiahu in Henan province, China that contained the chemical signatures of honey, rice and compounds normally associated with the process of fermentation.

Mead became present in Europe between 2800 to 1800BC during the European Bronze Age. Throughout this period, the Bell Beaker culture or short Beaker culture was producing the “All Over Ornamented (AOO)” and the “Maritime Type” beaker pottery. The beakers are suggested to have been produced primarily for alcohol consumption, with some examples of these pottery forms containing chemical signatures for mead production.

Bell Beakers from the Logabirumer Feld in Leer (East Frisia)

Credit : Hartmann Linge

During the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, mead “hydromeli” proceeded wine and was a stable beverage of Grecian culture. Hydromeli was even the preferred tipple of Aristotle, in which he discussed mead in his Meteorologica.

The German classical scholar, W. H. Roscher suggested that mead was even the nectar or ambrosia of the Gods. He compared ambrosia to honey, with their power of conferring immortality due to the supposed healing and cleansing powers of honey, which is in fact anti-septic, and because fermented honey (mead) preceded wine as an entheogen in the Aegean world; on some Minoan seals, goddesses were represented with bee faces (compare Merope and Melissa).

This is supported in the archaic versions of the stories of the gods. The Orphists preserve a tale about the cruel guile of Zeus who surprised his father Kronos when he was drunk on the honey of wild bees and castrated him.

Mead “aquamulsum” or just “mulsum” was also common during the Imperial Roman era and came in various forms. Mulsum was a freshly made mixture of wine and honey (called a pyment today) or simply honey left in water to ferment; and conditum was a mixture of wine, honey and spices made in advance and matured (arguably more a faux-mead).

The Hispanic-Roman naturalist Columella gave a recipe for mead in De re rustica, around 60 BCE.

“Take rainwater kept for several years, and mix a sextarius of this water with a [Roman] pound of honey. For a weaker mead, mix a sextarius of water with nine ounces of honey. The whole is exposed to the sun for 40 days, and then left on a shelf near the fire. If you have no rainwater, then boil spring water.”

Alcoholic drinks made from honey would become very popular within the Early Middle Ages and Medieval Europe. This was especially so among the Native Brythonic cultures, Anglo-Saxons, Germans, and Scandinavians. However, wines remained the preferred beverage in warmer climates in what is now Italy, Spain and France.

Anglo-Saxon literature such as Mabinogion, Beowulf and the Brythonic writings of the Welsh poet Taliesin (who wrote the Kanu y med or “Song of Mead ) describe mead as the drink of Kings and Thanes. In the Old English epic poem Beowulf set in Scandinavia, Beowulf comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel.

In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – The Miller’s Tale, mead is described as the draught of townfolk and used to court a fair lady. Chaucer also makes mention of spiking his claret with honey.

“He sent her sweetened wine and well-spiced ale
And waffles piping hot out of the fire,
And, she being town-bred, mead for her desire
For some are won by means of money spent
And some by tricks and some by long descent.”

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – Public Domain

 In later years, tax and regulation drove commercial mead out of popularity with beer and wine becoming the predominant alcoholic drinks. Some monasteries in England and Wales kept up the traditions of mead-making as a by-product of beekeeping but with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century mead all but disappeared.

Finally, when West Indian sugar began to be imported in quantity (from the 17th century), there was less incentive to keep bees to sweeten foods and the essential honey to ferment mead became scarcer across Europe leading to its decline.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/03/history-of-mead/126299 

 

 

 

First Meadery to Open in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania

 From ellwoodcity.org

If you want to partake in the drink of the Norse Gods, you might want to stop into Fitzgibbon Meadery at 536 Lawrence Avenue.

You also can stop in if you just enjoy a delicious mead or country wine in general.

The locally owned and sourced meadery will be opening its doors on November 28. There will something for every palate ranging from dry to sweet in a variety of flavors.

Owners Eric and Misa McAnallen look forward to introducing their community to their homemade meads.

“As Ellwood City’s only Meadery, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to introduce our corner of Western Pennsylvania to the wonderful beverage that is Mead,” Eric said.

The McAnallens discovered their love for Meads and each other while participating in another hobby— medieval reenactment. While on a battlefield at Cooper’s Lake Campground during the annual Pennsic War in 2005, Eric met Misa and the rest is history. Fast forward a little to when the happily married couple expanded their love for the middle ages into a mead making adventure. It began as a two-batch experiment made from local honey and wild grapes harvested from their back yard in Ellwood City. One batch— Alawicious—really took and became popular among friends who would often request it as a favorite at an annual gathering. Since then, Eric and Misa have combined forces and talents to turn their hobby into a business.

Owners Eric and Misa McAnallen look forward to introducing their community to their homemade meads

 

“We really do complement one another,” Misa said.

Misa invents all the recipes. They make the mead together. Eric does the artwork and labels. Both have respective talents in IT and accounting. They are the perfect team.

Their love of everything medieval extends to every facet of their business—its theme, the meads and their names, and their storefront.

The McAnallens have turned their Lawrence Avenue location into a Mead Hall, which is as big of a part of Viking culture as the mead itself. They are hoping to appeal to local mead drinkers as well as to become a special destination for out of town visitors, especially those who attend the Pennsic War at Cooper’s Lake.

“We are hoping that our meadery will become a destination for these people,” Eric said.

They also hope that others will enjoy the Viking culture that will be an integral part of their meadery.

In addition to the Viking undertones, each experience with mead will be different when visiting Fitzgibbons.

“No two batches are ever going to be the same,” Misa said. “Flavors are specific to a batch. We can never be sure we will get the same thing twice. That’s mead for yah.”

The reason is honey. Mead is made with honey, and according to Misa and Eric, batches of honey can vary.

“Can’t make the bees do what you want them to do,” Misa said.

Misa uses all local honey sourced from Hickory, Pa. Fruits are also locally sourced if at all possible.

When Fitzgibbon Meadery opens on November 28, they will be offering six 1oz tastings. Because of COVID-19, there won’t be sit down options at this time. However, the McAnallens hope to offer flights, limited seating, and live entertainment in the future. They also hope to sell wine and mead related merchandise like cheese boards and coasters.

“We want it to be a relaxing place to be,” Eric said.

Most meads will cost between 15 and 20 dollars a bottle.

The meadery will be open Wednesday-Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. and Noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

To learn more about Fitzgibbon Meadery, how meads are made, where the name Fitzgibbon originated from, and the menu of flavors available, Click Here to visit their website.

You can also find them on Facebook.

https://ellwoodcity.org/2020/11/18/first-local-meadery-to-open-in-ellwood-city/ 

 

 

 

 

Washington DC: Hook Hall’s Outdoor “Viking Village” Is Open with Roaring Fires, Mead, and Turkey Legs

 From washingtonian.com 

Hook Hall's Viking Village. Photography by Fredde Lieberman

Huge indoor/outdoor Park View bar Hook Hall goes all-in on a new theme each season, and is just coming off a summery island oasis. For the first (and hopefully last) pandemic winter, owner Anna Valero is channeling something a little more fierce: a “viking village” decked out with wooden huts, roaring fire pits, pelts, and all the mead you can swill.

“Last year, we had a Swiss chalet theme—but we’re not exactly feeling apres ski,” says Hook Hall owner Anna Valero. “Primal is the best way to describe what we’re feeling right now.”

The outdoor setup is theatrically designed to accommodate a range of prices and small party sizes (max numbers are still limited to six seated guests per area). Patrons can book fire pit seats with blankets for $15, or go all-out and reserve themed huts for $125 that come with a bottle of Champagne, heaters, and retractable curtains. The groups can opt for special food and drink packages filled with items like warm Bavarian pretzels, beef stew, meats and cheeses, and Scandinavian beers. Those looking to stay inside can post up in the lofty interior, transformed into a viking hall.

Patrons can opt for special menus of beef stew and mead

In addition to immersive viking decor, the a la carte menu reads a little Nordic, a little Renaissance Festival. Behold: a giant smoked turkey leg, which you can wash down with Baltimore’s Charm City Mead in a massive horn-shaped cup. You’ll also find smoked seafood, cauldrons of mulled wine, forager-inspired salads, and three sizes of specialty drinking vessels that one can take home: a wooden tankard ($24), a viking mug ($36), and a drinking horn with a decorative stand ($42). And since we all know the seafaring Norse tribes were big on brunch, there’s that on weekends. 

Viking Village at Hook Hall. 3400 Georgia Ave., NW

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/11/13/hook-halls-outdoor-viking-village-is-open-with-roaring-fires-mead-and-turkey-legs/ 

How this couple risked 'everything' to bring their world-famous mead business to Phoenix

 From eu.azcentral.com

When Jeff and Jen Herbert bought the historic Jim Ong’s Market building on Washington Street near downtown Phoenix, sunlight filtered inside through cracks in the red brick walls. 

The historic building was constructed in 1928 and once served as a grocery store for downtown Phoenix's Chinese community. Most recently, it was a dance studio before sitting empty for years.

Now, one of Prescott's most loved and sought after drinking spots has moved in.

A brand new kitchen has been fitted and will soon serve grilled octopus, Greek sesame pretzels, celery root gnocchi and Ukrainian cabbage rolls. But perhaps the most important thing on the menu is the mead, and lots of it.

The Herberts own Superstition Meadery, an award winning producer of the ancient honey wine based in Prescott.

"When we took the first huge step opening our tasting room in Prescott, we entered this world of risk and we haven’t left it," Jeff said. "But COVID introduced a level of risk that we’ve never seen."

Now, their new downtown Phoenix tasting room and restaurant will celebrate its grand opening on Nov. 7.

What is Superstition Meadery?

Superstition Meadery started in 2009 with a gifted home brew kit in "the shadow of Superstition Mountain," Jeff says. He fell in love with creating both beer and mead and while finishing his career as a fire fighter, drew up a business plan to open a brewery. 

 

"Every home brewer dreams of one day having a brewery," Jeff says. "And we had tried mead once at the Renaissance Fair out in Apache Junction but we didn't know anything about it."

Jeff studied anthropology at Arizona State University and always had an interest in history, religion and mythology, he says, so the concept of mead being one of humankind's oldest alcoholic beverages drew him in.

Eventually, after much reading and research, the couple set their sights on ancient honey wine and started making flavoured creations at a Skull Valley winery. What started with 18 square feet of rented space and four barrels of mead in 2011 grew to a company producing 6,800 gallons in 2016 for a downtown Prescott tasting room, a dedicated production facility and a company that sells mead around the world. 

"We never really thought that it was going to take off the way that it did as fast as it did, it was like overnight," Jen says. "People were like we need more, and I was like we need more space, we are going to run out, we don’t have enough to sell. It was a frenzy so we had rapid expansion."

Now, the company is growing again, expanding from Prescott with a tasting room in Phoenix. The renovated space features two options for bar side seating, one at the wall of meads and another facing the open kitchen. A patio hugs the eastern side of the building and a merchandise room sits at the back filled with t-shirts and bottles of mead to take home.

Here's what's on the food and drink menus 

Unlike the original Prescott tasting room, the downtown Phoenix location of Superstition Meadery is also a full restaurant compete with food and mead pairings. 

The Herberts hired chef Adolfo Heredia, who previously led the kitchen at Tuck Shop in Phoenix's Coronado neighborhood. Heredia and the Herberts worked together to recreate dishes the couple remembers from years of travel, inspiring an international menu. 

A large portion of the menu is dedicated to board-plated samplers perfect for pairing with Superstition's best-selling mead flights. Boards include traditional cheese and charcuterie options along with "Boards from the Fire," which feature honey shrimp, tandoori pheasant and soy ginger scallops among other options cooked on the kitchen's custom wood fired grill.

Handheld options include tacos and a variety of sandwiches, and both warm and cold salads are on the menu as well. For those looking to stay for a full dinner, the international theme continues with spicy Asian skirt steak, Catatonian fire roasted lamb and spiced duck to name a few entrees. 

Drink options include 24 meads on tap and five ciders. Flights of 12 one-ounce pours feature a variety of ciders, drier meads, semi-sweet and sweet meads.  A specialty flight will also be available, showcasing some of the small batch and one-off options.

What to expect on grand opening day

Each dish on the menu has a suggested mead pairing that either compliments the dish or is intentionally contrasting to boost the flavours. And for those who have visited the Prescott tasting room or tried Superstition's meads before, there are plenty of new varieties coming out.

"On opening day we'll have at least five, maybe 10, brand new releases," Jeff says. "It's more new releases in a day than we’ve ever had before."

Some new releases available on opening day include:

• Pistachio Grand Cru Berry, a blend of blueberry, strawberry raspberry and blackberry meads with white chocolate and pistachio.
• Sunrise Snorkel, a blueberry coconut mead aged in French oak barrels that previously held a blackberry cherry mead.
• Aphrodisia 22 and 23, two new batches of the meadery's Aphrodesia series. Twenty Two is made with cabernet grapes and Arizona honey. Twenty Three uses syrah grapes and Arizona honey. The meads are then aged for 2 years and reach over 16% alcohol.
• Ninth Mandala, a mead made in collaboration with Moksa Brewing Company that features raspberries, vanilla, pistachios and caramelized honey. It is then aged in Blueberry White barrels.

• Black Rose, an Arizona mesquite honey mead aged in multiple Four Roses Bourbon barrels over three years.

   

  The Black Rose is the longest-aged product Superstition has ever released, Jeff says, and it comes in at 20% alcohol by volume.

  "It’s goosebumps, it’s insane. It’s so good," he says, excited for customers and "mead geeks" to try it.

  Superstition has also recently delved into the world of grape wine. On opening day, the Herbert's plan to release their new orange wine made with muscat and sauvignon blanc grapes.

  "It has notes of guava and slate, it’s nutty and oxidized, it’s tannic, it’s everything orange wine is supposed to be," Jeff says.

  "And it would be perfect with the duck," Jen notes. 

  Superstition's core products Blueberry Spaceship Box cider, Tahitian Honeymoon vanilla mead, berry flavored Marion Mead, bourbon barrel aged Lagrimas De Oro and Desert Monsoon prickly pear mead will also be on the menu.

  'To risk everything, everything is on the line'

  On top of renovating a historic building, bringing their business to a new city and creating a new restaurant, the Herbert's have also faced the added struggles of 2020 while working to open their new taproom. 

  "We did some real soul searching like everyone in the world, for lots of reasons," Jeff says. "But we never slowed down."

  Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Herberts were forced to downsize from 29 staff members to 10 over the course of three days in what Jeff says was, "one of the hardest things we ever had to do."

  But they pushed ahead with the new location knowing that it would allow them to create jobs once again.  

  During the time when bars and restaurants were mandated by the state to close, Superstition relied on online sales and to-go orders from the Prescott taproom. They offered discounts, created a mead club and launched cocktail kits with their products. Staff members interacted with customers over social media and hosted tastings online.

  COVID-19 posed a different set of challenges while the couple was opening the new location. Electricians were hard to come by. Green bar stools were even more difficult to find, Jen says. Employees at City Hall had transitioned to working remotely, which impacted the permitting process.

  "We really had to learn how to work in a new system," Jeff says. The delays set back the opening, originally planned for the summer. 

  But silver linings are abundant, Jeff and Jen agree. Now, the restaurant will open with good weather. There are plenty of skilled servers and bartenders to hire. And customers, at this point, know the masking and capacity rules and are comfortable following them, Jeff says.

  The new restaurant will open at half capacity and offer seating both inside and outside on a patio decorated with a canopy of string lights. After such a long process, the Herberts are ready to open their doors, they say.

"You could probably say we are crazy for trying to do the first thing of it’s kind in an up and coming area in the worst year that we’ve all ever remembered. It’s crazy. But I think you have to be crazy to be an entrepreneur," Jeff says. "To risk everything, everything is on the line for Superstition Meadery and Superstition Downtown."

The new business opens on Nov. 4 for a soft opening while final details of the menu are worked out. The soft opening will continue through the week and the restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The Herberts plan to celebrate the grand opening on Nov. 7.

Superstition Downtown

Details: 1110 E. Washington Street, Phoenix. superstitionmeadery.com/superstition-downtown-phoenix.

https://eu.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/dining/beer/2020/11/04/supersition-meaderys-new-mead-tasting-room-open-downtown-phoenix/3681193001/ 

 

New limited edition from the Kinsale Mead Company

From irishtimes.com

Now you can enjoy three-year-old mead aged in Sauternes barrels for 12 months

The Kinsale Mead Company released a second Limited Edition Barrel Aged Mead earlier this month. Following on from Wild Red Mead, which was aged in a Merlot barrel, we can now enjoy a three-year-old mead aged in Sauternes barrels for 12 months. There is one more to come too, a White Port Dry Mead.

“Mead has always been barrel aged, because at one time everything was transported by barrel,” says Kate Dempsey of Kinsale Mead.

“In the US, where there are now 500 meaderies, a lot of them are playing around with bourbon barrels. Our barrels come from Wild Geese wineries in Bordeaux; they come in wet, the wine has just been tipped out, so we have to pour the mead in straight away.”

The barrels have a medium char and, through a gentle oxygenation, impart a rich smoothness to the mead, as well as subtle flavours. The meads are aged for two years in tank, before spending their final year in barrel. 

“The Merlot has gone down really well, partly because people are familiar with the name, but they also enjoy the taste. The Sauternes needed longer in barrel. One of the few advantages of lockdown was that it had plenty of time to mature,” she says a little ruefully. 

Online tastings

Kinsale Mead can no longer offer tours because of Covid restrictions. Instead it now operates online tutored tastings with virtual tours of the meadery on Zoom. “It’s a fun talk, interspersed with tastings. We include little score sheets for people to fill out,” Dempsey says.

I tasted both barrel-aged meads; the Merlot has bright blackcurrant and sour cherry fruits with subtle honey notes and a smooth off-dry finish. The Sauternes barrel is floral and scented with layers of honey, toasted nuts and citrus peel. Both were intriguing and delicious. Try the Merlot with charcuterie, and the Sauternes with strong cheeses – it would be great with blue cheese.

All three barrel-aged meads are available for €27.95 from specialist spirit stores. A set of three miniatures of their original meads is €18.95. See kinsalemeadco.ie.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/drink/new-limited-edition-from-the-kinsale-mead-company-1.4383030 

 

 

 

Mead flows in Homer, Alaska, once more

From homernews.com

If Homerites have been missing honey with their alcohol, they’re in luck — mead is back in town.

Sweetgale Meadworks and Cider House opened in early October under owner and operator Jason Davis. Located in the barn behind the former Timeless Toys building on Main Street, the tasting room boasts five berry meads and three hard ciders on tap.

Homer’s last option for local mead, Ring of Fire Meadery, closed in 2013. Located in Old Town, it opened in 2004 and won several international awards until its closing.

Davis, whose background is in making natural wines in Malta and Sicily, already owned the former Timeless Toys building and the building behind it. After originally putting them on the market, he ventured back into his wine-making days once more.

Mead is made by fermenting honey with water. Berry wines with honey as the fermentable sugar source are considered meads, and end up with a drier finish. Berry meads are the feature of the new meadery.

“In the mead making world there’s a long tradition of combining berries and herbs with honey water,” Davis said.

He said berries help feed the yeast, which in turn can help the mead end up drier, as opposed to sweet.

“The end product is much more like wine than it is like mead, but it’s also a traditional way of making meads,” Davis said.

In order to call his products wine, Davis would have to use only cane sugar. As soon as honey is introduced as the sugar component, the end product is required to be labeled mead.

Davis’ preference leans toward dry meads, which will likely continue to feature in the tasting room, he said. To make them and his ciders, he’s sourcing local fruit from the area, from rhubarb to apples.

Right now, Davis said his weekly batches are 125 bottles. He’s trying to expand relationships with producers to keep up that pace.

Having a winery license, Davis was also able to make ciders and decided to give it a try, he said. Davis said he worried that the dry cider might be an acquired taste, but that it’s proven popular so far.

Davis, who had always thought he would end up making wine in his retirement, had begun to think that wouldn’t happen after his family tried out California for a few years. It didn’t take, and they moved back to Alaska, where Davis, a beekeeper, said he realized he could combine that resource with local fruits to make natural wines the way he had previously. That’s where the business grew from.

“I guess for me it’s a way to showcase our local fruits and berries and honey,” he said.

Davis doesn’t plan to have a huge operation, especially since he plans to continue using local products, which tend to be more expensive.

Right now, the Sweetgale Meadworks and Cider House has on-site tasting available, as well as the ability to fill a bottle to go, like a smaller version of a growler.

Sweetgale Meadworks and Cider House is open from 3-7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, and from 1-7 p.m. on Saturday at 3657 Main Street.

Reach Megan Pacer at mpacer@homernews.com.

Jason Davis, owner of Sweetgale Meadworks and Cider House, pours a drink for a patron on Oct. 20, 2020 at the new business on Main Street in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)

https://www.homernews.com/news/mead-flows-in-homer-once-more/

Local and natural: mead maker starting ‘on right side of history’

From odt.co.nz

Wanaka entrepreneur Chanelle O'Sullivan has launched her startup company Borage + Bee Meadery. The honey-infused drink will be on shelves around the country and available online this month. PHOTO: SARAH DRUMMOND

Chanelle O’Sullivan sees a need for mead.

The Wanaka-based entrepreneur has launched startup company Borage + Bee Meadery and the honey-infused drink will be available in stores around the country and online this month.

Traditionally a still wine, sweetened by honey and fermented by yeast over time, its origins trace back more than 9000 years. It is arguably the oldest alcoholic drink known to mankind. Borage + Bee mead is carbonated to give it a modern twist.

Mrs O’Sullivan (32) and her husband, David, live on the shores of Lake Hawea with their children Izzy (8) and Hunter (5), having shifted from South Canterbury in April last year.

An experimental home brewer for 10 years, during which time she raided roadside apple trees for cider and riverside plum trees for fruit wine, she ventured into mead making in August 2018 after reading about it in a magazine.

   The cans feature a watercolour painting by Wanaka artist Sophie Melville

Mead was becoming "quite a big thing" in the United States, she said. She had been watching the market there for a while and there were new meaderies opening regularly.

The US tended to set the trends that were then seen in New Zealand when it came to alcohol consumption and she was keen to "catch that first wave" over here.

While Mrs O’Sullivan knew the basic principles of how to brew, she enlisted the help of Dunedin-based qualified brewer, scientist and beer judge Sam White.

She described herself as the "ideas and big picture" while he was into the intricate details of brewing, so it proved to be a good balance.

Four University of Otago food science undergraduates were also involved, experimenting with flavour and methodology trials in the laboratory.

When it came to the taste, Mrs O’Sullivan said people needed to "go into it with an open mind".

"It’s not what you expect. Everyone says, ‘is it like a beer or cider?’ It’s like neither," she said.

It was very crisp, refreshing and dry and her husband — a craft beer lover — drank it by choice, which was a "good gauge", she said.

Mrs O’Sullivan’s goal now was to have it stocked in supermarkets nationwide and to open a custom-built meadery in the Wanaka area.

The majority of people she collaborated with for the business lived in the Southern Lakes region and she wanted to tell the story of the region through her product.

“Entrepreneurship is celebrated in this think-outside-of-the-box area and it’s a really supportive community to live in,” she said.

She was looking to support local in return and chose to use only small family-owned apiaries to supply the honey for Borage + Bee’s mead.

“My goal is to be really transparent. I want to know exactly where my honey comes from and my strict belief was that we would not be using any sulphites or chemical additives. There are no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives and certainly nothing that can only be identified as a number in a Borage + Bee can.”

“Essentially, there is nothing in our mead other than honey, yeast and water, until we start playing with New Zealand-grown botanicals, herbs, spices and fruits,” she said.

Environmental impact was also very important and that was why she chose cans over bottles, and recycled cardboard and sugarcane-pulp can rings over plastic.

"Every bit counts and we wanted to start on the right side of history,” she said.

Mrs O’Sullivan had lots of ideas for Borage + Bee, saying the opportunities were endless.

With her entrepreneurial spirit, sometimes things did not progress or they did not turn out to be right for her, or she lost interest.

But two years into her mead journey, she was "still absolutely loving it".

"That’s pretty good for my personality," she said.

https://www.odt.co.nz/business/local-and-natural-mead-maker-starting-%E2%80%98-right-side-history%E2%80%99

Kinsale Mead Releases Latest in Barrel Aged Series

From fft.ie

The Kinsale Mead Co has released the second of its new, limited edition series of barrel aged meads, the Atlantic Dry Mead – Sauternes Barrel Aged 12% ABV.

This 3 year-old mead is finished dry, crisp and honeyed, matured for the last 12 months in a French oak wine barrel in the meadery to add structure and depth.

This is a fine mead with lingering almond, refreshing citrus and honey notes. Attractive with a bright, silky finish and a lovely balance of sweetness and acidity, dry and clean. There is an initial burst of honey at first, very refreshing, followed by the almond and florals such as honeysuckle and white acacia flowers and a subtle oak.

Their Wild Red Mead – Merlot Barrel Aged was released last month in a move described by wine writer Aoife Carrigy in the Irish Independent as “…upping its impressive game another notch…” and by wine writer, Leslie Williams in the Irish Examiner as “always interesting product…pouring like an aged Saint Émilion in the glass…Quite delicious and rather fascinating.”

“These unique meads have been a year in the making,” said Denis Dempsey, mead-maker and co-founder. “We were tasting them over lockdown and those extra few months in the barrels was a boon.”

“We serve the Merlot Barrel Aged Wild Red at room temperature,” said Kate Dempsey, co-founder and meadstress. “We’ve paired it with pâté on toast, Parma ham and Irish artisan sausages. While the Sauternes Barrel Aged Atlantic Dry shines paired with lemon tart, or cheesecake. For savoury pairings we’re trying a pungent Durrus or Gubbeen cheese or a herby roast chicken.”

“Our beautiful label is inspired by the story of the Wild Geese Irish,” explained Denis. “They emigrated in waves from Ireland to the continent at the end of the Jacobite wars and became soldiers in the armies of France as well as making and trading in wine. Kinsale was a wine port so, in a sense, we are completing the circle, bringing those precious barrels back.”

They have one more barrel aged mead to release later this year.

Merlot Barrel Aged Stockists includes Celtic Whiskey Shop, selected Supervalus, Bubble Brothers, Urru Bandon, 1601 Kinsale, Egans Portlaois, Martins Fairview and Blackrock Cellars, at an RRP of €27.95.

https://www.fft.ie/kinsale-mead-barrel-aged-atlantic-dry-mead/

National Honey Board Announces Winners of 2nd Annual Mead Crafters Competition

From prnewswire.com

Zen Bee Meadery's Mara Ume Wins Best in Show at Mead Competition

LONGMONT, Colo., Oct. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A mead inspired by Japanese plum wine took home the top prize in the National Honey Board's second annual Mead Crafters Competition, which featured 305 entries from commercial meaderies in the United States. Zen Bee Meadery of Columbus, Ohio, took home Best in Show honours for Mara Ume, a session, semi-sweet mead made with plum juices and maraschino cherries. The judges of the competition were impressed with the mead's ability to balance the two fruit flavours while still showcasing the essence of honey in the mead.

In total, 23 gold medals were awarded at the Mead Crafters Competition in categories ranging from session meads to traditional meads to melomels. Rounding out the podium for Best in Show was Heidrun Meadery's Hawaiian Lehua Blossom and Second City Meadery's Existence is Pain. A design/packaging gold medal also was given to Baltimore's Charm CIty Meadworks for its Sweet Blossom Mead.

"The mead category continues to gain popularity from beer, spirits and wine drinkers looking for something different, and we're proud to host this competition and recognize some of the best in the industry," Catherine Barry, National Honey Board's director of marketing, says. "This year's competition really spotlighted the diversity of the mead segment. We had more session (low alcohol) meads entered than ever before, as well as some amazing melomels and traditional meads."

The Gold Medal winners of the 2020 Mead Crafters Competition:

2020 Best in Show Winners
Gold Medal: Mara Ume — Zen Bee Meadery, Dublin, Ohio
Silver Medal: Hawaiian Lehua Blossom — Heidrun Meadery, Point Reyes Station, California
Bronze Medal: Existence Is Pain — Second City Meadery, Chicago, Illinois

2020 Gold Medal Recipients
Bracket/Braggot: 10 Penny Lane — GoodRoad CiderWorks, Charlotte, North Carolina
Cyser: Honey de los Muertos — McGee's Mead LLC, St. Helena, California
Dessert: Blueberry NBCC — Melovino, Vauxhall, New Jersey
Fruit Vegetable Melomel - Dry: Crosswalk — GoodRoad CiderWorks, Charlotte, North Carolina
Fruit Vegetable Melomel - Semi-Sweet: Desire — Moonlight Meadery LLC, Londonderry, New Hampshire
Fruit Vegetable Melomel - Sweet: Peach Mead — Wyldewood Cellars Illinois, St. Joseph, Illinois
Metheglin - Dry: Stigmata — Monks Meadery, Atlanta, Georgia
Metheglin - Semi-Sweet: Mead with Coffee Beans — Bee-Town Mead & Cider, Bluffton, South Carolina
Metheglin - Sweet: Madagascar — Moonlight Meadery LLC, Londonderry, New Hampshire
Pyment: Honey River Pyment — Healthberry Farm, Dry Fork, West Virginia
Session - Dry: Weekend Water — Haymaker Meadery, Perkasie, Pennsylvania
Session - Semi-Sweet: Mara Ume — Zen Bee Meadery, Dublin, Ohio
Session - Sweet: Honey Kwench — White Winter Meadery, Iron River, Wisconsin
Specialty - Dry: Rockin Rye — Haymaker Meadery, Perkasie, Pennsylvania
Specialty - Semi-Sweet: Seven In Dog Years — Black Labs Craft Meadery, Olathe, Kansas
Specialty - Sweet: Existence Is Pain — Second City Meadery, Chicago, Illinois
Traditional - Dry: Sol — Oran Mor Artisan Mead, LLC, Roseburg, Oregon
Traditional - Semi-Sweet: CHAUCER'S Mead — Bargetto Santa Cruz Winery, Soquel, California
Traditional - Sweet: Traditional Mead — Prairie Rose Meadery, Fargo, North Dakota
Varietal - Dry: Hawaiian Lehua Blossom — Point Reyes Station, California
Varietal - Semi-Sweet: Lucerne Blossom — Martin Brothers Winery, Hermann, Missouri
Varietal - Sweet: Red Bamboo — Honeybound Meadery, Tyngsboro, Massachusetts
Design: Sweet Blossom — Charm City Meadworks, Baltimore, Maryland

The National Honey Board (NHB) is an industry-funded agriculture promotion group that works to educate consumers about the benefits and uses for honey and honey products through research, marketing and promotional programs. The Board's work, funded by an assessment on domestic and imported honey, is designed to increase the awareness and usage of honey by consumers, the foodservice industry and food manufacturers. The 10-member Board, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, represents producers (beekeepers), packers, importers and a marketing cooperative.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-honey-board-announces-winners-of-2nd-annual-mead-crafters-competition-301148999.html

Five on Five: Mead

From beerandbrewing.com

Mead has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past decade. Here, we ask five new-school meadmakers about the bottles that were formative experiences for them, or that stand out in recent memory

Lost Cause Meadery Devilry

Jeff Herbert, cofounder, Superstition Meadery in Prescott, Arizona
“It is a raspberry mead made with meadowfoam blossom honey. They used tons of raspberries which lends a bright acidity and tart berry richness that pairs perfectly with the marshmallow and vanilla notes of meadowfoam honey. It’s a good example of a melomel where the honey varietal stands out as much as the fruit.”

Kuhnhenn Bourbon Barrel Aged French Toast

Clint Wadsworth, founder and meadmaker, Misbeehavin’ Meads in Valparaiso, Indiana
“It was at Dark Lord Day many years ago, and it just stood out from all the other glorious beverages consumed that day. I was awestruck that it perfectly captured the aroma and flavour of French toast, which I love to begin with, and that the bourbon barrel complimented it so well. I really aspire to share that same aha moment with our customers through our mead and ciders.”

Schramm’s Marionberry

Aaron Schavey, founder and meadmaker, Boneflower Craft Mead in St. John, Indiana
“One of the first meads I ever truly fell in love with. The complexity of the honey, fruit, acidity, and tannin all blended so well together at my first sip. Marionberry is one of those bottles you don’t want to end. Luckily, this mead is fair priced and accessible. You can definitely say that Marionberry has influenced Boneflower many times over again.”

Kuhnhenn B4FT

Chad Wiltz, owner and mazer, Garagiste Meadery in Tampa, Florida
“B4FT is a Bourbon Barrel Banana Bochet French Toast concept—in its time, pretty remarkable, in that it really challenged what I thought mead could be. Aging meads in used spirits barrels was still uncommon, and intentionally burning honey for Bochet-style meads was relatively unheard of. Notes of bourbon, toasted oak, and banana, with a kiss of cinnamon. It just worked, and as a mead novice at the time it positively blew my mind.”

Schramm’s Madeline

Anthony Qualls, cofounder, Manic Meadery in Crown Point, Indiana
“Schramm’s Madeline (1st Birthday) was the mead that got me hooked on big, bold berry bombs. Prior to trying this delicious boysenberry libation, I was very sceptical of high-gravity, sweet wines and meads, other than an occasional after-dinner port. Madeline changed that. Ken’s expression of every aspect of the berry highlighted in perfect union with the honey was a truly magical experience. The mead we make today would not be to the level of complexity and bold presentation without Schramm’s contribution and innovation.”

https://beerandbrewing.com/five-on-five-mead/

South African mead from Van Hunks is coming to UK and Europe

From thedrinksreport.com

South African drinks producer Van Hunks is launching two of its all-natural meads into the UK and European market.

The producer's Brut Sparkling Mead and Brut Rosé Sparkling Mead will be hitting shelves across Europe this month.

Van Hunks is one of few companies in the world to have successfully launched a bottle-fermented mead, positioning its products as an alternative to sugary-sweet drinks for more mature palates. 

The first two Van Hunks expressions are a white and rosé sparkling mead fermented with hibiscus. They are produced using honey from honeybees that feast on Fynbos wildflowers. Van Hunks uses a patented dry fermentation process to ferment the honey, which results in a completely dry base mead, and does not use artificial flavourings or added sugar.

Made at a distillery in the shadow of Table Mountain, the small-batch sparkling mead is inspired by the legend of keen adventurer Van Hunks, who would tour the Fynbos region, and aims to celebrate the natural splendour of Cape Town and its surroundings. 

Tom Gamborg, founder of Van Hunks and Skäl Drinks, said: "Our vision is to bring the energy, excitement and intrigue from the spirits world and use it to refresh a tired sparkling category. We have focused on the beauty of our products and brand story to change how consumers view mead, and plan to do what prosecco did to sparkling wine, with no sugar and our authentic craft credentials."

Matt Krone, master wine maker and co-founder of Van Hunks, added: "Mead is an all-natural untapped product that has huge potential for growth. The next generation of consumers is looking for healthier products containing less sugar; this means the time for mead is now."

https://www.thedrinksreport.com/news/2020/18082-south-african-mead-from-van-hunks-coming-to-uk-and-europe.html

Just in time for Rosh Hashanah, mead makes a comeback

From forward.com

Rachel Lipman, a fifth-generation winemaker at Loew Vineyards, believes that the honey wine’s heyday is just around the corner.

It’s a “very underrated” beverage, said Lipman, at the Mount Airy, Maryland winery owned by her grandfather Bill Loew.

Before World War II, Lvov (formerly part of Poland, currently now part of Ukraine) was an epicenter of mead wine production. In fact, the city was once dotted with distilleries, breweries and meaderies. Holocaust survivor Bill Loew’s family was at the helm of one of the most successful meaderies in the region, producing and distributing the beloved wine throughout Europe as far back as 1870.

Mead was a popular drink in prewar Europe, long before its recent resurgence among hipsters who discovered the tipple being imbibed on Game of Thrones.

“It is actually a very sophisticated drink with a vast classification system like French wines,” said Lipman.

Rachel Lipman with her grandfather Bill Loew at Loew Vineyard.  Image by Lois Loew

“Mead” is an umbrella term for wine made with fermented honey. They include cyser (mead with apple juice) and pyment (mead with grape juice). Mead predates both beer and wine according to the American Mead Makers Association, and although the beverage has been around for centuries, it only recently saw an uptick in commercial production. In 2003, there were only 60 meaderies the United States Today, there are more than 450.

Lipman’s family produces four meads in their product lineup, as well as nine others. Their Apples and Honey Mead is actually a dry white made with local apples and wildflower and clover honey, perfect, said Lipman, for Rosh Hashana.

“Most people think mead has to be sweet, but it’s a stereotype,’ she said.

When making wine there has to be a balance of sugar and acid. However, honey has low levels of acid — making it tough to produce them in any other style besides sweet.

Meads that are produced with grape juice or cider allow the mead to have a balance of sugar and acid.

“They are more palatable and sophisticated when done dry,” explained Lipman.

Lipman’s family produces meads that are in the style of regular table wines, and, she said, they can be aged like fine wine. Her extended family frequently celebrates the Jewish holidays with their meads that have been aged at least a decade or more.

Lipman grew up spending weekends at her grandparent’s 37-acre vineyard, riding on her grandfather’s tractor as a young girl tending to the grapes with him. As she became a teenager, she would work with him on chromatography tests to determine when a wine was finished and quickly fell in love with the chemistry. She studied plant science in college and continued winemaking, growing closer to her Holocaust survivor grandfather.

Bill Loew was only a teenager when the Nazis invaded Lvov and his family’s meadery was destroyed. For months, Loew stayed in a safe house in hiding. Eventually, he escaped to Hungary and joined the resistance movement. On a dangerous mission, transporting a secret message from Budapest to Bucharest, the then 18-year old was captured by border forces and sent to a political prison in Budapest (Hannah Senesh was a prisoner there at the same time). Then Loew was transported to Auschwitz. He survived a death march there, and was liberated by the 99th division of the American Army at the age of 19.

Eventually emigrating to America, Loew became an electrical engineer. Upon retiring, he opened Loew Vineyards in 1982, which is now part of the Frederick wine trail. The 94-year-old Loew still helps out at the vineyard, especially with any of the machinery’s electrical issues. His wife Lois is the face of the on-site tasting room.

The vineyard was one of the first in Maryland to shut down its tasting room when COVID-19 hit so that Lipman’s grandparents would not be at risk. Fortunately, sales of alcoholic beverages online have been strong. She’s since reopened the vineyard following safety protocols.

In the future, the 27-year old hopes to increase production and expand the tasting room highlighting her family’s legacy and educating visitors about their long history in the wine and mead making business.

“When people come to the winery, my job is to make sure that my grandfather’s story is ingrained in everything we do. I want people to see pictures of him in Budapest, after his survival in the Holocaust and how he met my grandma and purchased and worked this land. He lost his family and experienced great tragedy, but still has a very fulfilling life,” she said.

Meads Worth Trying

Mead is such a versatile drink- it can be sweet, dry, sparkling or still. Add in ingredients like espresso, grapefruit and wildflowers and you’ve got a multitude of options to suit any palate. Here are a few worth trying:

Breakfast Magpie by New Day Craft — This Indianapolis-based company makes craft meads and hard ciders. If you are feeling sluggish, sip some seasonal Breakfast Magpie, a black raspberry mead finished with a hint of chocolate and espresso. www.newdaycraft.com

Abstinence by Monk’s Meadery — Georgia’s first meadery pays a nod to Belgian beer culture with this mixture of coriander, orange peel, grains of paradise and hops. www.monksmeadery.com

Peach Mead by Wildside Winery — Kentucky doesn’t just doesn’t make bourbon. This mead made from peaches and local honey will have you savoring those last summer days. www.wildsidewinery.com

Stacey Pfeffer is a writer/editor living in Northern Westchester with her three kids and rescue dog plus a menagerie of ducks, deer and chipmunks in her backyard.

https://forward.com/food/454555/just-in-time-for-rosh-hashanah-mead-makes-a-comeback/

Meadmakers of the New School

From beerandbrewing.com

In about a decade, mead has gone from off-the-radar for beer lovers to an attention-grabbing trend driven by bold flavours and rave reviews. So, what’s all the fuss about?

Anyone who’s checked the rankings of top breweries on Untappd or Ratebeer lately might have noticed something unusual: Many of top-ranked are not breweries at all. They’re meaderies. As of this writing, meadmakers are four of the five top-rated “breweries” on Untappd. Checking the current top U.S. “beers” over at Ratebeer, 14 of the top 50 are currently meads. (Interestingly, every one of those 14 is a melomel—that is, a fruited mead.)

So, what’s this all about?

First, let’s give due credit to the creative new wave of meadmakers—more about them below—who have found a foothold and have been able to grab some well-deserved attention amid the cacophony of 8,000-plus breweries in the age of mad variety. Meanwhile, the number of commercial meaderies has grown, too: from just 30 in 2003 to more than 500 today, according to the American Mead Makers Association.

Vicky Rowe, executive director of the association, says that number looks likely to grow in the next couple of years: The group has about 200 more members registered as “meaderies in planning.” (Another 600 members are home meadmakers.)

Rowe has been watching the mead scene for a while and seen it blossom. She was enjoying mead at medieval fairs in the 1980s, and in 1996, she started what is likely to be the world’s oldest mead website: gotmead.com. She says the site is “the most complete collection of mead information anywhere on the Internet.” She has watched the scene grow from a small niche to what it is today: a growing trend attracting a growing number of enthusiasts—including many beer lovers.

 From Left : Justin D’Aloisio pours at the Misbeehavin’ taproom in Valparaiso, Indiana; Tony Qualls, founder of Manic Meadery; a boysenberry mead at Manic undergoing primary fermentation with the fruit, after punchdown

“Oh, it’s a thrill,” Rowe says. “I’ve been buying, and looking at, and learning about, and making mead—and reporting on it—since 1996. At that point in time, there were about 30, 35 meaderies in the country and not very many people making it. But oddly enough, the bulk of the folks who are in the mead world now are also beer people.

“So, we’re kind of a crossover a little bit because we get a lot of beer folks,” she says. “And I think some of that comes from the fact that beer people, they’re adventurous. They’re willing to try new things and be open-minded about stuff that they haven’t checked out yet.”

It helps that some of the new meads—she specifically mentions Schramm’s Heart of Darkness as one that has been influential—are pushing the envelope. Meadmakers are getting ideas from each other as well as from the beer world.

“All the new people coming in, a lot of them are very innovative and come up with some great ideas,” Rowe says. “And the ‘old’ folks, if you will, who have been there, have come around—like Rabbit’s Foot Meadery in Northern California. They’ve been in operation more than 20 years. And you know, they also make amazing mead. So, we’re a pretty supportive bunch, as an industry. These people have a lot of knowledge and idea-sharing going on within the commercial mead community and the home one, too. So, we’re tight because we’re not that big yet. I don’t know whether that will change when there are 5,000 meaderies, if we ever get to that point.

“I don’t know, I don’t really feel like the new guys are Johnny-come-latelies, per se. I’m happy that they’re there. They’re growing things for us.”

Another force behind the new-mead trend has been social media. On a platform such as Untappd, raters tend to reward bold flavour (if not drinkability), and many of these meads are strong, intense drinks ideal for desserts, nightcaps, or special occasions. Often colourful and visually striking, they have also played well on other platforms. “Instagram is a hotbed of meadmakers,” Rowe says. “There’s a ton of mead activity there.”

Another element of the trend is easily overlooked: In many cases, meadmakers can ship their bottles directly to your doorstep. Most states have laws that make it easier for wineries (and thus meaderies) to ship their products straight to consumers. Amid the patchwork of state laws and an entrenched three-tier distribution system, breweries often do not have that option.

Rowe names one company in particular that has made e-commerce easier for small meaderies: VinoShipper. The platform makes it relatively simple for producers to set up an online shop and connect with customers across the country. “Given the fact that most meaderies are fairly small, it’s a huge bonus for them—especially right now,” Rowe says, referring to the closure of tasting rooms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “So, this is a big opportunity for them.”

It also puts some of these coveted meads within reach—even when your local liquor store hasn’t (yet) heard of the stuff.

Some Rising Stars

Here is a rundown of a few of the producers among this new cast of characters, as well as a brief look at what they’re making that has drinkers excited. Note that many of these meaderies have their own tasting rooms, rare-bottle clubs, and online shops that can ship meads to most states. Also note that the meads listed below are virtually all somewhere between 12 to 18 percent ABV. No session drinks, these.

Schramm’s

Launched in 2013 in Ferndale, Michigan, Schramm’s has grabbed special attention with its rich melomels such as Heart of Darkness, packed with fruit grown on their own farm: raspberries, black currants, and Schaerbeek cherries. The Statement is a more intensely cherried melomel, while Black Agnes balances a sweet mead with loads of tart black currant. Nutmeg strikes a different sort of balance, as a metheglin—spiced mead—whose eponymous ingredient has a long track record of compatibility with honey and sweetness.

Superstition

In Prescott, Arizona, Jen and Jeff Herbert have a clear and stated mission: “to reintroduce the world’s oldest fermented beverage to mankind.” Founded in 2012, Superstition has grown since then to become the state’s largest “winery.” The drink that gets folks all atwitter is Berry White, made with raspberries and white chocolate. There are variations on that theme, such as Blackberry, Blueberry, or Strawberry White, or the Grand Cru, a blend of all four versions. Another of interest to beer enthusiasts is Samba, made in collaboration with Marble Brewing of Albuquerque, New Mexico. At 12 percent ABV, it gets a bright burst of Samba hops for a pineapple-like aroma and flavour.

Pips

Some of the most sought-after bottles in the trend come from this small producer, founded in 2016 in Beach Park, Illinois, north of Chicago. According to their own description, while most often making dessert drinks, they “are willing to push the boundaries at times and stretch past balance to bring out intense flavours and unique combinations in [their] products.” Demand greatly outstrips production (and as such, they declined to be interviewed, out of concern that the attention would make it even harder to serve their local customers). Attention grabbers have included Blue Suede Shews, made with orange-blossom honey, wild blueberries, and cashews, and Banana Pancake, made with bananas and “natural flavours” that evoke pancakes—maple syrup and all.

Boneflower

In production since 2018, Boneflower’s story would be familiar to many craft brewers: Two hobbyists start making mead because they can’t get the kind of thing they want to drink. They’re located in St. John, Indiana, a far suburb of Chicago. A darling of the fans is Slow Heavy Jam, a pyment made from wildflower honey and lots of Concord grape. Other fan favourites include Tripleberry, a melomel made with blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries, and the seasonal Holiday, made with apples, cherries, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Garagiste

Based in Tampa, Florida, since 2016, Garagiste has put out a colourful range of products. Attention-getters include several variations on peanut-butter-and-jelly flavours, variously named Goober or some variation thereof (e.g., Reboog). The most recent is Goobvee One, made with apple, grape, blueberry, strawberry, and other flavours. Another melomel that lights up eyes and palates is Cilice, made with red currants, raspberries, and cherries, then aged on Four Roses bourbon staves. Or for a wake-up, consider Blue Mountain, which gets “an absurd amount” of Jamaican coffee and has a bourbon barrel–aged variation.

Manic

Not far from Boneflower, Manic is based in Crown Point, Indiana, another Chicagoland suburb. Founded in 2017, its notables include rich Collusion (16 percent ABV), brewed with black currants, black raspberries, marionberries, vanilla, and maple syrup. Another is the Nordic Quad (17.5 percent ABV), a Viking-inspired metheglin spiced with juniper, hibiscus, coriander, and rose hips.

Misbeehavin’

More from that new-mead hotbed of northwest Indiana, this one in production since 2016 in Valparaiso. Their wide range—they say they release about 48 different meads per year—includes a jammy variety of melomels, many aged on oak. Local favourites include a series of PB&J-flavoured meads called With a Baseball Bat, or sweet, juicy Same Old Jam, getting various fruits plus flavours such as vanilla, maple, or white chocolate.

Types of Mead

Mead has its own sort of style vocabulary, and there is some overlap. Here’s a brief explanation of some of the most common types, though there are many variations based on various mead-making traditions around the world.
Mead: A fermented drink made of honey and water, coming in a wide range of alcoholic strengths. Honey must be at least 51 percent of the fermentable sugars.
Melomel: A fruited mead, and by far the most popular type in the new wave of craft meads.
Pyment: A type of melomel made with grapes.
Metheglin: A mead flavoured with herbs and/or spices.
Braggot: A beer-mead hybrid that may include malt and/or hops.
Cyser: A cider-mead hybrid that includes fermented apple juice.
Hydromel: A word often used for lower-alcohol mead (i.e., “water-honey”)

https://beerandbrewing.com/meadmakers-of-the-new-school/