Mead moment: Bees, fermentation inspire Cayuga County beverage producer

From auburnpub.com

By David Wilcox

It's hard to make bad wine. But it's easy to make bad mead.

That's one reason David Lane was inspired to pivot from making wine to making mead, which involves fermenting honey instead of grapes to produce an alcoholic beverage. Now, he does just that on his Ledyard property through Wild Nectar Mead. Lane obtained a farm meadery license from New York in November 2019, the second ever issued by the state, he told The Citizen.

A fifth-generation Oregonian, Lane was taught how to make cider on the state's coast by his grandfather. He later switched to pinot noir. Then, in 2014, he tried fermenting honey and never turned back.

"I fell in love with the challenge," he said. "It's really easy to get a very bad outcome, so the good outcomes are more rewarding."

Lane moved to New York to take a job at Cornell University's Institute for Climate Smart Solutions. As he acquainted himself with the area, he approached local beekeepers to source honey. Interacting with them made him even more passionate about mead, he said, as he learned the importance of saving honeybees. The pollinating insects are widely believed to be going extinct. 

In that moment, saving honeybees became as much a part of Wild Nectar Mead as the challenges of fermentation, Lane said.

"It's not just about more alcohol," he said. "I call it the bee-cause."

Shortly after the business was licensed, the COVID-19 pandemic began. Lane wasn't too slowed down, he said, as he spent the time fermenting, tweaking his recipes and getting bottle labels approved by the state. He's also been preparing a meadow on his Ledyard property, which lies about two miles from Cayuga Lake, to support honeybees with abundant wildflowers.

While Lane buys honey from local producers for now, producing his own is a possibility. He would hire beekeepers to keep the population alive during winter, among other challenges.

                        Wild Nectar Mead owner David Lane at his production facility in Ledyard.

                                                                Kevin Rivoli, The Citizen

Honeybees can venture as far as 5 miles from their hives, Lane said, and each different source of nectar in that area means a different varietal of honey. Each nectar has the essence of where it grew, from basswood trees to clover flowers, from wildflowers in the summer to goldenrod in the fall. As a fermenter, that differentiation is what drew Lane to producing mead.

"Honey sometimes needs various chemical nudges," he said. "It's a big puzzle figuring out how to get the chemistry just right for each varietal."

Producing mead requires adding the right amount of water to the honey and accounting for many variables, Lane said, such as the strain of yeast being used, environmental conditions and the chemistry of the honey. Though some believe fermentation and aging should take months or even years to make palatable mead, Lane is mastering a process that takes about a month.

"I've done a lot of experimentation to figure out how to do it faster," he said. "It's about finding the sweet spot."

                                            Wild Nectar Mead in Ledyard.  Kevin Rivoli, The Citizen

Tart cherry and lavender Wild Nectar Mead are now available at the Village Market in Aurora and the Underground Bottle Shop in Auburn. Lane has also been selling mead at market events in the village and Rochester, and he's received interest from local businesses about serving it on tap or by the bottle. Additionally, the Wild Nectar Mead Club offers three bottles quarterly.

Lane is weighing a physical location for his business. He lives on the Ledyard property where he produces mead now, but if he were to open a tasting room to the public, he might prefer to move somewhere else. He's been eyeing properties on Route 90 with a view of the lake, he said. He'd like to offer educational and music events there as well.

Lane would probably find a following for that, as the popularity of mead has been spiking lately. Often referred to as the world's oldest beverage, it ranges in alcohol content from 5% to 20%.

Lane believes mead has become more popular for some of the reasons other craft beverages have, such as the locavore movement. As a farm meadery, he noted, all the honey he uses must come from New York. But he also believes mead has an appeal of its own. Honey is associated with many health benefits, and the beverage is gluten-free. Its history just sweetens the pot.

"It has a long history, but then it fell out of favour with history," Lane said. "So it feels like a comeback drink to a lot of people."

https://auburnpub.com/lifestyles/mead-moment-bees-fermentation-inspire-cayuga-county-beverage-producer/article_8bf989fc-b506-5c61-b761-aa87b6dd20b6.html

The Unique Family-Owned Meadery Perfect For A Day Trip From Nashville

From travelawaits.com

Clarksville, Tennessee, is located 50 miles northwest of Nashville and only a couple of miles from the Kentucky border. It is here that you will find Trazo Meadery, the first meadery in the state of Tennessee. Being the first it took the owners educating not only the public but the state regulatory commission on what mead is and how it is produced.

Located in downtown Clarksville on Franklin Street, Trazo Meadery has become a popular place in the short time it has been open. In a state where Tennessee whiskey and craft beer breweries are the norm, Trazo Meadery is carving out a name for itself and garnering a loyal following.

The History Of Mead And Trazo Meadery

Mead, often referred to as honey wine, has been around for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of mead dates to around 7000 B.C., where archaeological evidence of pottery found in Northern China shows evidence of a fermented drink with honey, fruits, and rice, making it the oldest known alcoholic beverage. Mead, a fermented drink using honey, water, and botanicals, became popular in Europe during the Bronze Age, but with the invention of beer Mead took a back seat.

Trazo Meadery is out to change that. It’s a family-run business with David, Becky, and son Travis Powell at the helm. Trazo had its beginning when Travis was around 8 or 9 years old, and his grandfather decided to start raising bees. After being stung several times, he quickly decided bees were not in his future; however, young Travis decided to take over the hives and learned all about beekeeping. Always having a desire to make a business of his hobby of beekeeping, after college Travis and his parents started experimenting with the making of mead.

                                        FATHER AND SON OWNERS, DAVID AND TRAVIS POWELL (PHOTO CREDIT: BOB BALES)

Their first mead was from one of Travis’s friends from the Czech Republic. The family mead recipe has been used since the 1700s. After a lot of trial and error, they learned to produce mead that was exceptional.

David Powell is the driving force behind the actual production, while mom Becky is the Chief Financial Officer. All the mead is produced on the family farm in Adams, Tennessee, using yeast from Travis’s grandmother’s sourdough bread recipe. Trazo Mead sources its honey from around the world only, using the finest ingredients.

Each honey imparts a different flavour depending on where it was produced. Since honey is made from the nectar of flowers, different flowers produce different flavours and colours.

Since opening, beekeepers from around the world have reached out to Trazo, wanting them to sample and use their honey. Some of the honey makes the grade and some doesn’t. There is also some honey that David wants to get his hands on but either shipping costs or problems with sourcing have proved difficult.

Trazo’s Specialty Mead (And The Road To Making Mead In Tennessee)

Trazo Meadery specializes in what is called “Show Mead,” the simplest-to-make mead, which consists of honey, water, and yeast. Getting the license to produce the mead took a little educating of the Tennessee regulatory authority.

Being the first meadery in the state, no one really knew how to classify the license. Was it a brewery, distillery, or winery? After some back and forth and looking at the process of how mead is produced, it was decided that it closely resembled a winery, and Trazo’s license was issued. In 2016, Trazo Meadery was officially in business.

At first, Trazo distributed mead to businesses both in and out of state, but after some time, the family decided that having to go through a distributor and not being able to educate and introduce their mead to the customer just wasn’t worth it. In May of 2020, the tasting room in Clarksville was opened and they haven’t looked back since.

Since the beginning, Trazo Meadery made it their mission to produce the finest Mead possible and offer their customers a stellar experience when visiting the tasting room.

What To Expect When You Visit Trazo Meadery

When you enter the meadery, the first thing you notice is how clean it is. Not just clean as in no dirt, but clean as in not a lot of unnecessary things hanging on the walls or cluttering up the place. There is a beautiful wooden bar with the mead behind the bar along with tables lined up next to the wall. Since a lot of people don’t know what mead is, Travis loves introducing it to first-timers.

Trazo Meadery wants to give customers a superior experience, so everything is served in an elegant fashion with elegant food. The food, in a word, is fantastic. You can order: 

• Bacon gouda grilled cheese
• Charcuterie boards with imported meats and cheeses
• Smoked salmon toast
• Black cherry skillet corn cake

All of these options are delicious. Occasionally Travis serves up sourdough bread made from his grandmother’s recipe. His grandmother never let anyone pay for the bread, so in honour of her, the bread is given away to the customers.

                                                                   MEAD FLIGHT AND FOOD (PHOTO CREDIT: BOB BALES)

Trazo makes it their mission to provide exceptional mead, food, and service at a reasonable price. As Travis said, “It is our passion, and we want to share it.” They strive to give a stellar customer experience, and it shows.

Trazo sells a lot of flights with a variety of different meads, giving you a chance to sample different ones produced from different sourced honey. Not only can you experience the mead, but Trazo also produces cider. Due to the law in Tennessee, Trazo is also allowed to sell bottles to go. They even sell a box containing six 2-ounce samples of various meads.

Pro Tip: Still wondering what mead tastes like? The closest comparison I can make for someone that has never tasted mead is that it’s like a sweet dessert wine that has a honey flavour.

Why You Need To Visit Trazo

A visit to Trazo Meadery is perfect for meeting friends for lunch or an elegant night out. And since it is downtown, it is conveniently adjacent to a lot of things Clarksville has to offer. Trazo Meadery is a perfect destination on that weekend trip from Nashville when you want to do something different and have a great time.

One thing I discovered at Trazo is their willingness and enthusiasm for sharing their passion. Anytime the owners of a business are excited to share what they love doing, it makes for a great experience.

Pro Tip: While you are visiting Trazo Meadery take some time to check out the various murals, statues, and sculptures that dot the downtown Clarksville area.

https://www.travelawaits.com/2757075/nashville-day-trip-trazo-meadery-clarksville-tn/

Nectar Creek Meadery Creates Buzz by Re-releasing Fan Favourite, Sting

From brewbound.com

CORVALLIS, Oregon – Back by popular demand, Nectar Creek Meadery is reintroducing Sting, a beloved honey and ginger mead beverage slated to hit shelves in May 2022. Mead, the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world, is made by fermenting honey.

Crafted from pure, unfiltered honey and fresh hand pressed ginger, this golden brew is headlining Nectar Creek’s 2022 Rotating Seasonal line. By marrying honey with ginger, this exquisite beverage boasts a sting of warmth, a tease of sweetness, and a dry finish.

“Sting is back and better than ever. By hand grinding the ginger, we brought out that spicy zing, and it came together bee-autifully.” said Dave Takush, head cider maker. “This is pure, unfiltered  love for the fans. They spoke and we meaded their call.”

Spicy, warm, and sharp, this craft beverage is the perfect sipper to enjoy while relaxing on a spring afternoon, rafting down the river, or frolicking in the field.

Specs

8% ABV | Honey wine

Made with pure, unfiltered honey, and fresh hand pressed ginger

Mead Profile

Unfiltered raw honey married with fresh pressed ginger

Spicy zing with subtle honey and citrus notes

Sting  will be available in 500mL bottles, ½ bbl & ? bbl kegs through distributors in Oregon, Washington, and California.

About Nectar Creek Meadery 

Founded in 2012, Nectar Creek, a sister brand of 2 Towns Ciderhouse,  makes meads using pure unfiltered honey. Their offerings include a wide variety of lightly carbonated meads. As one of the leaders of the resurgence of the mead category, Nectar Creek’s products have been helping bring this age-old beverage into the mainstream.

https://www.brewbound.com/news/nectar-creek-meadery-creates-buzz-by-re-releasing-fan-favorite-sting/ 

Now, you can try the mythical mead from Harry Potter and The Hobbit right here!

From indulgexpress.com

Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas, co-founders of Moonshine Meadery, bring in toe-curling ferments to woo your senses

Remember when Gandalf took wizard glugs of mead in Tolkien’s fantasy novel, The Hobbit (the prologue to Lord of the Rings)? Or when the gigantic Hagrid ordered four pints of the mulled version at a bar in Rowling’s Harry Potter series? If you’ve been mooning over the ferment that the Vikings drank from intricate horns, get ready to sip on the mead, or honey wine, on home turf now as Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas, co-founders, of Moonshine Meadery, bring in toe-curling ferments to woo your senses.

The genesis of mead can be traced back to 7,000 BC in North China. The Grecians venerated the ferment as ambrosia or nectar of the gods. The Vikings brewed their own wine, beer and mead. In Norse mythology, mead is a mythical beverage that makes you capable of solving any question, by drinking it. Why the name Moonshine? “When we started out on our mead-making quest, the common reaction we earned was —‘Hope you aren’t making hooch/moonshine’,” laughs Vishwas.

“Moonshine was a term associated with illicit alcohol during the prohibition era. Both Rohan and I agreed that it has a cool ring to it, and the name just stuck!” The duo had their first mead they made in 2014. “No, it’s not beer even though it comes bottled in amber pints a la beer. It is honey that has been fermented over a period of time,” says Rehani.

Moonshine’s mead

Since fermented honey forms the core of the world’s oldest alcoholic drink, sourcing the best bee-made goody gains special importance. “We get our honey from all across the country, primarily from the northern belt,” Rehani shares. “There are 300-odd bee boxes under the Moonshine Honey Project that give us a single variety of honey, some of which we ferment, the rest we package and sell. We collaborate with people who practise natural farming, and make use of locally available fruits in our meads,” he says. Water is added to create a yeast-friendly environment since honey can stay preserved for years and years. “The fermentation takes between 10-14 days after which it is filtered, carbonated and bottled,” explains Rehani. 

With the mead mart globally pegged at $500 million and growing at 11 percent, it is a sweet takeaway for what started out as a passion project. Moonshine has set foot in 900 outlets pan-India and is eyeing the northern states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh now. “As mead fits into the white space that exists between flavourful, non-alcoholic fizzy drinks, and alcoholic, bitter beverages like commercial beer, we started contemplating if we could turn this into a business.

The Indian market didn’t have an alcoholic beverage that was focused on flavour. It seemed like a logical progression for us to start out with Moonshine in 2016,” says Rehani. Bereft of grains, mead is gluten-free, and the infusion of spices, fruits, and hops brings a matrix of flavours to the rather versatile, mildly carbonated complexion of mead. “This focus of crafting flavourful beverages using all-natural ingredients did not exist in the Indian alcohol space earlier,” points out Vishwas. 

What’s next? “We have been working on high alcohol meads using speciality honey, for the last two years and will be launching these over the next couple of months,” they sum up.

https://www.indulgexpress.com/food/2022/may/08/now-you-can-try-the-mythical-mead-from-harry-potter-andthe-hobbit-right-here-40741.html

Mead – More Than Just The Drink of Vikings

From panow.com

Mead (/mi:d/) is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 18%. The defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage’s fermentable sugar is derived from honey. It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling; dry, semi-sweet, or sweet. – Wikipedia

(Western Canada)Often associated with Viking feast halls, mead is a class of alcoholic beverage that has seen a resurgence in recent years. But the origins of mead go back much further than men in boats with funny helmets. In fact, it is believed that mead may be the oldest form of alcoholic beverage in the world, with evidence that mead was being made in ancient China as long as 9000 years ago. (Sorry beer drinkers).

Through history, mead played an important role in many cultures. The Greeks considered mead to be the ‘Nectar of the Gods’, and as such it was believed to give the drinker divine blessings such as strength, wit, and even immortality. In Viking mythology, there was a legendary drink called the Mead of Poetry that was said to make the imbiber into a scholar or poet, as it was made from the blood of a divine keeper of knowledge. And though your doctor will never give you a prescription for it, some herbal meads were used as medicine for depression, digestion and hypochondria.

Recently, mead is once again starting to gain popularity among craft producers. There are roughly 300 commercial mead producers across North America, and that doesn’t count the back yard and basement mead producers. A quick search online will yield dozens of quick, easy, 10 to 15 step processes to make your own mead at home and feel like a Viking…. just try not to sail across the ocean and plunder England.

Now that we are done with the history lesson, lets talk about mead itself. As mentioned above, the defining characteristic of mead is that it gets it’s sugar from honey as opposed to grapes – the main difference between mead and wine, even though mead is often referred to as honey wine.

The flavour of mead varies greatly based on the source of the honey. Most traditional meads use light, clear honeys made from nectar from clover or orange blossom. However, any honey can be used to make mead, and darker honeys often lend themselves well to spiced or mulled meads.

One of the fastest growing mead producers in Western Canada is Fallen Timber Meadery, located in Cremona, Alberta just over an hour north west of Calgary. The Ryan family started producing honey in the Alberta foothills over 50 years ago, and in 2010 they diversified into producing mead on the farm. The honey they produce is an extremely high grade clover honey that gives their meads a light, clear finish.

Looking more locally, Prairie Bee Meadery from just outside of Moose Jaw is Saskatchewan’s oldest commercial meadery, and has won more than 30 awards both locally and internationally. Boasting a line-up of 12 traditional and dessert meads and recently launching a new line of canned sparkling meads, Prairie Bee was featured on the CityTV series Flat Out Food last March, adding to their exposure.

https://panow.com/2022/05/06/mead-more-than-just-the-drink-of-vikings/ 

Liquid Arizona: Superstition Meadery Carbonated Session Meads

From phoenixmag.com

Arizona’s preeminent mead maker is suddenly feeling bubbly

To know mead is to love mead. But therein lies the rub for Superstition Meadery owner Jeff Herbert and other producers of the venerable honey beverage: How do you get the masses to try it in the first place? Knowing that many consumers – especially young consumers – are unlikely to drink anything they can’t pull from an ice chest and guzzle at a pool party, Herbert shrewdly conceived a line of bubbly session meads as a gateway mead of sorts for the White Claw crowd. “These are definitely made for warm weather and should be served chilled,” he says of the canned beverages, which join his cast-of-hundreds line of bottled heavy meads. He walks us through his process.

                                                  Photo by Angelina Aragon

1 Creating a carbonated, low-ABV mead isn’t just a matter of adding water and CO2 to existing meads – doing so would “skimp on flavour,” Herbert says. Thus, he tweaks his brewing process to leave more “residual sweetness” as yeast converts wildflower honey into alcohol. 

2 Herbert adds other natural flavours to arrive at his 12 session styles. For Dune Bloom, he adds prickly pear juice to get that “beautiful desert terroir.” For Electric Sunrise, he ferments the honey with Sangiovese wine grapes to create a “pyment,” or grape-honey hybrid. And so on.

3 Finally, he dilutes the mead to reach his target 6-7 percent ABV and adds carbonation, for a crisp, naturally sweetened antidote to the summer inferno. “The bubbles balance out [the honey and fruit] so nicely,” he says. 

4 Other selections include mimosa- and Bellini-inspired sparking meads, and a soon-to-be-released mead-jito (read: mead mojito). Available online and at Herber’s brick-and-mortar Valley outpost, Superstition Downtown.

https://www.phoenixmag.com/2022/05/05/liquid-arizona-superstition-meadery-carbonated-session-meads/ 

New meadery in British Columbia plans to make honey wine with help from local bees

From infotel.ca

A new meadery is in development in Kamloops, British Columbia, and while a few meaderies can be found in the Okanagan, this will be the first of its kind in the Tournament Capital.

The facility is located on a property on the banks of the South Thompson River, but it will be some time before the flavourful honey wine will be flowing.

“We recently received zoning permission so can finally get started, although there are many more steps to take,” co-owner Bernita Wienhold-Leahy said.

Wienhold-Leahy and her soon-to-be husband and business partner, Leroy Harder, have successfully made small batches of honey wine using honey from their own bees, and fruit from their own property. With the encouragement of close friends and fans of their product, the couple is going bigger with a plan to produce a minimum of 4,500 litres per year. 

“Honey wine is a type of mead, which is the oldest alcoholic drink on the planet,” Wienhold-Leahy said. “We make ours with fermented fruit and honey which is called melomel. The ingredients are fruit, yeast, honey and water. It tastes like a fruit wine with the added honey taste on top of it.”

Harder is an entomologist and experienced beekeeper. Some beekeepers use insecticides to rid their bees of mites but Harder is working to keep his hives insecticide-free for a cleaner end product.

“Leroy is a biologist so he is trying to find ways of managing things differently and naturally,” Wienhold-Leahy said. “He loves science. He raises his own queens and is waiting for the right weather to start building up his hives.”

A bee colony in Kamloops owned by resident Leroy Harder.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Bernita Wienhold-Leahy

The couple will need 50 hives to make enough honey to meet annual demand. The hives they currently manage are placed in various areas surrounding Kamloops, with the bees flavouring the honey with the natural vegetation around them.

Last year, the couple planted a variety of different fruit trees and are growing berries, all to be used as locally sourced ingredients.

“We’ll be supplying apricots and cherries, as well as blueberries, blackberries and strawberries,” Wienhold-Leahy said. “Strawberries provide a delicious subtle flavour to a honey wine.”

The couple is turning their three garages into a meadery, complete with all the necessary equipment for fermenting, mixing and bottling. They need stainless steel tanks and corking equipment.

Somewhere in the future they will likely add a tasting room.

“It takes a lot to start up and we are not in any rush,” Wienhold-Leahy said. “We have to go through a lot of health regulations and red tape. We are just going to putter and build with a plan to be in full production in two years. We have been advised by other winery owners a tasting room is a must.”

To build on their knowledge and expertise in the art of making honey wine, the couple has been visiting other meaderies in the province.

“There are two meaderies on the Lower Mainland,” Wienhold-Leahy said. “We visited them last week. While their models and products are not the exact same as ours, it is a fun way to learn and share knowledge about mead.”

The new business is called Lion’s Head Meadery, named after a rock formation behind the couple’s property.

Wienhold-Leahy said the meadery will serve the local area as a small, tasteful winery.

“As much as 4,500 litres per year sounds like a lot, it is still a pretty small production,” she said. “We are looking forward to bringing our product to local farmers markets and events in the future.”

https://infotel.ca/inwine/new-kamloops-meadery-plans-to-make-honey-wine-with-help-from-local-bees/it90471