From stuff.co.nz
Mead-maker Jay Bennett literally sold the farm to pursue his passion for mead, but the Taupō-based brewer has hit the sweet spot with multiple awards rolling in for his work.
While a relationship breakup may have forced his hand and Covid-19 lockdowns put the brakes on commercial success, Bennett’s Beehave! Craft Meadery has finally opened its doors to the public.
Owner, operator, bee-keeper and brewer, Bennett, a former rafting guide, moved into town two years ago after selling the small farm he lived on at the southern end of Lake Taupō since the mid-1980s.
Since then, he's been brewing mead commercially from his bee-hive base on Spa Rd and has a small team of two part-timers and one full-timer to help carry the load.
He said while the mead scene in New Zealand was still in its infancy, he felt like he was at the leading edge.
"You'll find a lot of people have tried mead, but not got a lot out of it. A lot of them are really sweet.
"But wherever we go now we get great feedback, we have about an 85% hit rate from tasting to buying.
"I think people are quite surprised by how good it tastes."
Mead is the oldest fermented alcohol product on Earth, with its origins going back 12,000 years when pre-agricultural people used to intentionally flood wild beehives and drink the sweet honey-flavoured water.
Bennett said just like his mead-making, he fell into beekeeping by accident after discovering and removing a beehive on his property.
Years later, after running up to 200 hives, he decided beekeeping was a lot of hard work for little return and turned to mead as another way to use the end product.
"The bees led me to drink,” he said.
"I'm not beekeeping any more, but I'm still using my own honey, and how long that will last will depend on how busy we get, but come April next year I'll be looking for other supplies.
"We want to use the best ingredients we can find, because it really makes a difference.
"Everything has to be fresh, otherwise it effects the end product.”
Bennett has sourced many of his ingredients – including limes, lemons, berries, hops and chillis – from friends, and blends them with specific honeys to make his range of meads.
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SUPPLIED/WAIKATO TIMES
Bennett Bennett uses his skills as a beekeeper to create his award-winning meads.
“My whole task is looking at the flavour I want to create and working back from there to the honey and the yeast – and different honeys make all the difference in flavour.”
He said his hopped mead was designed to attract beer drinkers and had been hugely successful.
At the 2022 New Zealand Fruit Wine & Cider Awards, Bennett’s entries all won gold or silver awards and his Fever Dream chocolate and chilli mead won the best overall mead award.
“I’m all self-taught, and it’s trial and error, my first mead was a feijoa mead, but I had no idea about yeast control and it came out at 18%.”
A brew can take anywhere from weeks to months, depending on what strength and carbonation was required – from non-alcoholic to around 12% ABV.
Everything, from warming the honey, fermenting, filtering, pressing, carbonating, bottling and the packaging is done in-house.
After going into commercial production right on lock down in March 2020, Bennett is keen to get out to promote his products – he said getting in front of people at events was key to his success.
“It’s one of those things, you don’t know how good it is until you’ve tried it.”
Bennett said, like in the craft beer industry, there were a lot of mead brewers keen to help out.
“It seems mead making is not as easy at it looks, but the more good mead that’s out there makes it easier for all of us.
“Now all we need is for people to get on board and start consuming the product.
“Come in and try what you have been missing out on, most people are pleasantly surprised – I sold the farm to do what I’m doing – literally.”
