Thirsty Bee Meadery offers taste of honey wine in Tomball, Texas

From communityimpact.com

Known for its diverse local mead, Thirsty Bee Meadery was established by beekeepers Matthew Brantley and Kelly Brantley in January 2020.

The couple said that while some people expect mead to be sweet, mead is made with a variety of ingredients, including fermented honey, water, yeast and fruits, and may vary in taste.

The meadery offers mead by the glass, in bottles and growlers as well as charcuterie boards and its honey products at its tasting room. Its honey products include beeswax candles, creamed honey, beeswax bars and raw honey.

The setup

Matthew Brantley’s father kept bees in his backyard, and Kelly Brantley grew up in the Tomball area, prompting the couple to expand their BZ Honey business—which has been in Tomball since 2017—into a meadery.

Kelly Brantley said that at the time, the Tomball area lacked a destination for mead and natural honey products.

The couple has beehives in multiple locations in the Tomball area, including Plants For All Seasons, The Arbor Gate, Tomball Community Garden and the Tomball Farmers Market.

“They asked us about putting hives out there, and when we did, they said their yields just went through the roof with the bees right there on-site,” Matthew Brantley said.

Diving in deeper

Kelly Brantley said the couple wanted to introduce the Tomball area to mead and provide a variety to offer something for every taste.

Thirsty Bee Meadery offers seasonally rotating mead options, including The Poet, a cranberry melomel; Thirsty Bee Meadery pinot noir; and Three Goddesses, an apple honey wine. (Courtesy Thirsty Bee Meadery)

“We do have a wide variety of meads, and they vary from dry to sweet, and that's not always common at meaderies,” Kelly Brantley said.

Thirsty Bee Meadery offers up to 12 options of mead per season. Its mead products are rotated every three to four months. The Meadery recently added housemade wine, including pinot noir and chardonnay for those who prefer wine over mead.

Some rotating customer favorites include the White Paw, a semisweet strawberry and peach melomel; Three Goddesses made with apple honey; and Tomball Tea made with black tea. Matthew Brantley said one of the most-liked meads includes the blackberry and lemon mead; however, due to the amount of product and time it takes to make that mead, it is only available once a year.

While Thirsty Bee Meadery has been located at 108 Commerce St., Tomball, the meadery has plans to relocate to a larger location at 212 W. Main St., Tomball, by early January.

Matthew and Kelly Brantley said with the expansion they plan to host member events, larger parties and live music indoors.

“We stay connected with our community through our bees and do what we can to give back to the community,” Kelly Brantley said.

• 212 W. Main St., Tomball
• www.thirstybeemeadery.com

https://communityimpact.com/houston/tomball-magnolia/business/2023/12/27/thirsty-bee-meadery-offers-taste-of-honey-wine-in-tomball/

Indulge In Nostalgia: Moonshine Meadery’s Christmas Apple Pie Mead Is Back To Brighten Your Festive Season

From brewer-world.com

As December unfolds, bringing a delightful mix of chilly weather, festive vibes, and Yuletide cheer, Moonshine Meadery, India’s first meadery, reintroduces a festive favourite – the Christmas Apple Pie mead from its MeadLAB series. It’s like sipping on your cherished Christmas apple pie, now bottled for the season! 

The journey of the Christmas Apple Pie mead began in 2018 when Moonshine Meadery, known for its small-batch seasonal meads, crafted this gem. The process involves aging their flagship Apple Mead, made with multi-floral honey and Kashmiri apples, with the addition of quintessential Christmas spices like Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Cloves. 

Keeping with their tradition of collaborating with diverse artists for label design, the Christmas Apple Pie Mead showcases the artistic touch of Ajay Shah Design Studio (ASDS). Adorned in classic Christmas hues of red and green, Moonshine’s circular white logo takes on the form of a snowman, perfectly encapsulating the Christmas cheer. 

Discussing the inspiration behind the Christmas Apple Pie mead, Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas, Co-founders of Moonshine Meadery, expressed, “Christmas beckons a joyous celebration with loved ones. Yet, no celebration is complete without cinnamon-infused desserts, rum cake, and apple pie. With this in mind, we aspired to craft a mead that embodies the traditional apple pie, poured into a glass! And thus, the Christmas Apple Pie mead came to life.” They added, “At Moonshine, our commitment to experimenting with ingredients is ongoing, aiming to cater to diverse palates and redefine how this versatile drink is enjoyed. The Christmas Apple Pie mead is a testament to this exploration.” 

With an alcohol content of 6.5% ABV, the Christmas Apple Pie Mead is now available in Mumbai, Pune, Goa, and Bangalore, inviting you to savour the spirit of the season. 

About Moonshine Meadery : 

Established in 2018, Moonshine Meadery is India’s first meadery, reviving the ancient alcoholic beverage known as Mead in refreshing modern avatars. Made by fermenting pure honey with various fruits and spices, Moonshine’s meads offer 100% natural and flavourful beverages. Beyond the great taste, for each pint of Moonshine you enjoy, approximately 3 lakh flowers have been pollinated by bees to produce the honey used in crafting this delightful mead. This demonstrates our dedication to both beekeeping and essential pollination. 

Moonshine constantly innovates and experiments with a range of ingredients—like multi-floral honey, orange blossom honey, coffee beans, guavas, apples, chilies, kaffir lime, and much more—to offer a diverse spread of meads that suit different tastes. While Moonshine’s spectrum of flagship meads—Apple Mead, Traditional Mead, and Coffee Mead—are available yearly, the brand also offers seasonal meads known as the MeadLABs. These include Mango Chilli Mead, Guava Chilli Mead, and the Grilled Pineapple Mead, amongst several others, and has slowly carved a niche for itself in the Indian alco-bev sector. Moonshine is currently available in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, UAE, Australia and New Zealand. 

https://www.brewer-world.com/indulge-in-nostalgia-moonshine-meaderys-christmas-apple-pie-mead-is-back-to-brighten-your-festive-season/ 

Understanding the Thirst-Quenchers of the Iron Age

From gillettnews.com

A journey back in time reveals the fascinating world of Iron Age beverages. As we navigate through this pivotal era of human history, one question stands out: What were the drinks that our ancestors relied on to fuel their lives? Let’s dive into the past and explore the thirst-quenchers that sustained the people of the Iron Age.

While water was the fundamental source of hydration, it was not always safe to consume due to contamination risks. The resourceful Iron Age people turned to fermented beverages to ensure both safety and longevity. These drinks held a special place in their society, serving purposes beyond quenching thirst.

One of the preferred drinks during this time was mead, a luxurious and highly prized fermented beverage crafted from the nectar of the gods – honey. Mead was often reserved for celebratory occasions and religious ceremonies. Mixing honey with water and occasionally flavoured with fruits or herbs enriched the taste and essence of this esteemed drink.

Ale, on the other hand, was a staple in Iron Age communities. This beer-like beverage played a vital role in providing nutrition and calories to people of all ages. The process involved soaking grains, such as barley or wheat, in water and allowing them to ferment. The liquid was then meticulously strained to remove any solids, resulting in a refreshing and nourishing drink.

Contrary to popular belief, wine was not as prevalent in the Iron Age as mead and ale. The production of wine required specific climatic conditions and vineyards that were not as widely available in certain regions during this time.

Although water was an essential element of survival, drinking directly from rivers or wells posed health risks due to contamination. To ensure the safety of their water intake, Iron Age people often resorted to boiling or other purification methods.

Exploring the drinking habits of our Iron Age ancestors provides us with not only a glimpse into their daily lives but also a deeper understanding of the cultural and social significance of beverages. From the indulgence of mead to the sustenance of ale, these drinks played pivotal roles in shaping the Iron Age societies. So, raise a glass and toast to the knowledge gained from the thirst-quenchers of the past!

https://gillettnews.com/news/understanding-the-thirst-quenchers-of-the-iron-age/319693/#gsc.tab=0 

Susan Jane White’s gifting jar of Wild Red Mead prunes is a recipe to keep the pipes in check over the Christmas period

From independent.ie

Susan Jane White’s gifting jar of Wild Red Mead prunes is a recipe to keep the pipes in check over the Christmas period

• It’s gift season and I’m nosediving into my Santa hat and glittered apron with violent giddiness. Homemade presents are my modus operandi, my maternal algorithm and form of expression. It’s how I show love and appreciation (none of which a scented candle from Goop can embody).
• 
  
• 
  

Wild Red Mead is a fruity alcoholic bevvie made in Kinsale from fermenting honey with dark cherries and Wexford blackcurrants. As expected, it tastes like some cosmic spillage from the stars. It’s smooth and rich with a deep burgundy hue. Fruit meads were basically Ireland’s medieval red wines, alchemised from native wild berries, raw honey and keen tenacity.

Grab yourself a bottle this Christmas (kinsalemeadco.ie), and serve at room temperature in dinky little port glasses. Any leftovers can be rustled into these celestial red mead prunes, served warm with vanilla ice-cream. Prunes are obviously absurdly talented, with their Oscar-worthy role in powerhosing our pipes. But marry them with Irish mead, and an aria breaks out. The combination is devastatingly good, and will become a firm favourite every Christmas. Trouble is, I keep eating the gifts.

Wild Red Mead prunes

                                            Gift jars of prunes boiled in Kinsale Wild Red Mead. Photo: Susan Jane White

For 2 gift jars

You will need:

300ml Kinsale Wild Red Mead

5 tablespoons muscovado sugar

4 cloves

200g pitted prunes

​1 Tumble the Wild Red Mead, muscovado sugar and cloves into a small saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil for 3 minutes to burn the alcohol off. I realise that this may sound counter intuitive to an Irish reader at Christmas time, but the end result will still rock your tonsils and your toes.

​2 Reduce the heat to a polite simmer and add your prunes. You’ll find fabulous soft, pitted prunes in Lidl for €1.50. Harder prunes will need longer cooking time to absorb the mead.

​3 Simmer for about 10 minutes (longer if your prunes are hard, but you don’t want soft prunes disintegrating into the liquid). Take your pan of prunes off the heat and discard the cloves.

4 Allow the prunes to cool down and absorb all the juiciness before packing into 2 scrupulously clean jars, and tying a dinky Christmas ribbon around each neck. Store in the fridge for up to 10 days or gift them straightaway. Serve with vanilla ice-cream or thick Greek yoghurt and a side of Bing Crosby.

https://www.independent.ie/life/food-drink/recipes/susan-jane-whites-gifting-jar-of-wild-red-mead-prunes-is-a-recipe-to-keep-the-pipes-in-check-over-the-christmas-period/a533607798.html 

All the Buzz About Hawai‘i’s 5 Local Meaderies

From honolulumagazine.com

Traditional or fizzy, made with hibiscus, cacao, chile peppers, even durian: Where to find every kind of local honey wine

 Hawai‘i, whose tropical flowers produce honey found nowhere else in the world, also boasts mead found nowhere else. Five meaderies on three islands now make wildly different versions of the drink the ancient Greeks called the nectar of the gods.

Big Island Meadery

An offshoot of Kilohana Honey Co., brand-new Big Island Meadery opened its taproom in October. Owner Vanessa Houle tells us the company was making award-winning meads for eight years before opening Hawai‘i Island’s first dedicated meadery. “There is a lot of local honey on the market,” she says. “This was our special way of supporting the Hawai‘i honey and bee industry.”

Both companies source honey from their own apiary. Meads range from traditional to semi-sweet and sweet, in varieties featuring homegrown hibiscus, ginger and cacao. Alcohol content ranges from 8% to 12% depending on the type. You’ll find the meads just at the taproom for now, by the glass ($5 to $8), bottle ($25 to $55) or flight size (1.5 ounces for $1 to $2).

Also available are keiki-friendly juice slushies ($5 to $6). What can be ordered online and shipped are different kinds of honey and beeswax candles. Beehive tours are coming in 2024, and keep an eye out for Big Island Meadery’s bottled and draft mead in stores and bars.

Open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 16-313 Shipman Road, Kea‘au, Hawai‘i Island, bigislandmeadery.com, @bigislandmeadery

Mānoa Honey & Mead

O‘ahu’s only meadery sells its bottles at ABC Stores, Foodland and specialty alcohol stores like Village Bottle Shop and is even on draft in restaurants and bars (Hula Grill Waikīkī, Morning Glass Coffee). Tasting experiences and bees-to-mead tours are also available. Mānoa Honey’s hives are scattered across O‘ahu, producing honey flavoured by blossoms in each area. You can find the honey at its Honey House in Wahiawā, along with the most varied line-up of meads in the state. 

                                                        Photo: Courtesy of Manoa Honey & Mead

Mead here ranges from the carbonated light session .ORG Orange Rosemary Session (6.7% ABV, $8.50 a can) and fruited meads such as liliko‘i and pineapple (8% ABV, $14 a bottle) to special Pō (13% ABV, $18 a bottle) aged in Kō Hana Rum barrels. If you’re not up for the drive, holiday gift sets are available online and can be shipped. Also available are different meads like durian mead ($33.50 a bottle), honey soaps ($8.45) and natural honeycomb ($16).

Open Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for retail sales only, Friday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. for tasting and retail sales. 930 Palm Pl., Wahiawā, O‘ahu, manoahoney.com, @manoahoneymead

Nani Moon Meadery

Hawai‘i’s first meadery and the only one on Kaua‘i, Nani Moon was founded in 2000. Its artistic labels have been a mainstay in specialty wine shops and at beer festivals ever since. Infused with other local ingredients from across the state like Kona coffee, Tahitian limes, ginger, vanilla beans and cacao, each mead has a distinctive flavour. 

                                                             Photo: Courtesy of Nani Moon Meadery

Winter Sun, made with starfruit and liliko‘i, can be sipped chilled or at room temperature. Deviant Beehavior, sweet and sour, has Hawaiian chile pepper along with organic white pineapple and hints of allspice and mango chutney. At the tasting room in Kapa‘a, try a Royal Flight of all Nani Moon meads as 2-ounce pours for $25. Bottled mead ($32 to $35 a bottle) and merchandise are available online. 

Reservations encouraged. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 noon to 5 p.m. for tastings. 4-939 Kūhiō Hwy D, Kapa‘a, Kaua‘i, nanimoonmead.com, @nanimoon

Volcano Winery

In addition to traditional grape-based wines and infused tea wine ($42 for a 375 ml bottle), Volcano Winery also makes a few meads. One is the Macadamia Nut Honey Mead ($25 for a 375 ml bottle), which can be found in most Safeway, Target or ABC Stores. There are also tours and tastings at the winery and tasting room just outside Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. 

Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., 35 Pi‘i Mauna Dr., Volcano, Hawai‘i Island, @volcanowineryhi

Wailuku Brew Works

One of the state’s newest breweries, Wailuku Brew Works opened in midsummer and primarily makes beer. But unique among local beer makers, Wailuku is the only brewery to make and pour mead, including a spicy Hawaiian chile pepper variety. The taproom is on the other side of the highway from Big Island Meadery and an easy stop if you’re in the Hilo area. 

Shipman Office Park, 16-205 Wiliama Pl, Kea‘au, Hawai‘i Island, wailukubrewworks.com, @wailuku_brew_works

If you’re a fan of beer, coffee or wine, odds are there is a mead that will appeal to your palate. So next time you‘re near a taproom, stop in to see what these independent local businesses are making. Cheers to mead!

https://www.honolulumagazine.com/mead-in-hawaii/