ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Honey, water, and yeast. Those are the main ingredients behind a recently opened spot in Nob Hill. Although it may sound simple, the owners assure that the process is a labour of love.
“We really do want to make it like an immersive experience,” said Bernie, who owns 4 Norsemen’s Mead alongside her husband CJ Daniels. “Technically it’s like a wine, it’s a honey wine, but we try not to have a wine vibe. We really want it to feel… you know, when you walk in, and we have that communal, long table filled, where everybody is either family or friends, no matter who you are.”
4 Norsemen’s Mead is not your typical drinking hole. The inspiration behind Albuquerque’s only meadery is rooted in ancestry, tradition, and most of all, family. For Daniels, mead started out as a hobby to further explore his Norse and Scandinavian heritage. As his homemade mead collection multiplied, he started giving out bottles to friends and family, who’d come back for seconds. That success prompted the idea of selling it.
Cut to today, and the meadery opened its doors for the first time this past Saturday, where there was a wide array of people looking to try out some local mead – from bikers, to fairies, and even businessmen. One of the best sellers of the night was “Ravenstorm,” which is mead with cocoa nibs, hazelnut, and vanilla. Another popular choice was a mead made with home-harvested prickly pears – a combination aiming to fuse Norse with New Mexico.
One key focus while creating these drinks? A traditional process with fresh ingredients. To the owners, it’s a way of sticking to the ancestral roots behind the meadery. “One of the things that we really strive for is all natural ingredients, so we don’t use any juices from concentrate… Our fruits are all fresh fruit. Any of our herbs or other things are all fresh,” said Daniels. “We don’t use hazelnut powder, we use actual hazelnuts.”
4 Norsemen’s is one of three meaderies in New Mexico – there’s also Mystic Ambrosia in Santa Fe, and the Dark Stranger in Carlsbad. Bernie says they all have a different feel – Santa Fe’s meads are a bit artsy, the Dark Stranger has a piratey vibe, and as for 4 Norsemen’s, they have a more classic, traditional, “viking” approach to their mead. One mead tidbit to note – each batch ends up just slightly different, according to Daniels, seeing how “bees don’t always harvest the honey exactly the same, from the same exact flowers, in the same exact quantity.”
Overall, Daniels and Bernie simply hope their mead brings enjoyment. “It’s just been really a labor of love… Our family has helped a whole lot with everything and so that’s has been really awesome too,” said Bernie. “Like I say, we’re creating a community here for anybody and everybody.”
The meadery at 3417 Central Ave is open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday through Sunday.
The festivities return to England Brothers Park in Pinellas Park, running every weekend from April 4th through April 26th, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.
Opening ceremonies begin just before the gates open, setting the stage for a full day inside the immersive “Shire of Heyford,” a 10-acre village inspired by Elizabethan England.
The event brings together more than 100 costumed performances across nine stages, along with over 50 artisans and three pubs.
The result is a lively mix of theatre, music, and hands-on experiences designed to transport visitors to the year 1592, when Queen Elizabeth I is said to be visiting the countryside for a seasonal celebration.
Throughout the grounds, guests can expect a steady rotation of entertainment ranging from Shakespearean performances and Renaissance dance to sword fighting demonstrations, fire acts, acrobatics, and improv comedy. Street performers and roaming characters fill in the gaps between scheduled shows.
One of the biggest draws each year is the medieval tournament, where armoured knights on horseback compete in full-contact jousting matches. The high-energy spectacle blends historical re-enactment with theatrical storytelling, drawing large crowds throughout the day.
Beyond the performances, the faire offers a massive marketplace featuring handcrafted goods and specialty items.
Vendors sell everything from leatherwork and medieval clothing to jewellery, candles, crystals, and niche curiosities like taxidermy and cosplay accessories.
Live demonstrations, including blacksmithing and woodworking, give visitors a closer look at traditional crafts.
Food is another major highlight of the faire. Classic festival staples like turkey legs, kettle corn, and burgers are joined by more period-inspired offerings such as Scotch eggs, kebabs, and handcrafted mead.
Multiple pubs throughout the grounds serve beer and wine, though guests should note that food and beverage purchases are cash-only.
The event is designed to appeal to all ages, with family-friendly programming that includes face painting, games, and interactive experiences.
A pirate encampment, sword-fighting challenges, and themed activity areas provide additional entertainment for kids and adults alike.
Opening weekend, April 4th and 5th, will feature an Easter-themed celebration, including an egg hunt for children.
During that weekend, kids under 15 can enter for free with a ticket.
Additional themed weekends throughout the run include pirate-focused “Swashbuckler Weekend,” a Roman-inspired “Bacchanal Weekend,” and a whimsical “Gnomecore Weekend” to close out the season.
Tickets typically range from $25 to $30 for adults and $18 for children ages 5 to 15, with free admission for children under 5.
Attendance is capped each day and guests are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance online.
Visit the St. Petersburg Renaissance Faire’s website for more information and tickets.
Tukwila, Washington: “[King Hrothgar] handed down orders for men to work on a great mead-hall, meant to be a wonder of the world forever.” — “Beowulf,” translation by Seamus Heaney
IN THE LONG, COLD Scandinavian winter nights of yore, the mead hall was a beacon of warmth and light, the radiant call of its hearth fires drawing adventurers through its carved doorways. Today, in a nondescript Tukwila office park, a mead-maker named Jon Oppegaard has created a tasting room that does the same.
The place is hard to find unless you know what you’re looking for, tucked away among a maze of anonymous office buildings. You’d never know that behind those dull walls is a fairy-tale tavern, hidden in plain sight like something out of a Harry Potter book. When you step through the meadery’s back door (its main entrance), you enter a colourful, inviting facsimile of a Viking mead-hall.
The hall bustles with life in Viking fashion at Oppegaard Meadery. Scandinavian motifs, such as the twining branches of Yggdrasil and the runic alphabet, cover the walls. (Akash Pamarthy / The Seattle Times)
Oppegaard’s tenacious customers manage to find him, first for the mead, which he brews out of that very spot in massive vats in the back production space, and second (but just as important) for the camaraderie.
Inside, the walls are panelled in warm wood, and revellers convene at long communal tables decorated with Scandinavian motifs, such as the twining branches of Yggdrasil (the Norse tree of life) and the runic alphabet. Round wooden Viking shields and Viking-themed art, including a group of raven statues all named “Bill,” hang on the walls, mostly created by local artists and Oppegaard’s friends.
Oppegaard Meadery offers game players, reenactors and mead enthusiasts a place to gather. From left, Nathan Baker, 41, Lauren Connelly, 40, and Jon Williams, 30, play Red Dragon Inn. (Akash Pamarthy / The Seattle Times)
The clientele varies widely: mead enthusiasts, metalheads (there is, according to Oppegaard, considerable crossover between the two), historical reenactors and tabletop gamers. On any given night, the meadery’s long tables are filled with self-described nerds playing Dungeons and Dragons or Magic: The Gathering, all sipping mead, an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey and the favourite quaff of the early Scandinavians.
Address: 600 Industry Drive, Tukwila More info:opmead.com
L(Source: Esri (Map by Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times)
The Oppegaard Meadery has been located in the same space for roughly 10 years; the original meadery was, according to Oppegaard, “only slightly more than an office space with a hallway.” Oppegaard began making mead at home for fun 20 years ago, until the hobby outgrew the house.
Oppegaard makes a traditional honey-only mead, but also produces a number of variations that incorporate fruit juice and spices, including one called Dragon’s Blood, a bestseller mixed with the juice of three kinds of berries that turns it its theatrically eponymous colour. Visitors can try a variety with a mead flight. They can also order their drink smoked in Oppegaard’s Scandinavian tabletop smoker, which is shaped like a war chest.
Kaitlynn Larsen serves a flight of mead to a customer at Oppegaard Meadery. (Akash Pamarthy / The Seattle Times)
Today the meadery is roughly 6,000 square feet, and ships mead all over the world. This year, Oppegaard expects to produce close to 8,000 gallons of his liquid gold. That’s a small operation in terms of breweries or wineries, but in terms of meaderies, it’s one of the largest in Washington. Honey is expensive and difficult to source in quantity. Oppegaard can’t get enough quality honey from a single source, so he uses honey from all over the world. He also teaches group mead-making classes out of his production facility (interested parties can book online), slowly growing awareness of the liquid gold produced when honey meets yeast.
Outside the mead-lair in Tukwila, Oppegaard’s mead can be found at Renaissance faires, Society for Creative Anachronism events, historical re-enactments — anywhere time travellers converge to experience the days of swords and shield walls. With as many as 15 different meads on tap and music drifting through the air (sometimes heavy metal, sometimes the soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings), Oppegaard invites lovers of fantasy and history to immerse themselves in their created worlds by welcoming them into his own.
BY THE NUMBERS
8,000 gallons: Mead Oppegaard will brew this year 6,000 square feet: Size of the meadery 793 AD: Year the Vikings first landed in England at Lindesfarne 7%-14%: Alcohol by volume for most mead 1,000+ years: Age of the epic poem “Beowulf” 100+: Flavors of mead created by the meadery
Just mention the word, and I’m picturing a great, hulking dude wearing a flappy fur cloak, downing the drink from an animal horn.
Game of Thrones fans will be all too familiar with this image, as mead, or honey wine as it’s also known, was the drink of choice in certain parts of Westeros.
Thought to be the world’s oldest fermented alcoholic drink, mead fell out of fashion in the 17th century, but now, more than 400 years later, it’s making a comeback.
Here’s everything you need to know…
The ancient drink is also known as honey wine (Picture: Getty Images)
What is mead?
Will Grubelnik, the head of production at London-based Gosnell’s, explains: ‘As apples are to cider, grapes are to wine, honey is to mead’.
In basic terms, it’s honey, mixed with water and fermented with yeast.
The diversity in flavour stems from the various types of honey that are used. Traditional meads use milder honeys like clover or orange blossom, while Acacia brings in a lemon sherbet note, and buckwheat or wildflower adds bolder flavours.
Then, you have fruit meads, spiced or apple meads.
The history of Mead
Mead isn’t just old; it couldn’t even be described as ancient, it’s actually prehistoric.
There’s archaeological evidence suggesting as far back as 7000 BC in China. Humans were fermenting honey with water, leaving it out in the sun and getting hammered on the stuff.
Other fun facts include: In Ethiopia, it’s known as ‘tej’, it was the favourite drink of Aristotle, and mead is mentioned multiple times in the ancient poem, Beowulf, from the 9th century.
It’s been hundreds of years, but mead is being drunk once more… (Picture: Getty/Metro)
Sure, the Vikings were partial to it too, but it was really monasteries across Europe that were brewing it to make an income. It was also thought to be medicinal, and sits lower in alcohol than the more lethal, monk-made concoctions such as Benedictine and Chartreuse.
So tied to the Western lexicon is the drink that the term ‘honeymoon’ comes from the tradition of drinking honey wine for a month after you get married. It was believed to increase fertility, and was taken so seriously that the bride’s father included a month’s worth of the stuff as part of his daughter’s dowry.
The mead revival
Flash forward to the 21st century, and mead might well be the most British drink (although it’s not actually British) we’ve collectively forgotten.
Probably because, as we’ve established, it has an image problem. Plus, the sweet style of the drink no longer aligns with our love of drier flavours, and hasn’t for some time.
And though I’ve heard whispers of a mead revival in the past, it’s never properly materialised. Truth be told, it’s been a rough road for the mead industry. For example, leading producer, Gosnell’s, based in Peckham, announced in 2024 that they had stopped brewing mead.
Founder, Tom Gosnell, said at the time: ‘The word “mead” has musings of high alcohol and Game of Thrones, and it has stopped us from creating the future bees merit’.
They have since changed ‘mead’ to ‘nectar’, to attract a new audience, though it’s still made the same way, from honey.
But now I’m calling it. Mead is officially having a resurgence, with new, exotic, and exciting flavours to choose from – there’s even sparkling mead, for those who love a bit of fizz.
And to my great surprise, much of it is drier and barely tastes of honey anymore. Which is a win, if I’m honest, as the idea of a drink that tastes strictly of beehive has always been a hard no for me.
It’s precisely this rich diversity of mead styles that is driving the comeback, as there’s literally something for every taste. In fact, Fortune Business Insights reports the global mead market is due to reach $1.395 million by the end of 2032. And much of this is right place, right time, more specifically, the growth of the craft side of the drinks industry.
People are actively looking for more interesting, authentic drinks with a back story, made from high-quality, local ingredients. And now, mead has entered the chat and ticks a lot of those boxes… Well, to be fair, it had entered the chat a few thousand years ago, but the point still stands.
Where to buy mead in the UK right now…
Lyme Bay Traditional Mead, £12.00, Majestic (Mix 6)
Lyme /Bay Winery is the UK’s largest mead producer (Picture: Majestic)
Lyme Bay Winery in Axminster, Devon, is the largest UK producer of mead. Handcrafted in the rolling Devon countryside, this is amber-chestnut coloured, with notes of honeysuckle, star anise, russet pears, bruised golden apple and hazelnuts. It’s sweet, beautifully balanced and fresh. Serve it neat, on ice, with a mixer or in a cocktail (I can vouch for it being great in an Old Fashioned)
Loxwood Meadworks Festival, £22, Loxwood Meadworks (or £22.50 from Master of Malt)
A modern take on mead (Picture: Loxwood Meadworks)
A modern take on mead from West Sussex. Aside from the top-notch packaging, the product inside is equally beguiling. The mead has been dry fermented, then sweetened with a touch of honey. This means that the yeast is left to consume almost all the honey, then ‘back sweetened’ with a measured touch of honey. The result is distinctly wine-like, with a beautiful freshness, light honeycomb and ginger notes, a lean texture and notes of yellow cherry stone and hazelnut. Very good indeed.
Gosnells Hazy Nectar, £32.50 for 12 cans, gosnells.co.uk
Gosnells rebranded mead as ‘nectar’ (Picture: Gosnells)
Since rebranding from ‘mead’ to ‘nectar’, their packaging is as fresh as the liquid inside the can. This Peckham-based company was set up in 2014, and I have to say, I admire their tenacity. I was expecting sweet and floral, but instead found myself tasting something closer to a tropically hopped IPA. It’s pretty ingenious and a logical sidestep for beer-lovers, fresh and hoppy with dry notes of lychee, green apple and freshly-baked sourdough. Delicious.
