'Game of Thrones stuff': South Australia vineyard Maxwell Wines harnesses ancient method to produce drops worthy of a Viking raider

From skynews.com.au

An ancient beverage guzzled by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago has been brought to life in a variety of flavours by a humble South Australian McLaren Vale winemaker 

Mark Maxwell thanks drunken Vikings for setting his family winery in South Australia on the road to prosperity.

The Vikings couldn’t get enough of their “nectar of the gods”, the honey wine they quaffed before heading into battle.

It wasn’t wine at all, of course, but the alcoholic fermented honey drink known as mead.

Intrigued by the stories he read about the Viking's love of mead, Mark’s father Ken Maxwell, a McLaren Vale farmer, began experimenting with different honeys and different yeasts to produce his own.

He sold his first bottle in 1966. The profits helped underpin the Maxwells' move into wine grape production.

Mark Maxwell expanded the business in 1987 buying vineyards and building a winery, cellar door and an award-winning restaurant in cream-coloured sandstone blocks.

He designed it with large windows to capture the views.

                                                                                McLaren Vale vintner Mark Maxwell. Picture: Supplied

“Making and selling natural mead in four varieties is still an integral part of our business,” Mr Maxwell, 73, said.

“Having goblets of mead is Game of Thrones stuff. No wonder the Vikings liked it.”

He makes the traditional honey mead with golden hues and with sweet floral beeswax and nutty and marmalade characters.

He added to his mead repertoire by creating a mulled mead with cinnamon and cloves.

“We then evolved that one into another mead where we added brandy and more spices and put it into oak barrels to make a liqueur mead with 20 per cent alcohol,” Mr Maxwell said.

“And we have just released a fourth mead containing ginger from Buderim in Queensland. We fermented that with honey to make a sparking mead in a can.

"It’s an easy summer drink with five per cent alcohol.”

                                                                                                                        Sparkling mead

Maxwell Wines benefit from a cooling maritime influence with some vineyards just 15km from the sea.

Maxwell Lime Cave Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 has aromas of red currant and cassis with flashes of “cigar box” and herbal aromatics.

There is more cassis on the palate enlivened with cedar and spice.

The fruit was harvested from a vineyard that sits atop limestone cave dug in 1916 to grow mushrooms.

Maxwell Four Roads Grenache has spicy raspberry and floral aromas with hints of pomegranate.

It has vibrant red fruit flavours with raspberry and cherry and savoury undertones.

There are rich blackberry and dark cherry fruit flavours in Maxwell Silver Hammer Shiraz 2023, an attractive and complex wine with a gentle natural acidity.

Maxwell Wines offers a decent set of whites. I especially enjoyed tasting the Maxwell Estate Fiano 2025 a creamy, textural wine with waxy apple flavours with hints of honey and pears

Travellers' tips

Maxwell Winery at 19 Olivers Rd, McLaren Vale, is 39km south of Adelaide.

Under the guidance of chef Fabian Lehmann, Maxwell Restaurant was last year named South Australian restaurant of the year.

He offers a tasting menu with up to 14 courses including oysters and caviar, chicken, squid, marron, wagyu beef and venison.

                                                                     Award-winning chef Fabian Lehmann. Picture: Supplied

There is a less formal tapas-style snacks menu in the winery tasting room.

The winery also offers a 30-minute helicopter tour of McLaren Vale across the vineyards with spectacular views of the cliffs, the ocean and the white sandy beaches.

The deal includes lunch.

https://www.skynews.com.au/lifestyle/travel/game-of-thrones-stuff-south-australia-vineyard-maxwell-wines-harnesses-ancient-method-to-produce-drops-worthy-of-a-viking-raider/news-story/00255f7cf138160744718031818b7813?amp&nk=ad3e7d747ce0a1015da4ab79fe8663b7-1785053155

Australia, 20th June: Mead masters to toast the winter solstice

From timesnewsgroup.com.au

THE taste for mead is growing in Australia, and a Geelong-based producer is among the best in terms of quality.

Three Horn has been making mead since 2020 and co-owners Sam Lamanna-Lilley and Zac Lodge went back-to-back as the champion mead producer at the Australian National Mead Competition earlier this month.

Demand for beverages from Geelong’s first meadery also continues to rise.

Lamanna-Lilley said the company’s production of mead – which is fermented like wine but with honey instead of grapes – doubled every three months over the first two years.

“When we started making mead, we were making 200 or so litres a year and we’re on track this year to make 18,000 litres,” he said.

The Three Horn philosophy, Lamanna-Lilley said, was to create the best product by using the best ingredients.

“The issue that we have with the industry is that things aren’t necessarily affordable,” he said.

“We want to put out the highest quality products we can at the most affordable price we can because we don’t want it to be a once-a-year trip.

“We want it to be something approachable for everybody.

“With a range as big as what we have, we have something for everybody as well.”

Originally a beekeeper supplying honey for the meadery, Lamanna-Lilley moved into a full-time role with Three Horn in January to meet growing demand, as the company expanded its events from five last year to 26 by the end of this year.

One of these events will be tomorrow’s winter solstice-themed takeover of the White Rabbit Barrel Hall at Little Creatures as part of the Tastes of Greater Geelong Festival.

Three Horn has won champion mead producer award at the Australian National Mead Competition two years running. Photo: Three Horn.

 

Entry is free to the takeover, which will feature mulled mead, mead slushies, and Viking-inspired barbecue from the kitchen.

Lamanna-Lilley suggested attendees “just dive in” and try multiple varieties of mead.

“Don’t think that it’s not for you just because you don’t like one because there are so many different styles,” he said.

“You can have the same brewer make the exact same mead and it will come out differently.

“We are going to have the mulled mead because you can’t really go through the long winter night without a nice warm mulled mead.”

Lamanna-Lilley said the best way to understand mead was to try it.

“There’s definitely consumer demand but there’s not necessarily consumer education,” he said.

“Mead is commonly thought of as this olden day nanna drink or something that pop used to drink back in the day but it really can be anything.

“I always tell people the way you drink it is limited by your imagination; the way it tastes is limited by mine.”

The Three Horn Winter Solstice Takeover begins at noon tomorrow at Little Creatures and runs until late.

For more information, head to geelongcity.vic.gov.au

Three Horn Winter Solstice Takeover is at Little Creatures Brewery, 20 June.

https://timesnewsgroup.com.au/bellarinetimes/living/mead-masters-to-toast-the-winter-solstice/ 

A Guide to Popular Mead Styles in Australia

From sheppadviser.com.au

The Australian beverage industry is currently witnessing a profound architectural shift, as the traditional boundaries between viticulture, brewing, and apiculture begin to dissolve into a singular, sophisticated craft: the production of premium mead. 

Historically relegated to the peripheries of the “honey wine” niche, mead has undergone a radical reappraisal, emerging as a high-end artisanal product that mirrors the complexity of fine wine and the experimental agility of craft beer. 

In Australia, this renaissance is fuelled by a biological advantage, the continent’s vast array of over 700 native flowering plants, which provide a spectrum of honey flavours and chemical profiles that are globally unique.   

As consumers increasingly pivot toward authenticity, traceable sourcing, and natural fermentation, the Australian mead market has matured. No longer defined solely by the syrupy, high-alcohol versions of the past, the contemporary landscape is populated by dry, sparkling hydromels, complex melomels infused with “bush tucker” fruits, and medicinal metheglins that draw upon indigenous botanical knowledge. 

Australian Mead Styles

To understand the current market, one must categorise mead according to its ingredients and fermentation parameters. While “honey wine” is often used as a synonym, industry professionals increasingly insist on the term “mead” to differentiate these ferments from grape-based products.   

Traditional Mead: Traditional mead represents the most fundamental expression of the craft, consisting solely of honey, water, and yeast. In this style, the character of the honey is the primary variable, determining the final aroma, colour, and palate structure. Meaderies sometimes focus on capturing the essence of specific blossoms, ranging from the mild and sweet Yellow Box to the robust, medicinal profiles of Red Gum and Ironbark.   

Traditional meads are further classified by their final sugar content and alcohol by volume (ABV). The diversity of Australian honeys allows for a broad spectrum of outcomes, as detailed in the following analysis.

Dry Traditional: Bone dry to slight residual, 11% – 14% ABV, Floral citrus, light acidity. 

Semi-Sweet: Balanced Acidity/sugar, 12% – 15% ABV, Creamy texture, marmalade notes. 

Sack Mead: Intensely Sweet, 14%-20% ABV, Bold, toady, butterscotch undertones. 

Fortified/Liqueur: Fortified with spirits, 18% – 23% ABV, Spiced, oak-aged, dense fruit.   

The Australian preference has shifted toward semi-sweet and semi-dry traditional meads, which offer a more versatile pairing profile for modern Australian cuisine, particularly when served over ice or as a spritzer with soda water.   

The Session Mead Revolution

The most rapid growth within the Australian mead sector is found in “Session Meads” or Hydromels. These are lower-alcohol versions of mead, typically ranging from 3.5% to 8.5% ABV, and are almost always carbonated and packaged in cans. This style aligns with the broader consumer trend toward “sessionable” drinks that can be enjoyed in casual, outdoor settings like festivals or beachside picnics.   

Session meads are often dry, as the low alcohol content cannot support high levels of residual sugar without becoming cloying. The carbonation is critical, providing a “prickly” texture that brightens the honey’s aromatics. For those looking to explore this trend through home production, using a high-quality mead brewing kit australia is the standard recommendation to ensure the precision required for low-gravity fermentations and consistent carbonation.     

Regional Production 

Australia’s diverse climate zones necessitate varied approaches to mead production. In tropical Queensland, temperature control during fermentation is paramount to prevent the production of off-flavours like fusel alcohols. Conversely, in the cooler southern regions, brewers focus on seasonal harvest coordination, timing their fermentations to coincide with the peak availability of temperate berries and stone fruits.   

The Role of Native Stingless Bees

A burgeoning niche in the Australian market involves the use of honey from native stingless bees, known as “Sugarbug” honey. Hives of Tetragonula and Austroplebeia produce only about one kilogram of honey per year, making it one of the rarest food products in Australia. This honey is noted for its high acidity and unique plant resins, providing a flavour profile that is impossible to replicate with European honey bees. While its low volume means it will likely remain a luxury adjunct, its presence in high-end, limited-release meads represents the pinnacle of Australian botanical craftsmanship.   

Mead in the Australian Food Scene

Modern Australian mead is designed to be consumed with food. The versatility of the different styles allows for pairings across a full degustation menu:

Sparkling Session Meads: Ideal as an aperitif or paired with fresh Sydney Rock Oysters and light seafood dishes.   

Traditional Semi-Dry Meads: Complements poultry, charcuterie boards, and soft cheeses like brie or camembert.   

Melomels (e.g., Passion Fruit or Raspberry): Pairs excellently with fresh fruit tarts, pavlova, or spicy Thai and Vietnamese salads.   

Spiced or Liqueur Meads: Served with dark chocolate, blue cheese, or as a “sticky” at the end of a meal, similar to a Muscat or Port.   

What’s Next?

For the professional peer or the dedicated enthusiast, the message is clear: the Australian mead industry has moved beyond its Viking-themed origins into a sophisticated era of botanical expression. Whether it is a crisp, canned hydromel for a summer afternoon or a complex, oak-aged metheglin for a winter evening, mead has secured its place as a permanent and prestigious fixture in the Australian craft beverage landscape.

https://www.sheppadviser.com.au/a-guide-to-popular-mead-styles-in-australia/

Australia: Win's Creek Meadery is the bee-all for tasty meads, craft beer and fabulous food

From region.com.au

Win’s Creek Meadery, just off the Barton Highway in Murrumbateman, is a quaint and delightful escape from everyday life.

Imagine sitting in the sunshine, sampling marvellous mead varieties while enjoying an oversized scone or a unique pizza. And if you’re still keen for more, you can do a tasting of the Meadery’s craft beers, including a crisp lager, a fruity American-style beer, or a chocolatey stout, among others.

Owners Michael and Maryanne Devey have built their businesses around a passion for bees. They operate both the Meadery and Bindaree Bee Supplies, while Maryanne, also a talented ceramicist, creates exquisite bee-inspired pieces that adorn the cafe.

Win’s Creek Meadery is a restaurant, cellar door and bee supplies outlet in Murrumbateman and a perfect spot to escape for a few hours. Photo: Kazuri Photography.

Located in Murrumbateman’s heritage-listed Travellers Rest Inn, the Meadery has been making mead for more than a decade. It’s the first time I’ve tried the ancient honey wine and I’m hooked!

I start with a cup of non-alcoholic Vikings’ Blood. Hot and ruby-red, crafted from ripe cherries, raw honey and mulled spices, it tastes like Christmas in a mug.

After sipping my way through half of it, I add a splash of Brood, Michael’s cherry mead. The warmth spreads all the way down to my winter-chilled toes! Mead-infused or not, Viking’s Blood is an inspired twist on mulled deliciousness.

Everything on the menu sounds tempting. For morning tea, choose from scones served with butter and honey, a gluten-free chocolate brownie, or banana bread.

Heartier plates include several unique pizza offerings; black garlic featuring local mushrooms, garlic, feta and honey.

                                             Honey is drizzled onto the Meadery’s signature pizza, the chandler. Photo: Kazuri Photography.

The vintage blue pairs potato slices with blue cheese, while the Meadery’s signature pizza, the chandler, layers pear, brie, honey, balsamic onions, thyme, cracked pepper and tops it all with walnuts, rocket and bloodwood honey. Three luxurious platters also beg to be tasted.

We continue our Win’s Creek adventure with the mead tasting flight featuring five meads. Keely Magic, Win’s traditional mead, tastes clean and slightly sweet, made simply on honey water and yeast.

The apple mead starts woodsy and finishes like apple cider. Michael says he made this mead entirely from Batlow cider apples, honey and yeast. Brood is a crisp and sassy cherry mead that goes down way too easily. Sweet and berry bright, it tastes ripe and full-bodied.

Pinto rose tastes entirely different from the others on my tongue; pungent and earthy. Its distinct, dry notes give it a distilled spirit’s flavour.

Ginger and lemon doesn’t overwhelm with ginger notes except for its heat. I enjoy it and I am not usually one for ginger in sweet things.

We try the classic chandlers pizza and enjoy the flavour pairing; thin slices of pear and toasted walnuts, baked into the base with the addition of Brie. Maryanne drizzles honey right onto the pizza.

If you don’t think mead is your thing, try one of Michael’s craft beers, or do a tasting. Choose from a crisp lager, a smooth, fruity American-style beer, or a chocolatey stout, among others.

The non-alcoholic beverages are brewed with the same passion. The house-brewed ginger beer is the palest gold, poured into an oversized beer-style glass tankard. Bubbles float lazily up to the soft white foam rimming the glass, while sips of sweet ginger leave a pleasant warmth on the tongue.

Next visit, I must try the root beer made with 12 different roots and spices, including sarsaparilla, cinnamon and star anise.

I highly recommend a mead tasting and a plate of scones served with butter and honey. Today’s batch of scones is tender, fluffy and run through with date, ginger and lemon.

In spring, Michael offers a one-day course, The Art and Science of Beekeeping. Class sizes are limited so everyone gets to experience bees firsthand. It includes a theory component followed by hands-on lessons on honey extraction and hive maintenance.

Whether you’re a mead enthusiast, a curious foodie, or simply looking for a cozy countryside escape, Win’s Creek Meadery offers a truly unique experience. I have been utterly enchanted by every part of my visit.

Win’s Creek Meadery is at 18 East Street, Murrumbateman. It is open Mondays and Fridays from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm and on weekends from 11 am to 4 pm. Check out the website for more information on workshops, seasonal menus, beekeeping resources and products. Bookings can be made through Table Agent . Follow Win’s Meadery on Facebook and Instagram.

https://region.com.au/wins-creek-meadery-is-the-bee-all-for-tasty-meads-craft-beer-and-fabulous-food/880050/ 

Australia: Mead, with the Sydney producer trying to make it cool again

From drinkstrade.com.au

The oldest recorded alcoholic beverage documented by archaeological records dates back to around 7000 BCE in Jiahu, a Neolithic village in the Yellow River Valley, China. The residues discovered were from a fermented beverage made of rice, honey, hawthorn fruit and/or grape, a concoction that most closely resembles mead as it is known today. 

In addition to its historical importance, mead also carries with it various notable strong sales points: it is a produce-driven product that can reflect terroir in a manner similar to wine, it varies in sweetness and abv depending on production methods, and it can be altered via flavour additives to craft new styles altogether. 

Despite all of this, however, traditional mead as a beverage category continues to struggle on the Australian market. This is in spite of Australia having a strong reputation for mead production, with notable producers such as Maxwell Wines having produced world-renowned meads for upwards of forty years.

“I think as it stands here now, there’s no place for it really, outside of the Renaissance fairs,” said Tim Engelbrecht, Founder of recently launched Sydney meadery Greedy Bear.

“There’s no demand for it… Like mead, sure, it’s a category if you know it, but also it’s not really in a sense.”

By definition, mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, occasionally with fruits, spices, grains and hops mixed in. Its alcohol content can range from 3.5% abv to more than 20%, and it can be still, carbonated, naturally sparkling, and at any degree of sweetness level. According to Engelbrecht, “the sky’s the limit in the craft space” of mead production.

“There’s also things like Pyments, which is a mixture of grape, sugar, and honey. We’ve got Braggots, which is a mixture of grain, sugar, and honey, so there’s all these really cool collaboration opportunities, which I’m very excited to explore… Also Cyser, which is supposed to be a combination of apple or pear sugar with honey.

“They’re all weird freaking old terms, which I kind of want to change because they’re complicated. Like mead’s weird enough.” 

Despite being an extremely variable category depending on human input, mead is a product that can occur naturally in nature.

“The cool thing I like about it is how it all began with spontaneous fermentation, which is something I’d like to explore further along,” said Engelbrecht. 

“So the theory is basically you’ve got honey/a hive; it gets washed into the hollow of a tree trunk or something, and then water comes, mixes with it, spontaneously ferments, people discover it and [then] recreate it.”

It is this capacity to occur unprompted out in nature that positions its history further back than that of any other alcoholic category, according to current archaeological evidence. Similarly, being naturally occurring has resulted in a vast array of different mead variants from cultures from right around the world. The official mead wikipedia page lists more than 50 different traditional mead styles pertaining to cultures as diverse as Mexico, Philippines, Lithuania, and even Kenya.

While craft mead production has been slow to emerge onto the Australian market, recent years have seen the sector boom in the US, UK, New Zealand, and India. 

According to Engelbrecht, “we’re like eight/ten years behind America, right? That’s what I’ve been hearing anyway. They went from zero meaderies to like 800 in a very short space of time. Of course, it’s America: it’s way bigger, so you’ve got way more clientele there, but I actually went and visited America and went to their kind of top meaderies and some of these guys are putting out one to two million litres of this stuff a year.

“[Also] in India, in England, there’s a couple of big ones. In England there’s these guys called Gosnells… and in India, there’s Moonshine Meadery, who have a really big meadery, and they’re popping out. 

“There’s also these guys who are making some in New Zealand, these bloody Gen Z kids, and they are making heaps of it. They’re making like a lemon soda mead, and they’re selling lots of that, I think almost half a million litres of it. Which is like, you know, not stacked, but it’s enough to be a functioning business.”

In New Zealand, the lemon flavoured mead subcategory appears to be gaining some traction, with both the 5.5% abv Kāmahi Blossom + Lemon mead mentioned by Engelbrecht and the Beehave Non-Alcoholic Lemon Mead occupying the space. Similarly, much of the revival of the mead category in the US has been driven by flavour innovation in the craft mead space. 

“There’s definitely an appetite for it there, especially the way they’re doing it,” said Engelbrecht.

“I’ve seen some really cool meaderies that do dabble in session meads, which is what I’m making, as well as your ‘traditional’ style, but they’re definitely not traditional, they’re like a craft traditional. They’re like peanut butter jelly 14% meads, which, again, it’s a little bit dessert wine-ish. But yeah, there’s guys over there who have restaurants, like mead pairing restaurants, and tasting rooms; and it’s really interesting. It’s definitely booming over there.”

Greedy Bear launched its first product to market in July, contract brewing out of Rocks Brewing Co in Alexandria, Sydney. The Greedy Bear Original is a canned sparkling session mead with at an abv of 4%: “That’s the only reason I’m doing this commercially, because I think this kind of craft mead space, that’s the only way it can exist. It has to be in that fast format, canned, sparkling, something you can enjoy on the beach.”

Interestingly, Engelbrecht says that very little of his customer base is coming from traditional mead consumers.

“I’ve done a competitor analysis, they’re not even on there. They’re like a third rung, because it’s a completely different product. So, yeah, I’m targeting ginger beer drinkers, cider drinkers, seltzer drinkers, and any alternative RTD.” 

Looking forward, Engelbrecht is hopeful that the current strong mead category growth in the US will translate to the Australian market. Furthermore, he believes that growth in craft mead could subsequently translate into a resurgence of traditional mead subcategories. 

“I’ve always wanted to get people through the door with a really nice session mead that’s very approachable and then introduce them to varying degrees of mead,” he said. 

“I would love to have a barrel ageing program where I do make some very cool sippable dessert wine styles so you can get a nice flight of meads, you know, from all those wonderful things I’ve told you about. 

“I think that could totally reinvigorate that whole, the traditional side of things. So that’s the dream.”

To learn more about Greedy Bear, visit its website here.

https://www.drinkstrade.com.au/explained-mead-with-the-sydney-producer-trying-to-make-it-cool-again 

Australia: Sweet news! The first mead cellar door has opened in the Hunter Valley

From delicious.com.au

Honey, I’m home.

Mead is believed to be the oldest fermented drink known to humankind, with the honey wine predating regular wine and beer by thousands of years. The ancient Vikings loved the stuff; the drink was deeply integrated into their religious beliefs and ceremonies. (Fun fact: the word ‘honeymoon’ comes from this period. Newlywed Viking couples would drink mead every day of the first moon cycle after their wedding, for luck and fertility.)

In recent years, mead has seen something of a resurgence, and now NSW’s Hunter Valley has become home to the region’s first mead cellar door. Honey Wines Australia, in the scenic region of Broke, has been operating as an online mead and honey business for the past three years. Now it has opened up a new store to welcome visitors into the world of mead and honey.

There are nine unique meads on offer – from traditional meads with smooth, golden notes to more innovative creations infused with fruits and spices. There’s also a range of other honey products, including creamed honey, vanilla honey and even chocolate honey. Plus, they sell Viking drinking horns, which is cool.

You can even learn all about the process of mead-making through mead and honey tastings led by Martin Jackson, Honey Wines’ owner, beekeeper and mead-maker, who is eager to share his expertise. 

You can find Honey Wines Australia at 72 Wollombi Street, Broke NSW. Be sure to pick up a Viking drinking horn while you’re there. 

https://www.delicious.com.au/drinks/news/article/honey-wines-australia-opens-mead-cellar-door-hunter-valley/1jpx6rc2 

Australia’s mead industry is just getting started

From hospitalitymagazine.com.au

The inception of Stone Dog Meadery is one for the romance books. Founders Steve and Lavender Kirby met online in 1998, penning emails to each other before Lavender — an avid medieval fair fan — made the move to Australia.

Steve (who has been involved in brewing personally and professionally since the age of 17), was more than up for the challenge when Lavender suggested he try his hand at mead. The rest as they say is history.

Australia’s mead circuit is small, but mighty — and growing. When Stone Dog started out, Steve estimates there were five businesses producing mead, only one of which was a dedicated meadery. Fast-forward eight years and the local footprint has now grown to around 30 players.

After producing more than 20,000 bottles of mead, it’s safe to say honey wine is on the up and Stone Dog is onto a good thing. Hospitality speaks to Stone Dog Co-Founder Steve about the nuances of the brewing process, working with different honeys and letting nature do its thing.

Mead is one of the earliest forms of alcohol, having been consumed by people all over the world for millennia. Generally known as honey wine, mead comprises just a handful of ingredients: honey, water and yeast, which are combined and left to undergo a fermentation process. Basically, it’s wine made from honey, not grapes.

Steve Kirby tells the following story when asked to describe mead: “A bushman somewhere came across a tree stump filled with liquid, drank it, woke up two days later and said, ‘Jeez that was good, I’ll go and find another one’,” he says. “Beehives occur in tree hollows, and when a lightning strike destroys the hollow, the bees
move on and leave the honey behind. With a little bit of rain, the honey will ferment naturally. It’s the only alcoholic beverage that can occur without intervention.”

Kirby lives on a bush-block property in Tarago in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. He and wife Lavender run chickens and pigs on their farm, which is also home to a 20-foot refrigerated shipping container — the nucleus of Stone Dog’s operations. “Mead was virtually unknown in Australia in 2014,” says Kirby.

“I had a go at it and our caramelised orange blossom [Odin’s Reserve] took out gold at the Australian National Home Brewing Conference that year. From there, we spent the next five years building the market and educating people about what mead was. I travelled around Australia talking to home brew groups and going to conferences to try and get the word out.”

Stone Dog’s range is varied, but traditional. But most importantly, each brew is a sum of its parts. Kirby sources honey from keepers across the country, which means the meads have a unique flavour profile. “A lot of our time is spent sourcing good honey; we work with people who do pollination services, and they know exactly where the hives are.”

An example is scotch thistle honey, which is the result of an untended infestation. “It isn’t a regular honey; you can only get it from places where the thistles haven’t been dealt with by the farmer,” says Kirby. Stone Dog sources macadamia honey from
north-eastern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland and red gum honey from Wagga. “Semi-regional areas provide a unique flavour.”

While the type of honey may vary, the brewing process does not, and neither do the other key ingredients. Stone Dog uses Lalvin ICV D47 yeast, which is commonly used to make wines such as Chardonnay and Rosé.

“It’s a bit strange to use a nice wine yeast for mead, but it gives the balance of esters and flavours while retaining the honey’s profile,” says Kirby. Nutrients are also added, which is critical when it comes to productivity. “Honeys are 99 per cent sugar; they don’t have the nutrients that yeast has to propagate properly,” says Kirby.

“When we started, it was common for mead to take six months to a year to ferment out at 11–15 per cent. But research and processes such as TOSNA [nutrient regime], which is all about staggered nutrient additions, gives the yeast what it needs to propagate. Now, 13–15 per cent meads are produced in about eight to 10 weeks.”

Stone Dog also experiments with aromat additions such as chipotle chillis, pepper and cacao nibs. “I love star anise; we haven’t used it commercially yet, but we are developing it,” says Kirby. “The ingredients make something together that’s more than what you started with, if you get what I mean.”

Stone Dog brews mead in stainless-steel variable capacity tanks in the “fermentation house” — aka the shipping container. “We’ve had it since the start and it allows us to control the temperature and operate in a nice, clean area,” says Kirby.

The mead, which is made in 120–130L batches, is mostly left to its own devices during the brewing process, besides the occasional degas. “The process is pretty much the same across all of the meads and we take a hands-off approach,” says Kirby. “But when fermentation happens, a lot of carbon dioxide builds up in the brew itself and it can change the acidity if you don’t stir it up.”

To gauge a mead’s readiness, Kirby looks for stability, taste, sweetness and clarity. “We gauge stability by using hydrometers to measure the specific gravity,” he says. “We want the alcohol to be stable for at least a week and for the sediment to start to drop out.”

The end ABV all comes down to the product itself — there’s no parameters. “The traditional meads sit between 10–18 per cent,” says Kirby. “Because we are small batch, we can let the honey and yeast work to where it wants to go rather than driving it to reach a certain point because we’ve printed 10,000 labels. Our batches all have their own unique flavours, and while the base will be the same, the alcohol percentages and residual sugars are different.”

A reflection of the practice is a sweet mead made with scotch thistle honey. “It got to 6.7 per cent and it just didn’t want to go any further,” says Kirby. “We gave it a lot of time and more yeast, but it said, ‘No, this is where I want to stop’. So we bottled it and it was a dessert wine with a unique scotch thistle flavour. Part of our core beliefs or thinking is what we produce should taste like what we are using — we want to showcase the honey.”

Once the brewing process is wrapped up, Stone Dog uses a single-head vacuum filler to bottle the mead. “We’re still on the first unit we bought,” says Kirby, who also built a three-head pressure filler for session meads.

So, what is the best way to enjoy mead? The answer is far-reaching. It can be chilled with ice and served tall, warmed up for a soothing sipper or reduced to make a syrup to drench cakes.

“Everyone used to know mead as something that was super sweet that you only drank in winter,” says Kirby. “Our macadamia dry called Heading to the Desert is tasting like a baked Chardonnay and we are currently serving it warm to people at the market.”

The brewer also suggests spicing mead with a bespoke combination of aromats, topping it with soda or tonic water or enjoying it in the same way you would drink a cider or a beer.

“A session mead easily fits into the category,” says Kirby. “It’s so versatile these days — it’s not just a one-dimensional drink.” While the growth of meaderies in Australia is slow, there’s no doubt progress is being made. “There are still meaderies popping
up, but not at the same rate as before COVID,” says Kirby. “I know a few that haven’t survived, but there are more in planning.”

The brewer compares mead’s possible trajectory in the liquor sector to that of the global craft beer movement, which was once shiny and new. “We tend to say we are five years behind the craft beer industry — we follow on their coattails,” says Kirby. “The US has around 450 meaderies operating. They are also all through Europe, popping up in South Africa and there are a few originals in South America.”

The launch of the Mead Australia organisation will also go a long way to ensuring and supporting the future success of honey wine in Australia. “Mead has changed so much here just in the time we have been operating,” says Kirby. “We have helped change the game.”

https://www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au/australias-mead-industry-is-just-getting-started/ 

Hop On Your Broomsticks! - A Harry Potter-Themed Bar Just Opened In Brisbane!

From 973fm.com.au

You can now fulfil all your magical desires because a Harry Potter-themed pop up bar just opened in Brisbane! 

'The Wizard's Den' is situated in South Bank on Little Stanley and is a magical experience filled to the brim with sorcery, spells and delicious concoctions!

Each session runs for 90-minutes and involves pure potion making fun, allowing you to ‘unleash your inner magical being as you brew potions, cast spells and drink more mead than you can shake a wand at!’

 

Your magical potion bar experience includes:

– A robe and wand on entry (must be returned to the masters)

– A tasty mead or mulled wine and 2x alcoholic potions

– Potion making with the help of our potion master

You can find the magic bar at the old Manhattan Line on Little Stanley Street towards Tribune St End!

https://www.973fm.com.au/lifestyle/food-wine/hop-on-your-broomsticks-a-harry-potter-themed-bar-just-opened-in-brisbane/ 

 

 

 

Is mead more like beer or wine?

 From foodprocessing.com.au

Believed to be the oldest fermented drink in the world, mead is also commonly known as ‘honey wine’ as it’s traditonally made from honey. So what on earth is mead and is it more like beer or wine?

Most people’s knowledge of mead (outside of Europe at least) is limited to Skyrim or Game of Thrones; however, this unique drink is on the rise worldwide.

Historically, the beverage has been popular amongst ancient Greek, African and Chinese cultures as they are known to have used mead in their diets as far back as 3000 BCE. It is also frequently consumed in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Today, Poland is the largest mead producer; however, the US is racing to take the crown with a new meadery said to be opening on average every three days.

In Australia, Honey Wines Australia brews mead using honey produced from its own hives scattered throughout the Hunter Region of NSW, from Toronto to Pokolbin. The company recently purchased another 50 hives to increase honey production, making them one of the busiest and fastest growing mead breweries in Australia. The honey used in their mead has been filtered but otherwise untouched, with no artificial additives.

Just like beer, mead is often flavoured with spices, fruits, hops or grains. It is generally higher in alcohol than beer and more in line with grape wine — typically anywhere from 8 to 20%. While it can be carbonated, it is more commonly still.

According to Honey Wines Australia owner Martin Jackson: “Honey wine is a very unique drink. Unlike grape wine, which is limited to a few grape varieties, mead can have almost unlimited flavours. This makes it exciting for us to bring new flavours out in the future as it is only limited by our imagination.”

The current line-up of mead flavours at Honey Wines Australia includes: traditional plain mead, Turkish delight, chai, watermelon, orange and pink grapefruit, lemon and ginger, and peach and passionfruit.

Honey Wines Australia said it now has plans to open a cellar door in the Pokolbin Hunter Valley wine trail in 2021.

https://www.foodprocessing.com.au/content/ingredients/article/is-mead-more-like-beer-or-wine--197603472