From seattletimes.com
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
