UK: The Viking-Themed Bar In York With Proper Mead & Viking Decor

From the-yorkshireman.com

York has plenty of nods to Vikings ever since they invaded back in 866AD and decided to settle – and this independent bar Valhalla in York city centre has leaned into the heritage.

Valhalla is located just off Shambles Market and is a Viking-themed bar in the centre of the city. It is quite literally Viking heaven with plenty of mead and grub on offer. Perfect after a day of exploring the historic city.

Founded in 2017, the bar has proved a popular spot with locals and visitors alike and pays homage to York’s Viking heritage. The bar aim is to create a warm community environment with great drinks, banging tunes and a proper atmosphere. 

                                                                               Credit: Valhalla

Upon visiting you can expect a great selection of craft beer, ale, mead and all great drinks along with home-cooked food and a great atmosphere. The independent bar serves up hot Yorkshire tapas from Yorkshire pork sausages with a honey mustard glaze to chicken wings, halloumi fries with a range of sauces along with some other side dishes. All are reasonably priced.

Everywhere you look there is a Nordic nod such as wood furniture, wooden beams with chandeliers holding candles and stairways with skulls, Viking remains, and beer in tankards for that extra Viking touch. Upstairs you’ll find deep Chesterfield chairs and sofas and a huge dining tables where you can imagine Vikings getting raucous and up to no good.

The bar even has old-fashioned Viking shields along the front of the bar making you feel like you might be grabbing one and heading to battle – but you’re more likely going to grab another cheeky beer in a glass tankard.

https://the-yorkshireman.com/valhalla-york/

Gosnells opens mead bar in Bermondsey, London

From beertoday.co.uk

Gosnells, London’s only meadery, has opened a mead bar in a railway arch in Bermondsey, with capacity for more than 100 drinkers and outdoor space, too.

The bar’s draught selection is led by its new dry Wildflower Mead (4% ABV), which is drawn from the nectar of 45 species of flowers, bushes, and trees. It is gluten free and sparkling, with no added sulphites, made from a brew using 100% honey and with no added sugar.

“So many people are popping by to see what it’s all about, and we are excited to be able to offer them such a wide range of flavours, from 0% to 12% ABV,” said Tom Gosnell.

“The bar will provide a thought-provoking showcase and hopefully encourage guests to sample one of head brewer Will Grubelnik’s iterations of the world’s oldest alcoholic drink, mead. Our meads are based on just honey and water, fermented to show the brilliance of the honeybee and its flowers.”

He added: “The new bar has opened just in time for the London Marathon on Sunday, 2nd October. The race passes through Bermondsey, so what better way for guests to re-invigorate all the senses than by visiting the Bermondsey Mead Mile, surrounded by a cornucopia of amazing brewers.”

The mead bar will serve seven other meads on tap, including Raspberry Wildflower (5.4% ABV), Sweet Cherry (8% ABV) and a cloudy Mojito Mead at 5.5% ABV. There be 75cl bottles of Gosnells 5.5% ABV Classic and of Gosnells 12% ABV vintages, dating back to 2019. A range of 4% ABV canned meads, including Sour, Pink Hibiscus, and Hopped, will also be available.

Gosnells Wildflower Mead is already available in Portobello pubs in London, Laines pubs, Brewdog pubs, and independents.  It is also in 440ml cans.

https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/09/30/gosnells-mead-bar-0922/

 

Gosnells and Anspach & Hobday launch Peckham drinks pop-up

From thelondoneconomic.com

Available for takeaway only, for now, meaderers Gosnells and brewers Anspach & Hobday will launch a weekly Saturday pop-up outside the Peckham meadery

London's only meadery, Gosnells, has collaborated with south London brewers, Anspach & Hobday, to launch a weekly pop-up outside Gosnells’ production hub in Peckham.

Taking place from Saturday 13th June – and on every Saturday, between 12pm and 7pm –a selection of cans will be available for sale. The drinks will be solely available for takeaway at the moment, but alfresco seating will be introduced later in the summer, as lockdown restrictions are loosened.

“We have so much space outside the meadery,” said Tom Gosnell, founder of Gosnells, “and this will be a great opportunity to introduce visitors to what Anspach & Hobday and ourselves have to offer.

“I am personally besotted by honey and I want to show the flavour-inspiring cleverness of the bee.
“All of our meads are sparkling and gluten-free. Our 0.5% kombucha-like LOW ALC is our starting point, launched in January; then you move on to our brightly coloured 4% abv cans – Sour, Pink Hibiscus, Citra Sea and Hopped – launched last autumn; and our 5.5% orange blossom honey Classic.
“For real mead enthusiasts, we will also be selling our postcode-specific and vintage meads which range from 6-12% abv.

“Every Saturday, I envisage that our iced cocktail slush machine will be working overtime as we’ll be offering our iconic Meadaritas, and maybe a cocktail combining Anspach & Hobday Porter with rum and mead.”   

Anspach & Hobday Co-founder, Jack Hobday, added: “It’s going to be a collaboration with a difference. When Tom suggested it, it seemed such an obvious win-win, both for our customers and for theirs. Our Bermondsey Taproom and The Pigeon, our bar in Camberwell, are gearing up to sell takeaway draught – but this collab will allow us to get back in the real world that much sooner. And to have a bit of much missed fun.

“We will be offering 10% off ten or more cans, and we aim to have core range beers such as The Pale Ale (4.4%), The IPA (6.0%), The Cream Ale (4.5%) and The Lager (4.7%) available along with any specials, so the selection will change week on week.”

The Gosnells x Anspach & Hobday pop-up will take place each Saturday at Gosnells Meadery, Print Village, Chadwick Road, SE15 4PU. 

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/food-drink/gosnells-anspach-hobday-pop-up/11/06/

Mead mania: Peacemaker and others cause a stir at Queen City Meadery (West Seneca, New York)

From buffalonews.com

What if the next must-try local drink isn't a hazy India pale ale, a patiently barrel-aged gin or a crisp hard cider using local apples. What if it's a session mead made with wildflower honey, blackberry and Szechuan peppercorn?

That sweet-with-a-bite mead – dubbed the Peacemaker – was the favourite of Queen City Meadery's 14 mead options and already has been distributed to local businesses such as Hatchets & Hops and Crabapples.

While the Peacemaker drew rave reviews, the Buffalo area's willingness to embrace mead – an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting a mixture of honey, water and yeast, then adding anything from fruits and spices to grains and hops – has seen the West Seneca business become the third of its kind to open in the last five years.

"We decided to make mead because beer became too filling and overdone," said Ken Voelker, a partner who handles marketing, sales and behind-the-bar education. "We wanted a new experience."

             Co-owner Ken Voelker pours a session mead for a customer from the taps.                                                                      (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)

Nestled on the east side of the Wimbledon Plaza, less than a minute from the 400 Expressway, Queen City Meadery opened quietly last December, refined the production process through winter and spring, then finally held a grand-opening party on Aug. 3, National Mead Day.

When first-time mead samplers enter the taproom, they'll hear a short spiel about mead's history (it dates back to 9000 B.C., when hunters and gatherers received a surprised buzz, making it the world's oldest alcoholic drink) and a general rundown of the options at Queen City.

                 A flight of meads, from left, features Simplicity, Screaming Wench, Peacemaker and                                                    Barrel of Monkeys. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)

The ownership group of Voelker, Brian Bookmiller and Rob Schweizer takes turns behind the bar, often soothing fears and gently correcting preconceived notions about mead. No, it's not the same consistency as honey, and no, it's not – in most cases – bracingly sweet. The honey taste is subtle, at times more noticeable than others, depending on the strength of the accompanying flavours. And yes, mead is gluten-free, which makes it a strong alternative to beer.

          Bliss Lillis of Depew and Shannon Pelland of the Town of Tonawanda talk over glasses of                                 mead at Queen City Meadery in West Seneca. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)

Customers will learn to differentiate between sessions and stills, which split the 14 taps down the middle. Sessions are lightly carbonated with a lower alcohol content (just over 7%) and usually more subtle in flavour, while stills are potent in alcohol content – roughly 13% – and flavour.
"It's sensory in the same way as wine," Voelker said, offering advice to smell and savour the blend of flavours. It's not a drink you chug.

The Peacemaker, back in stock in late September, was an easy-to-drink session, fruit forward with a hint of peppery spice at the end. Other sessions will please fans of cranberry – the Screaming Wench – and mules (the cocktail, not the sturdy beast of burden) – My Lil Mule.

Of the stills, the Three Ring Circus (wildflower honey, strawberry, raspberry and blueberry) was the most drinkable, but wine fans would be drawn toward the Admiral – akin to a semi-dry wine – or Simplicity, which mimics Riesling in its sweetness.

     Some of their mead names reflect the Middle Ages when mead was a common drink in Europe, or        that one time when Rob Schweizer's wife actually enjoyed a mead flavour (No. 10).

                                                    (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)

The best bet, both in value and experience, is to try a flight of any four ($10); customers can pick two stills and two sessions, or all stills and no sessions. In the flights, the stills are served in 1.5-ounce portions, while sessions are 3 ounces.
Otherwise, all glasses of mead cost $6 (8 ounces for sessions, 4 ounces for stills) and 500-milliliter bottles of sessions cost $10 and 750-milliliter bottles of stills run for $22. They may be purchased at the store to take home.

•••

Queen City Meadery
290 Center Road, West Seneca (320-0354)
Hours: 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, 3 to 9 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday through Wednesday.
Scene: In the corner of a quiet strip plaza in West Seneca, close to Wimbledon Lanes and the Rusty Buffalo.
Drafts: Seven for sessions, with seven more stills available. Varieties rotate by season and batch. Call the meadery in advance to check on a specific mead's availability.
Parking: Considerable.
Credit/debit: Yes.
Wheelchair accessible: Yes.
Interesting fact: Queen City sources its honey from Dutch Gold, a Pennsylvania collective that manipulates pure honey with blossoms, such as orange, mesquite, clover and even alfalfa.

                  The outside of Queen City Meadery in Wimbledon Lanes in West Seneca.                                                                                       (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)

https://buffalonews.com/2019/10/14/mead-mania-peacemaker-others-cause-a-stir-at-queen-city-meadery/

Here come the Vikings! An authentic Scandinavian beer hall is set to open in Seattle

From lonelyplanet.com

Skål, meaning ‘cheers’ in Norwegian, will be the name of a new Viking bar due to open in Seattle’s waterfront neighbourhood of Ballard this summer.

                     The waterfront at Ballard’s Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. Image by Getty Images

The new drinking spot will be designed like a Viking mead hall (or Viking living room). “The mead hall was the center of the community,” said Skål’s owner Adam McQueen, “a welcoming spot to gather or to host visitors from afar. It was the hall where stories of adventure, exploration and new ideas were shared and debated over food and drink.”

In the venue’s main great hall, there will be Norse mythology touches, including a huge central fireplace to gather around on dreary Seattle nights. The drinks will be served in large ale horn mugs, and choices include a rotating selection of local craft beer, cider, and mead, regional wine, and speciality cocktails with an emphasis on the popular Scandinavian spirit – Aquavit. “We’re looking forward to featuring some of our terrific but hard-to-find local products as well as some Scandinavian imports,” explained McQueen, who has part Norwegian and Swedish ancestry.

A Viking beer hall at Lofotr Viking Museum, Borg, Norway. Image by altrendo travel/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the open kitchen will be inspired by the idea of a Viking butcher shop and will feature bar bites and shared plates that explore wild flavours from the woods and sea. Imagine being at a gathering “near a roaring fire at the edge of a fjord,” said McQueen. There will be game, meat skewers, a large rotisserie for chicken, pork, and rabbit. “We’ll also have lamb and pork sausages, potato dumplings and pickled herring,” revealed McQueen, but those searching for meatballs will be out of luck, it’s not a dish Skål plans to serve.
Those who really want to integrate into Scandinavian culture can get involved in Nordic events, classes, and partnerships with the local Nordic community groups at Skål. “Who knows – maybe even Kirk Douglas will appear on the big screen in the classic movie The Vikings!” said McQueen.
Ballard has a strong Nordic community, it’s common to see flags and shops inspired by the region, plus community groups, museums, and statues. Ballard is also home to the largest Syttende Mai celebration (Norwegian Constitution Day) outside of Oslo, attracting 20K visitors each year, plus a new $200+ million Nordic Heritage museum will open in downtown Ballard in May. Visit the Skål Viking beer hall in early summer, see here for more info.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2018/03/23/skal-beer-hall-open-seattle/