There were 377 breweries at this year’s Great American Beer Festival.
And one meadery.
Which is just fine with David Myers, founder and “Chairman of the Mead” for Redstone Meadery in Boulder. It’s his kind of crowd – potential lovers of mead.
Myers, whose grandfather was founder of London Fog coats, has made it his mission to revive from obscurity what is generally regarded as the world’s oldest fermented beverage. “I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, I’m trying to refine it. We’re trying to create demand.” At this point, he admitted, “We’re pushing the rock up the hill.”
To date, there are four commercial meaderies in Colorado – Rocky Mountain Meadery in Palisade, Medovina in Niwot, Spruce Mountain Meadery in Larkspur and Redstone – and about 60 across the United States.
Mead is simplicity itself, a honey-water mix fermented with yeast, producing alcohol. The basic recipe can be broadened with the addition of spices, fruit and herbs, including juniper, vanilla, orange blossom and black raspberry. There is evidence that the Celts were drinking mead as early as 500 B.C. and that such luminaries as Plato, Thor and Queen Elizabeth I brightened their lives with the ancient drink.
Mead, classified by the government as wine because it is fermented rather than brewed, is generally given short shrift by beer enthusiasts. The exception is Charlie Papazian in his best-selling book, “Joy of Home Brewing,” in which the president of the Boulder-based Brewers Association devotes 12 pages to mead’s history, lore and production.
Some early cultures believed mead to be an aphrodisiac. What most people know about mead, if they know anything at all, is that it is the beverage alcohol from which the word “honeymoon” is derived. According to some historians, a father in ancient Babylonia would supply his daughter and her new husband with mead for a month, assuring fertility and the birth of a son. Without a calendar, a month covered full moon to full moon, leading to the term, yep, honeymoon.
Myers’ love affair with mead began with Papazian. “I had my first mead at Charlie Papazian’s house in the late ’80s,” he recalled as a long line of beer-drinking adventurers queued at Redstone’s table at the ber festival, evidence that beer drinkers are at least willing to give it a try. He started by drinking a boysenberry mead. “My first thought was, ‘It’s just so good.”‘
That tasting launched his career as a home brewer in his basement, which led to the founding of Redstone Meadery in 1999, which led to Myers’ quest to tell the world about the glories of mead. “Mead is not a category, it’s a niche,” he said. In his mind, popularizing the drink hinges on “education, education, education.”
It was, and is, not easy. When he began calling on retail accounts, store owners thought he was trying to sell them “meat.”
The first thing he must overcome, he said, is convincing would-be drinkers that mead is not necessarily a dessert drink. It’s not always sweet.
Current production at Redstone, said Myers, is about 20,000 liters a year, sold in 15 states. He predicted that Redstone’s products will be available nationwide by the end of the decade. “I always keep a smile on my face. I see the revolution coming.”
The campaign continues. “We want people to ask for mead. We sell the oldest beverage no one’s ever heard of. We’re hoping that over time Colorado will become the Napa Valley of mead.”
Staff writer Dick Kreck can be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
If you go
The Redstone Meadery tasting room is open 1-6:30 p.m. with free tours at 1 and 3 p.m. weekdays. It’s open noon-6:30 Saturdays with tours at 12:30 p.m. at 4700 Pearl St. in Boulder. Starting in November, the meadery will have live music 2-5 p.m. Saturdays. Call 720-406-1215 or visit redstonemeadery.com.
The many moods of mead
Redstone Meadery makes three categories of mead, in various flavors:
Nectar: Medium sweet, sparkling, “light and refreshing” with 8 percent alcohol (by volume). Recommended for making “meadmosas,” mixed with orange juice. $15 for a liter bottle.
Mountain Honey Wine: Similar in body to some red or white wines. At 12 percent alcohol, it can be cellared in 1-liter bottles. $24/liter bottle.
Reserve: The meadery’s top-of-the-line product, akin to a port, it is very sweet, best served for dessert. Aged up to two years. $50/ half-liter bottle.
Would-be consumers can get a taste of the wide range of meads at the International Mead Festival in Boulder on Feb. 10 and 11. Redstone owner David Myers, who is organizing the event, expects 85 meads from 32 companies.
– Dick Kreck
Mixing mead with meals
Mead works as a mixer in many familiar cocktails. David Myers of Redstone Meadery in Boulder suggests adding a jigger of his Black Raspberry or Boysenberry Nectar to a margarita for a nectarita. Or make a stinger with two parts Traditional Mountain Honey Wine and one part bourbon on the rocks. Myers says mead complements food, too. His ideal seven-course meal:
Sunshine Nectar with tuna carpaccio
Black Raspberry Nectar with a mixed-greens salad
White Pyment (a riesling-like mead) with foie gras or German-style food
Juniper Berry Mountain Honey Wine with sushi, lightly cooked fish such as halibut or a ham dish (the juniper berries accentuate the saltiness)
Traditional Mountain Honey Wine with curries, Thai, or blackened fish or chicken (the citrus notes from the orange blossom honey balance the spiciness)
Vanilla Bean Cinnamon Stick (available Nov. 1) with apple dumplings or poached apples and pears (use the mead for the poaching).
The vanilla bean mead is also good with cigars, says Myers.
Black Raspberry Reserve with strong cheeses such as gorgonzola or blue cheese, along with a fruit plate.
– Kristen Browning-Blas
RECIPES
Rock Cornish Game Hen in Boysenberry Nectar
This recipe won third place in the 2002 Lafayette 95th Street Wine Festival. Serves 4.
Ingredients
Directions
Thaw birds if frozen. Preheat oven to 350. Boil nectar, rosemary and cranberries until reduced by half. Toss half the melted butter with the bread crumbs.
Rinse birds and pat dry; rub cavity and surface with salt. Stuff them with bread crumbs and place in roasting pan. Pour nectar reduction over birds, then the rest of the melted butter. Grind pepper over them, and bake 1-1 1/4 hours, basting occasionally, until an instant-read thermometer registers 170 to 175 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh, or until juices run clear.
Spinach Salad with Black Raspberry Vinaigrette
Adapted from David Myers of Redstone Meadery, this recipe serves 4.
Ingredients
Directions
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, reduce nectar to about half. Add honey and cook until slightly thick. Add vinegar and oil, cook about 5 minutes more. Set aside to cool slightly. Toss with remaining ingredients and serve immediately.
