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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
4 rock Cornish game hens
2 cups Redstone Boysenberry Nectar
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary
3/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups bread crumbs (best to use cubes of whole wheat
French bread brushed with olive oil, salt and pepper and toasted in
350-degree oven)
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
1 cup Redstone Black Raspberry Nectar
1-2 tablespoons honey
1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Fresh baby spinach
Blue cheese crumbles
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
Finely chopped shallots
3-4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
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.
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