Hello and welcome to our August 2024 Newsletter! Where has the time gone – it seems like I was only sat here yesterday typing our very first newsletter! July has been a very busy month here at the Meadery. Stocks have been decimated by our amazing personal customers, both in person here at meadery HQ and at our events, plus our fabulous trade customers who continue to sell out of our mead in record time. Not bad problems to have!
Product of the month
This month we are focusing on one of our hopped flavours, Thrúd’s Mead. It is available to order online, and can also be ordered to be collected from us at the meadery or an event near you.
POM Aug 24
Thrúd (Þrúðr) is a daughter of Thor and Sif, and a Valkyrie welcoming the fallen warriors in to Valhalla with a drink of Mead.
As our first hopped mead was named after Thor, it was a natural choice to ask Thrúd to patronise this mead.
Created using the English hop “Bramling Cross”. This is classed as a ‘Rare Breed’ hop, developed in 1927 and is a cross between Goldings and a wild Manitoban hop.
Our first batch was released at Jorvik Viking Festival in February 2020 – at the same time we released Jarls Mead, albeit a little more subtly, in the background, like a bit of a whisper.
We are nearing the end of our second batch, which is now just over 3 years old and packs the same fruity punch it did when it was made, the aroma and flavour of the hops have survived the passage of time and it is now one of our most popular flavours when we are at events. We entered this in the Mead Madness Cup competition in February 2024, and although it didn’t get a medal, there were 17 entries in this category, the judge’s comments were very encouraging.
It’s appearance was ‘perfect’, with a “clearly outlined honey and hop aroma”, a “clearly marked honey and hop character in the taste” and with a “quite long sweet alcoholic finish”. Inspired by an ale from Wiltshire’s Box Steam Brewery, one of the many breweries that have disappeared over the last 5 years, Thrúd’s Mead is one of the Meadmeisters favourites. The Bramling Cross hop, added after the fermentation has finished, brings such dark fruit flavours as bramble/blackberry and blackcurrant and adds a sourness to the overall finish of this mead. We cannot wait to make the next batch! So why not click on the link and tantalise your taste buds or gift to friends who love a good English Pale Ale and put them on to the splendour that is mead.
News from the Meadery
In July’s newsletter we introduced the Shaving set from The Wyrd Soap Company, which I have been ‘road testing’. For years, I haven’t been able to shave on a regular basis, but neither can I grow a beard. I have tried SO MANY Shaving Creams without success. To my absolute delight, there were NO red blotches immediately after shaving using the Wyrd Soap Company Set. More importantly, there was no dry, itchy, flaky skin 12 hours later and even 48 hours later when I shaved again (it is normally 2 weeks before being able to shave again with a razor). I am now a happy clean shaven (most of the time) Meadmeister! I will be posting full pictures on our social media channels soon, so have a look at the difference.
Back to business! We have had both a hectic and amazing month. Our new artisan market at Ormskirk got off to a slow start but went a bit crazy in the afternoon. We dropped out of Northwich Artisan Market, as we were preparing for our favourite outdoor event of the summer – Heysham Viking Festival. From the last week in June, until packing the van on Friday 19th July, we were bottling like crazy! We even managed to get more ‘Gift of the Gods’ sets bottled and boxed – half have already sold!
Heysham Viking Festival was an amazing weekend, the weather held off until 5pm on the Saturday. Unfortunately, Mikey from Dreaded Mead (based up the road in Bury), who was doing demonstrations in the Viking Village, was flooded out and had to go home on the Saturday evening. Anyways, he’ll be popping in here in August to have a natter, catch up and such.
Now Heysham is over, leaving our stock levels suitably decimated as befitting a Viking raid! We need to get more bottled and get the best part of another 3200 litres of mead on the go. In the words of Mrs Mead “Get on with it” (or JFDI which we can’t put in print)!
But first, we are taking a well-earned rest, so the Meadery is physically closed until August 5th.
Our next trading events are listed below. The full list can be found here.
August 2nd Mead Tasting at The Dram in Churchtown, Southport (click here for tickets)
August 4th Ormskirk Artisans Market
August 10th Northwich Artisans Market
August 17th Goosnargh Farmers Market Whittingham and Goosnargh Social Club, Whittingham, Preston, PR3 2JE
August 23rd – 25th The World Double Bit Axe Throwing Championships, Thirsk Racecourse, Station Rd, Thirsk YO7 1QL
August 29th – Sept 9th CLOSED for another stamina recouperation break, although we are at
September 8th Ormskirk Artisans Market
That’s all from us for now – we will be back with our next newsletter in September. Please head over to google and leave us some fantastic reviews. This helps keep us visible when people are searching for all things mead!
In the meantime, you can keep up to date with all our antics and meady goings on by following us on our blog page, Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram and TikTok