Hello and welcome to our July 2024 Newsletter! It was another fantastic response to our June newsletter, with Verdandi (3yr old) selling out within minutes of the newsletter dropping.
Product of the Month
This month, we are shining the spotlight on our Gold medal-winning Baldur’s Mead. We look at how and why this batch is slightly different and how we achieve the flavour. You can order to collect from us at the meadery or an event near you.
Baldur’s Mead
This is our GOLD MEDAL Mead. The 2024 release has a semi dry finish, but a more luxurious wildflower honey crop, which has an underlying hint of Buckwheat, has produced an exceptional mead.
The aim of Baldur’s mead is to give the drinker lots of flavour without the sweetness usually associated with pure meads and really showcase the honey flavour profile by using a natural fermentation method. Once this fermentation has started, we know we have a good inoculation of Brettanomyces (Brett) yeast present. This is the yeast that is responsible for many Belgian beers, such as the Abbaye, Trappist, Dubbel and Trippel styles. By using a strong flavoured honey, we can recreate a similar flavour profile to Belgian beers. In modern craft brewing, using Brett gives the sought-after funky sour flavours to the generally lighter, hoppy, IPA styles (think ‘Rhubarba Streisand’ from Brew York and similar) with the addition of Lactic acid or Lactose from dairy products.
As always with our ‘wild’ ferments, we take the risk of not knowing exactly what we are going to get. This time Baldur’s Mead has hit the spot we aim for and the batch has a very similar flavour profile to “Gulden Draak”, a beer from Ertvelde in Flanders and aptly named after the golden dragon atop the Belfry of Ghent, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Baldur, like the golden dragon, is the ‘shining one’ – so cheerful he gives off light. Bearing the gold medal, combined with the flavour profile brings about a ‘trippel’ achievement.
Baldur’s Mead has been absent from our line-up now for a few months, due to an unprecedented order from Switzerland which wiped us out of stock, 3 or 4 months ahead of schedule!
So, if you are a fan of pure meads, this batch of Baldur’s Mead is going to blow your mind! It’s time to get your Baldur’s Mead!
Gifting Ideas
June saw us add a new Gifting Set for the men in your life. We have partnered with Kass of The Wyrd Soap Company – another ethical company who hand-make everything – to bring you a set which contains a shaving bowl with soap and a natural bristle shaving brush, along with a bottle of Urd (1yr aged, pure mead). We only have a handful of these sets, which have proved rather popular at our events, so be quick!
News From the Meadery
We have been busy with event trading this month. Great Harwood Agricultural show saw us ankle deep in water, but people still flocked to the event for their meady goodness. Southport Food & Drink Festival was epic – a sell-out of several flavours on the Saturday meant a trip to the meadery to restock for trading on the Sunday. Mrs Mead was interviewed by Liverpool Live and would’ve been stolen away to a new career if they had their way! Waiting to get a copy of the interview to add to our website and social media channels. The first artisan market at St George’s Hall, Liverpool was a good one for us with lots of new and returning customers. Lark Lane Farmers Market was busy as there was a free music festival in Sefton Park – lots of mead was drunk there!
We are heading to a new (to us) market on Sunday 7th July – Ormskirk Artisan Market. Run by the same company who run Northwich Artisan market (and others) we are looking forward to seeing what this market brings. We are rapidly heading towards our second biggest event of the year – Heysham Viking Festival – so we are focusing on making sure we have enough stock to appease the thirsty Vikings we encounter there! We are also proud to be one of the event sponsors this year. Heysham Viking Festival has always been close to our hearts and is run solely by a committee of volunteers who dedicate so much time to produce such a fabulous event.
As a result, we are not trading at Northwich Artisan Market in July. If I get my way, we will be having a week off at the end of July to recover. I just need to persuade Mrs Mead. This will mean we will not be trading at Lark Lane Farmers Market either. Keep an eye on the website and our social media channels.
Our next trading events are listed below. The full list can be found here.
Sunday 7th July – Ormsirk Artisan Market, 11am to 4pm, Moor St, Ormskirk, L39 2XN
Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st July – Heysham Viking Festival, 10am to 5pm, Carr Lane, Heysham, LA3 2RL
That’s all from us for now – we will be back with our next newsletter in July! If you enjoy our products or what we do, then feel free to leave a positive review on Google! 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