Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/624475
GOURMET NEWS www.gourmetnews.com n JANUARY 2016 n GOURMET NEWS 8 0 2016 Best of Show G OURMET N EWS ® Mead with Love By Richard Thompson Breweries like Sky River Meadery and Moonlight Meadery are offering new deli- cious flavors – such as raspberry, black- berry, and even strawberry rhubarb – along with traditional honeyed staples in their dry, sweet and semi-sweet mead lines. "It's coming back as a beverage of choice," says Michael Fairbrother, Founder and Head Mead Maker at Moon- light Meadery and President of American Mead Maker Association. Moonlight Meadery, which opened in 2010 and is based in Londonderry, New Hampshire, offers a line of 70 different products and has seen interest in mead ex- plode over the last year. 'Production in the first two years was about 24,000 bottles (2000 cases), but we have done close to seven times as much in the last year alone,' says Fairbrother. Kurt's ApplePie, the meadery's top seller, won the gold metal at the 2013 Mazer Cup International and is made with Sunny Crest Farm apple cider with Mada- gascar-bourbon vanilla and Vietnamese cinnamon. Its sweetness is balanced by the tartness from the added cinnamon, and the vanilla lightens it up, says Fairbrother. Desire, a sweet mead made with blue- berries, black cherries and blackcurrants, is the company's flagship mead and won first place in the New England Regional Homebrew Competition back in 2009. Fling is made with strawberry rhubarb and orange blossom honey and has a light tart- ness that balances the sweet with straw- berry notes. "I suggest to customers to try it with a goat cheese salad," says Fair- brother. Coffee in Bed, a dessert-style mead with a rich, robust honey-note, was another award winner at the International Mazer Competition that goes well with dark chocolates, tiramisu and German Choco- late cake. Sky River Meadery, a Washington-based meadery found in the Woodinville Winery District, has been open since 1997 and spe- cializes in traditional meads and honey wines. 'We only make mead,' says Denice Ingalls, President and Wine Maker at Sky River, "We keep it simple and approach- able." SOLAS, the meadery's flagship mead, is a tribute to Old World meads, says Ingalls. Using saturated, smokey whiskey barrels from Dry Fly™ Distillery, SOLAS is a very sweet mead that combines honey and wheat whiskey flavors and is definitely an indulgence that should be sipped. The company's 10 different meads – with nine currently available – range from a traditional Brochet mead that has a darker, richer quality – due to the honey being caramelized before fermentation – to the Ginger mead that has a sassy ginger note with a spicy finish. "Our Rose mead is the 'boudoir' wine, luscious and indul- gent, and pairs beautifully with meals where there are a lot of pistachios, like Persian and Middle Eastern foods," says Ingalls.