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EGG HARBOR - A locally made mead – perhaps the oldest known alcoholic beverage – with all local ingredients won a bronze medal in a recent prestigious international competition.
Blood and Honey, by Mixed Meadia in Egg Harbor, took third place in the Mazer Cup International Mead Competition in the Fruit and Spice Mead – Sweet category. The entry from Mixed Meadia, the craft meadery and winery that's part of Hatch Distilling Co., was one of 13 in that category.
The bronze medal is a big deal to Mixed Meadia winemaker Allan Hyland. It's the first time the 2-year-old enterprise has entered one of its meads in competition, and the Mazer Cup is the biggest and most prestigious mead competition in the U.S. and one of the most important in the world, with hundreds of professional and homemade entries from across the country, Europe and Japan.
"It's a pretty big honor," Hyland said. "You're judged by a bunch of people who really know mead, who make mead."
The differences between mead and wine
Mead sometimes is called "honey wine" because it's made from honey by fermenting its sugars, like wine is made by fermenting fruit (often grape) sugars, and is made largely the same way as wine.
But mead technically is not considered a wine and has its own category in the alcohol industry. Meads can have fruits, herbs and spices added, so mead flavor profiles can range from slightly dry to very sweet. Alcohol content can be slightly higher than wines because there's more sugars to ferment from the honey than fruits. Meads also don't have the tannins from grape skins that can give many wines their dry, woody edge.
Mead's been around a long, long time
Mead also may be the first known fermented alcoholic beverage made by humans.
Chemical evidence found in ancient pottery in China indicates mead was being made at some time between 7,000 and 6,600 BCE, perhaps hundreds of years or more before grape wine, and some sources claim mead was made in Africa as far back as 13,000 BCE. It also may have existed naturally that early, because honey can ferment on its own if subjected to enough heat for a long-enough period of time. Beer may have been made around in 10,000 BCE, but that isn't certain and the earliest definite evidence of beer dates to around 3,500 to 3,100 BCE.
'Made in Door County' matters
Mixed Meadia's Blood and Honey is one of 10 meads, including three sparkling meads, a Mel Forte fortified mead and a sparkling apple cider/mead blend called a "cyser," currently available through the company's website.
It's made with wildflower honey, of course, sourced from the beehives kept by Hyland and Hatch Distilling owner/proprietor Chris Roedl (who started the distillery by using his family's honey as the basis for its gins and vodkas). Blood and Honey also uses Montmorency tart cherries grown in Door County, caraway grown by the business and wild-foraged spruce tips.
Hyland said the use of ingredients grown and produced by he and Roedl are vital to the ethos of the meadery and distillery. Besides keeping bees, he and Roedl grow their own botanicals for use in their spirits and meads and go to local produce growers for fruits and other items they need. And if they run short of honey from their own hives, they use honey from other keepers in Door County.
"It's very important," Hyland said. "That's what our goal is here, to show the foods and produce we grow here in Door County."
As for Blood and Honey's taste, Mixed Media says it "harmoniously marries its distinct flavors, resulting in a drink that is complex yet approachable and most importantly, delicious."
Mixed Meadia also features white wine blends made from Wisconsin grapes and a pommeau (an apple cider/aged apple brandy blend). Hyland said the company will soon release several champagnes and hopes to further expand its range of beverages in the future. To order or for more information, visit hatchdistilling.com/mixed-meadia.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.
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