Wine Not?

Colorado Makes Merry with Mead - February 2007, The Yellow Scene, VOLUME 7, ISSUE 2

Nothing distinguishes a fine meal like a fine wine. The liquid grape has accompanied meals for thousands of years, enhancing flavors and relaxing diners of all countries and cultures around the world. Yet wine is still a relative newcomer when compared to the first fermented beverage. With roots reaching as far back as the 8th century B.C., for a real taste of history, try mead.

Made with honey rather than grapes, basic mead is simply honey, water and yeast. “We’re the original,” says David Myers, owner of Boulder’s Redstone Meadery and co-founder of the International Mead Fest. For the fifth straight year, dozens of the world’s top meadmakers will gather in Colorado to celebrate their unique libation in all its forms. The festival originally took place at the Redstone Meadery before moving to the more spacious Outlook Hotel. With attendance expected to easily crack four figures (just under a thousand dropped by in 2006), it was once again time to expand. This year, 35 commercial producers from all over the United States as well as Canada, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, South Africa and other countries will join dozens of home meadmakers at the Sheraton Denver West. The move from Boulder to Lakewood is an indication of the industry’s solid growth.

“We’re excited for the move to the Sheraton,” says Myers, “There is plenty of hall space to set up, and discounted hotel rooms for everybody who wants to stay. We’re encouraging people to check in for the night. That way when it’s time to leave, the only keys you’ll need will be your room key.”

Three dozen meaderies may not seem like very many—by comparison over ten times as many breweries (450) and over 40,000 people attended the 2006 Great American Beer Festival, but the GABF just turned 25 years old, and this is mead we’re talking about, not the all-American brewski. Furthermore, these 35 participating meadmakers each arrive with several varieties in their casks. Visitors will have the opportunity to sample 105 commercial meads. One advantage of MeadFest over the massive beer festival: the people filling your sampler glass are more often than not (66% of the companies) the meadmakers themselves. Instead of futilely querying a friendly but uninformed volunteer, MeadFesters can get the details from the experts directly.

Besides Redstone, East County has its own commercial competitor; Niwot’s Medovina is a regular attendee. This micro-meadery is unique because while most commercial meaderies purchase their honey, at Medovina, they make it. That’s right, they have their own bees. This means for those of you residing within a few miles of Old Town Niwot, who knows? Perhaps some of your own backyard blossoms have lent their nectar to Medovina’s creations via meadmaster Mark Beran’s buzzing worker bees.

Another Front Range meadery can found well south, near the tiny town of Larkspur, which readers may know as the summer home of the Colorado Renaissance Festival. Spruce Mountain Meadery took home a Bronze in the Varietal division last year, its second in three years. Gourmets take note: Along with mead author/guru Ken Schramm, Spruce’s Gretchen Bliss will co-host one of four seminars (free with your entry ticket). The topic? Food and mead, where you can learn to pair entrées with any bottles that catch your taste buds at the festival.

Of course, with 237 homebrewed varieties more than doubling the number of commercial entries, MeadFest will be your only chance to sample much of the mead, many of which were created by amateur enthusiasts from our own backyard.

One such meadmaker is Kathy Thompson, who started homebrewing beer as a hobby six years ago before making the switch to mead. While the word homebrewer usually conjures outdated images of bearded men and musty basements, Thompson is anything but. The fifteen-year Lafayette resident is a mother of two (one of whom happens to be David Strungis, the city’s mayor ProTem), and teaches third grade in Thornton. After a few years of brewing beer, she tried her first batch of mead and has been hooked ever since.

“Brewing beer is really hard; there are so many factors. Mead is much easier and you have more flexibility with each batch,” explains Thompson. “You can try different flavors after brewing one base.”

The simplicity of mead’s ingredients and its straightforward fermentation process allows for almost infinite variations. Add apples to make a cyser. Add grapes or grape juice and the resulting concoction is called a pyment.

At last year’s MeadFest, Thompson’s entry took first place in the Home pyment category. Another East County local, Ed deJager of Longmont, earned second place for his Champagne Pyment.

This February Thompson is entering a cyser and a sweet traditional (unflavored meads are divided into Sweet, Semi-sweet and Dry) mead. Ribbons, however, don’t drive her hobby; she just likes making mead. “I don’t make it for the judges. I make it for myself and my friends. If the judges like it, so much the better.”

What makes Colorado, and Boulder County in particular, such a hotbed for honeywine? Plenty of honey and a strong brewing heritage. “We’ve got the Brewers’ Association based in Boulder,” says Redstone’s Myers, “The Great American Beer Fest in Denver and the state has so many good breweries all over. There are lots of people familiar with the process looking for something new.”

Find something new for your wine cellar (or cabinet) at the 2007 International Mead Fest, February 9-10, at the Sheraton Denver West Hotel, 360 Union Boulevard, Lakewood. Call 303.987.2000 for lodging information. Friday tasting is open from 5-10 p.m., with the food and mead seminar starting at 7 p.m., and the home mead making awards ceremony at 8:30 p.m. Saturday’s tasting runs 4-10 p.m., with seminars scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., and the commercial awards ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $30 per day ($35 at the door) and can be purchased online at www.meadfest.com, or locally at either Redstone or Medovina. Call 720.406.1215 with questions.