Bee AdvisedMead is on the Rise

As a former teacher, I had to devise a way to get my high school seniors to

read the Anglo-Saxon classic, Beowulf.
It was simple. First, they are fascinated with super heroes. Second, they are
fascinated by monsters. And third, they are fascinated by drinking. Beowulf
had all three.
And what did Beowulf and his buddies drink? (Hint, class: it was not Miller
Lite, Bud Lime or Corona.)
They drank mead. There was even a special drinking hall just for the
consumption of this ancient beverage, called, appropriately, a mead hall.
And with their unique drinking vessels, often made from horns, they may
have invented "funneling."
According to the American Mead Makers Association (AMMA), Mead is an
alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and
water. To be classified as mead, no less than 51% of the fermentable sugars
must come from honey. Depending on local traditions and specific recipes, it
may be flavored with spices, fruit, or hops. The alcoholic content of mead
may range from about 8% to 18% ABV. It may be still, carbonated, or
sparkling, and it may be dry, semi-sweet, or sweet. It is, without a doubt, the
worlds oldest fermented beverage, occurring naturally long before man
discovered the secrets of the process, says the organization.
Mead is often described as a honey wine, but the AMMA says that's a
misnomer. "it is no more a wine than beer is." And the sheer number of mead
styles on the AMMA page is as staggering as it is mouthwatering.
Since most folks are relatively unfamiliar with the beverage, NJ Brew, in
keeping with its time-honored educational mission, wisely decided to help
educate our readership by sending yours truly to the first meadery in NJ to
acquire a license--Melovino Meadery in Vauxhall, NJ.
Located at the rear of the Millburn Mall on Vauxhall Rd., (confusing a bit at
first, but once you find it, you wont forget it), Sergio Moutelas facility is still
in the incipient stages of development. But all the equipment is in and
working, from the gleaming fermenters to the reverse osmosis water system
that helps turn the very hard and barely drinkable local water into pure H2O,
which is what quality honey needs to work its liquid magic. You can smell
the difference, said Moutela, between the local water and the treated
water.
In fact, when I arrived Moutela, and his brother were using the local water,

washing out large receptacles. Cleanliness during the mead-brewing process

is every bit as important as it is in beer brewing.
I asked Moutela, a beer homebrewer, which product was easier to make, and
without hesitation he answered, Mead. Its way harder to home brew beer.
Theres no heating process involved.
When I asked him to explainin laymans termsthe difference between
brewing beer and brewing mead, he answered, It's like making an extract
batch of beer without boiling it.
So is mead the next big thing in brewing? Moutela thinks so, and hes
putting his money on the growth potential. Launching a meadery is not as
expensive as, say, starting a microbrewery or brewpub, but Moutela allowed
that his startup costs were still twice what he expected them to be. And hes
still got substantial cosmetic work to do.
Moutela says that 75-80% of all mead is purchased by women. After
sampling some of his entry level mead called Essence, its not hard to see
why. Light and fruity with a hint of sweetness, chilled Essence goes down
very easily. But beware, ladies: it packs a 13% alcohol punch just like wine.
Moutela has made meads that were 19-20%, though he assured me that with
mead, youll never wake up with a hangover.
And to further accommodate the fairer sex, he acquired a unique bottle
closure called a Zork closure. He said, Eight out of ten women love wine, but
ten out of ten of those hate using a corkscrew. His bottleclosure eliminates
the problem, and it isnt a twist-off cap like your Boones Farm back in the
day. Manufactured in Australia, its a very ingenious device.
His website says Melovinos is into winning smiles, not awards, but his
awards keep piling up. When I brewed beer, I rarely got an award. With
mead, Ive received twelve awards in the past six months. Along with the
awards, his mead is getting some hifalutin recognition. Moutela was
contacted by the James Beard Foundation to ask if he would contribute one
of his meads to the menu to accompany a seven-course, $200 per plate
dinner. For a guy like me, who is into the whole culinary scene, that request
may be at the top of my award list.
And just how did the James Beard Foundation learn about Melovino Mead?
Head Chef Florian Wehrli of Triomphe in NY overheard some of his customers
speaking about someone opening a meadery in NJ, and he googled Melovino.
Talk about word of mouth.
Moutela went on to explain that the variety of honeyand there are many
used in the mead will have an effect on the mead. You can use exactly the

same recipe, but change the honey, and the mead is transformed into
something new and different.
Moutela gets 75% of his honey from Stiles Apiaries in Fords, NJ. The only
honey he cannot get in NJ is orange blossom honey, which is the wonderful
honey used in Essence. The array of aromatics and flavors it yields is
nothing short of remarkable.
And hes got other experiments planned. The aptly-named Sinfonia will use
three different honeys and three different varieties of oak. Something called
Bourbon Berry is also on the way, as is a Ghost Pepper Chili Mead, made in
conjunction with Bob Slanzi, whose mead is a finalist in a current National
Homebrew Competition.
So, when it becomes available (September?) how much will a bottle of mead
cost the average Viking? $15-18 for a 500 ML bottle, says Moutela, which is
about what youd pay for a decent wine.
Unless you buy yours as I do mineat Trader Joes.
My mead, however, will come from Melovino Meadery.