Hey, Honey! Mead Is Buzzing Again

In the newest issue of Imbibe, I investigate one one of America's most polarizing, and misunderstood, alcoholic beverages: mead. Mention it to most people and they'll recoil, recalling the cloying booze that, along with oversize turkey legs, is a Renaissance Faire staple. That's a bit like judging American beer on a baseball-game macrobrew. Across America, meaderies are moving past that cliché, creating sublimely inventive meads that range from bone-dry to dessert-sweet, and spiced with just about any fruit, herb or vegetable pulled from the pantry.

With modern mead, there's hardly a hive-mind approach. Terroir is crucial for Colorado's Medovina, which makes mead with honey harvested from their own hives, while Alaska's Celestial Meads incorporates locally grown apples and currants into its collection of raw-honey meads. Craft brewing inspires the bourbon barrel–aged and hopped meads made by meaderies such as Michigan-based B. Nektar, Colorado's Redstone Meadery and Maine Mead Works. Mead is also proving its versatility in cocktails, which you'll find at the Chicago-area restaurant Inovasi and Columbus, Ohio's Brothers Drake Meadery, which runs a bar serving mead-based mixed drinks.

Want to read my full story? Check it out over at Imbibe's website.