The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast
We love craft beer! Each week we will taste a number of beers from around the country and give you our thoughts, not only will we talk about the flavor, but also the artwork and anything else that comes to mind.
We will also go on location and visit breweries and try a number of their offerings and give you our thoughts as well.
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The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast
Ep 120 - Exploring Honey's Liquid Legacy: The Mead Edition
Ever wondered what a 5,000-year-old alcoholic beverage tastes like in the 21st century? Join Mike and BK as they finally tackle their long-promised mead podcast, exploring the oldest known fermented drink on earth through five wildly different modern interpretations.
The adventure begins with a surprisingly refreshing Watermelon Honey Badgerita that defies expectations, followed by an introduction to the aromatic spice cardamom in the aptly-named "The Dispear" pear mead. But nothing could prepare them for the third bottle – a mind-blowing creation that perfectly captures the flavor of a childhood peanut butter and jelly sandwich in liquid form.
As the alcohol content climbs from 6% to a formidable 19%, our hosts discover meads ranging from wine-adjacent berry concoctions to a traditional Danish recipe dating back to the 1700s. What becomes increasingly clear is that while all meads share honey as their fundamental building block, modern meaderies have created an astonishing spectrum of flavors that rival the diversity found in craft beer.
Whether you're a seasoned mead drinker or completely new to this ancient elixir, you'll gain appreciation for the craftsmanship and creativity behind these unique beverages. From fruit-forward options to traditional recipes that have stood the test of centuries, mead offers something for every palate. As BK notes, "These vary as much as beers, but even more, despite all starting from the same base ingredient."
Subscribe now and join us around the campfire for this fascinating exploration of honey's oldest and most delicious transformation. And remember – these gluten-free alternatives pack a serious punch, with some reaching well into the 20% ABV range!
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Grab a beer and pull up a chair. Welcome to the Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to the Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. This is Mike, the Northwoods Beer Guy, and I don't know if you can hear the wind blowing through the trees, but that's a sure sign we're back in the Northwoods. And if we're in the Northwoods, you know who we're joined by. Typically it's me, it's typically you. Once again, bk is here in the house, indeed, and today we are actually going to do a podcast that we've talked about for I don't know how long. We broke out the meads.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been. You know what was that? A couple years ago I brought that weird viking's blood or whatever it was and hey, this is pretty good, we should start buying these, and we've had a lot of them, but we've never, really we've never put so many of them together that we have a podcast, right exactly.
Speaker 1:So we're diving into them and we've got how many? One, two, three four different breweries.
Speaker 2:I should say not breweries.
Speaker 1:I apologize Now if I remember, right mead is like the oldest style.
Speaker 2:It is style, it is the original alcohol. I mean um honey wine.
Speaker 1:Uh, honey, this honey, that, whatever the god's perfect food right there you go, and it was so perfect they made a drink out of it. That's right. I said how can we make this perfect food even better? Even better, let's ferment it. Yeah, absolutely so, yeah, so we're gonna try and try and taste a few of these now. These range from, I think it's six percent, six to nineteen, up to 19, and we've had stronger, yeah, we have had stronger. We've had a couple that were in the 20s, 21, 22, yeah, so this should be interesting. Now, we have not tried any of these here. Uh, so we are going to, uh, we've tried the meter. We've tried the meteries before, yes, but not these particular ones. So, awesome, well, I guess we can uh, start with the first one.
Speaker 2:I guess we're going to jump in and I've already staged this. Let's get this one out of the way, although it's not that I have anything against watermelon, but it's an odd one. So this is a crafted artisan meadery watermelon honey, badgerita mead with watermelon blood, orange, lime and sea salt.
Speaker 1:So it should be interesting. Yeah, you sea salt, so it should be interesting. Yeah, you wonder if it's going to be a saltiness to it, or are we going to even be able to taste the watermelon that's, I guess?
Speaker 2:my concern is yeah that can be a polarizing taste. Yeah, there's no question. The couple beers that we've had with watermelon didn't go well Right. So, believe it or not, it is not pretty much the color of, excuse me, pretty much the color of, excuse me, pretty much the color of of, uh kind of beer yeah it smells.
Speaker 1:It smells salty yeah, I was gonna say that's what I'm getting, wow, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, that's not what I expected. It is a little salty, smells kind of like a margarita in a way, kind of yeah really don't get the water moon too much more honey and you get the orange.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I thought it was going to be saltier. You know myself, you do get a little bit, but I was expecting worse.
Speaker 2:I was like yeah, well, I have expected there to be rind coming out, you know you never know, but actually that's pretty refreshing At 6% that's not super strong.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, this is one that I mean you could definitely, because these are. What size is that bottle?
Speaker 2:It's 500 mil Okay, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean, you could drink one of those though, you know, and it's not bad.
Speaker 2:No, it'd be actually, and I think some of these I've seen people put them over ice. I think if it's 21%, I think you should put it over ice and probably sip it. Actually that's not bad. Would I want to have two bottles of it? No, I think we've talked about too some of those. Even beers get so sweet that you worry that it's going to be a instant heartburn, exactly. I don't think that would be there, but actually that was pretty refreshing. Yeah, and there's kind of a fun little label with a badger and a sombrero and and a little bitty margarita glass and a watermelon and a watermelon field well, you know I give them credit for the label yeah yeah, it's interesting because they uh, these guys, I've only ever seen like this size bottle and they're all.
Speaker 1:They've all been the six percent and they've, they've tried some really different there's some flavors. Yeah, there's some weird combinations out there. I give them credit, you know, because they they do some stuff. Now there's been a couple of them. We've tried from them.
Speaker 2:They're kind of you know, what's interesting in all the meads we've tried is that they are in fact all. They all have a honey taste, right yes they all have a honey taste. So if you don't like honey or that type of when we say that type of drink, then you're not going to want to dive into a mead. But this one actually is pretty refreshing. It's not super strong, it doesn't. It doesn't leave a bad aftertaste it's, it's pretty pleasant.
Speaker 1:well, you know, the thing that's kind of crazy to me is when it comes to honey beer, like a Honey Weiss, things like that. I'm not a big fan of it really. It kind of gives to me. It gives it a weird taste, but meads I like. Yeah, I don't know why that is, but I think you know we've talked about on other beers too.
Speaker 2:Is it the real lime or is the fake lime? Yeah, is it the real. This I think honey is kind of the same way you get the if you've ever anybody who's had honey, if you've had the stuff made locally you know, and that have bees way better than buying it in the bear right at the grocery store. To me that's the raw honey. Up front is way better and I think, I think I would imagine the need that's what we're probably getting out of these, more of the raw.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a really big it's gotta, because I don't know what it is, but I just I don't know. A lot of those honeybeers are just not. I have had a couple lately that were better, but it could be the same thing, right, they actually have. They buy great big bears, correct, correct, well, all right. Well, what do you think? Man on the uh crafted, uh watermelon honey, badgerita it surprised me.
Speaker 2:it was clear, which I guess. I didn't really think too much about it. I just saw watermelon and thought this is going to be gloopy and in pink it wasn't too bad. I you know, I guess I would go and, not having had as many meads, I would go probably the two, eight. Okay, it didn't make me want to pour the rest of the bottle out into a glass, but it was it was pretty refreshing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I say I'm uh, I think I'm right there with you, because I I thought it was really going to be saltier with sea salt. I thought, boy, this is going to be the predominant flavor and you do get a saltiness, but it's not. It might actually been a little better with some more sea salt, yeah, but it was good.
Speaker 1:It was good, absolutely, and you think about it. You know people put salt on their watermelon. But like you, I do agree. I didn't really pick up a lot of watermelon flavor, and that could be, as we've had other watermelon ones before and it's super touchy, you know what I mean. Either you can't taste it or it's like the fake Jolly Rancher watermelon flavor, you know, and this one it's just not. I didn't pick it up but it's yeah, it's refreshing and, like I said, it's not too salty.
Speaker 2:So I was happy about that, so I'm going to do two eight as well. Yeah, I know, growing up we had a lot of watermelon, you know further south. But I also know that my grandmother used to take the rinds and just let them sit in water and then drink the water. So I don't know, really Maybe that's some of it. Yeah, not the whole watermelon, but the rinds. She'd take her two rind in the refrigerator and that's what she would drink some of it, so it's interesting, that way too Interesting.
Speaker 1:I can tell you this If you feed too many watermelon rinds to a black lab, they will get sick. They will absolutely not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not a good thing, or so I've heard. So you've heard. No dogs were harmed in the recording of this podcast None whatsoever Awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, we're sitting out here on the deck and the sun is shining for once.
Speaker 2:This weekend was kind of. Yeah the weathermen didn't quite do it justice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it went from really really hot Then yesterday pretty much rained.
Speaker 2:It was Serengeti warm and then it rained all day, and then yesterday was supposed to be nice and they lied about that.
Speaker 1:And now today, when you know you got to pack up and go, home.
Speaker 2:Now the sun's shining. Now it's 70 and it's sunshining.
Speaker 1:Nice little breeze. Of course Birds are chirping. Yeah, that's typically how it goes, Typical, typical. Well, hey, I guess we might as well crack into this second one. So what's the next one?
Speaker 2:we got the next one is crafted artisan meter again, and this is the Despair and it's spelled d-i-s-p-e-a-r. Pear and honey wine with cardamom added. And we had to look up cardamom, just so everybody knows. We weren't sure what it was. We knew it wasn't stacy's mom's neighbor, um, but cardamom is an aromatic. If I remember when you looked it up and it's a, it's in the same family as ginger yeah I remember seeing it in the store.
Speaker 2:It's usually ground really fine, but I never. I guess you know, if you don't use it grilling, I probably don't know what it is right, so here's a little bit of a write up on it.
Speaker 1:It says uh, it's mead with pear and cardamom. Added tasting notes we should get sweet pear juice, honey and fresh cardamom spice. Well, I'm not exactly sure what cardamom spice will taste like, but we'll find out I'm gonna say it tastes like cardamom, yeah yeah, so I don't, I don't.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll figure it out I think they use cardamom and I'd have to look for sure, because I'm again I'm not a baker, but I think it's more in baking products okay so they also said the despair combines juicy pear with a fragrant spice note of cardamom. Although not a part of our year-round lineup, the despair has consistently been produced every year since 2016. Hand-grinding green cardamom pods just prior to making the addition provide a fresh punch of cardamom straight to the face. Don't despair, this favorite of ours will be around for some time. I'm not sure about the face-punching part, but that smells different Smells. I'm trying to think is that the pear or is that the cardamom?
Speaker 1:I smell pear, I get pear, that's what. That's what I thought it was. That's different. That's kind of a little bit of a weird. Yeah, I can't well that's got to be that's got to be the cardamom yeah that's interesting.
Speaker 2:I do taste the pear and I like pears. Yeah, I was in to start with that. One's interesting.
Speaker 1:I get less honey in this one, yeah, this is definitely get the pear and then whatever the cardamom there's got to be that different flavor in there. It is a little the spice that's.
Speaker 2:That's now I'm gonna have to look up what right is it you put it in?
Speaker 1:pie, is it? Yeah? What is it in?
Speaker 2:cardboard, you know it's hard to say I like the pear.
Speaker 1:I maybe I could do without the cardamom, I'm not sure, but the the pear is good yeah, I wonder if they'd have just stuck with the pear, you know, or if that just doesn't have enough I mean it's growing on me.
Speaker 2:It's not bad, but it is way different. I don't think I've ever had a beer with cardamom in it that I can think of we've had coriander. We've had a lot of coriander, but not so much cardamom and then we had one too that had um remember when we had it was like Thanksgiving like a pecan pie, Everything that you could possibly get in a pecan pie we had in a beer. And it had a bunch of spices.
Speaker 1:But not this, yeah. And then, of course, you know anytime, when the pumpkin beers come out, you get the pumpkin spice, you know nutmeg cinnamon clove, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:We had one with heather in it, which we still haven't figured out what that's. Yeah, Heather, and we try to stay the ones that have sarah in them, or yeah, tiffany's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, stay away from those, stay from those. That's usually trouble.
Speaker 2:So no, it's not bad. Um, I'm gonna have to google what cardamom goes in yeah besides pear juice, uh, I don't know, it's not. I think if I had to pick one over the other, I would pick the, the watermelon one above this, but and maybe it's just because I'm it's just, it's different I agree with you not bad, but it's different I was gonna say the same thing.
Speaker 1:I kind of like that first one a little bit better, I think. So, uh, score wise on the, the despair, I'm gonna do like I'm gonna go like a two six. I was exactly what I was gonna say because it's.
Speaker 2:It's better than it's interesting, it makes you pay attention as opposed to just drink it. Yeah, I don't know what to say other than it's just different.
Speaker 1:It's completely different than than anything I think I've ever tasted yeah, and like you said, I I just it probably would have been different if we actually knew for sure what cardamom spice tastes like. And we've, I'll guarantee we've probably had it in some food before, but you didn't know. You know so.
Speaker 2:Scandinavian baking and Middle Eastern desserts.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I'm pretty sure I probably haven't had many Middle Eastern desserts.
Speaker 2:It does say it's a key ingredient in a lot of curry dishes and rice.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so maybe we have.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we haven't, we just didn't know it yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's not terrible. But between the two I think that the watermelon one really it was more refreshing anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, surprisingly Again, before we got started here I was trying to be open-minded, a little bit about watermelon.
Speaker 1:When did that start?
Speaker 2:Now I'm like, okay, well, now I'm going to start being wary of the cardamom. Yeah, I'm going to start to have a lot of food fears, I think.
Speaker 1:There was a beer I brought. This was a number of years ago and you guys weren't up here that weekend when we were up here. So I was here and another friend of ours, kirk, he was here and we tried it and it had some kind of curry spice in it. Oh, I remember, yeah, I remember you saying that. Oh, that was not.
Speaker 2:No, thank you, no, thank you, no, thank you I don't need any more of that I know I had when I traveled and I was in China and I had I forget the label is cool I had a big dragon on and it was a local brew there and I had executives taking me out to dinner and they said, oh, try it, it's good. So I tried it. It wasn't good, it was really bad, and I don't know what was.
Speaker 1:Like floating.
Speaker 2:Like floaters, Like you know, when you get a dark beer yeah. But it was green and it was in the bottom and swirling up and I drank it. I was polite. It tasted better than the fish they were boiling for me, but I will say that it was not a good beer.
Speaker 1:Wow, that would have been. Yeah, I got a question. Is that green stuff supposed to be? Is?
Speaker 2:that part of the label. I'm not sure what's in there, but yeah, that was again one of those ones where it was just, it just wasn't good and they loved it. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I thought it would really tasted like but, yeah, no, you just grin and bear it in that situation and go from there.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah pretty crazy all right well hey, we can, uh, we're gonna step the abv up a little bit, so now we're doubling it. So now we're at 12 5, 12, 5, and this one I actually brought back from vel valparaiso, indiana, and this one is actually this is we had to find a wine opener. Yeah, because you know we don't drink a corkscrew, because beer with corks in it, yeah, we, two of these uh bottles have cork in it. We were, luckily, one of our neighbors up here. She drinks a lot of wine, so they had one in every room kind of thing, and two in her purse.
Speaker 2:So this is Misbehavin' Meads out of Valparaiso, indiana, and this is with a baseball bat. Now, this is pink, it's a clear bottle. Yep, this one is honey grape strawberry wine with peanuts, which I think is interesting, interesting. I half expect this to be a little salty, we'll see, but it is absolutely rosé pink.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the first two were very light, light, light color, and this one is definitely and a little bit cloudy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not as crystal clear as the others.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I gave you a little extra. There you go.
Speaker 1:Oh, you can smell the peanuts right away and I get the strawberry and the peanuts just like. It's like a. You smell it, it's almost like a peanut butter porter. Okay, that's interesting that's more what I was expecting.
Speaker 2:I guess you know, you know everything that's on the label is in that in spades, wow, and at 12 and a half percent it does not taste like 12 and a half percent.
Speaker 1:This tastes like you could really get messed up, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness, and this is a smaller bottle, so this is like your, probably 12 ounce, maybe, maybe. Maybe 14 ounce, maybe like a 350 milliliter or something, 375.
Speaker 1:375, okay, boy, that's got a good flavor to it. That's interesting.
Speaker 2:Wow, I don't even know what to say. The strawberry borders on the fake strawberry. Oh yeah, but it's.
Speaker 1:It still has a little bit of tartness to it that strawberries have, and you definitely get. To me it almost tastes like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Speaker 2:I was just gonna say that when you, when you grew up, and your one, your one friend's parents only had strawberry jelly and you had to get a pb and j, this is what it tastes like. It's in a bottle. It tastes like a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich. Wow, that's really good. And blows your mind To look at something that rosé color and then have it taste like a peanut butter jelly sandwich. That's something else.
Speaker 1:That is pretty good At 12.5%. My word yeah, like I said, that is very smooth, easy drinking and on a hot day you could drink a couple of bottles of that and you are not mowing the lawn, exactly Interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was not expecting that Not even a little bit Boy.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's. I'm just kind of blown away by, like I said, just that nostalgic flavor kind of thing, you know.
Speaker 2:You hit it on. I mean nail, and here's the hammer. It absolutely tastes like a peanut butter jelly sandwich.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's wild. So if you're ever in Valparaiso, indiana, stop by the Misbehavin' Distillery. I keep saying meatery. Well, we're born that way, yeah, so what are you thinking on a score on this one?
Speaker 2:This one blows my mind a little bit. If this were a beer, it would taste good. You know what I mean? Yeah, I probably I got to go. I'm going to say probably like a 3.4, 3.3, 3.4. It's high up there for me, it's really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you. I think, boy, I could even go higher.
Speaker 2:I mean, but again I feel jaded a little bit in that I don't have a lot to compare to mead-wise, and these things run the spectrum to the point of cardamom, which we had to look up what it is, to my lunchbox from second grade, right, yep. And not on wheat bread, this is white bread, pbj, just so everybody knows. Yeah, I could even probably go higher. If we had another bottle. It would be one I'd save Right. This would be one I'd save right. This would be when you save for friends, it's hey gotta try this yeah, it's gonna blow your mind.
Speaker 1:You gotta try this I'm honestly surprised, just through the first three, just how different the flavors are. Yeah, I always thought, well, it's gonna be kind of similar.
Speaker 2:You know well some of the first ones when we kind of started do our venture in the meads. Uh, they were super high volume as far as abv and they all kind of tasted the same. And then when we got into the crafted meadery and some of the others, I'm not going to say we branched out, but we started to notice there are other flavors, yeah, who knew?
Speaker 2:And how many times did you and I text pictures back and forth of hey look, they got these six, or they got these three, or whatever? Yeah, that blows my mind, yeah.
Speaker 1:We to share that with. I was gonna say we're gonna have to put that cork back in there. My wife is gluten-free and all these needs are gluten-free, yeah, so we know where that that'll be going.
Speaker 2:So that that's a plus number one compared to the other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, score wise I'm, I probably could go with three, five. Yeah, I really enjoyed that. Like I said, uh, totally shocking, but uh, it's, you know, as far as you got all the flavors and it, it was so reminiscent of a PB&J sandwich.
Speaker 2:that it was like wow, that's unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the peanuts blew me away more than anything else.
Speaker 1:Well, the fact that you could smell it and taste we harp on beers that if it's on the label, it should be in the bottle. It should be in the bottle, it was definitely there. Well and some childhood memories are in the bottle Exactly.
Speaker 2:I'm concerned it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Well, we've got two more to go. We do Again. We're stepping it up a little bit, yeah, so this one is 15.
Speaker 2:15.7%. Okay, this is B-Nectar and I'm sure it's just nectar, but N-E-K-T-A-R. This is called Shadow Thicket, Raspberry, Black Currant Honey Wine and this one has kind of a wicked little label on it and I'm not entirely certain. Wipe some stuff off. But yeah, there's a skull on here with horns growing out of it. It's got a bee on its forehead. This one says meeting the ancient spirits of the woods is easy if you know the way through. Shadow thicket.
Speaker 2:Faces appear in, oh boy, small writing Sweat on the head, yes, and then the sweat Faces appear in wiry tangles of old vines, brambles and aged bushes, lush with juicy raspberries and tart black currants. Thorny branches form into hands, offering a goblet overflowing with a berry and honey potion. You feel compelled to sip, as if this libation will save you when they return to reclaim what has always been theirs. Wow, so I'm starting to get a little worried. I don't, I don't want to give a back to them. I don't think.
Speaker 1:Um, they actually have a thing and I'll, and I'll flip it around so you can see it, there's a sweet and dry meter oh, and this is closer to this is leaning towards sweet, which is good because, uh, yeah, the very, very few times I've ever had wine, I've learned I really don't like the dry ones so that's interesting too, and and we've always said what brew it's it's, it was the monkey bar beer.
Speaker 2:It's priors or prior. Yeah, and again, if you're out there and you've worked there, then you can yell at me later. Anyway, they have on the back of their can. They've got their. What is it? Their flavor profile? Yes, and it's a weird looking chart, yep, and it's kind of cool, and you go, oh well, yeah, no, I don't want any of that, but I like that.
Speaker 1:And it kind of gives you a thing. So this is also, oh, I am a little concerned. I've only really had one beer that had blackcurrant in it, and it was actually by New Glarus, and boy it was a little tart, you know.
Speaker 2:This is sweeter. I like tart stuff. I don't like sour stuff.
Speaker 1:Ooh, that smells. That smells wine-ish, kind of Very sweet, though Very dark. Ooh, that's interesting, that's got kind of a.
Speaker 2:It's going to stain your tongue, it's tart. Now, this one, you can taste the alcohol. Yeah, that last one at 12-something, 12-5, you couldn't taste it. This one, you can taste it at 15-7.
Speaker 1:Boy, that is. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's different and it kind of lingers there a little bit.
Speaker 2:This leans more towards a wine. Yeah, I agree with you there as far as taste, but it's again for 15.7, it doesn't really taste 15.7. No, this is an instant heartburn, one A hundred percent Like. If you're not careful, this one would sneak up on you and you go to bed early.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, that is a cool label.
Speaker 2:It is way cool. We might have to pull that one off and stick it to the bar.
Speaker 1:See if we can do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is interesting Boy yeah, you've got to like that tart flavor and stuff.
Speaker 1:I'd hate to see if it was, or they had, sweet and dry, wasn't it Sweet and dry? Okay, never mind, I was thinking they had tart. This is pretty dry. Yeah, In my book.
Speaker 2:I'd hate to see what their dry one was I'm pretty sure that you would cough sand, mm-hmm, this is. We've had, you've had a beer. Noguera's had a beer with the currants in it and we also had one, because I brought one. Okay, and I want to say, I want to say it was a black, black current or current, um, uh, a rose, not a rose. It was uh, um, I think I still have one in my fridge at home, yeah, um, and it was really tart and really dry. Uh, it was. It was cherry and black crayons and, okay, I liked it. I think you didn't think it was too bad and I think most other people spit it out right, but it's really tart. This is right along those lines.
Speaker 2:This is on the verge and I don't see any floaters in here, but it tastes like there should be floaters.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? Yeah, Because some of those you get floaters which we're not opposed to unless they're green. Yeah, unless they're green, then you've got to ask some questions. 100% this would give me heartburn if we drank that whole bottle.
Speaker 2:After a big meal we were going to have a big ribeye steak and baked potato and whatever else. If you sat down with a little bit, it's kind of like a port wine taste as a little dessert drink. Personally, I just put bourbon in my glass, but if I had this, that would be a time I think I would enjoy it, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not bad, no.
Speaker 2:But it definitely gets your attention. If you were, if you love red wine, this would be kind of a gateway into the meads if you. If you like red wine like a zen or a juicy, you know the, not a super dry red wine, but this is borderline. Oh, and also twice the alcohol, yeah, exactly as your normal red.
Speaker 1:Oh, did I happen to mention?
Speaker 2:yeah, by the way this going to screw you up worse than that one.
Speaker 1:No doubt, but it's good. I like it, man score-wise. What do you think? Because I'm conflicted a little bit on this one.
Speaker 2:You and I are a little different when it comes to this taste. I like the tartar stuff more than not tartar, but the tart stuff more. I'd probably go about a 2.8 on this.
Speaker 1:It's what I expect 29, it's better than average. Yeah, 2829. Like I said, I think this would be a great little after dinner drink and yeah, to me I'm going like a 2.3. Yeah, no, just because I'm just instant heartburn on this one and and it's like whew it. No, when I finished the the glass, you know, and it was better the second time, you know, the second third taste was better than the first one.
Speaker 2:Remember the label says they're coming back for it yeah, yeah, something's coming back all right, they didn't say they were going to start on fire first, but it's possible exactly.
Speaker 1:But yeah, boy, it was definitely. I don't know if it's the, it's still there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, as I say, it is just not going away here real quick so we're gonna rinse our glasses after this, yeah, and maybe even drink the water.
Speaker 2:And now the water that's even better. That's better I think the water is still three percent more than likely. Yeah, that was uh and again like I said, it's not bad, but boy it's that had a much, a much stronger jim will save you some yes yeah, I'm jim. Would not have finished that he would not have approved of that.
Speaker 1:No, that's not a jim approved one. No well, jeepers dude, we got one left. We got one left, now we're kicking it way up.
Speaker 2:I say way up. We're uh 19 and this is dance and I don't even know how.
Speaker 1:I don't even know how to pronounce. I was gonna. I was hoping you knew how to.
Speaker 2:I think we looked it up once um, there's like, there's like extra letters where they shouldn't be in this one.
Speaker 1:This is like a zero or something. Yeah, put a zero in there it's like algebra.
Speaker 2:This is based on a recipe from about year 1700. It's Dansk Jod, I think is it. Maybe it could be. We'll have to Google that to see, very basic, a clay bottle right. Is this clay or a glass one? I think it's.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure. I think it's glass.
Speaker 2:One of their other ones that we had was a clay bottle, really cool looking bottle, very basic, and this is honey apple wine with hops, and I was going to say myrica, but that's not it, it's myrica gale. Oh boy, which I'm not sure that's going to be another one of those. Yeah, I don't know what it is, we don't know what it is, but we're going to drink it anyway. And there's not a whole lot on this label. That story, hold on, let me dry it off and we'll see what it says. Uh, when drinking mead, you are drinking 5 000 years of preserved history. Meat is one of the few things that allows us to get in touch with the time and with the time when life was lived on nature's terms. Our products are based on a recipe from about year 1700. The ingredients are pure and 100 natural, guaranteed, free from additives honey is the major and most important ingredient in the recipe free from gluten and lactose. Rib Miata's R-I-B-E-M-J-0-D yeah, it's a zero.
Speaker 2:It's prepared in celebration of Scandinavia's oldest town Bribe, Rib, Ribe, I don't know R-I-B-E. The recipe is developed in cooperation with Something, Viking Center, with apple, marika, gale and hops for added flavor. It says serve slightly chilled, which again I give them props for telling us how to do it. Yes, as an aperitif, at room temperature as an excellent dessert, or warm as the mulled honey wine. For more serving suggestions, please visit the website. Sediment may occur.
Speaker 1:Uh occur.
Speaker 2:So before we open this, we better shake her up a little bit and make sure they warned us about the floaties and I think I'm going to check, but I'm fairly certain around the rim of this is actual Viking letters, I think. So yeah, if you look close it's hard to see. Now this has a cork, but they were kind enough to put a wood handle on a handle on it see, is that so difficult?
Speaker 2:you don't have to make it that hard, and this is the color I expected. It actually looks a little syrupy coming out at 20.
Speaker 1:It doesn't surprise me all right, and this is kind of back to back to the normal, normal color, like you would think cloudy.
Speaker 2:It is a little cloudy and it doesn't smell like much of anything and it. It's non-carbonated. These last two have no carbonation in them.
Speaker 1:That one's thicker. Oh yeah, definitely a more thick mouthfeel. This goes back to some of the first ones we had mead-wise. Now were those made by the same company. I think that Viking.
Speaker 2:Blood BLOD that I brought, I believe is the same one Okay, Because it's the same ship and that stuff was super strong. I think I was in the 21% and it was good and I remember a few people drinking too much of it and then they ended their evening early. If memory serves, I was drinking it also.
Speaker 1:It could have happened. You know, we can't say one way or the other.
Speaker 2:So I'm kind of interested in, and I think this would be a fun one. Maybe you and I reconverse in about two hours and we'll see what it is. Room temperature, because that's the way it used to be right. Yes, um, yeah, this is pretty chilled. I'm guessing we're at the 55 degrees, 52 to 55 degrees right now. Yep, I would agree with you, uh, but maybe it again at 60 70 degrees room temp, it might be a whole another ball game very much.
Speaker 1:So now I know, uh, I picked this up and I double checked because they did have Viking blood and they had four and the first two we had had, they had up there, and then this one we had and something like well, we got to try the one we haven't had before. It is like I said, it's thick. I mean, when you said syrupy, it's kind of how it feels when you're drinking it, but it doesn't taste like 19%. I'm telling you 19%.
Speaker 2:This will. Oh, this is great, this is great. And all of a sudden you are slobbering.
Speaker 1:In another thing, in another thing, in another thing.
Speaker 2:But it's really good. It's smooth. I don't know what the hops or the. I keep wanting to say Merca, yeah, whatever that.
Speaker 1:M-Y-R-I what that adds to it. Maybe there's a little spice that I'm.
Speaker 2:It could be I'm, just again we don't know what to look for, but this is really good yeah really good.
Speaker 1:I'm impressed. I mean, I was impressed with, even, like, the viking blood and all that. Uh, and like you said, and this is a compared to the other one this is a bigger bottle, yeah, but uh, it's definitely I suppose you could drink, you know, take some of it and put the cork back in and put it in the you know fridge or whatever, whatever, because it's not carbonated. Right, but boy, I tell you, it's all of them.
Speaker 2:you know there's alcohol in it, but it's not like whoa, this one doesn't stick with you, like the last one.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I mean between those two. I would have definitely thought that the one before this would have been higher alcohol. Yeah, Just the way that it kind of lingered and such, where this one is pretty good.
Speaker 2:I just this to me is when I think about a mead and you know, when we go to the Renaissance Festival, they usually have a meadery or two. Sure, yeah, just a plain old mead. This is what I think about when I think about having a mead. This is really good Again, I think if you just threw a mug of this down while you're eating or whatever, you'd sleep well.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:But this is really good. Yeah, I agree, whatever they were doing in 1700, that recipe. They did a good job. This is really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you, man. And yeah, they knew what they were doing, apparently, back then.
Speaker 2:They didn't have.
Speaker 1:They didn't have anything. That's all they knew. We're gonna use this honey for something. Yeah, they didn't have crackers or that, exactly. No, this is fantastic boy score wise. I. I hate to say it. This is because the the peanut butter and jelly one was super good, for a different reason yeah no, it's it, they're um they're neck and neck. They're different categories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I would say because I'll say honestly this one I like it just as much, or maybe even more, so I'm probably going like a 3.6.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm with you A hundred percent. I was going to say 3.7. Okay, yeah. I can yeah, because it's really good, you know and this is one of those scenarios too, where, if I owned a bar like I, might just throw a bottle of this in the fridge and offer it to people and it's 19%, so it's not a shot. You don't want to over-ice, but it'd be something that you could all right. Well, here's three bucks and here's a small glass of meat Something interesting for people to try.
Speaker 1:And maybe I'll do that at some point. You know, that's an interesting thought, because you don't see that. No, you know what I mean and I'd buy it yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I might be. Maybe we'll call Palparaiso, send us a case of peanut butter, and jellies. Hypothetically, let's just say so yeah, that's something that I don't think I've ever seen a mead in a bar no, I've never seen it, no, you know.
Speaker 1:so I suppose they didn't have any vodka in 1700 yeah, yeah, they hadn't figured out that you can ferment potatoes yet either.
Speaker 2:So what's that? One sign that says potatoes are made into chips and uh and uh mashed and whatever and vodka and it's.
Speaker 1:It's like the other vegetables aren't even trying oh, yeah, yeah, it's like they're not even trying. They're trying. That's funny, well, awesome. Well, dude, what? What did you think of the these, these five meats that we had, and none of them were?
Speaker 2:off-putting. Yeah, um, the shadow thicket, the next to the last one we had there is a polarizing one, right, I think anybody could roll through the first two. They're not super high alcohol, they kind of taste fruity, but they right. The baseball bat one was just phenomenal, like I don't even know what to say about it other than it was just amazing. And then if you go back, kind of like we went back to our roots for a mead, the last one, and again we're going to butcher this and somebody would yell at us and that's fine. But the rib mule, I think, is how it's pronounced, it's just, it's basic, it's wonderful, it's not, it's super strong and it's smooth.
Speaker 1:It's it's the smoothest one about out of all of them. Yep, I agree with you. I, like, I agree with everything you said. Like I said, the only difference for me was that black currant one was a little heartburny, but other than that they were all good and I was, like I said before, I was really surprised with how many different flavors there were, you know, and, like you said, some of them, like I said, that cardamom I don't know what I'm trying to look for and the, the Merca I don't know what that, that spice is either, to know what we were looking for. But uh, yeah, I, I, I agree with you. The baseball bat one and then this last one were both the top two and, like you said, in different categories and for different reasons. But all of these, I think the only one that a new person would be like, oh, it would be the black currant, just because it's kind of that drier.
Speaker 2:It's more on the wine side. Yeah, right, if you, like I said before, if you're a wine drinker and liked red wine, I think you could really enjoy it. I think doing it without food maybe not so great, right right. But after a big meal, if you wanted to sit down and actually that one might be another one where it warms up and it tastes a little better, a little less on the dry and acidic side. But yeah, no, we are 100% going to try it. We're going to leave this bottle out and try it in a couple hours.
Speaker 1:Yep, see what it, how it changed, because I'll bet you anything, it'll change, it'll be better. I'll bet yeah, yep, because that's how it was, you know back in the day they didn't have the fridges and stuff.
Speaker 2:Whatever the crick was running that was what they?
Speaker 1:how cold the drinks got exactly. Well, awesome man. Like I said, I'm so glad we finally got to do a mead podcast. It won't be our last one for sure, because we are always stumbling across different meads and and I've saw, I saw at one place I was at they had a big bottle like this and it was a polish mead yep, and I'm like I should have bought it because I'm like, well, I've never, we've never had that you know absolutely and to see what the difference is, uh, between that.
Speaker 1:So we're going to keep an eye out and we'll be back with another uh set of meads.
Speaker 2:We'll absolutely have to do it again, because, again, meads vary as much as beers, but even more, and the kind of then. To me, then, the cool thing about this is is that they're all honey, it's all from one basic agreement, and then they layer it, yep, on top of it, whereas beers can be an ipa and hops and barley or not barley, or this, that and the other it can. It can have a Volkswagen in it, you never know. But these are all kind of again started from an old recipe, probably some monk in.
Speaker 2:Europe at one point, or Scandinavia or whatnot. That figured out how to do it and the recipe really hasn't changed.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's crazy that they said the recipe was what?
Speaker 2:5,000 years old or something crazy, 5,000 years old, I mean, that is unbelievable.
Speaker 1:So the I mean that is unbelievable. Yep, you know so the oldest alcoholic beverage and it's in the modern time and people still buy it like crazy, absolutely. So you've got to be doing something right to have that kind of.
Speaker 2:That's what I was saying. So the baseball bat's from 2025, and the other's from 1725. Yeah, yeah you know.
Speaker 1:Just a little difference is all Well, awesome. Well, hey, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming along on on this mead trip with us and, like we always say, we hope your campfire is always warm and the mead is always cold. Oh, good one, see ya. Thank you for listening to the Northwoods Beer Guy podcast. If you have a question, a comment or a beer you'd like us to review, please feel free to send us a message at northwoodsbeerguy at gmailcom. You can also find us on Facebook, twitter and Instagram. If you're on untapped, look up Northwoods Beer Guy and send a friend request. Until next week, I hope all your campfires are warm and all your beer is cold.
