Good Commercial Mead

Does anyone know of a good commercial mead? I have never had mead before, but have already made my first batch and would like to know if I should continue making it knowing that it might be a couple of years before it is drinkable.

I would like to try a commercial mead that would be a similar style to what I made, a dry mead:

I made a 3 gallon batch of mead with 9# of raw wildflower honey. I warmed it up to about 110 degrees and mixed it with warm water in the fermenter. Shook it until well mixed, let it cool down, and pitched cote de blanc. Let it ferment for about 6 or 7 months. It finished off right at .997. I tasted a sample while bottling and it had an astringent/medicinal flavor with a honey after taste. The honey notes were great, but it is honestly undrinkable at this time. My understanding is I should let it age for a year or so, where in lies the problem. If the stuff is good, I don't want to wait another couple of years before I can have more.

 

I happen to like White Winter's Dry Mead. That's a good representative example if you can get it in your area or have it shipped to you. It isn't bone dry (probably finishes at a gravity around 1.004 or so) but that's just enough to help balance the flavor.

For truly dry that is also drinkable, I like the Maine Mead Works Honeymaker Dry that I tasted at the Mazer Cup earlier this year. That one might be harder to find, since they are a relatively new meadery and they're not widely distributed yet.

 

Redstone Meads from Colorado are also very nice. You can find them and a nice selection of others from around the world at Liquid Solutions.

 

I happened to try a brand called Chaucer's at the Rennaissance Fair in Atlanta this weekend. If you like it sweet and not too dry, this one is very good. Their website is

Chaucer's Cellars Honey Mead

 

not so much on the chaucer's, imho. Find some of the Rabbit's Foot offerings, I've found that nearly all of them are quite good.

 

Chauncers is the most widely available, however I really do not like the aroma of the stuff. It tastes ok, but for some reason smells horrible.

 

Looks like Spec's here in Houston carries Chaucers and Redstone, I will pick up a bottle of each and give them a try!

 

I second the Rabbit's Foot product.
Fabulous quality and really nice people to deal with.

Their tasting room is like a private bar that only a 'few' know about.
If you find yourself in the SF bay area, we can swing by and sample mead till we fall over in a honey induced coma. :rockin:

 

Chaucers is a weird product. It's marketed as a mead...
But it is not. hard to explain.
It's more like a honey fortified wine.

 

Really I didn't know that, after making some of my own I was surprised how different it was from that example. So no wonder.

 

I have only had mead from Meadery of the Rockies but I liked it, seemed like great stuff to me.

 

Just had my first mead, from Drake Brother's Meadery in Columbus, Ohio. The stuff was fantastic.

They are a very small meadery, only available in about 10ish stores in columbus, but are growing quickly. They started as homebrewers, and their operation is very very very small. They have 5 265 fermentation vessels, and can only produce 8 batches a year, but are currently looking to expand.

The mead was excellent. They currently have 5 varieties, with a few new ones brewing, if you are in the area I would suggest looking them up and trying it out.

They have an apple pie mead that is going to be ready in about 3 months. I may have to come back down here to try it!

 

Is the rabbits foot mead easy to find? Havent found any in San Diego (although truthfully havent looked too hard), but will be up in the bay area and may try to find some.

 

it's now available at BEVMO.
you can also purchase at the meadery in Sunnyvale.
They do the mail order shuffle as well.

 

Have checked Bevmo in the past for it, but havent seen it. Will have to make a trip soon. Thanks!

 

My favorite thing about Chaucer's is that it makes me feel really good about my mead-making abilities. That stuff gives mead a bad name, IMO.

Redstone, however.... yum. Got to take their tour and samples a year ago, and it made me want to move to CO.

 

I always throw a cinnamon stick in my apple mead when bottling to help balance out that jet fuel quality. Just my own personal solution though. Better than letting it age for a few years IMO. But for a truly great mead better to let it age like everyone else.