The Sour Mead: The Triumph of the 5 Flavors

Things change and nothing stays the same, no matter how much we want it to. As they say “when one door closes, another one opens.” This, however, was more like we were already in the doorway and then the door slammed shut, hit us in the face, sending us flying backward out of an open window and, finally, hitting the ground, knocking the wind out of us.

We were dazed, confused and defeated. But, once we recovered, we realized we had fallen into something new. Sour Meads? Why not! We had talked about doing it sometime in the future. And, like so many other plans, this on had been put off, delayed, and forgotten. Then, the Future gave us a Present. We were forced to change and adapt.

The Alchemist team went to work in earnest. Along with the first “regular” sour mead, we had already made Bliss, Ethereal and Skol before we knew about the souring, so we had plenty of raw material to work with.  We set ourselves a challenge to create a Tasting Flight of 5 new sours. Here’s what we imagined:

First, we combined the three sour Signatures to create Fruited Sour Mead (we’re working on the name). Very tasty and a good start.

Second. Who didn’t like Sweetarts as a kid (or adult)? We added Blueberry and Blackberry to our base sour mead and, voila!, Sweet Tart Mead!

Third. If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught with sour mead (now that song’s stuck in your head), then our Coconut and Pineapple mead might be your bag. We did name that one -  Malibu Tang Mead!

Fourth. We really stepped outside the box. Ok, we honestly don’t know where the box is, so getting creative wasn’t anything new. How about Plum, Juniper and Lime? That could be something. Festival of Dionysus Mead.

Fifth, and finally, let’s kick up the sour a little more. Take the tartness already in there, kick it up a notch with Blood Orange and Grapefruit, then add a little Habanero to make it more interesting and, BAM! Surt’s Lava Mead.

This was a Triumph! Huge success!

Five new flavors to start our Sour Mead journey. The tartness of the base mead let us experiment and combine flavors we hadn’t tried before with great results. What had started out 6 months ago as an existential disaster had turned into an opportunity we had never really imagined. And we’ve only just begun.

So, what have we learned?

Sometimes Lady Opportunity knocks (or punches you in the face) and Mother Necessity takes over.  They take you on An Unexpected Journey and, if you’re very clever – and really stubborn – you might learn something and end up with something new and exceptional.

In the end it all worked out for our quiet, humble barrel of honey. What seemed like an exceptionally ordinary barrel turned out to be the hero of the meadery. The trip was exciting and fun - kind of.

And, if someday you find yourself on your Unexpected Journey, it’s best if you don’t go alone. Maybe bring a towel. But that is a story for another day, and another unexpected hero.