When the event title has a curse word in it, you know you’re going to be in for a good time. As part of Sydney Craft Beer Week, Stone Dog Meadery presented ‘Mead what the F*** is Mead‘. Great question: what is mead? It’s fermented honey. And it’s delicious.
According to Stone Dog Meadery‘s founders Steve and Lavender Kirby, mead also happens to be the oldest alcoholic drink known to humankind. At 7,000 years old, it’s even older than beer. Steve and Lavender got their start by brewing fruit wines from Steve’s parents’ plum tree. They eventually hooked up with medieval reenactment groups, who kept asking them to make mead. A year ago Stone Dog was born.
Since the age of 20, I’ve known I liked mead. Travelling in a small village in Northern Wales (as you do), I happened upon my first meadery. I’ve been hooked ever since. It seems like the rest of the population is catching up. Steve told us that in the U.S., there are 300-400 commercial meaderies. In Australia, we have around 25, with another four about to open. This means one thing: people are going to be seeing a lot more mead around. And braggot.
Braggot — what the f*** is braggot? My +1 and I had no idea; nor, did it seem, did any of the sold-out crowd at Yulli’s in Surry Hills. Steve explained that it’s simply a mix of mead and beer. The Stone Dog Loudmouth Braggot is based off a Belgian-style beer combined with orange blossom mead. I found it surprisingly drinkable, particularly since it clocks in at 11.8%.
Our first mead of the night, Heading to the Coast, is a light and floral number made from macadamia honey. All honey is sourced domestically and often from single producers. Stone Dog loves combining special honeys (in the case of Prickly Lovin’, it’s orange blossom) with fruit flavours (they added blackberries). For their red gum honey-based Intertwined, Stone Dog included chipotle peppers for a smoky finish. Steve and Lavender won’t even tell you the secret ingredient in Stolen Goods — just that the mead is strong enough to stand up to aged cheese or a t-bone steak.
No matter what we were drinking, it was all delicious. Rather than the sickly-sweat honey wines my beer-loving +1 thought she would be drinking, Stone Dog’s meads ranged the gamut. There’s the barbeque sauce-esque Intertwined, all the way to the Prickly Lovin’s dry finish. Meads and braggots have a style for everyone.
The one thing that they all have? A high alcohol content. At the start of the evening, Steve mentioned we’d be starting at 11% and going up from there, recommending everyone eat dinner and not drive home. We took his advice midway through, ordering a delicious vegetarian meal. But by the end of the evening, the combination of 11%, 12%, 14% and 18% drinks had a certain, um, effect.
Mead is not something you’d want to have six glasses of in one sitting, unless it’s a special occasion. ‘Mead what the F*** is Mead’ was certainly a special occasion indeed. Everyone left with a newfound appreciation of the wide world of meads and braggots. Long may Stone Dog brew them.
– Theresa
Co-founder of The Plus Ones, Theresa will be purchasing some mead to quaff at home… one glass per evening.
Sydney Craft Beer Week runs from October 21st to October 30th 2016. Read our guide to the Top 10 must-do events this week.
For more on Stone Dog Meadery, visit their website and Facebook. You can also find there meads and braggots at Bucket Boys in Marrickville
