July 11, 2025 • 36 mins
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!
Thank you for listening to The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. If you have a question, comment or would like us to review your beer, please feel free to contact us at northbeerguy@gmail.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Grab a beer and pull up a chair.
Welcome to the Northwoods BeerGuy Podcast.
Hey, ladies and gentlemen, andwelcome back to the Northwoods
Beer Guy Podcast.
This is Mike, the NorthwoodsBeer Guy, and I don't know if
you can hear the wind blowingthrough the trees, but that's a
sure sign we're back in theNorthwoods.
And if we're in the Northwoods,you know who we're joined by.
(00:43):
Typically it's me, it'stypically you.
Once again, bk is here in thehouse, indeed, and today we are
actually going to do a podcastthat we've talked about for I
don't know how long.
We broke out the meads.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, it's been.
You know what was that?
A couple years ago I broughtthat weird viking's blood or
whatever it was and hey, this ispretty good, we should start
buying these, and we've had alot of them, but we've never,
really we've never put so manyof them together that we have a
podcast, right exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So we're diving into them and we've got how many?
One, two, three four differentbreweries.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I should say not breweries.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I apologize Now if I remember, right mead is like the
oldest style.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It is style, it is the original alcohol.
I mean um honey wine.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
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 thisperfect food even better?
Even better, let's ferment it.
Yeah, absolutely so, yeah, sowe're gonna try and try and
taste a few of these now.
These range from, I think it'ssix percent, six to nineteen, up
to 19, and we've had stronger,yeah, we have had stronger.
We've had a couple that were inthe 20s, 21, 22, yeah, so this
(01:52):
should be interesting.
Now, we have not tried any ofthese 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 wecan uh, start with the first one
.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I guess we're going to jump in and I've already
staged this.
Let's get this one out of theway, although it's not that I
have anything against watermelon, but it's an odd one.
So this is a crafted artisanmeadery watermelon honey,
badgerita mead with watermelonblood, orange, lime and sea salt
.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So it should be interesting.
Yeah, you sea salt, so itshould be interesting.
Yeah, you wonder if it's goingto be a saltiness to it, or are
we going to even be able totaste the watermelon that's, I
guess?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
my concern is yeah that can be a polarizing taste.
Yeah, there's no question.
The couple beers that we've hadwith watermelon didn't go well
Right.
So, believe it or not, it isnot pretty much the color of,
excuse me, pretty much the colorof, excuse me, pretty much the
color of of, uh kind of beeryeah it smells.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
It smells salty yeah, I was gonna say that's what I'm
getting, wow, okay.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well, that's not what I expected.
It is a little salty, smellskind of like a margarita in a
way, kind of yeah really don'tget the water moon too much more
honey and you get the orange.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, I, I thought it was going to be saltier.
You know myself, you do get alittle bit, but I was expecting
worse.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I was like yeah, well , I have expected there to be
rind coming out, you know younever know, but actually that's
pretty refreshing At 6% that'snot super strong.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah yeah, this is one that I mean you could
definitely, because these are.
What size is that bottle?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It's 500 mil Okay, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
So I mean, you could drink one of those though, you
know, and it's not bad.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
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 thinkyou should put it over ice and
probably sip it.
Actually that's not bad.
Would I want to have twobottles of it?
No, I think we've talked abouttoo some of those.
Even beers get so sweet thatyou worry that it's going to be
a instant heartburn, exactly.
I don't think that would bethere, but actually that was
(03:50):
pretty refreshing.
Yeah, and there's kind of a funlittle label with a badger and
a sombrero and and a littlebitty margarita glass and a
watermelon and a watermelonfield well, you know I give them
credit for the label yeah yeah,it's interesting because they
uh, these guys, I've only everseen like this size bottle and
they're all.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
They've all been the six percent and they've, they've
tried some really differentthere's some flavors.
Yeah, there's some weirdcombinations out there.
I give them credit, you know,because they they do some stuff.
Now there's been a couple ofthem.
We've tried from them.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
They're kind of you know, what's interesting in all
the meads we've tried is thatthey 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 orthat type of when we say that
type of drink, then you're notgoing to want to dive into a
mead.
But this one actually is prettyrefreshing.
It's not super strong, itdoesn't.
(04:39):
It doesn't leave a badaftertaste it's, it's pretty
pleasant.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
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, butmeads 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 (05:09):
Is it the real lime or is the fake lime?
Yeah, is it the real.
This I think honey is kind ofthe same way you get the if
you've ever anybody who's hadhoney, if you've had the stuff
made locally you know, and thathave bees way better than buying
it in the bear right at thegrocery store.
To me that's the raw honey.
Up front is way better and Ithink, I think I would imagine
the need that's what we'reprobably getting out of these,
more of the raw.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, that's a really big it's gotta, because I don't
know what it is, but I just Idon't know.
A lot of those honeybeers arejust not.
I have had a couple lately thatwere better, but it could be
the same thing, right, theyactually have.
They buy great big bears,correct, correct, well, all
right.
Well, what do you think?
Man on the uh crafted, uhwatermelon honey, badgerita it
surprised me.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
it was clear, which I guess.
I didn't really think too muchabout it.
I just saw watermelon andthought this is going to be
gloopy and in pink it wasn't toobad.
I you know, I guess I would goand, not having had as many
meads, I would go probably thetwo, eight.
Okay, it didn't make me want topour the rest of the bottle out
into a glass, but it was it waspretty refreshing.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, I say I'm uh, I think I'm right there with you,
because I I thought it wasreally going to be saltier with
sea salt.
I thought, boy, this is goingto be the predominant flavor and
you do get a saltiness, butit's not.
It might actually been a littlebetter with some more sea salt,
yeah, but it was good.
It was good, absolutely, and youthink about it.
You know people put salt ontheir watermelon.
But like you, I do agree.
I didn't really pick up a lotof watermelon flavor, and that
could be, as we've had otherwatermelon ones before and it's
super touchy, you know what Imean.
(06:29):
Either you can't taste it orit'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'syeah, it's refreshing and, like
I said, it's not too salty.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
So I was happy about that, so I'm going to do two
eight as well.
Yeah, I know, growing up we hada lot of watermelon, you know
further south.
But I also know that mygrandmother used to take the
rinds and just let them sit inwater and then drink the water.
So I don't know, really Maybethat's some of it.
Yeah, not the whole watermelon,but the rinds.
She'd take her two rind in therefrigerator and that's what she
would drink some of it, so it'sinteresting, that way too
(07:04):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I can tell you this If you feed too many watermelon
rinds to a black lab, they willget sick.
They will absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, that's not a good thing, or so I've heard.
So you've heard.
No dogs were harmed in therecording of this podcast None
whatsoever Awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Well, yeah, we're sitting out here on the deck and
the sun is shining for once.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
This weekend was kind of.
Yeah the weathermen didn'tquite do it justice.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, it went from really really hot Then yesterday
pretty much rained.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It was Serengeti warm and then it rained all day, and
then yesterday was supposed tobe nice and they lied about that
.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And now today, when you know you got to pack up and
go, home.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Now the sun's shining .
Now it's 70 and it's sunshining.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Nice little breeze.
Of course Birds are chirping.
Yeah, that's typically how itgoes, Typical, typical.
Well, hey, I guess we might aswell crack into this second one.
So what's the next one?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
we got the next one is crafted artisan meter again,
and this is the Despair and it'sspelled d-i-s-p-e-a-r.
Pear and honey wine withcardamom 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'sneighbor, um, but cardamom is
an aromatic.
If I remember when you lookedit up and it's a, it's in the
(08:17):
same family as ginger yeah Iremember seeing it in the store.
It's usually ground really fine,but I never.
I guess you know, if you don'tuse it grilling, I probably
don't know what it is right, sohere's a little bit of a write
up on it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
It says uh, it's mead with pear and cardamom.
Added tasting notes we shouldget sweet pear juice, honey and
fresh cardamom spice.
Well, I'm not exactly sure whatcardamom spice will taste like,
but we'll find out I'm gonnasay it tastes like cardamom,
yeah yeah, so I don't, I don't.
Well, we'll figure it out Ithink they use cardamom and I'd
(08:50):
have to look for sure, becauseI'm again I'm not a baker, but I
think it's more in bakingproducts okay so they also said
the despair combines juicy pearwith a fragrant spice note of
cardamom.
Although not a part of ouryear-round lineup, the despair
has consistently been producedevery year since 2016.
Hand-grinding green cardamompods just prior to making the
(09:10):
addition provide a fresh punchof cardamom straight to the face
.
Don't despair, this favorite ofours will be around for some
time.
I'm not sure about theface-punching part, but that
smells different Smells.
I'm trying to think is that thepear or is that the cardamom?
I smell pear, I get pear, that'swhat.
That's what I thought it was.
That's different.
That's kind of a little bit ofa weird.
(09:31):
Yeah, I can't well that's gotto be that's got to be the
cardamom yeah that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I do taste the pear and I like pears.
Yeah, I was in to start withthat.
One's interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I get less honey in this one, yeah, this is
definitely get the pear and thenwhatever the cardamom there's
got to be that different flavorin there.
It is a little the spice that's.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
That's now I'm gonna have to look up what right is it
you put it in?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
pie, is it?
Yeah?
What is it in?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
cardboard, you know it's hard to say I like the pear
.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I maybe I could do without the cardamom, I'm not
sure, but the the pear is goodyeah, I wonder if they'd have
just stuck with the pear, youknow, or if that just doesn't
have enough I mean it's growingon me.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It's not bad, but it is way different.
I don't think I've ever had abeer 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 umremember when we had it was like
Thanksgiving like a pecan pie,Everything that you could
possibly get in a pecan pie wehad in a beer.
And it had a bunch of spices.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
But not this, yeah.
And then, of course, you knowanytime, when the pumpkin beers
come out, you get the pumpkinspice, you know nutmeg cinnamon
clove, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
We had one with heather in it, which we still
haven't figured out what that's.
Yeah, Heather, and we try tostay the ones that have sarah in
them, or yeah, tiffany's.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, stay away from those, stay from those.
That's usually trouble.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So no, it's not bad.
Um, I'm gonna have to googlewhat cardamom goes in yeah
besides pear juice, uh, I don'tknow, it's not.
I think if I had to pick oneover 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 Iagree with you not bad, but
it's different I was gonna saythe same thing.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I kind of like that first one a little bit better, I
think.
So, uh, score wise on the, thedespair, I'm gonna do like I'm
gonna go like a two six.
I was exactly what I was gonnasay because it's.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's better than it's interesting, it makes you pay
attention as opposed to justdrink it.
Yeah, I don't know what to sayother than it's just different.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's completely different than than anything I
think I've ever tasted yeah, andlike you said, I I just it
probably would have beendifferent if we actually knew
for sure what cardamom spicetastes like.
And we've, I'll guarantee we'veprobably had it in some food
before, but you didn't know.
You know so.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Scandinavian baking and Middle Eastern desserts.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Okay, well, I'm pretty sure I probably haven't
had many Middle Eastern desserts.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
It does say it's a key ingredient in a lot of curry
dishes and rice.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
So yeah, so maybe we have.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I'm sure we haven't, we just didn't know it yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
But yeah, it's not terrible.
But between the two I thinkthat the watermelon one really
it was more refreshing anyway.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, surprisingly Again, before we got started
here I was trying to beopen-minded, a little bit about
watermelon.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
When did that start?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Now I'm like, okay, well, now I'm going to start
being wary of the cardamom.
Yeah, I'm going to start tohave a lot of food fears, I
think.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
There was a beer I brought.
This was a number of years agoand you guys weren't up here
that weekend when we were uphere.
So I was here and anotherfriend of ours, kirk, he was
here and we tried it and it hadsome kind of curry spice in it.
Oh, I remember, yeah, Iremember you saying that.
Oh, that was not.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
No, thank you, no, thank you, no, thank you I don't
need any more of that I know Ihad when I traveled and I was in
China and I had I forget thelabel is cool I had a big dragon
on and it was a local brewthere and I had executives
taking me out to dinner and theysaid, oh, try it, it's good.
So I tried it.
It wasn't good, it was reallybad, and I don't know what was.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Like floating.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Like floaters, Like you know, when you get a dark
beer yeah.
But it was green and it was inthe bottom and swirling up and I
drank it.
I was polite.
It tasted better than the fishthey were boiling for me, but I
will say that it was not a goodbeer.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Wow, that would have been.
Yeah, I got a question.
Is that green stuff supposed tobe?
Is?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
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, itjust wasn't good and they loved
it.
I didn't have the heart to tellthem 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 (13:40):
Oh yeah pretty crazy all right well hey, we can, uh,
we're gonna step the abv up alittle 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 finda wine opener.
(14:01):
Yeah, because you know we don'tdrink a corkscrew, because beer
with corks in it, yeah, we, twoof these uh bottles have cork
in it.
We were, luckily, one of ourneighbors up here.
She drinks a lot of wine, sothey had one in every room kind
of thing, and two in her purse.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
So this is Misbehavin' Meads out of
Valparaiso, indiana, and this iswith a baseball bat.
Now, this is pink, it's a clearbottle.
Yep, this one is honey grapestrawberry wine with peanuts,
which I think is interesting,interesting.
I half expect this to be alittle salty, we'll see, but it
is absolutely rosé pink.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, the first two were very light, light, light
color, and this one isdefinitely and a little bit
cloudy.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, it's not as crystal clear as the others.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I gave you a little extra.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Oh, you can smell the peanuts right away and I get
the strawberry and the peanutsjust like.
It's like a.
You smell it, it's almost likea peanut butter porter.
Okay, that's interesting that'smore what I was expecting.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
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 ahalf percent.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
This tastes like you could really get messed up, you
know.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Oh goodness, and this is a smaller bottle, so this is
like your, probably 12 ounce,maybe, maybe.
Maybe 14 ounce, maybe like a350 milliliter or something, 375
.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
375, okay, boy, that's got a good flavor to it.
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Wow, I don't even know what to say.
The strawberry borders on thefake strawberry.
Oh yeah, but it's.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
It still has a little bit of tartness to it that
strawberries have, and youdefinitely get.
To me it almost tastes like apeanut butter and jelly sandwich
.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I was just gonna say that when you, when you grew up,
and your one, your one friend'sparents only had strawberry
jelly and you had to get a pband j, this is what it tastes
like.
It's in a bottle.
It tastes like a peanut butterand strawberry jelly sandwich.
Wow, that's really good.
And blows your mind To look atsomething that rosé color and
then have it taste like a peanutbutter jelly sandwich.
(15:59):
That's something else.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
That is pretty good At 12.5%.
My word yeah, like I said, thatis very smooth, easy drinking
and on a hot day you could drinka couple of bottles of that and
you are not mowing the lawn,exactly Interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, I was not expecting that Not even a little
bit Boy.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
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 (16:28):
You hit it on.
I mean nail, and here's thehammer.
It absolutely tastes like apeanut butter jelly sandwich.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
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 (16:45):
This one blows my mind a little bit.
If this were a beer, it wouldtaste good.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I probably I got to go.
I'm going to say probably likea 3.4, 3.3, 3.4.
It's high up there for me, it'sreally good.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, I agree with you.
I think, boy, I could even gohigher.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I mean, but again I feel jaded a little bit in that
I don't have a lot to compare tomead-wise, and these things run
the spectrum to the point ofcardamom, which we had to look
up what it is, to my lunchboxfrom second grade, right, yep.
And not on wheat bread, this iswhite bread, pbj, just so
everybody knows.
Yeah, I could even probably gohigher.
If we had another bottle.
(17:25):
It would be one I'd save Right.
This would be one I'd saveright.
This would be when you save forfriends, it's hey gotta try
this yeah, it's gonna blow yourmind.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You gotta try this I'm honestly surprised, just
through the first three, justhow different the flavors are.
Yeah, I always thought, well,it's gonna be kind of similar.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
You know well some of the first ones when we kind of
started do our venture in themeads.
Uh, they were super high volumeas far as abv and they all kind
of tasted the same.
And then when we got into thecrafted meadery and some of the
others, I'm not going to say webranched out, but we started to
notice there are other flavors,yeah, who knew?
And how many times did you and Itext pictures back and forth of
(18:00):
hey look, they got these six,or they got these three, or
whatever?
Yeah, that blows my mind, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
We to share that with .
I was gonna say we're gonnahave to put that cork back in
there.
My wife is gluten-free and allthese needs are gluten-free,
yeah, so we know where thatthat'll be going.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So that that's a plus number one compared to the
other.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
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, totallyshocking, but uh, it's, you know
, as far as you got all theflavors and it, it was so
reminiscent of a PB&J sandwich.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
that it was like wow, that's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And the peanuts blew me away more than anything else.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Well, the fact that you could smell it and taste we
harp on beers that if it's onthe label, it should be in the
bottle.
It should be in the bottle, itwas definitely there.
Well and some childhoodmemories are in the bottle
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I'm concerned it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Well, we've got two more to go.
We do Again.
We're stepping it up a littlebit, yeah, so this one is 15.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
15.7%.
Okay, this is B-Nectar and I'msure 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 awicked little label on it and
I'm not entirely certain.
Wipe some stuff off.
But yeah, there's a skull onhere with horns growing out of
(19:16):
it.
It's got a bee on its forehead.
This one says meeting theancient spirits of the woods is
easy if you know the way through.
Shadow thicket.
Faces appear in, oh boy, smallwriting Sweat on the head, yes,
and then the sweat Faces appearin wiry tangles of old vines,
brambles and aged bushes, lushwith juicy raspberries and tart
(19:39):
black currants.
Thorny branches form into hands, offering a goblet overflowing
with a berry and honey potion.
You feel compelled to sip, asif this libation will save you
when they return to reclaim whathas always been theirs.
Wow, so I'm starting to get alittle worried.
I don't, I don't want to give aback to them.
(20:00):
I don't think.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
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 thisis leaning towards sweet, which
is good because, uh, yeah, thevery, very few times I've ever
had wine, I've learned I reallydon't like the dry ones so
that's interesting too, and andwe've always said what brew it's
it's, it was the monkey barbeer.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
It's priors or prior.
Yeah, and again, if you're outthere and you've worked there,
then you can yell at me later.
Anyway, they have on the backof their can.
They've got their.
What is it?
Their flavor profile?
Yes, and it's a weird lookingchart, 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 (20:42):
And it kind of gives you a thing.
So this is also, oh, I am alittle concerned.
I've only really had one beerthat had blackcurrant in it, and
it was actually by New Glarus,and boy it was a little tart,
you know.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
This is sweeter.
I like tart stuff.
I don't like sour stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Ooh, that smells.
That smells wine-ish, kind ofVery sweet, though Very dark.
Ooh, that's interesting, that'sgot kind of a.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
It's going to stain your tongue, it's tart.
Now, this one, you can tastethe alcohol.
Yeah, that last one at12-something, 12-5, you couldn't
taste it.
This one, you can taste it at15-7.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Boy, that is.
I'm not saying it's bad, butit's different and it kind of
lingers there a little bit.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
This leans more towards a wine.
Yeah, I agree with you there asfar as taste, but it's again
for 15.7, it doesn't reallytaste 15.7.
No, this is an instantheartburn, one A hundred percent
Like.
If you're not careful, this onewould sneak up on you and you
go to bed early.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Wow, yeah, that is a cool label.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It is way cool.
We might have to pull that oneoff and stick it to the bar.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
See if we can do that .
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, that is interesting Boy yeah, you've got
to like that tart flavor andstuff.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I'd hate to see if it was, or they had, sweet and dry
, wasn't it Sweet and dry?
Okay, never mind, I wasthinking they had tart.
This is pretty dry.
Yeah, In my book.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
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 thecurrants in it and we also had
one, because I brought one.
Okay, and I want to say, I wantto say it was a black, black
current or current, um, uh, arose, not a rose.
(22:26):
It was uh, um, I think I stillhave one in my fridge at home,
yeah, um, and it was really tartand really dry.
Uh, it was.
It was cherry and black crayonsand, okay, I liked it.
I think you didn't think it wastoo bad and I think most other
people spit it out right, butit's really tart.
This is right along those lines.
This is on the verge and I don'tsee any floaters in here, but
(22:48):
it tastes like there should befloaters.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
You know what I mean?
Yeah, Because some of those youget 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 meheartburn if we drank that whole
bottle.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
After a big meal we were going to have a big ribeye
steak and baked potato andwhatever else.
If you sat down with a littlebit, it's kind of like a port
wine taste as a little dessertdrink.
Personally, I just put bourbonin my glass, but if I had this,
that would be a time I think Iwould enjoy it, right?
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, it's not bad, no.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
But it definitely gets your attention.
If you were, if you love redwine, this would be kind of a
gateway into the meads if you.
If you like red wine like a zenor a juicy, you know the, not a
super dry red wine, but this isborderline.
Oh, and also twice the alcohol,yeah, exactly as your normal
red.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Oh, did I happen to mention?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
yeah, by the way this going to screw you up worse
than that one.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
No doubt, but it's good.
I like it, man score-wise.
What do you think?
Because I'm conflicted a littlebit on this one.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
You and I are a little different when it comes
to this taste.
I like the tartar stuff morethan not tartar, but the tart
stuff more.
I'd probably go about a 2.8 onthis.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
It's what I expect 29 , it's better than average.
Yeah, 2829.
Like I said, I think this wouldbe a great little after dinner
drink and yeah, to me I'm goinglike a 2.3.
Yeah, no, just because I'm justinstant heartburn on this one
and and it's like whew it.
No, when I finished the theglass, you know, and it was
better the second time, you know, the second third taste was
better than the first one.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Remember the label says they're coming back for it
yeah, yeah, something's comingback all right, they didn't say
they were going to start on firefirst, but it's possible
exactly.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
But yeah, boy, it was definitely.
I don't know if it's the, it'sstill there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, as I say, itis just not going away here real
quick so we're gonna rinse ourglasses after this, yeah, and
maybe even drink the water.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And now the water that's even better.
That's better I think the wateris still three percent more
than likely.
Yeah, that was uh and againlike I said, it's not bad, but
boy it's that had a much, a muchstronger jim will save you some
yes yeah, I'm jim.
Would not have finished that hewould not have approved of that
.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
No, that's not a jim approved one.
No well, jeepers dude, we gotone left.
We got one left, now we'rekicking it way up.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I say way up.
We're uh 19 and this is danceand I don't even know how.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I don't even know how to pronounce.
I was gonna.
I was hoping you knew how to.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I think we looked it up once um, there's like,
there's like extra letters wherethey shouldn't be in this one.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
This is like a zero or something.
Yeah, put a zero in there it'slike algebra.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
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 tosee, very basic, a clay bottle
right.
Is this clay or a glass one?
I think it's.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I'm not sure.
I think it's glass.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
One of their other ones that we had was a clay
bottle, really cool lookingbottle, very basic, and this is
honey apple wine with hops, andI was going to say myrica, but
that's not it, it's myrica gale.
Oh boy, which I'm not surethat'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 onthis label.
That story, hold on, let me dryit off and we'll see what it
(26:04):
says.
Uh, when drinking mead, you aredrinking 5 000 years of
preserved history.
Meat is one of the few thingsthat allows us to get in touch
with the time and with the timewhen life was lived on nature's
terms.
Our products are based on arecipe from about year 1700.
The ingredients are pure and100 natural, guaranteed, free
from additives honey is themajor and most important
ingredient in the recipe freefrom gluten and lactose.
(26:25):
Rib Miata's R-I-B-E-M-J-0-Dyeah, it's a zero.
It's prepared in celebration ofScandinavia's oldest town Bribe,
Rib, Ribe, I don't know R-I-B-E.
The recipe is developed incooperation with Something,
Viking Center, with apple,marika, gale and hops for added
(26:46):
flavor.
It says serve slightly chilled,which again I give them props
for telling us how to do it.
Yes, as an aperitif, at roomtemperature as an excellent
dessert, or warm as the mulledhoney wine.
For more serving suggestions,please visit the website.
Sediment may occur.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Uh occur.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So before we open this, we better shake her up a
little bit and make sure theywarned us about the floaties and
I think I'm going to check, butI'm fairly certain around the
rim of this is actual Vikingletters, I think.
So yeah, if you look close it'shard to see.
Now this has a cork, but theywere kind enough to put a wood
handle on a handle on it see, isthat so difficult?
(27:23):
you don't have to make it thathard, and this is the color I
expected.
It actually looks a littlesyrupy coming out at 20.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
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 (27:37):
It is a little cloudy and it doesn't smell like much
of anything and it.
It's non-carbonated.
These last two have nocarbonation in them.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
That one's thicker.
Oh yeah, definitely a morethick mouthfeel.
This goes back to some of thefirst ones we had mead-wise.
Now were those made by the samecompany.
I think that Viking.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Blood BLOD that I brought, I believe is the same
one Okay, Because it's the sameship and that stuff was super
strong.
I think I was in the 21% and itwas good and I remember a few
people drinking too much of itand then they ended their
evening early.
If memory serves, I wasdrinking it also.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
It could have happened.
You know, we can't say one wayor the other.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
So I'm kind of interested in, and I think this
would be a fun one.
Maybe you and I reconverse inabout two hours and we'll see
what it is.
Room temperature, becausethat's the way it used to be
right.
Yes, um, yeah, this is prettychilled.
I'm guessing we're at the 55degrees, 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 awhole another ball game very
(28:39):
much.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
So now I know, uh, I picked this up and I double
checked because they did haveViking blood and they had four
and the first two we had had,they had up there, and then this
one we had and something likewell, 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 itdoesn't taste like 19%.
(29:00):
I'm telling you 19%.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
This will.
Oh, this is great, this isgreat.
And all of a sudden you areslobbering.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
In another thing, in another thing, in another thing.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
But it's really good.
It's smooth.
I don't know what the hops orthe.
I keep wanting to say Merca,yeah, whatever that.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
M-Y-R-I what that adds to it.
Maybe there's a little spicethat I'm.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It could be I'm, just again we don't know what to
look for, but this is reallygood yeah really good.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I'm impressed.
I mean, I was impressed with,even, like, the viking blood and
all that.
Uh, and like you said, and thisis a compared to the other one
this is a bigger bottle, yeah,but uh, it's definitely I
suppose you could drink, youknow, take some of it and put
the cork back in and put it inthe you know fridge or whatever,
whatever, because it's notcarbonated.
Right, but boy, I tell you,it's all of them.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
you know there's alcohol in it, but it's not like
whoa, this one doesn't stickwith you, like the last one.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Right, yeah, I mean between those two.
I would have definitely thoughtthat the one before this would
have been higher alcohol.
Yeah, Just the way that it kindof lingered and such, where
this one is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I just this to me is when I think about a mead and
you know, when we go to theRenaissance Festival, they
usually have a meadery or two.
Sure, yeah, just a plain oldmead.
This is what I think about whenI think about having a mead.
This is really good Again, Ithink if you just threw a mug of
this down while you're eatingor whatever, you'd sleep well.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Oh yes.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
But this is really good.
Yeah, I agree, whatever theywere doing in 1700, that recipe.
They did a good job.
This is really good.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, I agree with you, man.
And yeah, they knew what theywere doing, apparently, back
then.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
They didn't have.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
They didn't have anything.
That's all they knew.
We're gonna use this honey forsomething.
Yeah, they didn't have crackersor that, exactly.
No, this is fantastic boy scorewise.
I.
I hate to say it.
This is because the the peanutbutter and jelly one was super
good, for a different reasonyeah no, it's it, they're um
they're neck and neck.
They're different categories.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
So I would say because I'll say honestly this
one I like it just as much, ormaybe even more, so I'm probably
going like a 3.6.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, I'm with you A hundred percent.
I was going to say 3.7.
Okay, yeah.
I can yeah, because it's reallygood, 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 inthe fridge and offer it to
people and it's 19%, so it's nota shot.
(31:31):
You don't want to over-ice, butit'd be something that you
could all right.
Well, here's three bucks andhere's a small glass of meat
Something interesting for peopleto try.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And maybe I'll do that at some point.
You know, that's an interestingthought, because you don't see
that.
No, you know what I mean andI'd buy it yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Well, I might be.
Maybe we'll call Palparaiso,send us a case of peanut butter,
and jellies.
Hypothetically, let's just sayso yeah, that's something that I
don't think I've ever seen amead in a bar no, I've never
seen it, no, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
so I suppose they didn't have any vodka in 1700
yeah, yeah, they hadn't figuredout that you can ferment
potatoes yet either.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
So what's that?
One sign that says potatoes aremade into chips and uh and uh
mashed and whatever and vodkaand it's.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It's like the other vegetables aren't even trying oh
, yeah, yeah, it's like they'renot 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 (32:28):
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 justphenomenal, like I don't even
know what to say about it otherthan it was just amazing.
And then if you go back, kindof like we went back to our
(32:51):
roots for a mead, the last one,and again we're going to butcher
this and somebody would yell atus and that's fine.
But the rib mule, I think, ishow it's pronounced, it's just,
it's basic, it's wonderful, it'snot, it's super strong and it's
smooth.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
It's it's the smoothest one about out of all
of them.
Yep, I agree with you.
I, like, I agree witheverything you said.
Like I said, the onlydifference for me was that black
currant one was a littleheartburny, but other than that
they were all good and I was,like I said before, I was really
surprised with how manydifferent flavors there were,
you know, and, like you said,some of them, like I said, that
cardamom I don't know what I'mtrying to look for and the, the
(33:30):
Merca I don't know what that,that spice is either, to know
what we were looking for.
But uh, yeah, I, I, I agreewith you.
The baseball bat one and thenthis last one were both the top
two and, like you said, indifferent categories and for
different reasons.
But all of these, I think theonly one that a new person would
be like, oh, it would be theblack currant, just because it's
(33:52):
kind of that drier.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
It's more on the wine side.
Yeah, right, if you, like Isaid before, if you're a wine
drinker and liked red wine, Ithink you could really enjoy it.
I think doing it without foodmaybe not so great, right right.
But after a big meal, if youwanted to sit down and actually
that one might be another onewhere it warms up and it tastes
a little better, a little lesson the dry and acidic side.
(34:15):
But yeah, no, we are 100% goingto try it.
We're going to leave thisbottle out and try it in a
couple hours.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
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, becausethat's how it was, you know back
in the day they didn't have thefridges and stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Whatever the crick was running that was what they?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
how cold the drinks got exactly.
Well, awesome man.
Like I said, I'm so glad wefinally got to do a mead podcast
.
It won't be our last one forsure, because we are always
stumbling across different meadsand and I've saw, I saw at one
place I was at they had a bigbottle like this and it was a
polish mead yep, and I'm like Ishould have bought it because
(34:52):
I'm like, well, I've never,we've never had that you know
absolutely and to see what thedifference is, uh, between that.
So we're going to keep an eyeout and we'll be back with
another uh set of meads.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
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 thingabout this is is that they're
all honey, it's all from onebasic 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 againstarted from an old recipe,
(35:25):
probably some monk in.
Europe at one point, orScandinavia or whatnot.
That figured out how to do itand the recipe really hasn't
changed.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Well, and it's crazy that they said the recipe was
what?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
5,000 years old or something crazy, 5,000 years old
, I mean, that is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So the I mean that is unbelievable.
Yep, you know so the oldestalcoholic beverage and it's in
the modern time and people stillbuy it like crazy, absolutely.
So you've got to be doingsomething right to have that
kind of.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
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 (35:53):
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, likewe always say, we hope your
campfire is always warm and themead is always cold.
Oh, good one, see ya.
Thank you for listening to theNorthwoods Beer Guy podcast.
If you have a question, acomment or a beer you'd like us
to review, please feel free tosend us a message at
(36:15):
northwoodsbeerguy at gmailcom.
You can also find us onFacebook, twitter and Instagram.
If you're on untapped, look upNorthwoods Beer Guy and send a
friend request.
Until next week, I hope allyour campfires are warm and all
(36:36):
your beer is cold.
Grab a beer and pull up a chair.
Welcome to the Northwoods BeerGuy Podcast.
Hey, ladies and gentlemen, andwelcome back to the Northwoods
Beer Guy Podcast.
This is Mike, the NorthwoodsBeer Guy, and I don't know if
you can hear the wind blowingthrough the trees, but that's a
sure sign we're back in theNorthwoods.
And if we're in the Northwoods,you know who we're joined by.
(00:43):
Typically it's me, it'stypically you.
Once again, bk is here in thehouse, indeed, and today we are
actually going to do a podcastthat we've talked about for I
don't know how long.
We broke out the meads.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, it's been.
You know what was that?
A couple years ago I broughtthat weird viking's blood or
whatever it was and hey, this ispretty good, we should start
buying these, and we've had alot of them, but we've never,
really we've never put so manyof them together that we have a
podcast, right exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So we're diving into them and we've got how many?
One, two, three four differentbreweries.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I should say not breweries.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I apologize Now if I remember, right mead is like the
oldest style.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It is style, it is the original alcohol.
I mean um honey wine.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
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 thisperfect food even better?
Even better, let's ferment it.
Yeah, absolutely so, yeah, sowe're gonna try and try and
taste a few of these now.
These range from, I think it'ssix percent, six to nineteen, up
to 19, and we've had stronger,yeah, we have had stronger.
We've had a couple that were inthe 20s, 21, 22, yeah, so this
(01:52):
should be interesting.
Now, we have not tried any ofthese 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 wecan uh, start with the first one
.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I guess we're going to jump in and I've already
staged this.
Let's get this one out of theway, although it's not that I
have anything against watermelon, but it's an odd one.
So this is a crafted artisanmeadery watermelon honey,
badgerita mead with watermelonblood, orange, lime and sea salt
.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So it should be interesting.
Yeah, you sea salt, so itshould be interesting.
Yeah, you wonder if it's goingto be a saltiness to it, or are
we going to even be able totaste the watermelon that's, I
guess?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
my concern is yeah that can be a polarizing taste.
Yeah, there's no question.
The couple beers that we've hadwith watermelon didn't go well
Right.
So, believe it or not, it isnot pretty much the color of,
excuse me, pretty much the colorof, excuse me, pretty much the
color of of, uh kind of beeryeah it smells.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
It smells salty yeah, I was gonna say that's what I'm
getting, wow, okay.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well, that's not what I expected.
It is a little salty, smellskind of like a margarita in a
way, kind of yeah really don'tget the water moon too much more
honey and you get the orange.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, I, I thought it was going to be saltier.
You know myself, you do get alittle bit, but I was expecting
worse.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I was like yeah, well , I have expected there to be
rind coming out, you know younever know, but actually that's
pretty refreshing At 6% that'snot super strong.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah yeah, this is one that I mean you could
definitely, because these are.
What size is that bottle?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It's 500 mil Okay, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
So I mean, you could drink one of those though, you
know, and it's not bad.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
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 thinkyou should put it over ice and
probably sip it.
Actually that's not bad.
Would I want to have twobottles of it?
No, I think we've talked abouttoo some of those.
Even beers get so sweet thatyou worry that it's going to be
a instant heartburn, exactly.
I don't think that would bethere, but actually that was
(03:50):
pretty refreshing.
Yeah, and there's kind of a funlittle label with a badger and
a sombrero and and a littlebitty margarita glass and a
watermelon and a watermelonfield well, you know I give them
credit for the label yeah yeah,it's interesting because they
uh, these guys, I've only everseen like this size bottle and
they're all.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
They've all been the six percent and they've, they've
tried some really differentthere's some flavors.
Yeah, there's some weirdcombinations out there.
I give them credit, you know,because they they do some stuff.
Now there's been a couple ofthem.
We've tried from them.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
They're kind of you know, what's interesting in all
the meads we've tried is thatthey 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 orthat type of when we say that
type of drink, then you're notgoing to want to dive into a
mead.
But this one actually is prettyrefreshing.
It's not super strong, itdoesn't.
(04:39):
It doesn't leave a badaftertaste it's, it's pretty
pleasant.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
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, butmeads 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 (05:09):
Is it the real lime or is the fake lime?
Yeah, is it the real.
This I think honey is kind ofthe same way you get the if
you've ever anybody who's hadhoney, if you've had the stuff
made locally you know, and thathave bees way better than buying
it in the bear right at thegrocery store.
To me that's the raw honey.
Up front is way better and Ithink, I think I would imagine
the need that's what we'reprobably getting out of these,
more of the raw.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, that's a really big it's gotta, because I don't
know what it is, but I just Idon't know.
A lot of those honeybeers arejust not.
I have had a couple lately thatwere better, but it could be
the same thing, right, theyactually have.
They buy great big bears,correct, correct, well, all
right.
Well, what do you think?
Man on the uh crafted, uhwatermelon honey, badgerita it
surprised me.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
it was clear, which I guess.
I didn't really think too muchabout it.
I just saw watermelon andthought this is going to be
gloopy and in pink it wasn't toobad.
I you know, I guess I would goand, not having had as many
meads, I would go probably thetwo, eight.
Okay, it didn't make me want topour the rest of the bottle out
into a glass, but it was it waspretty refreshing.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, I say I'm uh, I think I'm right there with you,
because I I thought it wasreally going to be saltier with
sea salt.
I thought, boy, this is goingto be the predominant flavor and
you do get a saltiness, butit's not.
It might actually been a littlebetter with some more sea salt,
yeah, but it was good.
It was good, absolutely, and youthink about it.
You know people put salt ontheir watermelon.
But like you, I do agree.
I didn't really pick up a lotof watermelon flavor, and that
could be, as we've had otherwatermelon ones before and it's
super touchy, you know what Imean.
(06:29):
Either you can't taste it orit'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'syeah, it's refreshing and, like
I said, it's not too salty.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
So I was happy about that, so I'm going to do two
eight as well.
Yeah, I know, growing up we hada lot of watermelon, you know
further south.
But I also know that mygrandmother used to take the
rinds and just let them sit inwater and then drink the water.
So I don't know, really Maybethat's some of it.
Yeah, not the whole watermelon,but the rinds.
She'd take her two rind in therefrigerator and that's what she
would drink some of it, so it'sinteresting, that way too
(07:04):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I can tell you this If you feed too many watermelon
rinds to a black lab, they willget sick.
They will absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, that's not a good thing, or so I've heard.
So you've heard.
No dogs were harmed in therecording of this podcast None
whatsoever Awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Well, yeah, we're sitting out here on the deck and
the sun is shining for once.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
This weekend was kind of.
Yeah the weathermen didn'tquite do it justice.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, it went from really really hot Then yesterday
pretty much rained.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It was Serengeti warm and then it rained all day, and
then yesterday was supposed tobe nice and they lied about that
.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And now today, when you know you got to pack up and
go, home.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Now the sun's shining .
Now it's 70 and it's sunshining.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Nice little breeze.
Of course Birds are chirping.
Yeah, that's typically how itgoes, Typical, typical.
Well, hey, I guess we might aswell crack into this second one.
So what's the next one?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
we got the next one is crafted artisan meter again,
and this is the Despair and it'sspelled d-i-s-p-e-a-r.
Pear and honey wine withcardamom 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'sneighbor, um, but cardamom is
an aromatic.
If I remember when you lookedit up and it's a, it's in the
(08:17):
same family as ginger yeah Iremember seeing it in the store.
It's usually ground really fine,but I never.
I guess you know, if you don'tuse it grilling, I probably
don't know what it is right, sohere's a little bit of a write
up on it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
It says uh, it's mead with pear and cardamom.
Added tasting notes we shouldget sweet pear juice, honey and
fresh cardamom spice.
Well, I'm not exactly sure whatcardamom spice will taste like,
but we'll find out I'm gonnasay it tastes like cardamom,
yeah yeah, so I don't, I don't.
Well, we'll figure it out Ithink they use cardamom and I'd
(08:50):
have to look for sure, becauseI'm again I'm not a baker, but I
think it's more in bakingproducts okay so they also said
the despair combines juicy pearwith a fragrant spice note of
cardamom.
Although not a part of ouryear-round lineup, the despair
has consistently been producedevery year since 2016.
Hand-grinding green cardamompods just prior to making the
(09:10):
addition provide a fresh punchof cardamom straight to the face
.
Don't despair, this favorite ofours will be around for some
time.
I'm not sure about theface-punching part, but that
smells different Smells.
I'm trying to think is that thepear or is that the cardamom?
I smell pear, I get pear, that'swhat.
That's what I thought it was.
That's different.
That's kind of a little bit ofa weird.
(09:31):
Yeah, I can't well that's gotto be that's got to be the
cardamom yeah that's interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I do taste the pear and I like pears.
Yeah, I was in to start withthat.
One's interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I get less honey in this one, yeah, this is
definitely get the pear and thenwhatever the cardamom there's
got to be that different flavorin there.
It is a little the spice that's.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
That's now I'm gonna have to look up what right is it
you put it in?
Speaker 1 (09:53):
pie, is it?
Yeah?
What is it in?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
cardboard, you know it's hard to say I like the pear
.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I maybe I could do without the cardamom, I'm not
sure, but the the pear is goodyeah, I wonder if they'd have
just stuck with the pear, youknow, or if that just doesn't
have enough I mean it's growingon me.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It's not bad, but it is way different.
I don't think I've ever had abeer 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 umremember when we had it was like
Thanksgiving like a pecan pie,Everything that you could
possibly get in a pecan pie wehad in a beer.
And it had a bunch of spices.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
But not this, yeah.
And then, of course, you knowanytime, when the pumpkin beers
come out, you get the pumpkinspice, you know nutmeg cinnamon
clove, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
We had one with heather in it, which we still
haven't figured out what that's.
Yeah, Heather, and we try tostay the ones that have sarah in
them, or yeah, tiffany's.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, stay away from those, stay from those.
That's usually trouble.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So no, it's not bad.
Um, I'm gonna have to googlewhat cardamom goes in yeah
besides pear juice, uh, I don'tknow, it's not.
I think if I had to pick oneover 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 Iagree with you not bad, but
it's different I was gonna saythe same thing.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I kind of like that first one a little bit better, I
think.
So, uh, score wise on the, thedespair, I'm gonna do like I'm
gonna go like a two six.
I was exactly what I was gonnasay because it's.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's better than it's interesting, it makes you pay
attention as opposed to justdrink it.
Yeah, I don't know what to sayother than it's just different.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's completely different than than anything I
think I've ever tasted yeah, andlike you said, I I just it
probably would have beendifferent if we actually knew
for sure what cardamom spicetastes like.
And we've, I'll guarantee we'veprobably had it in some food
before, but you didn't know.
You know so.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Scandinavian baking and Middle Eastern desserts.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Okay, well, I'm pretty sure I probably haven't
had many Middle Eastern desserts.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
It does say it's a key ingredient in a lot of curry
dishes and rice.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
So yeah, so maybe we have.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I'm sure we haven't, we just didn't know it yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
But yeah, it's not terrible.
But between the two I thinkthat the watermelon one really
it was more refreshing anyway.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, surprisingly Again, before we got started
here I was trying to beopen-minded, a little bit about
watermelon.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
When did that start?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Now I'm like, okay, well, now I'm going to start
being wary of the cardamom.
Yeah, I'm going to start tohave a lot of food fears, I
think.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
There was a beer I brought.
This was a number of years agoand you guys weren't up here
that weekend when we were uphere.
So I was here and anotherfriend of ours, kirk, he was
here and we tried it and it hadsome kind of curry spice in it.
Oh, I remember, yeah, Iremember you saying that.
Oh, that was not.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
No, thank you, no, thank you, no, thank you I don't
need any more of that I know Ihad when I traveled and I was in
China and I had I forget thelabel is cool I had a big dragon
on and it was a local brewthere and I had executives
taking me out to dinner and theysaid, oh, try it, it's good.
So I tried it.
It wasn't good, it was reallybad, and I don't know what was.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Like floating.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Like floaters, Like you know, when you get a dark
beer yeah.
But it was green and it was inthe bottom and swirling up and I
drank it.
I was polite.
It tasted better than the fishthey were boiling for me, but I
will say that it was not a goodbeer.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Wow, that would have been.
Yeah, I got a question.
Is that green stuff supposed tobe?
Is?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
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, itjust wasn't good and they loved
it.
I didn't have the heart to tellthem 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 (13:40):
Oh yeah pretty crazy all right well hey, we can, uh,
we're gonna step the abv up alittle 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 finda wine opener.
(14:01):
Yeah, because you know we don'tdrink a corkscrew, because beer
with corks in it, yeah, we, twoof these uh bottles have cork
in it.
We were, luckily, one of ourneighbors up here.
She drinks a lot of wine, sothey had one in every room kind
of thing, and two in her purse.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
So this is Misbehavin' Meads out of
Valparaiso, indiana, and this iswith a baseball bat.
Now, this is pink, it's a clearbottle.
Yep, this one is honey grapestrawberry wine with peanuts,
which I think is interesting,interesting.
I half expect this to be alittle salty, we'll see, but it
is absolutely rosé pink.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, the first two were very light, light, light
color, and this one isdefinitely and a little bit
cloudy.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, it's not as crystal clear as the others.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I gave you a little extra.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Oh, you can smell the peanuts right away and I get
the strawberry and the peanutsjust like.
It's like a.
You smell it, it's almost likea peanut butter porter.
Okay, that's interesting that'smore what I was expecting.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
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 ahalf percent.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
This tastes like you could really get messed up, you
know.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Oh goodness, and this is a smaller bottle, so this is
like your, probably 12 ounce,maybe, maybe.
Maybe 14 ounce, maybe like a350 milliliter or something, 375
.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
375, okay, boy, that's got a good flavor to it.
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Wow, I don't even know what to say.
The strawberry borders on thefake strawberry.
Oh yeah, but it's.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
It still has a little bit of tartness to it that
strawberries have, and youdefinitely get.
To me it almost tastes like apeanut butter and jelly sandwich
.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I was just gonna say that when you, when you grew up,
and your one, your one friend'sparents only had strawberry
jelly and you had to get a pband j, this is what it tastes
like.
It's in a bottle.
It tastes like a peanut butterand strawberry jelly sandwich.
Wow, that's really good.
And blows your mind To look atsomething that rosé color and
then have it taste like a peanutbutter jelly sandwich.
(15:59):
That's something else.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
That is pretty good At 12.5%.
My word yeah, like I said, thatis very smooth, easy drinking
and on a hot day you could drinka couple of bottles of that and
you are not mowing the lawn,exactly Interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Yeah, I was not expecting that Not even a little
bit Boy.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
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 (16:28):
You hit it on.
I mean nail, and here's thehammer.
It absolutely tastes like apeanut butter jelly sandwich.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
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 (16:45):
This one blows my mind a little bit.
If this were a beer, it wouldtaste good.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I probably I got to go.
I'm going to say probably likea 3.4, 3.3, 3.4.
It's high up there for me, it'sreally good.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, I agree with you.
I think, boy, I could even gohigher.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I mean, but again I feel jaded a little bit in that
I don't have a lot to compare tomead-wise, and these things run
the spectrum to the point ofcardamom, which we had to look
up what it is, to my lunchboxfrom second grade, right, yep.
And not on wheat bread, this iswhite bread, pbj, just so
everybody knows.
Yeah, I could even probably gohigher.
If we had another bottle.
(17:25):
It would be one I'd save Right.
This would be one I'd saveright.
This would be when you save forfriends, it's hey gotta try
this yeah, it's gonna blow yourmind.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You gotta try this I'm honestly surprised, just
through the first three, justhow different the flavors are.
Yeah, I always thought, well,it's gonna be kind of similar.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
You know well some of the first ones when we kind of
started do our venture in themeads.
Uh, they were super high volumeas far as abv and they all kind
of tasted the same.
And then when we got into thecrafted meadery and some of the
others, I'm not going to say webranched out, but we started to
notice there are other flavors,yeah, who knew?
And how many times did you and Itext pictures back and forth of
(18:00):
hey look, they got these six,or they got these three, or
whatever?
Yeah, that blows my mind, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
We to share that with .
I was gonna say we're gonnahave to put that cork back in
there.
My wife is gluten-free and allthese needs are gluten-free,
yeah, so we know where thatthat'll be going.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So that that's a plus number one compared to the
other.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
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, totallyshocking, but uh, it's, you know
, as far as you got all theflavors and it, it was so
reminiscent of a PB&J sandwich.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
that it was like wow, that's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And the peanuts blew me away more than anything else.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Well, the fact that you could smell it and taste we
harp on beers that if it's onthe label, it should be in the
bottle.
It should be in the bottle, itwas definitely there.
Well and some childhoodmemories are in the bottle
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I'm concerned it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Well, we've got two more to go.
We do Again.
We're stepping it up a littlebit, yeah, so this one is 15.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
15.7%.
Okay, this is B-Nectar and I'msure 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 awicked little label on it and
I'm not entirely certain.
Wipe some stuff off.
But yeah, there's a skull onhere with horns growing out of
(19:16):
it.
It's got a bee on its forehead.
This one says meeting theancient spirits of the woods is
easy if you know the way through.
Shadow thicket.
Faces appear in, oh boy, smallwriting Sweat on the head, yes,
and then the sweat Faces appearin wiry tangles of old vines,
brambles and aged bushes, lushwith juicy raspberries and tart
(19:39):
black currants.
Thorny branches form into hands, offering a goblet overflowing
with a berry and honey potion.
You feel compelled to sip, asif this libation will save you
when they return to reclaim whathas always been theirs.
Wow, so I'm starting to get alittle worried.
I don't, I don't want to give aback to them.
(20:00):
I don't think.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
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 thisis leaning towards sweet, which
is good because, uh, yeah, thevery, very few times I've ever
had wine, I've learned I reallydon't like the dry ones so
that's interesting too, and andwe've always said what brew it's
it's, it was the monkey barbeer.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
It's priors or prior.
Yeah, and again, if you're outthere and you've worked there,
then you can yell at me later.
Anyway, they have on the backof their can.
They've got their.
What is it?
Their flavor profile?
Yes, and it's a weird lookingchart, 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 (20:42):
And it kind of gives you a thing.
So this is also, oh, I am alittle concerned.
I've only really had one beerthat had blackcurrant in it, and
it was actually by New Glarus,and boy it was a little tart,
you know.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
This is sweeter.
I like tart stuff.
I don't like sour stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Ooh, that smells.
That smells wine-ish, kind ofVery sweet, though Very dark.
Ooh, that's interesting, that'sgot kind of a.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
It's going to stain your tongue, it's tart.
Now, this one, you can tastethe alcohol.
Yeah, that last one at12-something, 12-5, you couldn't
taste it.
This one, you can taste it at15-7.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Boy, that is.
I'm not saying it's bad, butit's different and it kind of
lingers there a little bit.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
This leans more towards a wine.
Yeah, I agree with you there asfar as taste, but it's again
for 15.7, it doesn't reallytaste 15.7.
No, this is an instantheartburn, one A hundred percent
Like.
If you're not careful, this onewould sneak up on you and you
go to bed early.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Wow, yeah, that is a cool label.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It is way cool.
We might have to pull that oneoff and stick it to the bar.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
See if we can do that .
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, that is interesting Boy yeah, you've got
to like that tart flavor andstuff.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I'd hate to see if it was, or they had, sweet and dry
, wasn't it Sweet and dry?
Okay, never mind, I wasthinking they had tart.
This is pretty dry.
Yeah, In my book.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
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 thecurrants in it and we also had
one, because I brought one.
Okay, and I want to say, I wantto say it was a black, black
current or current, um, uh, arose, not a rose.
(22:26):
It was uh, um, I think I stillhave one in my fridge at home,
yeah, um, and it was really tartand really dry.
Uh, it was.
It was cherry and black crayonsand, okay, I liked it.
I think you didn't think it wastoo bad and I think most other
people spit it out right, butit's really tart.
This is right along those lines.
This is on the verge and I don'tsee any floaters in here, but
(22:48):
it tastes like there should befloaters.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
You know what I mean?
Yeah, Because some of those youget 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 meheartburn if we drank that whole
bottle.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
After a big meal we were going to have a big ribeye
steak and baked potato andwhatever else.
If you sat down with a littlebit, it's kind of like a port
wine taste as a little dessertdrink.
Personally, I just put bourbonin my glass, but if I had this,
that would be a time I think Iwould enjoy it, right?
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, it's not bad, no.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
But it definitely gets your attention.
If you were, if you love redwine, this would be kind of a
gateway into the meads if you.
If you like red wine like a zenor a juicy, you know the, not a
super dry red wine, but this isborderline.
Oh, and also twice the alcohol,yeah, exactly as your normal
red.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Oh, did I happen to mention?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
yeah, by the way this going to screw you up worse
than that one.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
No doubt, but it's good.
I like it, man score-wise.
What do you think?
Because I'm conflicted a littlebit on this one.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
You and I are a little different when it comes
to this taste.
I like the tartar stuff morethan not tartar, but the tart
stuff more.
I'd probably go about a 2.8 onthis.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
It's what I expect 29 , it's better than average.
Yeah, 2829.
Like I said, I think this wouldbe a great little after dinner
drink and yeah, to me I'm goinglike a 2.3.
Yeah, no, just because I'm justinstant heartburn on this one
and and it's like whew it.
No, when I finished the theglass, you know, and it was
better the second time, you know, the second third taste was
better than the first one.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Remember the label says they're coming back for it
yeah, yeah, something's comingback all right, they didn't say
they were going to start on firefirst, but it's possible
exactly.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
But yeah, boy, it was definitely.
I don't know if it's the, it'sstill there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, as I say, itis just not going away here real
quick so we're gonna rinse ourglasses after this, yeah, and
maybe even drink the water.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And now the water that's even better.
That's better I think the wateris still three percent more
than likely.
Yeah, that was uh and againlike I said, it's not bad, but
boy it's that had a much, a muchstronger jim will save you some
yes yeah, I'm jim.
Would not have finished that hewould not have approved of that
.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
No, that's not a jim approved one.
No well, jeepers dude, we gotone left.
We got one left, now we'rekicking it way up.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I say way up.
We're uh 19 and this is danceand I don't even know how.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I don't even know how to pronounce.
I was gonna.
I was hoping you knew how to.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I think we looked it up once um, there's like,
there's like extra letters wherethey shouldn't be in this one.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
This is like a zero or something.
Yeah, put a zero in there it'slike algebra.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
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 tosee, very basic, a clay bottle
right.
Is this clay or a glass one?
I think it's.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I'm not sure.
I think it's glass.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
One of their other ones that we had was a clay
bottle, really cool lookingbottle, very basic, and this is
honey apple wine with hops, andI was going to say myrica, but
that's not it, it's myrica gale.
Oh boy, which I'm not surethat'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 onthis label.
That story, hold on, let me dryit off and we'll see what it
(26:04):
says.
Uh, when drinking mead, you aredrinking 5 000 years of
preserved history.
Meat is one of the few thingsthat allows us to get in touch
with the time and with the timewhen life was lived on nature's
terms.
Our products are based on arecipe from about year 1700.
The ingredients are pure and100 natural, guaranteed, free
from additives honey is themajor and most important
ingredient in the recipe freefrom gluten and lactose.
(26:25):
Rib Miata's R-I-B-E-M-J-0-Dyeah, it's a zero.
It's prepared in celebration ofScandinavia's oldest town Bribe,
Rib, Ribe, I don't know R-I-B-E.
The recipe is developed incooperation with Something,
Viking Center, with apple,marika, gale and hops for added
(26:46):
flavor.
It says serve slightly chilled,which again I give them props
for telling us how to do it.
Yes, as an aperitif, at roomtemperature as an excellent
dessert, or warm as the mulledhoney wine.
For more serving suggestions,please visit the website.
Sediment may occur.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Uh occur.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So before we open this, we better shake her up a
little bit and make sure theywarned us about the floaties and
I think I'm going to check, butI'm fairly certain around the
rim of this is actual Vikingletters, I think.
So yeah, if you look close it'shard to see.
Now this has a cork, but theywere kind enough to put a wood
handle on a handle on it see, isthat so difficult?
(27:23):
you don't have to make it thathard, and this is the color I
expected.
It actually looks a littlesyrupy coming out at 20.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
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 (27:37):
It is a little cloudy and it doesn't smell like much
of anything and it.
It's non-carbonated.
These last two have nocarbonation in them.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
That one's thicker.
Oh yeah, definitely a morethick mouthfeel.
This goes back to some of thefirst ones we had mead-wise.
Now were those made by the samecompany.
I think that Viking.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Blood BLOD that I brought, I believe is the same
one Okay, Because it's the sameship and that stuff was super
strong.
I think I was in the 21% and itwas good and I remember a few
people drinking too much of itand then they ended their
evening early.
If memory serves, I wasdrinking it also.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
It could have happened.
You know, we can't say one wayor the other.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
So I'm kind of interested in, and I think this
would be a fun one.
Maybe you and I reconverse inabout two hours and we'll see
what it is.
Room temperature, becausethat's the way it used to be
right.
Yes, um, yeah, this is prettychilled.
I'm guessing we're at the 55degrees, 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 awhole another ball game very
(28:39):
much.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
So now I know, uh, I picked this up and I double
checked because they did haveViking blood and they had four
and the first two we had had,they had up there, and then this
one we had and something likewell, 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 itdoesn't taste like 19%.
(29:00):
I'm telling you 19%.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
This will.
Oh, this is great, this isgreat.
And all of a sudden you areslobbering.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
In another thing, in another thing, in another thing.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
But it's really good.
It's smooth.
I don't know what the hops orthe.
I keep wanting to say Merca,yeah, whatever that.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
M-Y-R-I what that adds to it.
Maybe there's a little spicethat I'm.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It could be I'm, just again we don't know what to
look for, but this is reallygood yeah really good.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I'm impressed.
I mean, I was impressed with,even, like, the viking blood and
all that.
Uh, and like you said, and thisis a compared to the other one
this is a bigger bottle, yeah,but uh, it's definitely I
suppose you could drink, youknow, take some of it and put
the cork back in and put it inthe you know fridge or whatever,
whatever, because it's notcarbonated.
Right, but boy, I tell you,it's all of them.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
you know there's alcohol in it, but it's not like
whoa, this one doesn't stickwith you, like the last one.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Right, yeah, I mean between those two.
I would have definitely thoughtthat the one before this would
have been higher alcohol.
Yeah, Just the way that it kindof lingered and such, where
this one is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I just this to me is when I think about a mead and
you know, when we go to theRenaissance Festival, they
usually have a meadery or two.
Sure, yeah, just a plain oldmead.
This is what I think about whenI think about having a mead.
This is really good Again, Ithink if you just threw a mug of
this down while you're eatingor whatever, you'd sleep well.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Oh yes.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
But this is really good.
Yeah, I agree, whatever theywere doing in 1700, that recipe.
They did a good job.
This is really good.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, I agree with you, man.
And yeah, they knew what theywere doing, apparently, back
then.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
They didn't have.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
They didn't have anything.
That's all they knew.
We're gonna use this honey forsomething.
Yeah, they didn't have crackersor that, exactly.
No, this is fantastic boy scorewise.
I.
I hate to say it.
This is because the the peanutbutter and jelly one was super
good, for a different reasonyeah no, it's it, they're um
they're neck and neck.
They're different categories.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
So I would say because I'll say honestly this
one I like it just as much, ormaybe even more, so I'm probably
going like a 3.6.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, I'm with you A hundred percent.
I was going to say 3.7.
Okay, yeah.
I can yeah, because it's reallygood, 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 inthe fridge and offer it to
people and it's 19%, so it's nota shot.
(31:31):
You don't want to over-ice, butit'd be something that you
could all right.
Well, here's three bucks andhere's a small glass of meat
Something interesting for peopleto try.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And maybe I'll do that at some point.
You know, that's an interestingthought, because you don't see
that.
No, you know what I mean andI'd buy it yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Well, I might be.
Maybe we'll call Palparaiso,send us a case of peanut butter,
and jellies.
Hypothetically, let's just sayso yeah, that's something that I
don't think I've ever seen amead in a bar no, I've never
seen it, no, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
so I suppose they didn't have any vodka in 1700
yeah, yeah, they hadn't figuredout that you can ferment
potatoes yet either.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
So what's that?
One sign that says potatoes aremade into chips and uh and uh
mashed and whatever and vodkaand it's.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It's like the other vegetables aren't even trying oh
, yeah, yeah, it's like they'renot 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 (32:28):
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 justphenomenal, like I don't even
know what to say about it otherthan it was just amazing.
And then if you go back, kindof like we went back to our
(32:51):
roots for a mead, the last one,and again we're going to butcher
this and somebody would yell atus and that's fine.
But the rib mule, I think, ishow it's pronounced, it's just,
it's basic, it's wonderful, it'snot, it's super strong and it's
smooth.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
It's it's the smoothest one about out of all
of them.
Yep, I agree with you.
I, like, I agree witheverything you said.
Like I said, the onlydifference for me was that black
currant one was a littleheartburny, but other than that
they were all good and I was,like I said before, I was really
surprised with how manydifferent flavors there were,
you know, and, like you said,some of them, like I said, that
cardamom I don't know what I'mtrying to look for and the, the
(33:30):
Merca I don't know what that,that spice is either, to know
what we were looking for.
But uh, yeah, I, I, I agreewith you.
The baseball bat one and thenthis last one were both the top
two and, like you said, indifferent categories and for
different reasons.
But all of these, I think theonly one that a new person would
be like, oh, it would be theblack currant, just because it's
(33:52):
kind of that drier.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
It's more on the wine side.
Yeah, right, if you, like Isaid before, if you're a wine
drinker and liked red wine, Ithink you could really enjoy it.
I think doing it without foodmaybe not so great, right right.
But after a big meal, if youwanted to sit down and actually
that one might be another onewhere it warms up and it tastes
a little better, a little lesson the dry and acidic side.
(34:15):
But yeah, no, we are 100% goingto try it.
We're going to leave thisbottle out and try it in a
couple hours.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
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, becausethat's how it was, you know back
in the day they didn't have thefridges and stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Whatever the crick was running that was what they?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
how cold the drinks got exactly.
Well, awesome man.
Like I said, I'm so glad wefinally got to do a mead podcast
.
It won't be our last one forsure, because we are always
stumbling across different meadsand and I've saw, I saw at one
place I was at they had a bigbottle like this and it was a
polish mead yep, and I'm like Ishould have bought it because
(34:52):
I'm like, well, I've never,we've never had that you know
absolutely and to see what thedifference is, uh, between that.
So we're going to keep an eyeout and we'll be back with
another uh set of meads.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
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 thingabout this is is that they're
all honey, it's all from onebasic 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 againstarted from an old recipe,
(35:25):
probably some monk in.
Europe at one point, orScandinavia or whatnot.
That figured out how to do itand the recipe really hasn't
changed.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Well, and it's crazy that they said the recipe was
what?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
5,000 years old or something crazy, 5,000 years old
, I mean, that is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So the I mean that is unbelievable.
Yep, you know so the oldestalcoholic beverage and it's in
the modern time and people stillbuy it like crazy, absolutely.
So you've got to be doingsomething right to have that
kind of.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
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 (35:53):
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, likewe always say, we hope your
campfire is always warm and themead is always cold.
Oh, good one, see ya.
Thank you for listening to theNorthwoods Beer Guy podcast.
If you have a question, acomment or a beer you'd like us
to review, please feel free tosend us a message at
(36:15):
northwoodsbeerguy at gmailcom.
You can also find us onFacebook, twitter and Instagram.
If you're on untapped, look upNorthwoods Beer Guy and send a
friend request.
Until next week, I hope allyour campfires are warm and all
(36:36):
your beer is cold.
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