Mead or Braggot or, well, It had Honey and it was Good

If you've ever had mead you are probably decidedly in the minority. Mead, or honey wine, as it is often called, is a fermented beverage of primarily honey(s) and water, and, though the guidelines are somewhat vague, a braggot is a mead with other fermentables such as barley in the mix.

At the Brewcommune Homebrew meeting I went to a week or so ago I was lucky enough to get to try my second honey beverage. The first being one brewed by my cousin. I don't remember much about that one but I do remember a LOT about the one I sampled recently.

This was described as an Imperial Cream Ale which meant it was a braggot since it had more than just honey as a fermentable. Made up of 6 pounds of two types of honey, Western Sumac and Orange Blossom. Six Pounds of honey was enough to make 10 gallons. This was then aged for six years in bottle and was kicking at 17.2% ABV.

Poured out into my HIGHLY classy clear plastic solo cup it smelled of, you guessed it, honey. Floral and very sweet, it even SMELLED sticky. At 17.2 ABV there was bound to be alcohol on the nose and there was definitely a burn.

My first taste floored me. You would think that something brewed nearly entirely with honey would be too sweet but this straddled that line so well. I felt like I was drinking a meadow. Floral, sweet, and refreshing I was running my tongue through wildflowers. Despite the alcohol on the nose there was no unpleasant alcohol burn on the tongue. Smooth and viscous and perfectly sweet. This was definitely my favorite of the night. I wish I could buy it easily somewhere

Home Brew Club!

So I’ve been wanting to try my hand at homebrewing for a long time now but aside from the fact that I don’t want to drink 5 GALLONS of the same type of beer the closest shop for supplies was in Long Beach with really odd hours.

That’s why I was really excited when I found a homebrew club in Orange County that wasn’t on the borders of LA or San Diego or out in the BFE of the IE. There is a new homebrew shop in Fullerton people! 10 minutes from my house! AND the shop was hosting the next meeting of BrewCommune, the club I found.

I showed up WAY early because there was no traffic which was totally weird but it was great because I got to meet the owner of the shop. Really nice guy. I didn’t have my own homebrew to bring but I wanted to bring something respectable so I brought a 22 of Deschutes Brewing “The Abyss” Imperial Stout. He offered the fridge, his knowledge, AND a fresh brewed Kolsch to me while we waited for others to arrive.
What could be better than this? A big group of people who like beer and want to share it? Not a whole lot. I got to try a lot of interesting brews over the course of the night that I will be reviewing in later postings. Including the latest anniversary brew from The Bruery in Placentia. These guys just won gold at the World Cup and two of their brewers were at the meeting. All I have to say is 14.5% ABV bourbon aged Imperial Stout insanity. Don’t tell though, I liked my Abyss better.

As an aside, since my bike buddy left for Minnesota and my beer buddy left for Germany I’ve been hard pressed for replacements and I was able to find one who does both AND lives a stone’s throw from where I work! We are going to split a share of home brew as he has all the equipment. 2.5 gallons I think I can deal with. Look for an update on what we come up with as well as the reviews of what I drank last night.