2003 National Mead Day in St. Paul, MN

National Mead Day was celebrated with vim and vigor in St. Paul, MN this past Saturday as some 23 people gathered to sample 37 meads. Commercial meads included the likes of Xtabentum (Licor de Anis y Miel de Abejas), Brother Adam's Bragget Ale, Lindisfarne and Moniack (Dark) - to name just a few. The most striking aspect was the quality of the home made meads. Thanks to everyone who participated and a special thanks to those who brought libations and food. Equally aMAZEing is that five mead makers made six batches of mead: two batches of the official mead day recipe, cherry melomel, and batches of cranberry blossom, raspberry ginger, wildflower, and mint blossom. In all, 32 gallons of mead were made. Mead making technique ran the gamut from pasteurization to the use of sulfites to no sanitation of ingredients. Some 1.6 trillion yeasts "pitched in" to make it happen. Here's the list of meads we sampled: 1. Xtabentun (commercial) - Piatz 2. Maple - Cotton 3. Cranberry Melomel - Piatz 4. Maple - Hadden 5. Ginger Metheglin - Dienhart 6. Oak Mead - Cotton 7. Lindisfarne (commercial) - Glewwe 8. Cherry Melomel - Cotton 9. Mountain Meadows Meadery Cranberry Melomel - Boyce 10. Jhelbare Traditional - Hadden 11. Strawberry/Kiwi Melomel - Cotton 12. Orange Blossom Strawberry - Piatz 13. Wild Plum - Moranz 14. Raspberry Ginger Melomel - Hadden 15. Moniack Dark (commercial) - Glewwe 16. Spiced, Multi-fruit Cyser - Moranz 17. Minnesota Wild Plum Honeywine - Longballa 18. Collinwood Torrential Braggot - Boyce 19. Brother Adam's Bragget Ale (commercial) - Boyce 20. Redstone Plumb Honeywine (commercial) - Hadden 21. Winehaven Medium-Dry Honeywine - Donnelly 22. Bunratty Meade (commercial) - Boyce 23. Mango Melomel - Boyce 24. Sunflower Blossom - Piatz 25. Apricot Melomel - Boyce 26. White Winter Black Mead - Moranz 27. Smokehouse Winery Cassis Melomel - Hadden 28. Orange Blossom (3 year) - Boyce 29. Orange Blossom #1 - Piatz 30. Orange Blossom #2 - Piatz 31. Tupelo Varietal - Boyce 32. Basswood Mead - Boyce 33. Mesquite Mead - Boyce 34. Cyser - Dienhart 35. Rocky Mountain Meadery Blackberries n' Honey - Longballa 36. Oak Mead - Boyce 37. Pyment - Piatz Someone brought cheesecake from Muddy Paws Cheesecake Co. Whoever brought it - THANK YOU! Someone forgot their Camra Merchandise Price List. Please contact me so I can get it back to you. Thanks again for stopping by and helping to make mead day a success! Chris