We are having some fun this year making all kinds of new flavors of session meads. What’s a session mead, you ask? That’s a good question! Our friends over at Viking Alchemist define it as:
“Typically, a session brew has about half the normal alcohol content to a regular brew. It is designed in a way that one can drink quite a bit of it without feeling the effects or becoming intoxicated. The term goes back to British drinking habits and describes a drinking ‘session’ that might include 6-8 pints”
I don’t know about that “6-8 pints” thing! Our session meads sit at about 6.9% alcohol, so higher than a session beer. Our session meads are also lightly carbonated and on tap, unlike our full-strength meads.
We started making session meads a couple of years ago with two favorites, Auriga (“Moscow mule – lime and ginger) and Little Dipper (dark cherry and spices). Everyone seemed to really like these, so they have become our standard flavors and are available on tap and in bottles most of the time.
Auriga is our “Moscow Mule” type mead - lime and ginger and totally refreshing!
Recently I asked Ben how he comes up with new flavors to try:
This year, we decided to make some “one-off” sessions. One of the kegs we use holds a little over 5 gallons of mead. This means we can make very small batches to test out flavors. Some of these have been amazing. Some of them have been a surprise.
I grew up loving Grapefruit with Brown Sugar. In my teens I was drinking grapefruit soda (Squirt brand in case you are curious). One of the session trials I wanted to do was a “grapefruit mead”. We buy honey from a beekeeper near Fayetteville, who has his hives near some buckwheat fields. This honey always has very earthy flavors, similar to molasses or brown sugar. My idea was to use grapefruit juice and this honey to make a lightly carbonated homage to my childhood. I figured I might be the only one who would like it, but it was only 5 gallons. I am usually very good about knowing how flavors would play together, but I was very wrong on this one. Grapefruit has a little bit of sour and a little bit of bitter. The honey had an earthy, almost malt like flavor. When these flavors combined, they tasted more like an IPA than grapefruit. This was such a happy accident, since I also love IPAs. (Back on tap starting next weekend for the next Pittsboro Pub Crawl on 5/14!)
Cherry is a very difficult flavor to work with. When you have cherry and alcohol together, it is often reminiscent of cough syrup. I wanted to try combining Vanilla with the Tart Cherry. To me, the vanilla would soften the tartness of the cherry, but the tart cherry would make the vanilla not be quite as cloying as it can sometimes get. This time my plan worked. (On tap now but running low!)
There is nothing particularly special about Pink Lemonade. It is a little lemon and a little strawberry. Light and refreshing. Festival of Legends was so much hotter than previous years, so I decided to try a pink lemonade session mead. It was light and refreshing. I may make it again this summer.
An Arnold Palmer inspired one test keg, which is on the kegerator now. This was made with Lemonade and Sweet tea with the mead. I am very curious to hear how people like it.
I also asked, what crazy flavors are coming up?
Still to come, I have some Jasmine with Green Tea that I will make into a session. I expect this to be floral but tempered with the green tea astringency. A little honey added back to this should be a nice springtime choice.
I plan on making a Strawberry and Basil. The fruity strawberry with the green flavors from the basil will be very nice with a light floral honey to sweeten it. We just had some strawberries from Copeland Springs Farm that were delicious. Drinking this with a salad with slices of strawberries would be amazing!
Tropical drinks are a must as well, this summer. I have some mango and passion fruit juices. I plan on putting in some fresh pineapple to tropic up the flavor a little too!
One last tease…I have blood orange juice. Ethan found a recipe using blood orange and rosemary. I am looking forward to drinking this with a roast beef sandwich from Lilly Den one weekend soon.
Be sure to come in and try out the new session flavors as they come out! We’d love feedback on what you think is amazing and what should be limited to a single keg!
What crazy flavors do you think he should try next?