Firewater Friday - Redstone Black Raspberry Nectar Cocktails

One of my favorite meads is Redstone Black Raspberry Nectar.  It is a melomel style of mead; it is mead made with fruit other than grapes or apples.  It is made with with 5 parts Clover honey, 1 part Wildflower honey and black raspberry puree.  It's light and slightly effervescent.  I like it especially because it is not overly sweet.  It's fairly heavy in the alcohol department, however, coming in at 8% ABV.  I first had it a few years ago and I love it so much that I always keep a bottle or two in the house.

Redstone has several recipes on their website using their meads as mixers.  Although I really like mead without anything added to it I thought I'd give a couple of their recipes a try to see how they taste.   They were, in fact, quite good.  


The Rose

4 Ounces Redstone Black Raspberry Nectar
1 Ounce Vodka
1 Wedge Lime

Squeeze lime into champagne glass and set aside.

Pour nectar and vodka into a shaker filled with ice.  Give it a quick shake and strain into the champagne glass over the lime.

Tubesteak Boogie


4 Ounces Redstone Black Raspberry Nectar
1 Ounce Jack Daniels

Pour nectar and Jack Daniels into a shaker filled with ice.  Give it a quick shake and pour into a rocks glass.


For more recipes from Redstone Meadery visit their website or check them out on Facebook.

Redstone Black Raspberry Nectar

Saturday, August 4, 2012 was the 10th Annual Mead Day.    Mead Day was established by the Homebrewers Association of America to heighten awareness to this age old beverage.

Mead is believed to be the oldest fermented beverage in the world . . . possibly 40,000 years.  In it's simplest form, it is made with honey, water and yeast. Mead makers add a plethora of ingredients to their brews; fruits, herbs, spices, etc.

So, how did we celebrate Mead Day?  By drinking mead, of course!  The dilemma is which mead to choose . . . it's a difficult decision because we have several in our collection and we love them all.  

I settled on Redstone  Black Raspberry Nectar for one reason . . . and one reason only . . .  it was the first mead I ever drank and my introduction to this beverage that is truly the nectar of the gods.  

I first had this mead a couple of years ago at one of my favorite Connecticut breweries, Willimantic Brewing Company.   They had it on the menu as a "guest tap" and so I tried it . . . and loved it.  I always have a bottle or two on hand.  

Redstone Meadery is based in Boulder, Colorado.  Their slogan . . . honey wine . . . feel the love . . . catch the buzz.  Redstone makes a variety of flavored mead but, the  Black Raspberry Nectar remains my favorite among their offerings.

Black Raspberry Nectar was the first mead produced by Redstone in 2001 and is their best seller. It is made with with 5 parts Clover honey, 1 part Wildflower honey and black raspberry puree.  It's light and slightly effervescent.  I like it especially because it is not overly sweet.  It's fairly heavy in the alcohol department, however, coming in at 8% ABV.  

Best served chilled, it makes a nice cool beverage on a hot day.  It also goes well with a variety of foods; such as meat and cheese or a big honkin' rack of barbecue ribs.  It can also be used as a mixer but I prefer it just the way it is.

Obviously, I highly recommend Redstone's Black Raspberry Nectar.  Give it a try and enjoy!

Cheers!

For more information on Redstone Meadery visit their website or check them out on Facebook.

New Brew Thursday - Peach Maple Mead

Hubby and I discovered the Sap House Meadery in February.  We did a tasting of the regular and seasonal meads.


So, when we went back to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for our summer vacation we made sure to make a trip to Center Ossipee and drop by again to see what Sap House had on tap.  


Again we did a tasting . . . how could we not want a taste of each and every one?  Their meads are so wonderful! (See previous review)






Fear not . . . we were mindful of the fact that we were on the motorcycle.  Being the passenger has its benefits . . . wink, wink.  ;)


We had a long conversation with Mead Master and co-owner of Sap House Meadery Ash Fischbein (that's what I call him . . . I don't know if that's his official title) and his dad.  We discussed mead, mead making, and all sorts of other topics.  We spent an hour and a half tasting, talking and visiting.  Either Ash actually likes us or he's a really really patient person to put up with us for so long.   Nah, he must just be really patient.  


Anyhoo . . . 


The seasonal mead they had for the summer was a Peach Maple Mead.  It was absolutely fabulous!  So much so that I had to go back for a second taste and walked out of the store with two bottles.


Ash told us this mead is made with locally grown whole-fruit peaches, never juice, and was aged in American Oak barrels . . . just like an Oaked California Chardonnay!






The mead is a pale golden color with a lovely peachy aroma.  You can really taste the freshness of the peaches but its not all encompassing.  You get a real mead flavor with hints of peach and maple . . . it's really quite nice and balanced.  It's very clean on the palate . . . not at all sticky or overly sweet.  And, despite the relatively high alcohol content . . . 13.5% ABV . . . there is no boozy taste.    Really quite lovely.


I'm looking forward to a visit in the fall when we've been promised a bottle of a strawberry and a blackberry maple. Mmmm .  .  . I can't wait!

Visit Sap House Meadery's website or check them out on Facebook!

Firewater Friday - Drink of the Gods

This week is vacation week . . . unfortunately for everyone else, as well.  So much for a peaceful week in the White Mountains glutting on micro-brews and majestic snow covered mountain peaks.   Don’t get me wrong . . . we are still imbibing quite ubiquitously on liquid bread but it’s not so quiet with all the invasive rugrats crunching crumbs and whatnot.  


It amazes me how many parents drag their kids into bars and pubs when there are plenty of kid friendly places to be visit.


Not to be deterred, we will not sequester ourselves in our small but cozy room with our faces glued to our laptops and noses stuffed into a book . . . or Kindle, as it were . . . although we will make plenty of time for that as well.

The other day we ventured out to a local meadery owned and operated by a couple of young men in Center Ossipee, New Hampshire . . . the Sap House Meadery.  Center Ossipee is by no means a bustling metropolis . . . it a quaint little town that is quiet in the winter time and teeming in the summer due to the plethora of lakes in the area. The Sap House is a small establishment located in what was once a local grocery.  

Owners Ash Fischbein and Matt Trahan (from left) 

Owners Ash Fischbein and Matt Trahan (from left) 
As we walked in the door we were greeted warmly by a pleasant relaxed atmosphere and one of the proprietors, Ash Fishbein, who was offering up samples of his wares.  We also met co-owner Matt Trahan and Mom.


At the time of our visit, the business has been in operation for just over a year.  And, by the looks of things they are off to a great start.  The presentation of their product is tasteful as are the contents they contain.

Like many of the businesses in this area, they make every effort to support the regional economy by using only locally produced ingredients for their meads.  And, when that is not possible, they make sure that the ingredients are fair trade certified.

We did a sampling of their four main offerings and one seasonal.  We were not disappointed.  They were all quite different and delicious . . . not typical of the meads I’ve had in the past, the Sap House meads are less sweet and on the drer side.


Ash, mazer (slang for mead maker) extraordinaire and our bartender for the sampling . . . besides plying us with the lovingly made luscious liquid . . . regaled us with the history of mead and its primary ingredient honey.

If you’ve never had mead it’s very different from wine or beer.  It is, in fact, a honey wine that is millennia old . . . archeological discoveries as far back as 8,000 to 12,000 B.C.  At its simplest mead can be described as an alcoholic drink of fermented honey and water.  Of course, modern mead makers have expanded the basic recipe.  At the Sap House Meadery, they offer up a rich Vanilla Bean, smooth Sugar Maple, citrusy Hopped Blueberry and dry-ish pyment (which is made with a red wine grape juice) called Ossipioja .  All in all . . . YUM!

Honey . . . the main ingredient in mead . . . has been forever used for food and medicinal purposes.  As Ash describes it . . . the honeymoon has long been a wedding tradition.  The honey in honeymoon comes from an old northern European custom in which newlyweds would, for a month, consume a daily cup of mead.  It is thought that the honey would increase the chances of a boy child being conceived.    If nothing else the intoxicating effects of the mead would surely encourage  . . . uhm . . . sexy time.

Not surprisingly, mead was the preferred drink during the Meditteranean “Age of Gold” . . . however, interestingly enough, the word for drunk in classical Greek translates to "intoxicated with honey".

We walked out of the store feeling the pleasant effects of the mead and four bottles of the heavenly nectar.  We were in no way dissatisfied. . . in fact, we were extremely impressed.  Cheers guys!!  We will be back.