Water, honey, and yeast? Can mead be that simple?
In hopes of some insight to making the intoxicating draught for
our One-Block Diet, Margaret, Kimberley, and I paid a visit to theRabbit’s
Foot Meaderyon a quest to learn more about honey wine.
Since the meadery is located in a business park in Sunnyvale, California, we expected to visit only the production site of Rabbit’s Foot mead. Instead, we were greeted by customers pouring out the door, mugs in hand, due to lack of space inside the
bar. Yes, a bar in an industrial business park. I must admit, I like their style. Is this Silicon Valley’s secret weeknight hotspot?
Michael and Maria Faul started the meadery about 15 years ago when they began experimenting withmead in their garage and giving it to friends. Before they knew it, the couple was making 200 gallons a year and their friends were still drinking for free. Do you see anything wrong with that picture? Michael and Maria did too and the sale of mead began. Not only has Rabbit’s Foot won many awards since, but their meads are now sold at dozens of grocers and served at many restaurants, including The French Laundry in Yountville, California.
After a tour of the meadery, led by Mark, a close friend of Michael’s, we headed to the bar to taste some of their meads. Rabbit’sFoot makes five different meads and a variety of honey beers, ciders, and braggot. Sadly, we were only there for the meads, but another trip for
the beers is certainly in order.
First we sampled their Dry Mead. When most people think of
mead (if they think of it at all), they think of it as syrupy and overly sweet,
but this was quite the contrary. The fragrance was reminiscent of floral
bourbon and the taste was dry, buttery, and delicious. We moved onto the
Sweet Mead, which was perfectly delightful in its simplicity. Water,
honey, and yeast. That’s it. No spices or juices added to it, just
the luscious flavor of the honey shining through. This was exactly the
type of recipe we were looking for.
After Margaret, Kimberley, and I mulled the idea over a few more glasses of Apple Cyser, Raspberry Mead, andMelia(pure orange blossom honey
mead, which rang true to the title of “Nectar of the Gods”), we made a very important decision for the One-Block Diet.
With this post, I would like to formally announce the founding of Team Mead in co-op with Team Bee.
I hope it is that simple! I am getting ready to brew my first batch of mead. It is going to be painful waiting for that delicious mead to age! Well, at least I hope it is going to be delicious…
Rabbit’s Foot Meadery is great. I haven’t had the opportunity to visit them in person, but I have had fun sampling their wares!
Mead is wonderful depending on what type you get. Sometimes commercial brewed meads taste a little off. I prefer mead brewed to a brewers own perfection which cannot be matched by anyone except yourself. I didn’t try mead until about 3 years ago, and then it’s been a crave ever sense lol. Takes a second to get used to, but then it’s actually really pleasant.
Yipee for Team Mead! I was going to suggest that you do mead as part of the one-block, but it looks like you guys had it figured out all along.
We tried mead and decided we needed to go into bees! Two hives running now, and a big batch of rhubarb mead fermenting away (pix on blog). Taste tests thus far are very positive.
Enjoy your blog.