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Welcome to our look into the local Eugene mead scene!

Mead: Eugene’s Oldest New Alcohol

A Story About An Alcohol Making a True Comeback through local meadery “Blue Dog”

By: Ally Anderson and Catie Roberts

For centuries, the world has enjoyed the sweet nectar of an alcohol known as mead. This drink captured the hearts and mouths of many civilizations, from Ancient Greece, to the ruthless Vikings. There was talk that mead had magical powers and could even increase fertility. The earliest origins of mead can be traced back to the hymns of the Rigveda, which is a sacred book from the historical Vedic religion. Aristotle spoke of mead in his Meteorologica, and there are some that considered mead to be the drink of the gods. It has been mentioned in epic poems, ancient drinking songs, and according to The History of Food by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, “It [mead] can be regarded as the ancestor of all fermented drinks.” As one of the oldest known alcohols, mead is celebrated for its rich and long history.

Mead is an alcohol that has a unique composition with one of its main ingredients being honey. It is made by fermenting a mixture of honey and water. According to the National Honey Board’s “Making Mead: the Art and the Science”, traditional mead is “made from approximately two and one-half pounds of honey diluted with one gallon of water only.” There are also many other varieties of mead such as metheglin which is a spiced mead, melomel which is made with fruit juice, and cyser which is a mead made with apple juice or cider. Mead can be either still or sparkling; to make sparkling mead it requires a second fermentation that creates dissolved carbon dioxide in the alcohol. When it comes to mead though, honey is the single most important ingredient that can make or break the beverage. The honey determines the color, the flavor and the type of mead one desires. Another ingredient that is crucial is yeast. In “Making Mead: the Art and the Science”, yeast is the “living organism that metabolizes sugars in honey to carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol” and “cultured wine yeast” is more common yeast to use in the mead making process. One has to match the appropriate yeast culture to the honey of their choice to develop the desired taste and feel of the mead. Other ingredients to consider when making mead are acids, sulfites, stabilizers, fruit, spices and herbs and hops.

It’s a drink that has been celebrated and cherished for many years, but mead went through a period where it became a forgotten alcohol. The growth of agriculture caused mead to become replaced by other alcoholic beverages like wine or ale, which come from grapes and barley. However, mead is making a comeback and it’s taking on Eugene. For the first time ever, Eugene is home to their own meadery: Blue Dog Meadery. CEO Simon Blatz who graduated from the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon started blue Dog. The meadery is very new and first saw production in December of 2012.  They offer four different types of mead: Blue Collar Mad, a more traditional mead; Red Collar mead, a mead infused with raspberry; Green Collar Mead, a sparkling mead with a hint of apple and finally Yellow Collar Mead, a sparkling mead with hop aromas.

When interviewing Blatz, he gave insight on what sparked his interest in trying to reinvent an ancient alcohol: “We chose mead versus cider or beer because there was a growth in the brewing beer category, growth in cider products and gluten free products, and beer has already been done on a large scale and cider is already at its current peak of its wave and mead is kind of the next thing. So there is a lot of room to innovate, to explore, to create, and develop a category of a beverage.” To take on this task was a big leap of faith and their first attempt with mead was not a success. However, they have finally found their niche with this beverage.

Blue Dog is very much about innovation; besides being the first ever meadery in Eugene, they are also the very first meadery to offer its product in a can. Another new and unique option Blue Dog has brought to the table is mead on tap.Blatz and his team at Blue Dog are very passionate about their product and the adventure it has been to get where they are today. Blatz has said one of the greatest parts of this business has been the “learning experience… the reason we do this is we picked one of the hardest most challenging things you can do. It’s a highly mature highly consolidated industry that is very hyper competitive to push to see what we are capable of doing and push what we are able to do. Everyone involved has definitely developed as an individual in their skill set and in their experiences.”

Blatz faces his fair share of challenges when it comes to mead.  He and his team have to make sure the product itself is a drinkable and enjoyable beverage. The other huge component of their business is getting the word out about mead. In the article, “Leading a Mead Renaissance” from the Register Guard, Blatz explains how Blue Dogs demographic is aimed towards “young adults 21 to 35 years old who prefer a lighter drink and the convenience of cans.” A huge part of their marketing tactics, besides social media, is to actually get the public to come to Blue Dog and taste the mead. Blue Dog averages two to eight tastings a week and also has tastings at various retailers who sell their product, like Market of Choice and The Bier Stein. They look to hold as many tastings in as many different environments as possible.

Blue Dog has seen its ups and down however, it is definitely making its way into the hearts of Eugene. Behind the leadership of Blatz and the extremely dedicated and hard-working team, Blue Dog Meadery is only going to continue to grow and flourish.

 

References:

Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat (Anthea Bell, tr.) The History of Food, 2nd ed. 2009:30.

02 Feb. 2014.

National Honey Board: “Making Mead: the Art and the Science”. PDF File. 02 Feb. 2014.

Blue Dog Meadery: “Our Story”. http://bluedogmead.com/story/. 31 Jan. 2014.

Odmundson, Paul. “Leading a Mead Renaissance.” The Register Guard, 22 May 2013. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.