Q&A with Georgia's one and only Meadery: Monks Mead

Today, it gives me great joy to post a recent Q&A our massive team at WAT conducted with the co-founders and head mead-makers of Georgia's one and only meadery, Monks Mead.  For most of us, our first exposure to mead came in the literary form of the 12th Century dragon-slaying epic Beowulf.  Beowulf and his little Viking-like friends made the fermented-honey-beverage-of-the-Gods seem really cool and delicious. I knew then that someday, it too would be my destiny to drink copious amount of the ancient elixir like old Wulfy and bravely slay ornery dragons without hesitation.  Thanks to Monks Mead, I have now fulfilled half of that destiny, but it has been a most tasty and fairly safer fate.  With that said, if a Scandinavian dragon happens to terrorize your town, let me know. With a glass of Monks in hand, I'll be ready to star in my own epic, and I bet you will too.

Consider those dragons temporarily lucky, because for now it's time to get serious. Although technically a wine, many home brewers including yours truly dabble in the ancient art of mead-making, but few manage to perfect it as much as the dynamic duo of Martin Key and Justin Schoendorf of Monks Mead.  Over years of trial-and-error, Martin and Justin eventually honed in on their current recipe and, much to the Public's joy, generously decided to offer it to the masses.  All that tinkering resulted in a delicious 12.9% ABV cross between honey and lightly carbonated champagne.  So without further prattling let's hear about Monks from the mead masters themselves: Martin and Justin.

Monks Mead founders Martin Key (left) and Justin Schoendorf (right)

WAT: Let’s start with the basics.   What is mead?

Martin and Justin: At the most basic form, mead is fermented honey.  Essentially, it is honey and water - you add a little bit of yeast and let that yeast convert the honey sugars into alcohol.  The easiest way to think about it is just like wine - however, instead of grapes you use honey.  The comparison is also quite suitable because of the massive varieties of mead that you can make with just those three basic ingredients.  

WAT:  Meaderies are very uncommon in the United States.  Why did you decide to establish Georgia’s first and only meadery over brewing beer?

Martin and Justin: Mead is a passion of ours.  For many years we would homebrew beers and meads.  After a while, we focused solely on mead because Georgia changed its beer laws and we started getting so many high quality beers in the market that we really didn't need to make our own.  Mead, on the other hand, was very challenging to find and most of the stuff out there wasn't to our liking.  We figured that if we liked our mead that much, other people might as well.

WAT:  Many people have never tried mead before.  What can they expect when they sip their first glass of Monks Mead?

Martin and Justin: That interesting because it is kind of hard to explain - mead isn't going to taste quite like anything you have had before.  It falls somewhere in between a Champagne and a Saison.  Monks is going to taste different from most every other mead on the market.  We do not want it to be sweet.  You will taste the sweetness of the honey, but a lot of that comes from the aromatics. You'll start off with a full nose of honey, it has a nice mouth feel and a clean crisp finish with no a lot of heaviness on the end.

WAT: What’s the story behind the name Monks Mead?

Martin and Justin: We decided on Monks Mead because of the historical significance of monasteries in mead production (and the loss of the popularity of mead in England).  Monks were the main keepers of bees, to harvest the wax used in religious ceremonies.  Since the demand for honey wasn't large, they would make mead to earn extra income for their monastery. During the English Reformation, Henry the VIII dissolved all the monasteries and destroyed most of the hives - as the honey disappeared, so did the mead.  We thought it would be suitable for "Monks" to usher in the comeback of a once popular beverage...either that or we just like the sound of the name :)

WAT: What are your brewing and industry backgrounds? 

Martin and Justin: Both of us have been avid home brewers for the past 13 years.  Justin has been in the alcohol business that entire time so he provides a lot of industry knowledge and experience.  Outside of that, and a lot of on the job training, it really comes from a passion for what we make - that drive has keep us going and learning everything we needed to get Monks up and running.

WAT: What have been some of the ongoing challenges with the production and marketing of a product that the general public is fairly unfamiliar with?

Martin and Justin: The biggest challenge is the Mead market - it doesn't exist.  Since most people have never tried a mead, they don't know that they really like mead.  Therefore, it is a leap of faith for an establishment to put us on tap - they've got to help educate the consumers to help create that draw.  Certainly, growler stores have been a huge help.  The typical growler customer is looking for something new and unique to try.  

Production is also a big challenge.  Because there isn't an established market for mead - we can't raise enough money to build out our own meadery.  The sales would not be there to support the cost.  Therefore, we've had to get help from the local brewing community to make our mead at their facilities.  Luckily, Terrapin was willing to give us a shot to start out with - that was a huge help.  We've recently switched over to Red Hare which has been a great move.  They've got a bit more capacity to fit in our brewing needs.  It has also been a blast learning to brew using their equipment.  Everything is slightly different, but it helps to build our experience - also gives us a better idea of what we will want when we do open our own location.

 

Delicious

WAT: Mead requires a ton of honey.  How much honey goes into one batch, what type is it, and where do you source your supply from?

Martin and Justin: Yes, in fact each of our batches take 1.6 tons of honey to make!  That's just an estimate, since the sugar content of honey changes from batch to batch - you have to adjust each time you brew.  For our mainline mead, we use wild flower honey out of Pennsylvania.  That was the only way we could brew a consistent product month over month. 

WAT: Monks has already done some unique experiments with oak aging and adding ingredients such as lemongrass and ginger.  What concoctions can we expect from the meadery in the future?

Martin and Justin: We've got a ton of ideas about what we can do next.  However, our main focus is still creating the market for straight up mead.  Once we get that in place, we'll start to expand.  From a mead perspective, we would really like to start making one time specialty batches with local/organic honey.  I'd love to capture some of the local spring flora flavors, unique to Georgia and the southeast.  I'd also like to blend honeys to create a heartier product with more complexity and depth.

For some of our casks - we are open to anything fun.  We had a great time with Bourbon Bar doing oak aged mead.  That really fit into their theme and blended our two concepts together.  We want to partner with bars and restaurants to create unique varieties that match their personalities.

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For all you local Atlantans out there, I highly recommend you fill up your drinking horn with Monks if/when you see it in your local watering hole or growler shop (only on tap as of now).  Monks just recently resumed production after switching brewing facilities from Terrapin to Red Hare, so thankfully Atlanta is being replenished with delicious mead as we speak.  Bars and growler retailers frequently carrying Monks include:

The Bookhouse Pub
The Distillery
The Family Dog
Hand in Hand
Manuel's Tavern
Best of Brews (Duluth)
Midway Pub
The Nook on Piedmont Park
The Porter Beer Bar
Trappeze Pub (Athens)
Whole Foods on Ponce

If you just can't manage to find Monks, let your favorite bar or growler shop know you want it.  I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

I want to thank Martin and Justin of Monks Mead for graciously answering my questions and for producing an excellent product.  Until next time, pick up some Monks, start your own epic adventure, and tell me how much you love it.  A big cheers to Martin, Justin, and Monks!