GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Alcohol sales in Montgomery County climbed to record levels in 2020 as the pandemic kept people inside and away from their favorite bars and restaurants.
One alcohol many people weren't stocking up on and are still unaware of is mead. Mead is alcohol fermented from honey.
"Most of our mead is as alcoholic as wine," said mead maker Jacob Latour of Clear Skies Meadery in the Kentlands neighborhood of Gaithersburg.
Clear Skies was the brainchild of co-owners Manisha Eigner and Yancey Bodenstein. After more than a year of planning, preparations, brewing and renovations they opened their storefront location in Montgomery County in March 2020.
What was only supposed to be a taproom quickly transitioned into a makeshift cannery as coronavirus restrictions shattered their plans of hosting in-person customers.
That didn't help their education campaign to introduce people to mead.
"When we opened our doors we were the fourth meadery in the state of Maryland and we're still the only meadery in Montgomery County," said Bodenstein.
"In the mead business people ask me, 'are you selling meat?' I'm like 'No. It's MEAD. Roll your tongue back," said Eigner.
"Mead has an insanely long tradition. It's around nine thousand years old," said Latour.
Bodenstein says that basically makes mead the oldest fermented beverage that people have been enjoying.
So, then why is it that so many people have no idea what it is? It's a specialty drink that people will find mainly at renaissance festivals.
"Honey is insanely expensive. It started going out of style because people found other grains, base grains that were a lot cheaper to produce for alcohols," said Latour. "Barely is insanely cheap. So you can make a really cheap beer compared to mead which takes months just to age out. Beer you can have ready in four weeks."
In the bottom level of their meadery are massive buckets of honey that would be the envy of any bee colony.
"All we're doing when we're making mead is mixing raw, unfiltered honey with just filtered water and then adding yeast to that," said Latour.
It can be the perfect beverage for someone with a food allergy.
"People who drink wine sometimes get headaches from the tannins. People who drink beer are sometimes gluten intolerant," said Bodenstein. "They're looking for other avenues of having an alcoholic beverage."
"We all have a science background," I actually never would have thought in my wildest dreams I'd be running a brewery or meadery," said Eigner.
Clear Skies has a number of mead varieties on tap and several that they can as well. They're currently making plans to open a second location on Gude Drive in Rockville.
"I love my cherry blossoms. One of the meads Yancy makes is called 'Blossom' and it's made with cherries," said Eigner. "They steep the cherries in the mead with the pits. The pits give it an almond note. There is no champagne in the world which can compete with that."
Read more about Clear Skies Meadery HERE.
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