Aengus MacLeod Met

Ah Easter, seems like a plausible excuse to crack open a bottle of the sweet stuff, while listening to some classic Eurythmics.

This bottle has been gathering dust since last years Witchfest, and is brewed by that famous German Scot Aengus (well of course it is)

A bulbous bottle and a stopped cork lid implies I don’t need to drink all of this in one sitting, well we’ll see about that. I’m also looking forward to contrasting the taste with his 3 year aged version, so perhaps I’ll do both this weekend.

To an extent this German Mead might present the missing link between the Meads of the Celtic World (Brittany, Wales, Scotland, England) and the East (Poland. Lithuania) so although I’ve tasted this before, I’ve not done so with so many weird ideas in my head.

The scent is sweet with a spike, maybe a hint of a melomel, the mead is a rich but slightly pale gold, and the first sip is quite a crisp sweet bite. There is a hint of something else here almost a white wine taste, so I do wonder.

A surprising easy drink to perhaps guzzle, or simply a reflection of the mood I’m in. There’s an almost burnt aroma to the glass now, and the sweetness is quite subdued compare to more mundane mead.

Perhaps this is the secret of a particularity palatable mead, that to some extent the sweetness is hidden, or subdued enough that there other flavours come through. All in all though this bodes for a pleasant evening.

Witches Mead

So this blog has been bumbling along for a fair few months now, and I occasionally wonder why it started, and what it was that inspired my interest in Mead beyond the ennui of existence? So here’s an incident that perhaps contributed.

For the last couple of years I’ve been an occasional exhibitor at Witchfest international, which needless to say is held in the delights of Croydon town. I’m not quite sure how I started, something to do with Friends of the Earth campaigning at the Eastbourne Lammas fair, and an idea that pagans might be more receptive towards environmental issues.

Environmental campaigning aside, Pagans seemed to be more inclined towards the drinking of Mead, in the same slightly irrational way that re-enactors are. To this end the bar at Fairfield hall, serves Moniack Mead for Witchfest, and it’s a our favourite, economical way of staying slightly tiddly behind the Greenpeace stall.

The last couple of years there’s been an eccentric German Scot guy there selling his own mead which is kind of cool. I think he’s German but ridiculously proud of his Scots heritage in the way normally only North Americans touch.

Previously a friend had brought back a Catch the Bear fortified mead, which at the time tasted unpleasantly lethal. A return taste was much more pleasant, but not sufficient to buy any more, and the slogan ‘Catch the Bear-it works / Barenfang tasty honey liquor’ didn’t sway me, although it’s a cool name Barenfang.

Instead the choice of a sweet aged mead (3 years+) and a demi-sec mead provided irresistible. His publicity material continues:

Aengus MacLeod Met: Mead Delicious Honey Wine
Our delicious Mead has aged carefully for 3 years in oak barrels, former sherry caskets. That aging process makes the amber coloured honey wine sherry-flavoured and assures you will keep your head clear even on the next morning.

Selling for years on CoA Witchfest international and medieval markets in Germany we are well known for out top class Mead.

Our Mead tastes best with 10C to 19 C. Warmed up to 70C it is a delicious hot drink.

My beloved Lovis calls our mead “Sunshine in the Glass”

I’m also intrigued by the idea that he sells Mead by the can, although my feeling is he means that stone bottles, which you get with Dutch gin / Jenever.

Needless to say he also sells a range of drinking horns, well you would wouldn’t you. Although very tempted they kind of looked like they’d just fallen off the cow, and I’m afraid the taste of horn might corrupt my mead.

So onto the drinking of German mead.....

Catch the Bear Mead

This may be a slightly odd aside on the journey for Mead but yesterday somewhere between dressing like a Pirate and the usual peculiarities of Slimelight I finished a friend’s bottle of Catch the Bear Mead. Undoubtably a pun on honey bears.

At least I think it was Mead, at 36% abv it was definitely on the side of the honey brandies, poured from a glass bottle in the shape of a teddy bear. This slightly disturbed me, but then I’m already pretty disturbed, thus the picture.

A find at last years Witchfest, sold to my mate by a German dressed as a Scot, named Aengus MacLeod. Of course it was. We think this makes it a German mead, but who can tell

With the scent akin to Calvados, this one promises to be er… interesting, and the taste was that of a very sweet Potcheen. A shot of alcohol with enough honey and sugar to take the burning aftertaste away. Quite pleasant really, but probably never to be repeated.