Texas Mead Fest 2012

Last Saturday I went with The Wife to La Grange. Believe it or not, we didn't go to conduct additional Chicken Ranch research. Instead, we went to Rohan Meadery to partake in the inaugural Texas Mead Fest.

The fact that there's such a thing as Texas Mead Fest, sponsored by the recently-formed Texas Mead Association, is a pretty nifty thing in and of itself. I started homebrewing my own mead quite a few years ago, and since then I've had several good batches of flavored mead--prickly pear, blueberry, plum and spiced--along with a few that were wretched (the muscadine experiment did not turn out well at all). The fact that honey wine (I've found many people think you're saying "meat" when first discussing mead) has reached the point of popularity where it can support boutique meaderies and an actual festival in Texas impresses the heck out of me. The mead makers behind the TMA and the festival are the afore-mentioned Rohan Meadery outside of La Grange, Dancing Bee Winery in Rogers and Enchanted Manor Winery in Magnolia--just down the road from the Texas Renaissance Festival. Apparently, there was a fourth meadery that was supposed to take part, but they backed out at the last minute.

I have to say, I was blown away by how many people turned out for the event. Mead, being a relatively obscure beverage, wouldn't attract a tremendous number of folks. Or so I thought. People were coming and going all day, with the crowds probably pushing 200 at any one time. Total attendance easily topped 300. There were a number of vendors set up in little tent pavilions like you'll see at any fair. Most of these were related to wine or honey or the like. One booth had amazing leaves from a tree that grows in Mexico with artistic scenes carved into them. Another sold flattened wine bottle cheese trays. There was a bee keeper there, with custom designed bee hives--one of which had a swarm of bees within we could watch through a glass window. One woman got close to take a photo, then freaked out when a few bees flew out the bottom, as she'd thought they were sealed up inside the hive. There was one food vendor, Texas Pizza Wagon, that made excellent brick oven gourmet pizzas. There was also a free bouncy castle for kids. My only suggestion for next year would be to perhaps move the vendors back into the open oak woods surrounding the winery, because even though they were covered, the open field was still hot and the shade of the trees would be quite comfortable. And at least one additional food vendor would be nice, because as good as Texas Pizza Wagon is, they still only offer pizza.

One of the big reasons I went was to enter in their homebrew contest. I've been making mead for a while, but unlike beer, mead is a lot more challenging to get right. I wanted some expert opinions on my efforts, so I took along a bottle of my fig mead, and another of my recent vintage prickly pear. Apparently, a lot more Texas brew mead than I thought, because once the dust had settled, they had 79 entries! The folks running the competition were overwhelmed by the participation, and one told me they'd expected maybe 30--if turnout was good. The judges took their task very seriously, and I watched some animated discussions take place. I didn't medal, but my fig mead ended up reaching the second round of judging (needs some back sweetening and a bit too much alcohol up front were the key takeaways on that one). It took more than four hours for the judges to work their way through two rounds of evaluations. The great thing was that after the end, everyone got to uncork their bottles and sample the others' brews. I tasted one very nice blueberry, and another made with chocolate nibs that had a very dry, dark-chocolate bite to it. Quite interesting and unexpected in a mead. The winners, pictured below, were "Booty Vino," the moniker of a family (pictured below) that took its meadmaking seriously. They had half a dozen entries and I believe they medaled in every category as well as winning the silver "best of show" cup. They were quite celebratory about it as well!

And there was musical entertainment as well. During the afternoon, a guitar-oriented classic rock trio performed, with a larger zydeco band taking over later in the day. Both were good, but I have to say the zydeco band was a lot more fun to watch.

Really, the whole day was great fun. The Wife and I took our tickets to the various booths and sampled a great variety of meads. Some were good, some not so much. From Rohan, their cranberry mead and sweet, Czech-style honeymoon mead were very good. Enchanted Manor had a complex, intriguing bochet, a sparkling pear and a spiced mead that we both enjoyed. Dancing Bee, however, stole the show. Every single mead they offered had fantastic flavor and balance. Their dry raspberry really stood out for me, with a bold, fruit-at-the-forefront taste and a dry, crisp finish. Goodness, it was good--not syrupy like so many raspberry meads can be. I talked with them a bit, and it became clear they're about as close to a ringer in mead making as you can get--Dancing Bee is 100 percent owned by Walker Honey, a long time honey producer in Central Texas. A few years ago they realized they were selling a lot of wholesale honey to mead makers and asked "Why aren't we doing this?" They're first-class all the way, from their product design to their promotional copy to the outstanding quality of their meads. Yes, they have a lot of sweet meads, as that's what the public expects, but to their credit they have more dry meads than any other Texas meaderies. That shows they've done their homework and plan to expand their market base and appeal to the palates of wine drinkers as well. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they've pretty much nailed every type of mead they've attempted (although they admitted to me that they've botched a batch or two in the learning process--those never see the light of day).

While waiting for the judging results, The Wife and I bought a bottle of Dancing Bee's apple cyser mead and split it between the two of us, lounging on a blanket in the shade of the oak trees on the property. It was a lazy, relaxing afternoon. A breeze kicked up every so often to keep things comfortable. The cyser, heavy on the apple and just a bit this side of "slightly" sweet, was cool, refreshing and went down very, very easily. It was the most fun she and I had doing nothing in a very long time. The Texas Mead Fest has definitely earned a regular spot on my calendar. Highly recommended.

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