Page 15 - Indulge December/January 2016
P. 15
you’ve read mythology, you’ve likely seen the word startup. “Every weekend, at least half of the people who DECEMBER/JANUARY 2016 • INDULGE | 15
“mead” (often called “nectar of the gods”). Norse god come in here have never had it, never heard of it.”
Odin was so smitten with the beverage that he went to great
lengths to bring it to Asgard and share it with his divine Manning and his business partner, Greg Heller-Labelle,
companions. As the story goes, the mead he spilled in the are aiming to change that. Housed in the Bridgeworks
process became the inspiration that drives poets. Enterprise Center, their Colony Meadery opened in late
2013. By 2015, its first year entering mead competitions, it
In its simplest form, mead is fermented honey and water, took home 13 medals — five of them from the prestigious,
but there are almost infinite varieties available, including international Mazer Cup. Today they have more than 19
traditional sweet, dry and semi-dry; melomel (made with mead varieties available.
fruit); cyser (made with apple cider); pyment (made with
wine-grape juice); and metheglin (made with spices) “Mike Manning at The Colony Meadery made a huge
splash at the 2015 Mazer Cup International Mead
It’s one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world — Competition,” says Bakulić. “I found the overall quality and
perhaps older than wine, but no one can say with certainty. consistency of the mead that was entered to be excellent.
Mead expert Petar Bakulić, president of The Mazer Cup This is an exceptional achievement for a meadery entering
International Mead Competition, says “the oldest verifiable the MCI for the very first time.”
scientific evidence of mead” that he’s aware of was found in
a 9,000-year-old tomb in Jiahua, China. That’s no small feat for a guy who previously worked
29 years not in a brewery, but in an IT department. Yet
It’s the basis for the term “honeymoon” — medieval Manning seems to take the success in stride, and if you
marriage customs called for providing the groom and bride talk to him for any length of time, you realize he’s got the
enough mead to last a moon cycle. The libation lubricates kind of confidence that comes not from arrogance, but from
characters in “The Canterbury Tales,” and in “Beowulf,” the knowing his product inside and out.
monster Grendel gorges on merrymakers in a mead hall.
Heller-LaBelle has confidence, too — and has from the
Yet despite its storied history, mead only recently made first time he tasted Mo-Mead-O, the mint-lime variety that
its way back to the national palate. Prohibition, a monster launched The Colony. He met Manning through the Lehigh
of a different sort, brought with it hard‑to‑shake laws
that still gnaw at perception, production, distribution and — continued on page 16 —
consumption.
“No one knows what mead is,” says Mike Manning, co-
owner of and chief brewer at Colony Meadery, an Allentown
“mead” (often called “nectar of the gods”). Norse god come in here have never had it, never heard of it.”
Odin was so smitten with the beverage that he went to great
lengths to bring it to Asgard and share it with his divine Manning and his business partner, Greg Heller-Labelle,
companions. As the story goes, the mead he spilled in the are aiming to change that. Housed in the Bridgeworks
process became the inspiration that drives poets. Enterprise Center, their Colony Meadery opened in late
2013. By 2015, its first year entering mead competitions, it
In its simplest form, mead is fermented honey and water, took home 13 medals — five of them from the prestigious,
but there are almost infinite varieties available, including international Mazer Cup. Today they have more than 19
traditional sweet, dry and semi-dry; melomel (made with mead varieties available.
fruit); cyser (made with apple cider); pyment (made with
wine-grape juice); and metheglin (made with spices) “Mike Manning at The Colony Meadery made a huge
splash at the 2015 Mazer Cup International Mead
It’s one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world — Competition,” says Bakulić. “I found the overall quality and
perhaps older than wine, but no one can say with certainty. consistency of the mead that was entered to be excellent.
Mead expert Petar Bakulić, president of The Mazer Cup This is an exceptional achievement for a meadery entering
International Mead Competition, says “the oldest verifiable the MCI for the very first time.”
scientific evidence of mead” that he’s aware of was found in
a 9,000-year-old tomb in Jiahua, China. That’s no small feat for a guy who previously worked
29 years not in a brewery, but in an IT department. Yet
It’s the basis for the term “honeymoon” — medieval Manning seems to take the success in stride, and if you
marriage customs called for providing the groom and bride talk to him for any length of time, you realize he’s got the
enough mead to last a moon cycle. The libation lubricates kind of confidence that comes not from arrogance, but from
characters in “The Canterbury Tales,” and in “Beowulf,” the knowing his product inside and out.
monster Grendel gorges on merrymakers in a mead hall.
Heller-LaBelle has confidence, too — and has from the
Yet despite its storied history, mead only recently made first time he tasted Mo-Mead-O, the mint-lime variety that
its way back to the national palate. Prohibition, a monster launched The Colony. He met Manning through the Lehigh
of a different sort, brought with it hard‑to‑shake laws
that still gnaw at perception, production, distribution and — continued on page 16 —
consumption.
“No one knows what mead is,” says Mike Manning, co-
owner of and chief brewer at Colony Meadery, an Allentown
