If you can't make it to Berkleefest or the Mt. Snow Brewers Festival this weekend, you still have lots of chances to try Groennfell Mead and meet the brewers in September!

Check our events calendar to stay up-to-date on where you can find us pouring samples of our mead.

Here's a quick overview:

• September 10 - Vermont Retail & Grocers Expo at Champlain Valley Exposition
• September 12 - Plaid Party & Fall Seasonal Release at Groennfell Meadery
• September 13 - Vermont Cider Festival at The Foundry at Summit Pond in Killington
• September 13 - Vermont Golden Honey Festival at the Golden Stage Inn in Proctorsville
• September 19 & 20 - Brewhaha at Eat X NE at Oakledge Park in Burlington

Groennfell Meadery is releasing a new product: Autumn Spice Mead, our first seasonal brew! To celebrate, we’re throwing a Plaid Party. Wear your best plaid and welcome fall Vermont-style with the Groennfell Meadery team on Friday, September 12, 5-9 pm.

Autumn Spice Mead, Groennfell Meadery’s first seasonal release, will be available for a limited time at Groennfell Meadery and on draft at select restaurants.

Plaid Party
Friday, September 12
5:00 – 9:00 pm
Free admittance. Light appetizers will be provided.

What about that mead?
This spiced mead will instantly evoke the aroma of crisp fall afternoons. Go ahead, imbibe autumn!

Autumn Spice Mead

• 6.9% abv.
  
• Naturally Gluten-Free
  
• Draft only

In which Ricky the Meadmaker brings back his signature facial hair, learns about the Ice Bucket Challenge, answers questions from homebrewers, and more!

Back in his homebrewing days, Ricky the Meadmaker made a discovery: Fermentation can smell… Stink… Reek.

Like, don’t have guests over to your house reek. Like, neighbors think you have an overweight Green Bay Packers fan sitting in your basement eating sauerkraut 12 hours-a-day reek.

You get the idea.

There are three questions that homebrew shop owners regularly get about the odiferous output:

1. Why? (Extension: Why not all the time?)
   
2. Is it bad?
   
3. What can I do about it?

1. There are lots of articles out there to whip you up into a full-on panic attack about the smell. John Palmer’s website, for example, throws out the dreaded term “Bacterial Infection,” mentions that it might be your yeast strain, but BACTERIAL INFECTION! AAAAAAH!

OK, if you are making mead, cider, white wine, lager beer, or Belgian beer, it’s almost certainly Hydrogen Sulfide being produced by your yeast. It is perfectly normal for some yeast strains. It is not a reason to panic. Hydrogen Sulfide, H2S, is a natural secondary metabolite of many yeast strains, especially ones which ferment in low mineral content environments, like cider and mead yeast. (You can learn more about secondary metabolites here.)

If you are making one of the above beverages, and it smells like cheese farts, don’t worry! It will go away with time. Your mead will not continue to smell like the south end of a cabbage patch.

2. However, other yeast strains, such as ale strains, do not, as a rule, put out H2S. If you’re making an IPA, and it smells like rotten eggs, that’s probably not a good thing.

Other smells, such as vinegar, green apples, or bile are bad, pretty much always.

3. What can you do? Don’t have people over for a week. Or, ferment warmer and risk ruining your beverage. Or, have a really big house where you can ferment far away from friends and relations.

Or, do what we do: Get a huge-ass carbon-filter air purifier.

We are pleased to announce that by the end of today every single Ask the Meadmaker episode will be fully Closed Captioned!

Frankly, we've been meaning to do this for ages, but it's an awful lot of work since YouTube's automatic captions are... well, humorously inaccurate at best.


These captions are great for the:

• Deaf
• Hearing Impaired
• Visual Learners
• People who go to bed watching an AtM every night, but are starting to drive their spouses insane despite Ricky's unquestionably dulcet tones
• And children who wish to learn to read from a witty and inebriated man.

So, go check it out: Ask the Meadmaker

Congratulations, Matt Lorence and your Fenberry Orange Glaze! You two are the winners of Groennfell Meadery's very first recipe competition! 

You have won:

• A Private Tasting for you and three friends!
  
• A guest appearance on Ask the Meadmaker!
• Wicked awesome bragging rights!
• And your photo on our website making you look like you're wanted for armed robbery!

In which Ricky the Meadmaker takes a field trip to a farm to learn about Cow Power.

Further Reading:
Cow Power
Archaea