Redstone Meadery

RedstoneMeadery
Originally uploaded by josh_frank.

We spent most of a day in Boulder and while we were there, we visited Redstone Meadery. They are a microbrewer of sorts - except instead of making beer, they make mead. Mead is the most ancient form of wine. It is made from honey, and pre-dates wines made from grape juice. Particularly relevant is the fact that mead was often used by the newly married bride and groom to celebrate the marriage and to boost fertility! According to AboutMead.com,

"The history of mead is rich. It's glorious history dates back thousands of years, predating both wine and beer. Although there are no references to support this, it is believed that mead is the drink that gave us the tradition of the honeymoon. According to this legend, the newlywed couple was given a month's (moon's) supply of mead in the hopes of ensuring a fruitful union. If a son was born, the meadmaker was congratulated on the quality of his mead. And there are many legends about mead's aphrodisiac qualities. As these legends span civilizations and centuries, one has to wonder if they might be true."

Fortunately for Jill and I, the fertility thing hasn't kicked in. We did not, however, let this ancient belief deter us from purchasing a bottle. Sunday night we opened the bottle that we bought that day and saved for our anniversary. It was a nice carbonated draft-style mead with apricot flavors called Sunshine Nectar, and went down much better than the Christmas bottle we thought we liked when we sampled it - but couldn't stomach when we opened it over the holidays!