The Viking Alchemist Meadery
Barrel-Aged Mead Release Calendar!
We are building on the successful launch of last year’s barrel-aged meads and expanding our lineup with more options and more collaboration. All our barrel-aged meads are unique and available in limited quantities. Though we may revisit a recipe, no two batches are ever the same.
All barrel-aged meads and ciders will be available in the tap room. Select meads will also be bottled for retail distribution and inclusion in our Alchemist Club membership as part of your quarterly subscription. Because we are always looking for more, high quality barrels, this list may be amended and increased through the year.
Alchemist Club Members and Horn Club Members will both have early access to our barrel-aged meads. Discounts will apply.
2020 Barrel-Aged Meads
Aging Barrel
Description
Release
Lazy Guy Distillery
Chocolate Rye Barrel
AKA Stolen Heart
Skol aged in barrel previously used to age a Lazy Guy Distillery’s Signature label, 5th Article Rye. This 25 gallon barrel was used to age a chocolate rye which will bring the mead strong flavors of chocolate complimented with bourbon. This will be our special Valentine’s Day Release.
Next Release 1/2021
Lazy Guy Distillery
Smoke City Whiskey Barrel
AKA Pompeii
A semi-sweet traditional mead aged in a Lazy Guy Distillery’s barrel from one of their Select bourbons, Smoke City. Our flavor will be smoky with a natural cherry tone. The first batch from this barrel has been bottled, and the second batch is currently aging.
Released
6/2020
Heaven Hills Distillery
Bourbon & Maple Syrup Barrel
AKA Blueberry Pancake
Mangata aged in a Heaven Hills Distillery’s barrel. The barrel was used for bourbon and later to age maple syrup. The mead will strongly reminiscent of blueberry pancakes. Technically, this will be a second pull on the barrel which will yield a more delicate bourbon flavor, allowing the maple syrup flavor to take center stage.
This may be a complimentary label to our other Thirteenth Colony Distillery’s third pull.
Released
1/2021
Thirteenth Colony Distillery
Bourbon Barrel
Solifaction aged in this Thirteenth Colony Distillery’s bourbon barrel. This is our third pull on this barrel. The bourbon flavor will be very light, bourbon, allowing the oak, char, some tannins to be more forward.
Previously, this barrel was used for Respite and then Celestial. The three labels, together, will be a perfect triad of bourbon-aged mead.
This is the last pull from this barrel.
Spring
Heaven Hills Distillery
Bourbon & Maple Syrup Barrel
Solifaction aged in a Heaven Hills Distillery’s barrel. The barrel was used for bourbon and later to age maple syrup.
Technically, this will be a second pull from this barrel which will yield a more delicate bourbon flavor, allowing the maple syrup flavor to take center stage.
Spring
Thirteenth Colony
Distillery
Bourbon Barrel
Mangata aged in this Thirteenth Colony Distillery’s bourbon barrel. This is another third pull on the barrel, which will have just a hint of bourbon, mostly flavors of oak, char, some tanins combining with the strong flavor of blueberry.
Previously, this barrel was used for Respite and then Celestial. This may be a complimentary label to our other Thirteenth Colony Distillery’s third pull.
This will be the last pull from this barrel.
Summer
Maker’s Mark Private Select Bourbon Barrel
Lonestar aged in this Maker’s Mark Private Select bourbon barrel. This will be the first pull from this barrel, producing a robust bourbon tone.
Fall
Lazy Guy Distillery
Rye Barrel
AKA Sleepy Cider
A semi-sweet apple cider aged in 30 gallon barrel previously used to age a Lazy Guy Distillery’s Signature label, 5th Article Rye. Different from the other 5th Article barrel, this barrel was used to add spice notes to the Signature bourbon. The mead will have mild spice flavor and natural notes of chocolate.
Released
11/2020
Four Roses Bourbon Barrel
AKA Brochet
This bochet was made with cotton honey that had been caramelized to a darkness reminiscent of a charred marshmallow over an open fire. It was then back-sweetened with two other cooked honeys, each with a distinct flavor profile, to deliver a very complex mead.
Finally, the bochet has been put into a barrel that had Four Roses Bourbon in it for over 11 years.
Fall
About Viking Alchemist Barrel-Aged Meads
Aging mead in oak barrels adds a unique layer of flavor and complexity to the original recipe. Depending on the source, and previous use, the barrel will add notes that compliment the mead. In our case, we typically source barrels from regional distilleries, after their primary use. These established relationships have helped us control the process and deliver more predictable outcomes.
Over time, we’ve experimented with different sorts of barrels and found success in both primary and secondary barrels. In some cases, like a maple syrup barrel, the resulting flavor profile is impossible to find in any other process. It makes these barrel-aged meads unique and exciting for us to try and share, allowing us to twist something completely new.
Mead, in particular, takes to barrel-aging very well as it starts off with a sweeter profile. Over time, the oak will dry out the mead, softening the sweetness and thinning out the feel of the mead. While there is no ongoing fermentation, the barrel-aging the process will dramatically change the flavor profile.
While each oak barrel can be used several times, it will slowly lose the flavor of the previous contents. Often, we secure a barrel immediately after its first use allowing us to maximize the impact on our flavor profile. Labels like Respite (bourbon barrel-aged mead) and Accord (bourbon barrel aged-mead) have demonstrated how the distillery’s flavor profile compliments the mead flavor when used immediately after their original use. The strong tones of the aged liquor come through, adding a sharpness to our sweeter mead that has become a signature flavor profile of our barrel-aged meads.
In 2019 and in 2020 we also had the opportunity to try secondary barrels both of our own making as well as sourced from partners. Once a bourbon barrel has been used to age another fluid, most of the spirit’s flavor will have faded. This was the case with our Celestial label (bourbon barrel-aged mead), which was the second pull of the barrel previously used for Respite. Both labels have similar flavor profiles, but you can clearly see the difference from the first to the second pull. Each later pull will yield more and more oak flavor, as the original spirit and char flavors fade.
This year, we are also experimenting with maple syrup barrels which are, technically, second pull barrels. These oak barrels were used to age maple syrup, infusing it with bourbon and char notes. While some bourbon flavor will still be present, most of the flavor will be the rich maple syrup, oak and char with hints of vanilla.
As we release our barrel-aged meads, we will indicate which meads share the same barrel so our patrons can experience them as a “flight.”
Oaking the Mead
The process to barrel-aging mead is the same with other aged spirits. As temperature fluctuates, the alcohol is alternatively absorbed and pressed out of the wooden walls. Though the toasted inside slows down the saturation process, it’s still the desired process and one of the reasons barrel-aging is a time consuming process.
As we age our mead, we need temperature to vary, increasing the flavor profiles. Over time, the previous flavors are washed out leaving just oak, char and tannins which, themselves, offer a new level of flavor akin to vanilla. An oaked mead will be very dry, sacrificing most of the sweetness but gaining a smoother, thinner feel and richer flavor.
If you’d like to learn more about barrel-aged mead, ask one of our brewers when you visit the tap room.
