CLEVELAND, Ohio - Three Northeast Ohio meaderies have won eight awards in the National Honey Board's inaugural Mead Crafters Competition in St. Louis in October.
Mead is fermented with honey, yeast and water, though many variations exist.
More than 340 meads were submitted to be judged in 25 categories for the competition.
Crafted Artisan Meadery of Mogadore, Feisty Brood Meadery of Northfield and Western Reserve Meadery of Cleveland won awards in six categories:
Pyment semi-sweet
Gold: Zen Orange Blossom, Feisty Brood Meadery
Silver: In Yo’ Face Pyment, Crafted Artisan Meadery
Note: Pyment is mead made with grapes or grape juice.
Session mead semi sweet
Gold: Pollen-Nation, Crafted Artisan Meadery
Session mead sweet
Gold: Apple Crumble, Crafted Artisan Meadery
Bronze: Bananas Foster Forever, Crafted Artisan Meadery
Specialty sweet
Silver: Imperial Stranger Bings, Crafted Artisan Meadery
Varietal semi sweet
Gold: Buckwheat Mead, Feisty Brood Meadery
Design packaging
Bronze: Buckwheat Blossom Orange Peel, Western Reserve Meadery
Note: Western Reserve Meadery is in the same complex as Forest City Brewery.
"We took more medals that any meadery in the country," said Kent Waldeck of Crafted Artisan Meadery, which opened in 2012. "It's exciting. We don’t enter a ton of competitions, but when we do we typically do all right. We entered six and took five medals so we can't complain about that."
Here's the complete list of winners by category.
Previous coverage
Feisty Brood Meadery growing in Northfield
Mead: Crafted Artisan Meadery looks to the future
Crafted Artisan Meadery info, how mead is made, more