All About Tipsy Tree: Our March '24 Bottle of the Month

Sam Trathen Articles
03/20/2024 5:40pm 4 minute read

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Our March '24 Bottle of the Month, Tipsy Tree, is a wildflower mead with birch sap and maple sap aged on shiny-leaf buckthorn (also called gesho.) Keep reading to find out about learn about how we named it, what it will taste like, and most importantly, how Brewer Julie came up with the recipe.

Early Tasting Notes:

Color: Goldenrod
Aroma: Crushed Leaves
Flavor: Honey forward, with a spring taste, no tannins
Closest Comparison: Vanir, if it were aged on fresh-cut wood

The Naming of Tipsy Tree

As with every Bottle of the Month, the staff here at the Meadery had a lot of fun brainstorming names. But this time, we also decided to open it up to our Meadiacs. Check out the poll below to see how they voted and be sure and let us know in the comments which one is your favorite:

Some of our favorite Meadiac recommendations:

Odin's Nectar
Buckleberry Birch
Life is a Birch
Birch and the Bees
Dryad's Temptation

Thank you all for your great contributions and thanks to everyone for their votes!

But in the end, we decided to go with Tipsy Tree, suggested by our own Brewer Julie Grossman. Why? Because this is Julie's very first recipe - and that's something to celebrate!

Be sure and check out the beautiful details of the label, designed by our own Autumn Dufresne, above, before scrolling down to read our interview with Julie about how she became a brewer, how she came up with the idea for Tipsy Tree, and much more!

Interview with Brewer Julie

Hi Julie! Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I live in Burlington, VT and am originally from Littleton, CO. I graduated from The University of Vermont in May 2023 with a Bachelor's degree in Food Systems, concentrating in nutrition, food science, and sustainable community development. I love to ski, hike, explore new places, and try new foods! When I'm indoors, I enjoy spending time with my friends, watching movies, doing jigsaw puzzles, and working on my never-ending list of art projects.

How did you come into brewing, and how did you make it to us here at Groennfell?

I became interested in brewing during a food science class when we covered fermentation, particularly being drawn to the combination of science and creativity that are part of the brewing process. I was originally connected to Groennfell by my academic advisor when I was exploring field experience opportunities. I started as a brewing intern in January 2023 and loved the beverage production process and the work environment in the Meadery.

3. What can you tell us about this brew? How did you come up with it? What is your favorite part about making it?

This brew is inspired by Vermont forests and my deep appreciation for spending time outdoors. My wish is that folks experience this mead as though they are peacefully walking in the forest, surrounded by trees and a flowing river. I wanted this brew to have an earthy aroma and I was inspired by some of the different teas we have in the Meadery. My favorite part of this brew has been tapping birch trees and designing the recipe for my brew goals.

4. Is there anything else you want to share with us?

I love getting to create a new mead each month and love that so many people have been enjoying our brews so far! It has been very fun to come up with new ideas and explore different brewing techniques and ingredients.

Thank you so much, Julie!

What to get your hands on Julie's hard work? Or interested in seeing what the Bottle of the Month Club has to offer? Click below to learn more!

Bottle of the Month Subscription - Exclusive Meads for Members

$45.00

Each month, our creative meadmakers will brew a one-time-only small batch mead using fresh seasonal, local ingredients. Join here to receive discounted shipments of these special brews monthly! If all bottle club slots are currently full, please sign up below to… read more

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Popping my Cherry Psychopomp

Psychopomp is a sleeper hit. I usually am a chad normal honey mead enjoyer without adding a lot of stuff to it, but Psychopomp is definitely pretty good even for someone like me.

Lookers: Cool looking ruby red color with carbonation bubbles clinging to my Glencairn glass. Smellers: Strong tart sour cherry smell, but not overpowering or potent, just a nice cherry tickle in my schnozzle. Tasters: Smooth tart sour cherry in a nice balanced manner. The cherry smoothly slides up in your DM's and is like nah bro no strong alcohol nail polish taste with me, here have so of this sour tart cherry now with some carbonation tickles. Then we will end this dance with some extra sour on the finish. I couldn't really taste honey, but I could feel its essence.

I wish there was a bit more of a honey flavor but others have mentioned tasting the honey, it also might be the fact I drink everything cold. Overall, it is pretty good and that is from someone who does not really care for cherry, or flavored meads for that matter. If you like tart sour cherry then you will definitely like it.

Using my Valkyrie's Voice to review this Valkyrie's Choice

Intro - Valkyrie's Choice was probably the first of Groennfell's craft mead lineup I tried many years ago from the variety case. It was immediately one of my favorites for the price, with Old Wayfarer taking first place. However, I do not know if the formula changed over time if my tastes changed, or if I am remembering wrong because it's not quite the same now as it was back then. With that said even though it's different it does taste cleaner, probably due to them no longer using sulfates and the like.

Lookers - Valkyrie's Choice has a very pretty golden wheat appearance that is much lighter than Old Wayfarer, it reminds me of a Moscato wine appearance. It is a little bit misty yet you can almost look through it, and a slight amount of carbonation bubbles cling to the side of my glass.

Sniffers - The aroma is hard to pick up on, especially with the liquid being cold, as well as my air leaving my nose dry and sad, making it even harder to pick up any smell. It has a very subtle honey smell (who would have guessed) and not much else, I could not even smell any alcohol which is good.

Tasters - Smooth and crisp honey flavor with a slight fizzle in the mouth like it's giving a little hello how are you to me. The honey flavor is very light especially if you are used to "full" bottled mead's, but still nice and honey in my tummy feeling. There is a strange other cereal grainy flavor in there somewhere, but still enjoyable. It is very smooth as I barely pick up any alcohol taste. A faint but obvious fizzy taste tickles my tongue like it is giving me a goochy goochy goo. The aftertaste is a stronger honey flavor and the other mentioned flavor is gone.

Conclusion - If you are like me and you enjoy pure honey flavor mead more than wacky mead flavors like blueberry mead (if mead was supposed to be blueberry flavored then Bee's would be blue :p) then you will like Valkyrie's Choice by Groennfell Meadery. Just keep in mind if you are new to these types of craft mead's that they are much lighter than "full" mead's you would find in a bottle, so do not expect a honey elemental to pop out and slap you across the face.

With that said I do wish it had a stronger honey flavor as it is pretty mild, so you might prefer something with a bit more honey flavor along with a bit extra flavor such as Old Wayfarer or Hop Swarm both of which are in my opinion stronger honey flavors with other additional flavors but don't tilt to the dark side of cherry/blueberry mead. It is still pretty good and worth a try though, the old Barrel Aged Valkyrie's choice was a better version but the new iteration which is Shieldmaiden was much worse (the original release), however I have not tried the new Shieldmaiden formula so take that opinion with a grain of salt.

Fire on Snow

Nice balance of the cinnamon and vanilla. The heat from the peppers isn't very strong. Color reminds me of some of the meads I've tried when I first started drinking mead

SKOLL !

The perfect mead to ride our current epic California storms. This Crisp, refreshing mead has helped me ward off cabin fever and focus on better weather ahead. I'm saving the majority of my order for springtime frolicking in fields of green grass.

Oh sweet mysyery of life at last I've found you!

I love Nordic Farmhouse so much I would marry it! My favorite flavor profiles are sour and sweet, and this festive mead is very refreshingly tart! I especially love to drink it and serve it to my guests at the cranberry holidays (ie. Thanksgiving and Solstice/Christmas)!

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All About Tipsy Tree: Our March '24 Bottle of the Month

The Naming of Tipsy Tree

Interview with Brewer Julie

Bottle of the Month Subscription - Exclusive Meads for Members

Let customers speak for us

All About Tipsy Tree: Our March '24 Bottle of the Month

The Naming of Tipsy Tree

Interview with Brewer Julie

Bottle of the Month Subscription - Exclusive Meads for Members

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