Ask the Meadmaker Ep. 61 – Lord Colchester

Hi there, I'm just writing a letter to Lord Colchester because his birthday is in two weeks. Why am I writing a letter? It's the only way he'll communicate. Who is Lord Colchester? Why are we celebrating his birthday? And what does he have to do with Groennfell Meadery and this meadmaker? Stay tuned to find out.

Welcome to Ask the Meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker, answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, and really any question you're willing to send to me. 

Today's episode is entirely about Lord Colchester, that enigmatic figure whose birthday we're celebrating in two weeks. Not much is known about Lord Colchester. He writes to us irregularly, maybe once a month. Sometimes we'll go six months without hearing a word from him. All we know is this. He's extraordinarily old and seems to know a lot about brewing. He also is a man of certain pretensions. He doesn't truck with the Gregorian calendar, for example. So, despite the fact that his birthday is the 14th of May, he insists that we celebrate his birthday on the 27th or 28th, which he calls the 14th. He believes that the aristocracy is due to rise again and constantly references the plebeian uprising that was the Battle of Hastings. 

But for all of this, Lord Colchester is a very important part of life at Groennfell meadery. He is, in some ways, the backbone, the background, and the influence for everything we produce. He doesn't drink any of it, however. He doesn't like bubbles. He refers to Dom Perignon with an epithet that I am not comfortable saying on air. Let's just say he was rather progressive and innovative in his racial slurs. 

But Lord Colchester, for all his failings, has a lot to offer. And so, for his birthday bash, we have brewed two special honey wines. We are calling them Lord Colchester's overtly pretentious series. They're both oak-aged. One has fine Vermont maple and the other is rather magnificent, even without maple. 

So, we invite you and all of your friends, young and old, to join us on May 28th for Lord Colchester's birthday bash at Colchester's Mead Hall. And while we're at it, I might as well point out a lot of people mistype "Colchester's Mead Hall," forgetting the possessive. It is not "Colchester Mead Hall" because it has nothing to do with the fact that we are based in Colchester, Vermont. It is in fact that he is the inspiration and the sponsor of Colchester's Mead Hall. It is for him. Or now that I think about it, possibly her. I don't know anyone who has ever met Lord Colchester. All I know is what I learned from the letters which arrive, I should point out, on vellum. Not modern cotton vellum, but vellum. Stretched sheep's stomachs. 

So, that's it for the show this week. No word of the week because, as I mentioned, Lord Colchester made a special request for a word, but it's not a word I feel comfortable sharing with any of you. Innovative is what I would call it. So, we'll just say Lord Colchester's birthday bash, two weeks from today, if you're watching this on the day that it comes out. May 28, Julian calendar, at the Mead Hall. See you there.