By Pat Cope
Originally published in St. Michael’s journal, The Defender. Read in entirety here.
When you first walk into Groennfell Meadery, you’re greeted instantly by the hum of the factory machines, the smell of plants and a friendly greeting by the establishment’s owners, Ricky and Kelly Klein.
The facility itself is set up like a small warehouse, somewhat reminiscent of the super-lab from season four of Breaking Bad, only with no illicit activities going on. In the back of the building, one can see three distinct giant, silver fermenting tanks which store the drink as well as a smaller mixing tank for processing all of the ingredients.
Near the door, however, is a rather homey set-up with chairs, plants and a “No Smoking” sign, comically located on top of a hookah. When we visited, my friends and I also found a random game that involved trying to hit targets on a piece of paper with foam Nerf pellets for points, probably to add an extra bit of quirky fun.
We sampled two of their available meads, Mannaz and Bourbon Barrel. Mannaz is more of standard mead with a very crisp taste, almost like tasting fresh apples. In terms of overall texture, Mannaz is closer to that of a white wine, being smooth and sweet as opposed to bitter. On a hot day, Mannaz could definitely make an adequate substitute for my usual beer after mowing the lawn all day.
The facility itself is set up like a small warehouse, somewhat reminiscent of the super-lab from season four of Breaking Bad, only with no illicit activities going on. In the back of the building, one can see three distinct giant, silver fermenting tanks which store the drink as well as a smaller mixing tank for processing all of the ingredients.
Near the door, however, is a rather homey set-up with chairs, plants and a “No Smoking” sign, comically located on top of a hookah. When we visited, my friends and I also found a random game that involved trying to hit targets on a piece of paper with foam Nerf pellets for points, probably to add an extra bit of quirky fun.
We sampled two of their available meads, Mannaz and Bourbon Barrel. Mannaz is more of standard mead with a very crisp taste, almost like tasting fresh apples. In terms of overall texture, Mannaz is closer to that of a white wine, being smooth and sweet as opposed to bitter. On a hot day, Mannaz could definitely make an adequate substitute for my usual beer after mowing the lawn all day.
