Mead - St Ambrose Cellars

Razz – #MeadMonday

by stambrose | Jan 18, 2016 | Mead

The humble raspberry. A staple of the fresh fruit section of your local produce aisle, a common added-flavor for juices, candies, gum, and more the world over. Packed with antioxidants, brimming with flavor, bursting with beautiful color. We’ve all enjoyed them in one form or another. With Razz!, you can enjoy them in a bottle. With honey. And alcohol.

St. Ambrose Cellars has a long history with the raspberry. Our first batch of mead – Razzmatazz – was developed when a batch of our delicious raspberry honey creme didn’t quite turn out right. Instead of tossing it, we decided to make some mead. It was delicious, and the meadery was born.

Razzmatazz remains a favorite in our lineup today, but today we’re talking about it’s close relative – Razz!. Razz! is a lightly carbonated mead, and a member of our new bottled draft mead lineup.

Razz is a form of melomel. Melomels are meads that also have fruit. Razz is a simple combination – we take our honey, we take our raspberry, and we mix it all together for one great bottle of mead.

For Razz, we add a bit of carbonation and produce the 6% ABV draft mead. For Razzmatazz, we skip the carbonation and produce a still mead – one that turns out more in the 12% ABV range and sits along with Dancing Bare Ambrosia and Tupelo Ambrosia on the shelves.

Both of our raspberry meads are great performers with our customers – garnering over 3.7 star ratings on Untappd and regularly shipping out of the tasting room home with someone. We’re excited to bring you Razz! in bottled form now, and please look for it in your local stores as well!

Mead & Wine in the News : January 14, 2016

by stambrose | Jan 14, 2016 | Mead, News, Wine

Your (occasionally) weekly look at some of the news in the mead, wine, and craft beverage industry – distilled down to the good stuff by the folks at St. Ambrose Cellars.

What Percentage Are You Actually Drinking?

We’ve all woken up with a headache and found something other than ourselves to blame. What if I told you … you might have been right?

It might not be off by much, but your wine bottle might be off just a bit on the ABV of the product. According to a study published in the Journal of Wine Economics, which tested more than 91,000 bottles tested from all over the world, the vast majority inaccurately listed the alcohol content. In most cases, 57.1 percent, the bottles were boozier than their labels said. Another 32.2 percent of the bottles contained less alcohol than listed.

And that’s absolutely legal. Here in the United States, laws allow wines with less than 14% ABV to by off by 1.5% on their label, and wines with more are allowed a 1% leeway. This makes a lot of sense, in reality, as the percentage can vary slightly between batches and tanks. You can read more here.

Former Wolverine Winning in Wine

You might remember Charles Woodson as the first primarily defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy during his legendary career at the University of Michigan. Or perhaps you remember his exceptional NFL career and Super Bowl triumph with the Green Bay Packers. But soon, you might be remembering him for his wine. Woodson has been involved with wine-making for several years, and you can learn more about his adventures here.

Watson the Winemaker

Remember Watson, the IBM Supercomputer that took on Ken Jennings in Jeopardy? Well, he’s gotten into the wine game too now. Will Watson replace human winemakers and usher in the Age of the Machines as a boozy SkyNet? Should we stockpile goods for his inevitable conquering of mankind? Find out here.

Michigan Mead Laws

You can learn about the movement afoot to help Michigan mead-makers reduce red tape and out-dated laws in this article from the Detroit Free Press.

Tupelo Ambrosia Mead – #MeadMonday

by stambrose | Jan 11, 2016 | Mead

Honey bees are not big fans of the snow and cold. Our honey farm and meadery are located in Beulah, MI. Benzie County is not known for dry and mild winter weather. As you may have deduced, honey bees are not big fans of Benzie in the winter. So, where do all our buzzing little friends go when the seasons turn? Vacation, of course.

Our snowbird bees take a nice trip down to the warm Florida panhandle when the snow starts flying here. Since they are busy as bees (being bees this makes total sense) and don’t like to spend the winter just relaxing, they get to work in the swamps of the panhandle producing Tupelo Honey. No, not the song – though their buzz produces a great cover version if you listen just right. Tupelo honey (which is going fast – but you can try to snag some at our sister site) is a rare honey with an exquisite, almost buttery, flavor and a gorgeous light color. It’s great on your toast and in your tea, but it’s also great in our tanks and tasting room.

Tupelo Ambrosia mead is a staple of the lineup here. One of our traditional still meads, it has won awards around the country, including a gold medal in the “Varietal – Semi-Sweet” category at the 2015 Mazer Cup.

Tupelo was one of the first meads produced at St. Ambrose Cellars. Using this special harvest of tupelo honey gathered in Florida during one winter so many years ago, we crafted a mead which has a sublime flavor, very fruity and floral.

This refreshing and modern expression of the world’s most ancient fermented drink features a tropical bouquet and flavors of the rare tupelo honey from which it was made, and a natural sweetness balanced by bright acidity.

After a short absence, we’re glad that Tupelo is back in the tasting room full-time. The latest batch was released just a few short weeks ago and is ready and waiting for you to stop by and grab a taste.

Tupelo Mead on Untappd