GARY GROSS, OWNER and meadmaster at Ethereal Meads a production-only meadery in Battle Ground, uses regional honey and regionally grown fruits to produce delicious, drinkable meads that appeal to beer, wine and cider lovers alike.
THE FIRST TWO meads from Battle Ground’s Ethereal Meads meadery, are the Autumn Mist (left), a semi-sweet, single fermentation of honey, apple juice and five spices; and the Ruby Sunset (right), a slightly dry, fermentation of honey, crushed strawberries and dried cranberries that uses a German wine yeast to give it a slight hint of a German-style white wine. For more information about the meads and where to buy them by the bottle or by the glass, visit www.etherealmeads.com.
If it’s been more than a couple years since you last tried mead, it’s time to dispel all preconceived notions about this ancient, fermented-honey drink.
Yes: Mead used to be a somewhat cloyingly sweet, hard-to-swallow nod to Medieval days that you probably picked up at a Renaissance Faire. But a new generation of mead-makers has reinvented this ancient drink, producing meads that are more like fine wines – light, delicate, packed with flavor and extremely drinkable.
Battle Ground’s Gary Gross, owner of Ethereal Meads, is one such mead-maker.
If Gross’ first two commercially produced meads – a delicate strawberry-cranberry mead that is equal parts sweet and tart and a balanced, spiced apple mead that conjures memories of October hayrides and crisp Autumn evenings – are any indication, the next generation of meads is going to give craft ciders and beers a run for their money.
“Mead is becoming more popular … it’s following on the tail end of cider’s popularity,” Gross says. “But, yes, if it’s been awhile since you’ve tasted mead, you’ll want to give it another chance.”
Gross started his mead journey more than a decade ago at his son’s wedding.
“My son is a historical enthusiast,” Gross explains. “He’s a re-enactor – vikings, renaissance, Civil War, World War II … he loves all of that. So when he and his wife got married in 2004, they had a medieval wedding in a forest in upstate New York.”
The wedding party and guests stayed true to the medieval theme – eating roasted venison haunches and drinking a special mead, concocted by the bride’s father.
“I had never tried mead before, but it was delightful,” Gross says. “I had brewed beer, but after I tasted the mead, I thought, ‘I’ve got to try to make that!’”
Flash-forward through 10 years. Gross had spent more than 30 years as a chemical engineer, traveling the world for his job, and wanted to do something closer to his heart and his home.
“I wanted to work for myself and I wanted to wake up in the morning and walk across my driveway to get to my office,” Gross says.
He loved brewing beer and could have made a career out of that craft beverage, but the beer market in the Portland-Vancouver region was already getting oversaturated. Instead, Gross decided, he would concentrate on mead, a drink that is just starting to catch on with craft beverage enthusiasts.
Family and friends loved the meads he made, but Gross wanted to test his mead-making skills. Two years ago, he sent two of his meads – a strawberry-cranberry and a bing cherry – to an international mead competition in Colorado. The strawberry-cranberry came away with a gold medal. That’s when Gross knew that he had hit on something real.
Over the next couple years, Gross added to his commercial mead-making equipment, experimented with honeys and fruits and spices, found a Vancouver-based bottling company, navigated Washington’s convoluted alcohol laws and had a relative come up with a cool logo for his Ethereal Meads company.
Last month, Gross launched the first two Ethereal Meads: Autumn Mist, a semi-sweet, blend of honey, apple juice and five spices; and Ruby Sunset, a semi-dry mead made from blackberry honey, crushed strawberries and dried cranberries. Both of the Ethereal Meads are crafted from local and regional ingredients – Gross uses blackberry honey from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, apples from the Yakima Valley in eastern Washington, cranberries from Aberdeen on the Washington Coast and strawberries from Columbia Fruit in Woodland.
“We live and produce here in Clark County,” Gross says. “We are committed to working with regional fruits and honeys that are sustainably produced.”
Both of the Ethereal Meads currently on the market have an alcohol content (13.5 percent for the Autumn Mist and 13.8 percent for the Ruby Sunset) similar to wine.
“People ask me about mead, whether it is a beer or wine or something else,” Gross says. “It’s not beer and it’s not wine; it is its own beverage type, defined by the fact that at least half the fermentable sugar for any mead comes from honey. Fermenting with honey with different fruits and spices makes the possibilities for mead limitless. These two meads are just the beginning of great, approachable meads in the classic style from Ethereal Meads.”
The Ethereal Meads are sold by the bottle at By the Bottle in Vancouver; and at Saraveza, Belmont Station, The Mead Market and Portland Bottle Shop in Portland. To try the meads on tap, visit Old Ivy Brewery and Taproom in Vancouver; The Hop N Grape in Longview; or the Northwood Public House and Brewery in Battle Ground. For more information, or to see an updated list of vendors, visit www.etherealmeads.com.
