Golden Coast Mead Blog All the Mead is Love!

Happy Fall! It's been a while since we put together a Dispatch from the Frontier of Mead...Notes from the Tasting RoomThe mead club release party was an epic good time. Last Friday about 60 people came through the tasting room to celebrate the equinox and pick up their mead releases, as well as to try some experiments we had on draft. It was a great time. We did learn an important lesson about our session meads which I'll go into detail about below, but the event was a great success and left us feeling very grateful for all of the wonderful people we have in our community.The Frontier of MeadWe have a pre-final sour recipe! Our September Sour was made with a planned process, from step one to completion and now we believe that we have a sour mead process that will make delightful, balanced sour meads every time!On the not as optimal, but equally valuable side of the mead frontier, we made a batch of session mead that evolved into a bit of a frankenstein. Some people loved it, some people hated it. What I came away with was the observation that we're going to have to do some shelf stability testing of our short meads after we finalize our formulations before packaging on a larger scale. If you got a bottle of this Frankenstein mead (the purple one), please see the email we sent out to the Mead Club in order to learn more about your options for swapping it out if you weren't one of the ones who loved it.As you know, we strive to make the most delightful, authentic mead in the world. These two characteristics are sometimes opposed - it would be a lot easier to make the bright, refreshing, balanced meads we are striving towards if we were willing to use chemical preservatives. However, we don't want to compromise on that as long as there's a chance that we can make awesome, delightful meads in a natural and chemical-free way. We thank you for your continued support as we work to do this and we want to make you happy. So if you're not happy, please let me know and we'll do what we can to make it right.The Buzz on the BeesI love bees. Do you? If not, you should. They are bee-a-utiful. They pollinate our food, making it possible to grow things like strawberries and blueberries and apples and pumpkins and kiwi and oh! So many things.They make honey, which is awesome by itself and even more awesome when turned into mead, which as you know, was a gift from the Gods to us. What would our lives bee like without bees?Source: Honey ColonyRudolf Steiner, who was crazy/genius in a Nikola Tesla sort of way (if you don't know who Nikola Tesla was, watch this (not for kids)) - invented a lot of things that are with us today. Biodynamic agriculture and Waldorf schools and more. His work is controversial, and very interesting, but I don't want to get into the controversy here. What I want to share are some of his quotes on bees. Among other things (9 lectures on bees, in fact) he said, "Bee-keeping is therefore something that greatly helps to advance our civilisation, for it makes men strong." I am sure he meant women too.He also said, "Everyone must, in reality, take the greatest interest in bee-keeping, for in fact, more in human life depends on it than one usually thinks."This is because, "what we only experience when love arises in our hearts is to be found, as it were, in the whole bee-hive as substance. The whole hive is in reality permeated with love. The individual bees renounce love in manifold ways, and thus develop love throughout the whole hive. One only begins to understand the life of the bees when one knows that the bee lives in an atmosphere completely pervaded by love."How awesome is that? Steiner is saying that bees are the selfless agents of love in our world! They go around picking up love from each flower they visit and spreading it in the world so that life can happen!If we were to take a purely materialist world view, we would dismiss Steiner's statement above. But, I believe that love is the most powerful force in my life, it's what I love about living life. It's what makes every good moment good. As such, I love this idea, that bees and honey are physical manifestations of love, and agents of love in the world. As a result, all the mead is love. Everybody, ALL THE MEAD IS LOVE! LA-di-da-di-da!So, please, make like a bee and share your love with the world.Participate in Our HiveWe have lots of things happening at our tasting room (hive) in Oceanside. Here are a few we want to highlight:Nothing Bundt Fun (Mead + Bundt Cake) Pairing NightTONIGHT, Sept 29, 6-8pmStill a few tickets left to this never-before-seen (who pairs mead and bundt cakes?? (we do)) event. Grab tickets here.Bottomless Brunch w/ Emme's CateringThis Sunday, Oct 2nd, 11am-Sold out$15 for all-you-can-eat brunch at our tasting room! Emme's catering will be dishing out some delicious food, to be paired with a mead-mosa or two.Music for the RevolutionSunday, October 9th, 10am-9pmJoin us at Pala Mesa Resort for this all day music festival with profits going to the Fallbrook Food Pantry. Music for the Revolution is a conscious music festival that will have live music throughout the day with local food & business vendors, crafts, and a kid's zone. One of the goals for this festival is to empower people to create more sustainable worlds within the festival grounds and outside in their homes and places of work. They will be generating little waste from the day's activities, placing recycling & composting bins throughout the premises. Local organizations and artists will be available to help inspire empowered action through education and hands-on activities. Music for the Revolution's vision is to create a space that encourages people to live greener lifestyles, foster relationships with like-minded individuals & businesses who are seeking positive change, and support local businesses that will subsequently allow North County to thrive. Get Your Tickets Here.Cheers!Frank GolbeckCo-Founder, CEO, Head Mead MakerGolden Coast Mead