[HOT LIST] Your EID Holiday Shopping Guide

Two James Spirits. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

There's one week until Christmas - time to start shopping!!! Allow me to make it easy on you: buy them booze. Why? Because everyone likes booze. (Except people who don't drink. Don't buy them booze. But everyone else likes booze.) Here's a few (several!) ideas for booze-themed gifts to give this holiday season.

Schramm's Made in Michigan basket.

#1 Buy them booze baskets
Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a basket full of booze. Schramm's Mead in Ferndale is offering two different gift baskets in $40 and $60 price points. The larger basket features all items made in Michigan. 8 Degrees Plato in Ferndale has customizable gift buckets (as in ice buckets), which you can choose to stock full of craft beer and any combination of artisan foods, beer stemware, beer-themed gift items like beer bottle cap jewelry made by a local artist, beer books, and more.

Merchant's Fine Wine in Dearborn is making customized gift baskets from their extensive assortment of imported and craft beers, as well as wine, coffee, tea, chocolates, cheese and sausage, and whatever else they carry (which I don't  really know because I never make it past the beer section…it's a big store!). The Wine Garden in St. Clair Shores also has customizable gift baskets which can include anything from their selection of craft beer (they pay extra close attention to the Belgians) as well as their large selection of wines, their custom-built cigar humidor, and their exceptional selection of whiskeys and bourbons (one of the best in the state - get your George Dickel bottles there right now, and nowhere else).

Specialty meads from Superior Lakes at the Wine Garden.

#2 Buy them straight-up booze
Alcohol is the perfect holiday gift for those you don't know what to buy. It says, "I don't really know what you like, but I know you like to drink." Michigan's craft booze scene - beer, mead, cider, spirits, even wine (yes, wine counts) - has been exploding in recent years, and, as is typically the case with fast-growing industries, this has been the biggest year yet. This holiday season, give the gift that says you're thoughtful, you support the local economy, and you also have taste.

While Founders and Bell's get all the accolades from the chest-thumpers on Beer Advocate and the media outlets that troll them for their listicles, the reality is New Holland's Dragon's Milk is probably the best bourbon barrel aged stout being made in our state. (SHHHHHHHHHH, DON'T TELL ANYONE.) But don't take my word for it. (No but really, do.)

Valentine Distilling in Ferndale now has two vodkas, a gin, and a whiskey on store shelves, but stop by the distillery itself to pick up some of their barrel-aged gin, an extra-special gift for spirits connoisseurs. Or give them a taste of Detroit history with a bottle from Two James Spirits, the first licensed distillery in the city of Detroit since before Prohibition. The bottles alone are pieces of art. Plus they come with booze in them.

Heed the mead with a little something special (as in, special release) from Schramm's, B. Nektar, Superior Lakes, or Kuhnhenn. Or brave the crowds at Kuhnhenn this weekend for their special Winter Solstice bottle release - all the big, burly beers and meaty meads their rapid fans wait all year for. It's kind of a big deal.

Craft Box + custom buckets from 8 Degrees.

#3 Buy them booze subscriptions
What's better than the gift of booze? The gift of booze 12 times. 8 Degrees Plato now offers a monthly "Craft Box" club membership. With a one-time membership fee of a whopping $5, members get access to a monthly Craft Box selection featuring craft beers, ciders, artisan foods, and beer-themed goodies. The boxes are $45 each month.

Great Lakes Coffee in Midtown now offers BWC (beer - wine - coffee) clubs. Sign up for a monthly subscription for beer ($25), wine ($40), coffee ($30), or all three ($85), all of the exceptional quality and quirky caliber you've come to expect from the folks at IFAD. Email andrew@greatlakescoffee.com to get signed up, or to sign someone else up.

#5 Buy them books about booze
First, buy the two books I was somewhat involved with: Ann Arbor Beer: A Hoppy History of Tree Town Brewing and Belle Isle to 8 Mile: An Insider's Guide to Detroit. Both are amazing. Because they in some way involve me.

Aside from those, also pick up the newly-released Detroit's Historic Eastern Market, written by Eastern Market's vice president of business development Randall Fogelman and writer Lisa Rush. This book is part of the Images of America series from Arcadia Publishing.

Also newly-released is Michigan's Best Beer Guide, a comprehensive guide to all of Michigan's breweries and brewpubs. (But with how fast this industry is growing, it won't be comprehensive for long.)

#6 Buy them furniture made out of booze barrels
DEAR FRIENDS, THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BUY FOR ME, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING. New Holland (I LOVE YOU GUYS) has started re-purposing their used barrels into crafty furniture pieces - with a special emphasis on Dragon's Milk, MICHIGAN'S BEST BBA STOUT BUT DON'T TELL ANYONE BECAUSE THEN IT WILL BE RUINED. The BarrelWorks Project shop is now live.

#7 Buy them booze clothing and accessories
Got a man who likes his ties as much as he likes his whiskey? BAM - whiskey ties. Detroit tie lab and international sensation Cyberoptix has whiskey and beer-themed ties. Order them online or pick up the whiskey tie at the Emerald, an independently-owned store inside the Park Shelton in Midtown. Hugh in Midtown has all sorts of crystal beerware, cocktail accoutrements, and vintage ice buckets, but I'm particularly partial to the tiki mugs, because tiki mugs.

#8 Buy them booze-infused foods and mixers
Speaking of Hugh, they are the first retail outlet to carry Wolf Moon, a local partnership with McClure's Pickles producing artisan cocktail mixers. Just add booze! (For that, see #2.) Read more about Wolf Moon here. And speaking of McClure's, it's still the best damn Bloody Mary mix on the market, the end. Always good for gifts with a nice bottle of vodka. (Or gin! Tequila even, like Blue Nectar, another Michigan-made product.) And speaking of mixers! Order a hand-crafted seasonal syrup (or six) from Voigt's Soda House, available for pick-up in store or delivery (for orders over $50). For sodas. But really for cocktails.

You still have time to order some beer mustard, beer soap, and hop candy from Founders. Plus, Rock City Eatery will be selling bourbon/butterscotch/pecan and sweet potato whiskey pies (and two other flavors not boozey) on December 23 and 24, first-come first-serve. (He sold out within minutes on Thanksgiving so, you know. Can only make so many pies in that oven and spend so many hours not sleeping.)

[EID ON AIR] Talking meads and merds on the Craig Fahle Show

Me with Craig Fahle. 

Just last week (ye gods has it only been a week??) I was a guest on the Craig Fahle Show on WDET talking about mead, thanks to this little piece in Hour. I put together a bunch of notes for the show which, of course, I never once referenced. So now I'm sharing them with you. Initially I was only going to share a few key tidbits, but then I figured I might as well just start at the beginning and not assume people already have a basic knowledge of what I'm talking about. 

You can listen to the Craig Fahle Show's snippet on mead with me here. I've also done a lot of mead primer work here, for your reference. 

PS, "merds." It's a thing now.

NOTES:

What is mead? 
Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from honey. The difference between mead and beer and wine is in the fermentables in the product - in beer it's grains, in wine it's grapes, and in mead it's honey.

Because honey is the primary ingredient, yes, it is sweet, but the sweetness can be tempered just like in a wine and meads can also be bone-dry.

Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world. The famous French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss makes a case for the invention of mead as a marker of the passage "from nature to culture." (And everyone who has ever written anything remotely significant about mead has referenced this.)

Meads are typically the strength of wine, roughly around 14% alcohol (though that can vary significantly).

Are there different kinds of meads? 
Much as there are different regions and varietals of wine and different styles of beer, there are dozens of different varieties of meads, but some of the most common that you'll find are as follow:
-Melomel - made with fruit
-Braggot - beer/mead hybrid using malt (with or without hops)
-Cyser - honey and apple juice fermented together
-Pyment - honey and red or white grapes (a wine hybrid)

Mead now has its own National Mead Day on August 3, an effort by the American Homebrewers Association.

B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale
-Brad Dahlhofer is the co-owner of B. Nektar Meadery with his wife Kari and partner Paul Zimmerman.
-B. Nektar just entered the New York market.
-B. Nektar has expanded into a second production space, also in Ferndale, about six times the size of their original space, and recently added another 4,000 gallons of capacity.
-They are currently in the process of getting a brewery license so they can make braggots. UPDATE: As of October 31, 2013, they have received their federal brewing license and will soon begin making braggots.
-When they started producing the Zombie Killer, a lightly-hopped cherry cyser session mead, in 2011, it was a coup for the company and became their claim to fame; Ken Schramm and others credit them with bringing mead national attention.
-Next up was Evil Genius, a lightly-carbonated IPA-style mead that, to the best of their knowledge, was the first IPA-style mead in the country (though not the first hopped) - note, Evil Genius is no longer in production due to an issue with availability for one of the ingredients.
-Other carbonated session meads now include: Necromangocon, Kill All the Golfers (an Arnold Palmer style mead), Black Fang (made with blackberry, clove, orange).
-They will produce 25,000 cases of carbonated meads alone this year.
-New Devil's Night releases including new session mead Dwarf Invasion (made with cherry, hops), the Smoked Pumpkin Caper (made with smoked pumpkin, squash, and sweet potato, smoked honey, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spices, aged in a Goose Island Bourbon County Stout barrel clocking in at 15%ABV), Devil's Juice (orange blossom honey, smoked 'mutt' honey, pineapple juice, and a blend of 3 hot peppers), Eye Ball (like a highball, ginger and raw wildflower honey aged in rye whiskey barrels, one of partner meadmaker Ian Radogost-Givens' creations; he will be doing more experiMental B-Sides and a barrel-aged series.
-In the works: the barrel-aged series and more B-sides.
-We're seeing more and more carbonated mead at trade shows, presumable thanks to the success these guys have had.
-B. Nektar might be the largest meadery in the country right now, with Red Stone Meadery in Boulder next closest in size and production.

Ken Schramm, Schramm's Mead, Ferndale
-Read about his new Ferndale meadery here.
-Heart of Darkness is his signature mead, which used to be made at B. Nektar before Schramm got his own licensed meadery. It is made from homegrown, hand-harvested fruit from Schramm’s orchard and berry patch. The cherries are of the Schraammbeek variety, an intensely flavorful, European morello type, the raspberries are Heritage and Latham, and the black currants are Crandall and Consort. Production is extremely limited, as the amount of care and labor which go into each batch is substantial. Much of the fruit is netted to prevent birds from eating what should be your mead. This is a hand-crafted mead, if ever there was one.
-Where B. Nektar's meads appeal to the beer nerds, Schramm's meads are more elegant, akin to fine wines.
-Schramm is a world-renowned expert in mead, having wrote the book on it. The Compleat Meadmaker was released in 2003. It is still considered the current book of reference for meadmaking, and Schramm plans on a second edition soon. He is to mead what Brian Polcyn is to charcuterie.
-He plans on producing 300 gallons per month, all self-distributed.
-He also co-created the Mazer Cup, the largest mead event in the world featuring both home brewers and commercial meads in competition.
-Schramm has his standard blackberry, raspberry, and ginger meads, but he also has special meads like the Heart of Darkness, the Statement (made with Hungarian cherries) and Black Heart, a black raspberry melomel being released on Halloween.

Kuhnenn Brewing Co., Warren + Clinton Twp.
-The cult favorite craft brewery just bought a new production facility, which will open next spring
-The new brewery also has the capacity to produce 2,000-3,000 barrels (120,000-180,000 gallons) of mead.
-They will focus on braggots, lightly carbonated session meads (beer/mead "hybrids"). They will still make limited release still meads for brewery release only.
-They will distribute their braggots starting in Michigan and expanding out.
-Still meads will be special releases likely brewery only
-Every March they host "Mead Madness" with a slew of new limited specialty mead releases every week.
-They were covered in Imbibe Magazine's recent article on American meads, along with B. Nektar.
-They're currently known for meads like their Bourbon Barrel French Toast mead and Imperial Bourbon Barrel Braggot.
-Meadmaker Frank Retell has taken home scores of golds, silvers and bronzes at the Mazer Cup for his braggots, pyments, dessert meads, melomels...the list goes on and on.

Other Michigan meadmakers
-Dragonmead in Warren (currently going through a major expansion)
-Superior Lakes in Harrison Twp.
-St. Ambrose Cellars (now making some carbonated meads)
-Bardic Wells

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

This aggression will not stand! 

ICYMI:
~Will The Stand Gastro Bistro be the best new restaurant in Birmingham? Maybe even the best in metro Detroit? With Chef Paul Grosz at the helm, it certainly could be. The Stand has officially opened; read more details about it here (including a full vegan menu and craft cocktails from the master) and see photos of the amazing transformation the former Zazio's space has undergone. And here are photo collages of my opening night meal, part 1 and part 2. [EID]

~Have you visited the newly-opened Schramm's Mead in Ferndale? Maybe you've had one of B. Nektar's crazy mead concoctions? The craft mead business is taking off throughout the country and metro Detroit is at the very center of it. What makes these local guys so important? Read on. [Hour]

~The U.P. is fabulous, especially in the fall. Here I take you on a 6-day roadtrip from Pictured Rocks to the Keweenaw Peninsula. It should be noted that the U.P. is not the place for those with dietary restrictions, calorie-counters, fussy eaters or uppity gourmands. Also, abandon all hope of boutique hotels, ye who enter here. If you enjoy hearty Midwestern comfort foods, challenging hikes, mountains and waterfalls, scenic remote locations, and everything about the great outdoors, the U.P. is its own kind of paradise. Also, go to The Fitz. Stay at their inn. And get some monk muffins in the morning. [Fox]

~Ever wonder what happened to that tiny little walk-up counter where Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes got their start? It's now Chickpea in the D, serving fresh, healthy items made in-house daily to the downtown lunch crowd. [Model D]

~ALL OF THE EVENTS. (You might really want to start paying attention to this weekly column. And you're welcome.) [EID]

~Happy 90th birthday to Manya! Read all about the historic Abick's Bar and its wonderful owner Manya here in Model D. Manya turned 90 on October 4. [Model D]

~Introducing: Ferndale Restaurant Week and a brand-new fall/holiday festival from One-Eyed Betty's, FestivALE. [EID]

It's National Pizza Month! !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If there's a way to make EID any more pizza-focused I don't know what it is but I will find it. First, check out the new Trattoria Da Luigi in Royal Oak and their uncompromisingly Italian menu with wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas. #pizzamonth #pizzacleanse #EIDluvspizza [Detroit News]

Have you read enough about Two James Spirits yet? I've written about them in three different publications myself. Well, here's another one. Seriously the place is pretty cool. And everyone else seems to think so too, prompting a significant increase in their operating hours. [Detroit News / Two James FB]

They're still a long ways off from actually opening, but that didn't stop BLOUIN Culture + Travel from naming Detroit City Distillery one of the top 5 urban distilleries in the world. An impressive accomplishment, considering. (Blouin must not have seen all the press on the actually-open and also urbanly-located Two James.) [Blouin]

La Feria now has la signage. [La Feria FB]

Detroit is a mac and cheese kinda town, and there sure is a lot of it. But this mac and cheese comes in a parmesan bowl with a parmesan crisp top. It's, like, a mac and cheese and cheese sandwich. $8, also available gluten-free. [Rock City FB]

Win 5th row tickets to see the Detroit Lions on October 20 courtesy of Uber and StubHub with a VIP tailgating experience featuring Mudgie's and MillKing It Productions! Enter the promo code "GreatSeatsDet" into your Uber account to be entered to win. [Uber]

The State of Michigan has declared this aggression will not stand, and Belle Isle is now a state park. Sometimes when you close your eyes and wish for something really really hard, it happens. Like that Belle Isle will actually get CLEANED. Imagine that! Trash picked up! Facilities maintained! Maybe...just maybe...some cool new amenities will be brought to the island? Maybe the Zoo could be reopened? Possibilities are endless. Dare to dream! [Detroit News]

Eastern Market Corporation, in partnership with Charter One and the MEDC, has awarded nearly $100,000 to 30 Detroit-area food entrepreneurs including Beautiful Soup, Beignets, Drought, Ethel's Edibles-Gluten Free, Slow Jams Jam, StrEat Eat and more. [Crain's]

Detroit Beer Week is coming up October 17-27. New events and venues are being announced daily on the blog and Facebook page, and you can also follow them on Twitter at @detbeerweek. [DBW Official]

What the WHAT. Sanders' new Chocolate Fudge Bumpy Cheesecake has received ALL of the likes. [Detroit News]

Bill Shea of Crain's Detroit Business reports on the important things in life and baseball: bacon burgers. [Crain's]

So, ARE these the best sandwiches in Detroit right now? (To sum up your comments, in a word, no.) Mudgie's, Russell Street Deli, Mike's Famous Ham Place, Detroit Vegan Soul (D.V.S) and Lunchtime Global all make an appearance on this list from Thrillist. [Thrillist]

LADY farmers. [Freep]

Detroit can haz goats? Will these cities provide a model that Detroit can follow, or is Detroit a special and unique snowflake city that other cities' methods doesn't apply to what with all the rumored rabid dogs and whatnot? [MLive]

Great profile of The Detroit Three in this week's Metro Times Detroit. [MT]

Jamaican me crazy! Need to know where to go for Jamaican food that isn't Bahama Breeze? Here you go. [Freep]

Freakin' Unbelievable Burgers is coming to Farmington Hills. The Flint-based burger joint has already received some national buzz. I'd love to say I've visited but Flint is far. Farmington Hills is less far, so that's nice. [Metromode]

Troy-based chain Olga's Kitchen has a new CEO and he's got big plans for the company. [Crain's]

Things having to do with people on TV
~The Detroit episode of Cooking Channel's Chuck's Eat the Street aired last week. Here the Detroit News speaks with celeb chef Chuck Hughes about his experience of Detroit. [Detroit News]

~Iron Chef Michael Symon was in town last week for the Greening of Detroit annual fundraiser gala at Roast. Here Hour Detroit talks with Symon about Detroit, Slows BAR BQ, B Spot Burgers, The Chew, and everything else. [Hour]

~Another Michigan native is competing on Top Chef. Aaron Cushieri hails from Livonia and previously worked at Assaggi Bistro before moving to Chicago where he is now under the wing of another chef with Michigan history, Takashi Yagihashi, at Slurping Turtle. The previous Top Chef winner was Kristen Kish, another Michigan native. Can a native Michigander snag the title of Top Chef two years in a row? [Detroit News]

Beerie (and merdie)
~B-rad of B. Nektar is featured in this BBC News story about the rising popularity of mead. [BBC]

~Jerry of Hour Detroit talks seasonal beers - the best of the Michigan-made Oktoberfests and pumpkin beers from breweries like New Holland Brewing Co., Dragonmead Brewery, Atwater Brewery, and Griffin Claw Brewing Company (GCBC) - as well as info on seasonal food pairings. [Hour]

~GAYOT.com - The Guide to the Good Life named Jolly Pumpkin Brewery's Bam Biere as one of the 10 best craft beers. [Gayot]

~Bars staying open until 4am? Not the first time this has come up - Granholm previously shot this down. But with all of the changes and loosening-up on local liquor laws as of late, this might actually stand a shot. [Freep]

[Hour Detroit] The Need for Mead

Schramm's Meadery. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

With the opening of Schramm’s Meadery in downtown Ferndale scheduled for this fall, the city might well be the epicenter of a growing craft beverage industry that’s gaining a lot of “buzz.”

Schramm’s joins B. Nektar Meadery — the “beer geek’s” mead that uses cult movie imagery on its labels (think Star Wars and Evil Dead) and now exports to a dozen states.

While mead is gaining new fans, it’s certainly no upstart. Some consider it the ancestor of all fermented drinks. Mead, an alcoholic beverage made from honey, is often referred to as “honey wine.” Much like beer or wine, mead has dozens of styles and can be flavored in countless ways. Popular styles include cysers, made with apple juice; melomels, made with fruits; and pyments, made with wine grapes.

Mead more.

[EID Feature] Schramm's Mead: Mead from the Guy Who Wrote the Book on It

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

Starting today, Schramm's Mead in Ferndale is now open for business! After months of planning, Ken Schramm, owner and internationally-respected mead maker, is finally opening his much-anticipated meadery and tasting room in downtown Ferndale. (Read the EID mead primer here.)

The tasting room has six meads on tap - four signature and two rotating - as well as a selection of "mead cocktails," along with a small menu of sweet and savory small plates made to pair with their meads. (Cheese plate, anyone? Anyone besides me?) The tasting room can accommodate 28 inside and another 20 on the spacious patio overlooking 9 Mile when the weather is gracious enough to permit it. On the walls are works by local artists that are available for purchase; Schramm charges less commission than galleries and hopes to be able to get a lot of quality artwork in. As Schramm was looking for a location somewhere along the Woodward Corridor he looked at many buildings and spoke to many city council members and planning officials. He found Ferndale to be the most enthusiastic and supportive of what he wanted to do. Now, between Schramm's Meadery, from one of the most respected mead makers in the world, and B. Nektar, possibly the highest-producing meadery in the country right now, Ferndale might as well be called Meaddale. 

All meads will be available for purchase in the tasting as well as select stores - they are self-distributing for now until their production requires something more substantial. Schramm has a goal of producing 300 gallons per month, or somewhere north of 130 cases (by comparison, neighboring Ferndale meadery B. Nektar has been steadily producing over 2,000 cases per month, so Schramm's is a tiny operation by comparison). 

I had the chance to sit down with Schramm last month to discuss his new meadery and his history with the burgeoning craft mead industry - something he has been instrumental in growing. "Okay, I have a bit of a reputation," he said bashfully to me as I attempted to make him take credit for his work. Schramm is an exceedingly kind and humble person, and more than one industry friend has referred to him as a genius - a label I have absolutely no doubt he deserves after hearing him rattle off the numerical designations of yeast strains he has used, the ethical conundrum of organic versus local, and the importance of having "fidelity to your product." Quality in, quality out, he says - which means while he will be using Michigan fruit and honey in his products, he is also very mindful of seasonality and will use what he needs to from where he needs to as the items are in season and available. 

The following is an excerpt from this conversation that appears in this month's issue of Hour Detroit, now on stands. 

*****

Just as craft brewing started in the basements of home brewers before it broke into the mainstream, so too did mead – and the home brewer and home meadmaker were often one and the same.

That's how Ken Schramm started in 1987. His brother bought him a home brewing kit one year for Christmas, which came with a copy of Charlie Pappazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, long held as the definitive guide on the subject. In the back there was an appendix on mead.

"In it he spoke in superlatives, [like] there's really nothing better [than mead] in the whole wide world," Schramm says. "So I decided to give it a shot."

At the time craft brewing wasn't even yet in its infancy; it was still a zygote. Mead had even less prominence. Schramm started making meads and contacted fellow Michigander Bill Pfeiffer, one of the first five national beer judges in the country who was also meadmaker of the year. Pfieffer directed Schramm to the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild, where he met Dr. Dan McConnell, a PhD in microbiology research from the University of Michigan. "We both had the mead bug at the time, and I suggested we start a mead-only competition. Then people would send us their meads from all over and we could learn which ones were best and how they made them." And so, in partnership with a third friend Mike O'Brien, the Mazer Cup was born, America's first and largest mead-only competition. (The event is now held annually in March in Boulder, Colorado.)

Schramm and his mead buddies continued to build their reputations with experimental meads, and were guest speakers at the American Homebrewers Association national conference in Denver in 1994. "At that point our reputations were sealed," Schramm says. "People knew we were serious. We were asked to write articles. Eventually I got asked to write a book." McConnell was busy with a research grant from Harvard so Schramm took the lead on the mead-making manual.

The Compleat Meadmaker was released in 2003. It is still considered the current book of reference for meadmaking, and Schramm plans on a second edition soon. That's right: Ken Schramm is, quite literally, the man who wrote the book on mead.

Now he is opening his own meadery in downtown Ferndale, which he has wanted to do, he says, "Since before I wrote the book." Now in his 50s, he decided that if he was ever going to do it, now is the time. "I really wanted to open the meadery when mead was starting to gain currency and was not so obscure, when it was beginning to be part of the craft alcohol movement in the United States. I had to do something to support that first."

Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set here.

[HOT LIST] Mead Day

Mead Day is this Saturday, August 3. Metro Detroit is pretty much the best place in the country to be right now if you're a mead fan. But let's back this up a bit for newbies: mead is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey, which is ultimately what differentiates it from wine, cider, beer, and other spirits. It is believed that mead is the world's oldest alcoholic beverage, dating back to around 2000 B.C. The father of modern anthropology, Claude Levi-Strauss, stated that the invention of mead marked the passage "from nature to culture" for modern man.

Mead carries with it this imagery of Vikings and Knights and dudes who play Dungeons and Dragons. None of that is patently untrue, but in contemporary culture mead is on track to become the country's next "IT" artisan alcoholic beverage of choice. But don't take my word for it; take Imbibe's. Craft beer is booming, artisan spirits aren't far behind it in terms of the rate of industry growth and increasing number of artisan distilleries and consumer popularity, craft ciders are taking off in apple-growing regions (including, hi, Michigan), and wine...well, wine has had its day and eventually will again.* But mead? Mead as a commercial artisan beverage is still in its infancy but if the growth of Ferndale's own B. Nektar Meadery is any indication (now in almost 20 states, including California), it's primed to EXPLODE over the next 2-5 years. Much like the craft beer and artisan spirits before it.

So, it's made from honey. Is it sweet? To quote one industry friend of mine, "No, it tastes like burgers." Yes, it's sweet. It's made from honey. But much like craft beer, mead comes in a variety of forms and flavors, from lower-ABV (like, around 6% - still high-ish by beer standards) carbonated meads to bourbon-barrel-aged bombs, traditional meads that taste like luscious liquid honeys to its dozens of variations that include cysers (made with honey and apple juice), melomels (honey and fruit), braggots (honey and malt), and pyments (honey and juice from wine grapes).

In metro Detroit alone we have meadmakers B. Nektar in Ferndale, Kuhnhenn Brewing Company and Dragonmead in Warren, Superior Lakes in Harrison Township, and the soon-to-open Schramm's Mead in Ferndale - which is to say nothing of the many other meadmakers in Michigan. This Mead Day, celebrate with Michigan-made meads. And here is how.

#1 2013 Summer Mead Fest at B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale
Their first Mead Fest started with probably 100 mead nerds (merds?) standing in the parking lot of the original B. Nektar Meadery production facility in Ferndale. Since then the event has grown and packs in hundreds - thousands? - of people over two different annual festivals, one held in the late summer and now a Spring Mead Fest (2013 was the first year), with live music, several food trucks, exclusive specialty meads on tap, and the eagerly-anticipated releases of rare and limited meads. Summer Mead Fest is always held on Mead Day, and this year's is also the company's five-year anniversary. They'll be debuting the new Black Fang, a carbonated blackberry clove mead, and the Zombies Take Manhattan, a rye whiskey cask-aged Imperial Zombie Killer (their most popular mead). The popular Cherry Chipotle is also making its return at Summer Mead Fest.

With mead names and label designs that nod to geeky cult movies (from Star Wars to Army of Darkness) and playful flavors that tend much more towards craft beer than wine (like Evil Genius, the hopped and carbonated IPA-style mead, currently out of production due to availability issues with one of the ingredients), B. Nektar has a distinct appeal to the local craft beer community. So it will come as happy news when I tell you that they are currently in the process of acquiring a brewing license, which is different than their current license, so they can do more collaborations with breweries and make beer-style meads/mead-style beers. The B. Nektar Brewery will come online as soon as the state approves their license.

#2 Kuhnhenn Brewing Company, Warren
Though not in distribution, Kuhnhenn Brewing Company's meads have their own cult following that even Imbibe noted. Every March they host "Mead Madness" with a slew of new limited specialty mead releases every week. They've also got several special Mead Day releases planned, including Sunflower Bourbon Barrel (Heaven Hill 3 year), Sunflower Bourbon Barrel (Heaven Hill 6 year), Sunflower Rye Whiskey Barrel (Heaven Hill with heavy char), and Saison Braggot (1/3 saison and 2/3 honey, fermented together, then spiced with ginger and coriander).

Happy news for Kuhnhenn fans: they have purchased an industrial building in Clinton Township at the corner of Groesbeck and Metro Parkway that will serve as a large-scale production facility and will also be home to a second, and much larger, tasting room. And THAT you heard here first.

#3 Dragonmead Microbrewery, Warren
I mean, it's right there in the name. This multi-time award-winning microbrewery is the most unabashed about its D+D roots with imagery that celebrates it rather than tries to downplay it. The three partners - Earl Scherbarth, Larry Channell and Bill Wrobel - started as homebrewers (and mead makers) who would throw wassail dinners (part of their own D+D backgrounds) but weren't able to find a quality mead to serve. So they started making their own. They ended up bringing their meads and beers out of the dungeon basement and into the mainstream, and are now also undergoing a major expansion that will allow them to significantly increase their brewing operations and distribution.

#4 Schramm's Mead, Ferndale
Okay, it's not actually open yet and you can't just GO there, but you should still be aware of it. Ken Schramm wrote the book on mead. No, but really, he wrote The Compleat Meadmaker, which is pretty much to mead what Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie was to meat. Though his new meadery and tasting room in Ferndale won't be open yet for Mead Day, he's getting close. An inspiration to meadmakers far and wide (including his new neighbors at B. Nektar, with whom he has made his own recipe Heart of Darkness, a highly sought-after limited release), he is also a co-founder of the Mazer Cup, the leading international mead competition. This guy is serious business (he even grows his own fruit for his meads, and by "grows," I more so mean "orchestrates") and I've heard the name "genius" tossed around quite a bit in reference to him. We're probably mere weeks away from his eponymous meadery opening; this is definitely one to watch for.

#5 Motor City Brew Tours Mead Day Tour
Want to check out all of the above meaderies including a sneak peek at Schramm's? Let Motor City Brew Tours bus you around to each of the above four destinations for $49.99 including a light lunch, mead samples at each stop, and transportation so you don't have to worry about driving. Your final stop is Summer Mead Fest at B. Nektar where you can choose to either sober up or go all out and call a friend or Uber to take you home.

Honorable mention: Superior Lakes in Harrison Township 
You don't know about this place yet because I haven't written about this place yet, but give me a few hours days.

*When it's wine's turn again the focus will be all about small-production family estate boutique wines from lesser-known growing regions. Napa? No-thankya. In fact, that's already happening, but outside of the wine world the drinking public seems to have lost interest in the industry for the time being. But, like anything, and everything, it's cyclical. 

[Real Detroit] The Dish

Mac and cheese at Red Crown. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg. 

•Why not just call it "Meaddale"? Ferndale's B. Nektar Meadery recently expanded into a second production facility with a tasting room and Schramm's Mead – owned by world-renowned mead-man Ken Schramm – is set to open later this spring. In the meantime, get your mead fix at B. Nektar's first-ever Spring Mead Fest on Saturday, 4/20 at 1505 Jarvis from noon to 6 p.m. There will be food from Treat Dreams, Green Zebra, Detroit BBQ Co. and Dee's Hot Dog Stand. Limited-release meads will be on draft and they'll also release their new bourbon barrel-aged mead, Episode 13 – B. Nektar Strikes Back.

Read more.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

via @eatitdetroit on Instagram

NAAAAAAAAAIN! (Also photo-spotting friends of EID!) Also, sheNAINigans. [MLive / Pure Detroit]

Happy Snowberon Day! (br)Oberon was released today. The groundhog may have been wrong but Oberon never is -- spring is on the way, really! And even though there was snow on the ground this morning, the sun is shining inside every metro Detroit beer store today! Now please enjoy my analysis of Oberon as the Gateway Beer. [EID]

Chef Kate Williams of Rodin took home the $7500 judge's prize while Andy Hollyday of Roast took home the $2500 People's Choice award at Detroit Harmonie's annual International Experience Top Chef: Coney Dogs contest for their inventive international takes on the classic Detroit coney. [EID FB]

This thread? Still going. If you'd like to meet the brain trust behind it, be sure to follow Detroit BBQ Co on Facebook and say hi to them at an upcoming event. [EID FB]

Ladies and gentlemen, I am the official R-Go blog of Detroit. Because I said so. Here is Mr. Gosling hugging on his biff Larry Mongo and some redhead (kiiiiilllherrrrrr). OMG, J/K!!! [D'Mongo's FB]

OMG, he also offered Larry a role in his film How to Catch a Monster! (Kiiiiiiillhiiiiiiiim.) [MLive]

Dostoyevsky and drinking. I support this. Ferndale Public Library will now be able to serve alcohol at special events. [C+G News]

There's been plenty of discussion of urban farming in Detroit (and plenty of cynicism to go with it), but until now the future of the urban farming has been dubious at best because of (not always enforced) legal restraints. With an EFM now in place this may or may not be City Council's swan song, but at least they got this one right. [WDET]

Sylvia Rector takes a look at the new chef and new menu at the Rugby Grille; Gastronomy's Brandon Zarb will compete for the Chaine des Rotisseurs' national Best Young Chef title in Chicago on June 8, and that Food Network show that's casting in Michigan with the prize of getting a year rent-free in a space in a Michigan mall? Yeah, it's called Food Court Wars and the mall is in Midland. Try to contain yourselves. [Freep]

Just call it Meaddale: here is an in-depth story on Schramm's Mead from The Ferndale 115, and why it's a pretty big deal that it's opening (and in Ferndale, the apparent mead capital of the Midwest, or at least southeastern Michigan). [Ferndale 115]

Let's never drive again. Uber is now in Detroit. [Thrillist]

Grace of India is now open. [HuffPo]

Beer. [Ashley's Westland Cask Ale Festival ... tickets on sale now!]

Sports. [Forbes]

Beer and sports. [DRAFT Mag]

Home-brewed beer (homebrewers get your apps in now!). [Rochester Patch]

Detroit's first ever (official) Nerd Nite is this Thursday at IFAD. Though really every night is nerd night in these parts, in case you hadn't noticed from the oddball fashion sense that dominates the social circuits and the plethora of Mac books lit up in every bar. [Detroit News]

Another Detroit-area restaurant mogul has passed away; Jim Hearn, your product may be "bad" but it tastes oh so good. So long and thank you for the flavored crusts. [Freep]

Sorry to miss this last weekend of the Rust Belt as it was, but I only had eyes for a little red devil this weekend. [Ferndale 115]

Detroit's hard-hitting experts on fuckery Wilson give their top picks for the best party bars in Michigan. [Noise Creep]

The Whitney has added weekday breakfast to their menu. [Detroit News]

Tokyo Sushi is now open in the former Pete's Place spot in Ferndale. [Ferndale Patch]

A history of Zingerman's at 31 years young (though we all know we stop counting after 30). [Michigan Daily]

#7: Buy tickets to a beer release and/or wait in line for several hours for a beer release and/or participate in a lottery ticketing system for a beer release and/or buy a bottle of a limited beer release on eBay for $100 or more. Wait, no; that in fact sucks. Can we please stop the beer geek train from chugging full-bore to Douchetown? (Oh hey, shout-out to Right Brain!) [Food Republic]

Traverse City is another best-something. [Fodor's]