Charlotte cidery joins Black is Beautiful craft beer initiative — with mead
When Kevin Martin heard about the Black Is Beautiful initiative — a collaborative craft beer project started by Marcus Baskerville at San Antonio’s Weathered Souls Brewing Co. “to support justice and equality for people of color” — he immediately wanted to join the cause.
For Martin, the racial injustices sparking protests are nothing new.
“My life experience actually directly mirrors a lot of what people are seeing,” said Martin, who is Black. “There are a lot of people that are just finding out about some of these things, whereas I’ve actually lived through a lot of these things. Many of the things that people see or hear about on the news are things that I and people that I know have experienced firsthand over and over and over.”
There was just one problem: the initiative tasks brewers to create a Russian imperial stout, but Martin oversees the mead program at Charlotte’s GoodRoad CiderWorks (in addition to being part owner, head of fermentation, lab technology and IT). He reached out to Weathered Souls to see if he would still be able to participate, even if he were brewing a mead, not a beer. Participating brewers are also asked to donate 100% of the proceeds “to local foundations that support police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged.” The initiative now boasts almost 1,200 breweries across 22 different countries.
“This initiative looked like an excellent way to mesh activism with something that I would consider a joy, and bring the two together in a way that would be efficacious,” said Martin, who has been making mead since 1994.
‘Reminiscent of a Russian imperial stout’
The crew at Weathered Souls Brewing was on board with the idea, and Baskerville has encouraged participating brewers to put their own spin on the recipe.
“Since we do mead, I was not sure that we’d be able to do anything,” Martin said. “Once we figured out that that was going to be OK, I had to see if I could do some sort of an interpretation that would at least be reminiscent of a Russian imperial stout.”
For the Black Is Beautiful mead, Martin specifically wanted to target the flavor profile of an aged stout.
“Really big imperial stouts, once they’re aged they start to thin out a little bit and get pretty vinous, and the dark fruits come forward a little bit,” Martin said. “Since they get a little more winelike with age and thin out a little bit, I figured a mead would be along those lines as long as I made it a big one and leaned a little more into those dark colors.”
Of course, the color was a key part of the project. Bottles of the Black Is Beautiful mead show off a range of colors, from amber to ruby to, of course, black.
It’s not unusual for mead makers to achieve those darker colors with fruits, but Martin didn’t go that route. He achieved the color by adding dark Belgian candi sugar at specific points in the fermentation and by using buckwheat honey, which is one of the darker varieties.
Martin is looking forward to bottling more meads in the future, with the goal of having all of the cidery’s meads in bottles except for Stride (its lower ABV and light carbonation make cans a better option). Eventually, the bottled offerings could also include seasonal, one-off and barrel-aged special editions.
“I’d also like to hopefully introduce people to the drier side of meads,” Martin said. “Things that would compare favorably with your Cabernet Sauvignons, Pinot Noirs, late harvest Zinfandels and even some of your bigger buddies like your Burgundies or your white Burgundies.”
Award-winning mead program
Earlier this month, GoodRoad CiderWorks took home two gold medals at the National Honey Board’s Mead Crafters Competition: 10 Penny Lane, a collaboration with Divine Barrel Brewing, won in the braggot category; and Crosswalk, made with black currant, boysenberry, sweet cherry and Cabernet Franc grapes, won in the dry fruit/vegetable melomel category. The mead drank “like a big, bold red wine,” according to Martin.
“I want to do more things along those lines,” Martin said. “I want to hit that spot where our wine drinkers can come in and be introduced to meads and have something that’s familiar that would help them transition into this alternative beverage.”
As for his participation in the Black Is Beautiful initiative, Martin describes it as “serendipitous” and “almost providential.” The cidery regularly hosts events to benefit area nonprofits, and he was considering doing something similar when the initiative was announced.
“We try to be thoughtful about doing something civic minded on a regular basis,” Martin said. “So this was right in our wheelhouse, because that’s something we believe strongly in doing. For us, it just came together and fit right in with our philosophy. To let this be our first bottling, that was really special.”
How to try the Black is Beautiful mead
GoodRoad CiderWorks will release 500-ml bottles of the Black Is Beautiful mead for $20 each when it opens at 3 p.m. this Thursday. All proceeds will benefit Emancipate NC, which aims to “dismantle structural racism and mass incarceration in North Carolina.”
The cidery will also release bottles of Avogadro’s Trail Special Edition for $18 each. Though Avogadro’s Trail is made from 100% Avocado Blossom honey, don’t expect notes of avocado in this semi-sweet mead.
Both the Black Is Beautiful and Avogadro’s Trail Special Edition meads will also be available for purchase on the cidery’s website. The Black Is Beautiful mead will be on tap as well, as will a lower-ABV version of Avogadro’s Trail.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 9:51 AM.
