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Turns out it is exactly two hundred steps from the front door of Spence Manor, where I’m living, to the Crowded Barrel Distillery. Why did I count them? I don’t know. I’ve only been here a week and I’m still a little giddy. Anyway, I wandered over there yesterday and found Emma doing a distillation run on some Mead. See, isn’t this what we love about the Crowded Barrel? They do weird shit like this all the time.
Now let me tell you, it’s one thing to read about distillation or have someone talk to you about it. It’s another thing to see it happening. And smell it happening. The thing that fascinates me the most is how Emma uses her nose to determine when it’s time to discard the heads and start the heart cut.
“So you just smell it and you know?”
She grabbed a couple of samples and let me smell them. The first was 153 proof. Yeah, there was something funky going on. Funk and then honey. I tasted it before Emma could warn me not to.
Yeah, do not do that. Ever.
We smelled it at 152 proof. Funk. At 151, little bit of funk. And then it hit 150. Emma smelled it and handed me the glass. “See what you think of that.”
WOW. Seriously. The funk was gone and all that was left was honey. I doubt many people will ever smell distilled Mead. Nuttin' but honey. Might as well have had my nose in a honey jar.
There will be about twenty five gallons of this spirit when it's all finished. Once it is aged, you will be able to taste the newmake side-by-side with the barrel-aged version. So if you’re at the Fang and Feather in the future and see me there, come on over and let’s hit the Mead together like Viking warriors.
I’m serious. Look me up if you visit the Crowded Barrel. I’d like to meet you.
~ A Magnificent Bastard
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