Buzzing for 12 months
Gosnells ‘HIVE’ Subscription Club has been up and buzzing for 12 months.
Since November 2020, The HIVE has seen the creation of twelve esoteric small batch meads, showcasing honey-enhancing ingredients such as coffee, bananas, blueberry, elderflower, dandelion, rhubarb, mangoes, watermelon, rose petals, -hips and sloes.
These have been despatched in 4 packs to a pulsating swarm of mead enthusiasts, whose monthly HIVE subscription of £20 gives them:
- 4 x 330ml cans of meads every month in a range of strengths, styles, and flavours.
- 10% off Gosnells webshop – for the wider range
- Access to the Hive section of the website, and exclusive content on how the meads have been designed and made.
- Invitations to Gosnells to chat all things mead
Comments Tom Gosnell: “The idea, which fermented during Lockdown, was about redefining the word MEAD. Will, James, Hector and I have done our damnedest to make our chosen flavourings delicious and thought-provoking. And we have lately been joined by Amelia who will be putting her own mark on the series in 2022.
“The Subscriber Club have voted, and their top meads were: Sloe Mead @10% abv; Blackberry & Borage mead @5.5%abv, with a tie for 3rd place between Coffee mead @ 9%abv, Golden Honey mead @ 5.5%abv, and Apricot Sour @ 5.5% abv.
In previous years, Gosnells has made ‘single honey meads’, taking a special honey from a single hive, a single beekeeper, or ‘monofloral’ from just one flower. But over the last 12 months, Team Gosnells have been experimenting with small-batch flavours, using exciting one-off recipes and yeasts, and really pushing forward what is possible with honey. So rather than each honey being the sole winner and the sold determinant of flavour, it has been the inter-relationship with the experimental ‘seasonings’.
As a member of Gosnells Hive, subscribers have already received:
SMALL BATCH MONTHLY MEADS
November 2020 – 5.5% Braggot, made with half sorghum malt and half orange blossom honey.
December 2020 – 10% Sloe Mead, made with fresh sloe berries and juniper to a festive strength.
January 2021 – 9% Coffee Bochet, made with caramelised honey and Brazilian coffee beans.
February 2021 – 5.5% Plantain & Blueberry mead, made with roasted bananas and blueberries.
March 2021 – 5.5% Saison mead, fermented with Saison yeast and Elderflower.
April 2021 – 9% Dandelion and Rhubarb mead, made with added Dandelion root and rhubarb during fermentation and again during conditioning.
May 2021 – 5.5% Apricot Sour, made with a special yeast that produces lactic acid as part of the fermentation process forming a more complex flavour. Refreshing and crisp.
June 2021 – 5% Salted & Sour Mango, made with the house yeast and tons of Alphonso mangoes with Somerset cider Vinegar and finished with just a hint of salt.
July 2021 – 5.5% Watermelon Mead, made with barrel aged traditional mead and mixed with tens of kilos of watermelon juice. Refreshing in the nose and mouth, this was one not to miss.
August 2021 – 5.5% Golden Honey Mead, a delicate straight mead using the rawest of UK honey. Complex round honey notes on the aroma and flavour.
September 2021 – 8% The special (Greek) name for this is a Rhodomel or ‘rose – honey’. Meaderer Will and the boys used rose petals, rose hips and a touch of bitter orange for an extra kick.
October 2021 – 5.5% Suffolk blackberries & raw English borage honey, full of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
ENDS
Press release from Gosnell’s Mead
For further information, contact Rupert Ponsonby rupert@randr.co.uk | 020 7384 1333 | November 2021