Drunk History

The oldest fermented alcoholic beverage on Earth is finding new life in two Oklahoma meaderies.

BY GREG ELWELL

MUCH LIKE HER Trojan namesake, Cassandra Gore has a prediction most might not believe: The future of Oklahoma alcohol is in the past. Like, before-thewheel past.

In the small south-central Oklahoma town of Stonewall, Gore and her husband Matthew run B&G Meadery, home to a deliciously intoxicating beverage historians believe was first created in 6500 BCE.

Mead is the oldest fermented alcoholic beverage on Earth, predating both wine and beer, but a history lesson is only a small part of what the Gores serve in B&G’s rustic tasting room. Using clover honey, the meadery creates a variety of fruit-infused honey drinks that are ready to take Oklahoman palates on a roller coaster ride of flavor.

In 2017, they opened their shop in Stonewall and began putting out enticing flavors like the raspberry-and-mintfocused Razzle Dazzle, the Long Island iced tea-inspired Ice Chest, and the boozy blackberry of Darker the Berry.

“I tried using local wildflower honey, but the flavor of the honey was too strong to taste the fruit,” she says. “Clover honey is milder, so the other flavors can come through.”

The meads don’t just vary in flavor, though. B&G sells eight main varieties with alcohol content ranging from 7 percent all the way up to 18 percent.

Initially, Gore was going to sell the mead in mason jars, but because mead is considered wine—albeit one that ferments honey instead of grapes—she had to package it in 375 and 750 milliliter bottles per state law. But instead of wine bottles, she chose to use moonshine-style liquor jugs.

“What can I say?” she asks. “I’m country.”

The business already is attracting attention from outside the state. B&G has welcomed tasters from Tennessee, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, Texas, and more. One fellow from Arkansas drives through Oklahoma on business every few months, and he always stops in to buy a case to take with him.

In Sapulpa, Alex Long’s Dancing Skeleton Meadery is approaching the ancient drink from a different direction. Instead of using fruit, Long and his crew use honeys from all over the world, several yeasts, and three types of oak with three kinds of char in several amounts for a nearly infinite variety of meads.

For those worried that honey wine will be too sweet, a sample of the meadery’s Nostalgia will disabuse them of that notion. Dancing Skeleton’s eighteen meads range from extremely dry to dessert sweet and every stop in between. Nostalgia could be confused for a Pinot Grigio were it not for that signature honey flavor, which is not interchangeable with that signature honey sugar. In fact, in making Dancing Skeleton mead, yeast does the yeoman’s work of converting every drop of sugar into alcohol—giving the company’s products ABVs that mostly hover at 12 percent, with a few exceptions. The sweeter meads have more honey added in after fermentation until they reach the desired flavor and sweetness.

“When people come in for a flight, I always suggest they pick one from each level of sweetness,” he says. “Some people who say they only drink very dry wines ended up preferring our sweeter meads, while some of those who thought they’d want sweeter meads liked the dry.”

The challenge, of course, is picking just four of the delicious meads to sample. Dancing Skeleton’s assistant production manager Jerrica Smith says her current favorite is F2 Tornado, which sits around semisweet and is made with raspberry blossom honey. The balance of sweetness and tartness helps this mead blow away thirst.

“You can make mead and sell mead, but it isn’t until people come back and buy it again that you’ve got a real business,” Long says. “When I realized the people who were coming to buy from us had tried it before or heard about it from someone who had, I knew this was going to work.”

B&G MEADERY

> 16451 County Road 3670 in Stonewall

> (580) 265-4654

> bgmeadery.com

DANCING SKELETON MEADERY

> 609 South Main Street in Sapulpa

> (918) 280-8481

> dancingskeletonmeadery.com