Paul Reiss from Meadist joins us in Episode 21 to discuss brands, bottles, and label designs. Bottling is the last step to finish your meads. While it may not seem relevant to a site devoted to making mead, it is relevant when it comes to sharing the mead you’ve made with friends. Whether you are a homebrewer or making mead commercially, your brand greatly impacts the experience your customers will have when drinking your mead. Listen in for Paul’s thoughts on what the label and brand say about the mead in your bottle.
Right click here to download the mp3 directly.
Drinks in this Episode
- Meadist: Paradise Unpaved (House Bear Brewing) (Meadist reviews this on his site too!)
- Allen: Blueberry Mead (Maine Meadworks)
- Tysen: Root Cellar (Millstone Cellars [available in the tasting room, but not otherwise on their website cider list])
Links in this Episode
- Catch up with Paul through the following links:
- Website
- The Honey Wine Herald, Paul’s curated mead content on the web
- Meadist reviews mentioned in the episode:
- Wine in a Can from Union Wine Company
- Paul’s thoughts on Bottle Closures
- You can use “bourbon barrel aged” on a label! See TTB Ruling 2014-4.
- The Merry Mead Label from Allen’s 2013 Christmas Gifts
The 2013 Merry Mead Label
That TTB article you referenced is for beer, not wine (mead). I was under the impression that you couldn’t also but can’t find reference to it on the TTB site. I know for a fact that you can’t say the brand of the distilled spirit on the label (can’t say aged in makers mark barrels)…if I find a relevant article I will add another reply. 🙂
Love the show!
Good point. Read thru that too quickly. Back to the drawing board to find an answer!
I sent the TTB this question:
“What are the rules about labeling for meads that are aged in distilled spirit barrels? i.e. can it say “aged in bourbon barrels”?”
And here is their extremely useless “official” response: 🙂
“http://www.ttb.gov/faqs/alcohol_faqs.shtml#hw
Attached is the link to the FAQ’s on Mead. Can’t make any comments on wording until the entire concept is presented and a formula is required”
This is why it is so damned confusing…I can’t wait until the day that the TTB recognizes mead as mead and not wine/honey wine…and thus has criteria and guidelines for said mead. 🙂