Meadiocrity Mead: Brewing Up Sustainable Honey Wine From Bee to Bottle

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Vikings clinking cone-shaped glasses. Monks surreptitiously sipping wine bags. Images that come to mind when someone says mead. The world’s oldest alcoholic drink is popular again.

Mead, made from honey, the antioxidants and probiotics offer a few health benefits. Healthier than beer, wine, and whiskey more Americans are reaching for a glass of mead than before. turning to mead. With almost 450 meaderies in the United States, it’s easier than ever to find mead.

Pro-tip: Mead is gluten-free.

Despite the chilly evening, I visited Meadiocrity Mead for my every couple of months pilgrimage. Once a thriving social scene with clusters of patrons filling every table, the pandemic has taken its toll on the meadery.
The quiet night meant I had my choice of any table in the room. I was meeting with a few other writers for the San Diego Chapter of Travel Massive’s first meeting of the year.

Mark Oberle, Meadiocrity’s mead sommelier gave us a tour of the facility, educated us about mead, and shared their new creations.

Mark, John Botica, Andrew Segina, and Nate Fredricks started the meadery for fun, launching in 2017 with a Trader Joe’s partnership. When that ended in 2019, Meadiocrity opened the San Marco’s tasting room.

With 15 rotating meads on tap, there’s bound to be one to appeals to your palate.

We started with Foundations, their flagship mead. Mark treated us to a fresh pour from the brewing tank. Getting mead out of the tank is an easier process than tapping wine from a barrel. Open the spigot and fill your glass.

Foundations is a traditional mead made from alfafa honey. The honey is locally sourced from nearby Palomar Mountain and Valley Center.

As a beer lover, Meadiocrity’s four new beer-inspired meads are exciting. Honey Maid is an East coast style IPA. Citra Crush is a tropical IPA. Apricot Thyme Saison is a saison. The Saison is a bit bitter but very typical of a Saison. Bee Stout a nitro-infused stout with coffee, chocolate, and chicory.

If you enjoy wine, you’ll appreciate the chardonnay-like flavors of the One With Vanilla & Oak.

If cocktails are your drink of choice, the Lemon Mint, made from lemons grown in Mark’s backyard, is a palate pleaser, light, and refreshing. The strong mint flavor will have you checking to see if there’s a fresh sprig in your glass. They also offer a Mojito Mead (Club members only). A Meadacolado and a Margarita mead also rotate throughout the year.

Pro-tip: Meadiocrity Mead to go meads are in glass bottles. But that is changing. They plan to offer canned mead. Perfect for a day at the beach!

Beer and cocktail inspired meads aren’t the only choices at Meadiocrity. The Rose Lemonade is an adult lemonade but without the syrupy sweetness. The Green Tea Latte on nitro is a delightful take on green tea. The nitro tempers the bitter taste of the green tea and gives is a silky creaminess.

Fair warning, mead has a higher alcohol content than beer. The ABV (alcohol by volume) in Meadiocrity’s tasty concoctions ranges from 5 to 13.5 percent. Eat before you come, bring food, or get a bite from Crunchies N Munchies (weekends only), the onsite catering company run by Isaac, a Meadiocrity employee.

From traditional mead to cocktail and beer-inspired meads, Meadiocrity Mead is anything but mediocre.

Have you had mead?

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