Charm City Meadworks’ new Johnston Square facility Photo by Tedd Henn
(cloves, vanilla, and cacao nibs—by my assessment, a toasted marshmallow in a can). Meadworks also offers single kegs of experimental flavors through the taproom; recently, the team has been concocting cocktail-inspired varieties. “We’ve had some pretty good ones the last couple of weeks that were kinda like a mojito, adding a little bit of mint to them,” Geffken says. “There’s been a lot of requests for some sort of interpretation of a moscow mule . . . and then we’ve had a couple that come across really nicely, almost like an amaro or sherry character to it.” Essentially, Meadworks is attempting to stretch the appeal of a libation long relegated to a niche audience by redefining what mead can be. Traditional mead is thick and potent. Back in its heyday, when water wasn’t so potable, mead was made as alcoholic as possible, and in turn super-sweetened with plenty of honey. After all, it was strong enough to knock out the monster Grendel in “Beowulf.” Still more drinkable by comparison, Meadworks’ bottled, non-carbonated version most closely resembles traditional mead. For something more authentic, go with Meadworks’ sweet blossom flavor— their sweetest mead, though Geffken notes that it’s still only semi-sweet. A sip fills your mouth with a warmth that lingers, the way straight honey does but with a smooth, refreshing delivery. It’s intense and full-bodied, but not syrupy like most European meads. Meadworks’ draft version is more like what Geffken refers to as the “modern mead,” similar in taste and
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drinkability to cider. The rich honey flavor takes a little more of a backseat here in this lighter take. “They’re all still mead, which is the exciting part of it all,” Geffken says, “but we looked at it and the meads that we found that were already out there were those little bit thicker, heavier ones. That wasn’t what we were making at home, it wasn’t what we were excited about, it wasn’t what we wanted to drink when it was 95 degrees out in the summer. So we felt that hey, there’s this opportunity to do these lower ABV meads, kind of mead for the craft beer people.” Even as they make efforts to reach people who may otherwise never try mead, Meadworks is still focused on what it does best: honey. In the beginning, Geffken and Boicourt (who both share a background in engineering) wanted to use honey from their own hives, but the rapidly-growing scale of their operation made that impossible—last year, Geffken says, Meadworks went through about 60,000 pounds of honey and sold around 30,000 gallons of mead. Just one 3,200-pound tote of honey takes thousands of hives. So instead, Meadworks gets their honey from an aggregator in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Most of it is wildflower honey, but they’ve expanded to other honeys, like orange blossom and buckwheat. Geffken says he wants to show consumers that there’s more to honey than what they buy in the grocery store. “Now that we’re finally three years in we feel organized enough that we’re going to start doing some smaller batch stuff to showcase the terroir of honey the same way
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people do with grapes,” Geffken says. “We started doing honey tastings here, where people come in and taste these honeys then tastes these meads because even if you haven’t had mead, you can easily tell the difference.” Some local wineries such as Linganore Winecellars also offer mead, and Maryland Meadworks is looking to open soon in Hyattsville. But Charm City Meadworks is still Baltimore’s first and only meadery. First picked up by The Wine Source in Hampden, Meadworks products are now available in stores and on tap at hundreds of locations throughout Maryland as well as Virginia, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. “You’ve got this really great, strong brewing scene going right now with Union, Monument, Diamondback, Key, all those guys,” Geffken says. “It was started even before them by Brewer’s Art. They’ve kinda paved the way and now that people are excited about beers—OK, what’s new, what’s next, what else can I try? So we’re getting some crossover there.” Geffken says Meadworks has received a lot of support from the craft brewing and distilling scene here. “It’s an interesting and exciting time to be here in Baltimore doing a tiny little alcohol business. I mean Baltimore people just love, love their booze.” Charm City Meadworks (407 E. Preston St., Suite B; public entrance at 400 E. Biddle St.) is open to the public Thursday through Sunday.
JANUARY 24, 2018