Northern Star

Spring 2026 Release

14%

Mead Details 

This mead was made using Northern Michigan Star Thistle Honey. And as usual this mead needs a stout barrel to be aged in.  We connected with some great people at an amazing Michigan Brewing to get the barrels for this batch.  

If you listen close enough you might just hear Bells. Also this mead is perfect to take on an Expedition, js. 

This mead was in the barrel for 15 months before we pulled it out to add the vanilla beans. Which were Indonesian Flores Island vanilla beans. 

This mead was approximately 20 months old before bottling. 

The yeast we used was Lalvin C.

Karl’s Tasting Notes:

YES. FINALLY YES. ITS BACK. Ahem. So yes, the Northern Star finally returns to us! Pardon my reaction, but this is a special treat! This legendary mead is the third and latest batch of my personal favorite brewed up by Maniacal. Needless to say, I’m VERY excited! I will give this, however, an honest tasting. Comparing it only lightly to its predecessor and instead focusing on what we have now. This time we have some much higher quality vanilla beans for this barrel aged vanilla and honey mead, and it was aged in the barrel of the Boss Man’s favorite stout! Time to begin!!

The noes starts off with a nostalgic yet new experience that fills me with honest joy. I can smell such a intense profile waiting for me. Let’s dive in! If fresh vanilla could be subtle yet substantial; blended under an intoxicating honey nose is a lavish sweetness of vanilla that is indeed melded wonderfully with the barrel. This nose is something I could enjoy and analyze for hours. I can get barrel tannins, malty honey and sweet vanilla woven into a nose of rustically robust mead. Cant wait any longer…

Oh yeah baby. Im always worried with the return if a beloved mead, but batch three does NOT disappoint! Its creamy smooth, sweet yet balanced with almost a chocolate stout profile, balanced back with wood and vanilla. Its sweet, its sexy and its just what Odin ordered! Each sip is worthy of the mead hall Valhalla, just like past entries. This boasts a flavor that simply tastes old fashioned and 9th Century hardy with a modern elegance and humble complexity that deserves to be confidently loud. Northern Star doesnt try to be the best, it simply is.