Dimensions Between Time and Imagination 

First FGS bottle of 2025

Winter 2025

Mead Details-

  This mead we made during the Eclipse on 4/08/2024

We used caramelized local wildflower honey from Dexter, MI. We pitched the yeast during the eclipse and place it into a fresh dumped Detroit City Distillery Bourbon barrel to ferment and aged. 

We pulled some out of the barrel to make this member bottle.  Added dried orange slices and a huge amount of whole roasted hazelnuts.   

The yeast we used was VRB Yeast.

This mead was approximately 11 months before we bottled.

Karl’s tasting notes-

  Presenting our first Final Gravity Society bottle of 2025: 

  “Dimensions Between Time and Imagination”! 

  Say that ten times fast. The Dimensions, for the unacquainted, is a barrel aged mead that has been aging in its Detroit City Distillery barrel since the last North American Eclipse (as of when this was written)! Undoubtedly, with its additional aging adjuncts of dried oranges and hazelnuts, this will be another fascinating mead for our Society members this year!

Before I get into this, before I describe my take on the nose of the Dimensions. I would like to start by saying that during initial testing I thought of this mead as having a “Natural Orange Tang” experience. I’m excited to see if this still holds true… To my delight, it does! Basking in the Dimension’s nose reveals passionate orange citrus notes not unlike “Orange Tang” from popular soft drinks. However, in the time since initial aging, the caramelized honey has made itself known, adding a note more akin to a chocolate orange. Complemented by nutty notes from the hazelnuts and the barrel upon opening it up, the Dimensions is a mead that one can enjoy simply with their nose!

Taking my first ganger with an initial sip, I get a soft honey-hazelnut richness right away. It’s thicker than you’d expect, in a velvety smooth texture kinda way. Not the thick, cloying honey way you get sometimes in super sweet meads. Immediately after processing that, the orange comes in with a rich, sweet but not overpowering citrus that is followed by a creamy hazelnut finish. Further enjoyment reminds me of orange sweets that my German relatives would give me; not too sweet, more decadent in their more natural sweetness, not even overpowered -in the mead’s case- by the caramelization of the honey. Barrel aged enjoyers with a powerful palette may note the undertones of bourbon barrel wood in the intense background. Supporting those natural, earthy and nutty notes from the nuts. Overall, this is a mead that blends the fun youthful flavors of orange pop with the decadence and respect of Grand Marnier