2024 Final Gravity Society 3rd bottle 

Foraging at the Orchard

14%abv

Fall 2024 release 

Mead Details,

This was a fun project for me. 

I started out using a triple Appley blend.  Those being Maple Appley,  Orange Blossom Appley,  and Buckwheat/Alfalfa Appley. 

I added Strawberry Hibiscus tea from Fraser Tea Co.  Then 2 types of vanilla, Indonesian and Madagascar bourbon. 

Finally adding cherry, blueberry, and raspberry. 

Between the 3 base meads there were 2 different types of yeast used. EC1118 and D47

Karl’s tasting notes,

Foraging at the Orchard is the third mead to delight 2024’s Final Gravity Society Members! This time we have an interesting one, packed full of Autumn in a rather fascinating mead drinking experience

I’ll come clean with you here, I’ve experienced this one already, but allow me to share what I knew back then as well as now: this mead smells uncannily like a “Fig Newton” for the familiar. Like a blast of strawberry and mixed berry with the maple and two types of vanilla creating that biscuit/cookie aroma. Then the mixture of cyser and hibiscus creates the scent of the “fig”. You get berry, you get cookie, you get a great nose on this one

Going in with a sip and it’s that juicy wave of the mixed berries, followed by the hibiscus, which melds into that “cookie” flavor, but also ends almost tannic and dry. That was just the first sip. Going in for seconds and thirds and so on reveals tart notes, sweet notes, herbal and tannic. It’s a harmony of tart and sweet that also tastes wholesomely familiar.