Rum Away with Me

Late 2025 release 

15%abv 

Mead Details 

A couple fun facts.

This was where the Hawaiian Traditional series all started.  Also I was inspired to make this mead from an incredible person and amazing Mazer Joe Leigh from Zymarium Meadery in Orlando Florida. Joe shared a bottle with me once at the Ken Schramm’s yeast class we took together in Ferndale. It was a Lehua Blossom Traditional that was aged in a vanilla barrel. It was so incredible I had to pay homage and create my version of what transpired in my mind while enjoying that delightful beverage.  

  So I started out using Hawaiian Lehua Blossom honey. Then I added an incredible amount of over ripe pineapples.  Then the mead went into a couple Valentine Distillery Rum barrels. Where it sat for about 10 months. 

After we pulled it out of the barrels we added Sri Lankan vanilla beans. 

This mead was about 15months old before bottling. The yeast we used was QA23. 

Karl’s tasting notes 

At Maniacal, we’re no strangers to barrel aging, but we’ve branched from our usual whiskey barrels and are now delighted to announce that we’ve rum-barrel aged!! With the Rum Away With Me, we’ve played again with Hawaiian honey in order to bring you all a new take on our style of mead! As I’m one to say, consider me excited!

First, that (possibly) sweet sweet nose! Let’s dive in. Starting right off is the pineapple, with a soft and almost tender scent. Under that, indeed, sweet pineapple is a velvety honey with a hidden “vanilla spice” that no doubt is a combination of the vanilla and the Rum Barrel saying hello. Opening up this mead reveals a fruity, respective, cocktail of sweet aroma; balanced creamy fruit up front with a boozy spiced wood in the back and finishing off with a subtle vanilla. Delightful!

My first sip in, and this is a magical experience. Sweet but smooth honey-fruit followed by an emphasis on fresh pineapple, then the Rum notes mix over and give off another level of sweetness before the pineapple juice and rum begins to make my dance tingle! Each sip starts off as a delicate fruity mead, but backed up by a wave of sweet rum burn that is by no means overwhelming. And that velvety vanilla backbone. A summer rum cocktail in a mead! Each sip is stark; smooth up front and every time that pleasant rum barrel heat kicks it up in the back end. This is an amazing first expression of Rum in our mead!!