{"id":8340,"date":"2022-10-13T15:07:46","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T15:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=8340"},"modified":"2024-04-03T18:27:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T18:27:38","slug":"a-different-sip-meadery-serves-up-honey-based-brew-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2022\/10\/13\/a-different-sip-meadery-serves-up-honey-based-brew-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"A different sip: Meadery serves up honey-based brew and more"},"content":{"rendered":"
Eleven years ago, Derrick Forrest tasted mead for the first time at a renaissance fair. The alcohol made from honey, which tastes more like wine than beer, took hold of him. He returned home and told his parents, \u201cI want to make this. This is amazing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The first batch that he made was horrible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now, Derrick Forrest and his business partner Kenneth Thrower operate their own meadery. Under Joe Van Gogh coffee shop, a few blocks off Duke University\u2019s East Campus, sits Moon Dog Meadery. Forrest and Thrower chose the name because \u201cIt sounds like the right level of \u2018We don\u2019t take ourselves too seriously but we\u2019re not complete idiots,\u2019\u201d Forrest says.<\/span><\/p>\n The name reflects the spirit of the place. On one side, the shelves are stocked with beers with the names \u201cBig Chocolate,\u201d \u201cmy mind is in the coconut,\u201d and \u201cWheat Dealer.\u201d Along the walls is a collection of whimsical paintings, string lights, and an assortment of board games. On a recent Thursday, hard rock was playing when I walked in.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2020, after working 15 years in the restaurant business, primarily at a Chili\u2019s, Forrest was fed up with the corporate side of the restaurant industry. Thrower pushed him to seriously explore the possibility of opening a small business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Over the pandemic, they began gathering enough money to begin looking at spaces. They started touring local wineries and meaderies to see how their business might operate. The idea was to open as the pandemic eased up. \u201cWe signed our lease when things were looking good,\u201d Forrest said, \u201cand then Delta hit three weeks later. The week before our opening date, the news about Omicron hit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But the pandemic didn\u2019t stop them. The day after Christmas 2021, three days after receiving approval from the state ABC commission, Moon Dog Meadery opened as a bottle shop. Its first batch of mead was ready in March of 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the middle of th<\/span>e space sits what looks like the lab of a mad scientist. Vats of honey and yeast, nitrogen tanks, and smaller testin<\/span>g batches lie on the floor. While it takes up a bit of their space for customer tables, Forrest explains that it’s a \u201cgreat conversation piece.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Most of the customers that walk into Moon Dog Meadery have never tasted mead. Right out in the open, they are able to watch the process of making it, which Forrest is happy to explain. But when asked to describe what mead tastes like, Forrest struggles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo, flavor-wise, you\u2019re gonna taste what you\u2019re gonna taste,\u201d he says. He continues excitedly naming the different flavors he\u2019s fashioned as he offers me a sample.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s right, you\u2019ll taste what you taste. I tasted a sweet white wine with honey stirred in.\u00a0 Forrest\u2019s favorite flavor is called Blood of the Dog, a dark name for an infusion of blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Hair of the Dog takes coffee from the shop\u2019s upstairs neighbors and mixes it with vanilla beans, milk and sugar. That\u2019s his dad\u2019s favorite. Dreamcycle is infused with oranges to create a creamsicle flavor for the summer. He plans to make a butterscotch flavor for the holidays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n