WILLIAMSBURG — How is it Done is an occasional series where WYDaily examines the inner workings of a trade or business to see how it operates or makes something. Today’s story is Silver Hand Meadery.
Silver Hand Meadery will have been open a decade in November, and over that time has grown from its initial space into a shop, tasting room, and the tap room, with the original mead lab on display for visitors. It is owned by Glenn and Sherri Lavender, who started the business after Glenn discovered and developed a passion for the ancient drink of mead while reading.
The business has since gone on to expand and develop several award-winning meads. In addition to mead, the business also offers a variety of honeys that can be purchased.
What is Mead?
Mead, also known as “honey wine,” is believed to be the world’s oldest alcoholic libation. Associated with civilizations of the past, this fermented drink may seem dated, but interest has grown steadily in the United States on the commercial and homebrewing side, according to the American Homebrewers Association.
The recipe for mead at Silver Hand starts with three simple ingredients: Water, honey, and yeast. Adjusting the ratio of honey to water is what influences the alcohol content in the beverage. After the desired ratio is made, the next step is primary fermentation, which typically takes three to four weeks. This is the process where the yeast turns the sugar in honey into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Since honey is low in nitrogen, nutrients are typically added to support the yeast to ensure proper fermentation and that the drink achieves the desired alcohol content.
Adjuncts are the next step in the mead-making process, according to SilverHand. Once the fermentation is complete, the beverage is very dry in terms of taste. The next process is used to enhance flavors by adding additional ingredients such as fruits, herbs, and spices. This is done by steeping them until the flavor profile is what the makers want. This process takes anywhere from eight to 12 weeks.
The fourth step is stabilizing and backsweetening. After the right flavor is achieved, the mead is then stabilized using sulfites and sorbates to prevent any further yeast activity and to stop any additional fermentation. Backsweetening is then done by adding honey to reach the preferred level of sweetness. Silver Hand stresses that stabilization is crucial to creating a balanced and shelf-stable final product.
After that, it is a matter of aging the mead. Silver Hand will typically do this in barrels.
From Concept to Shelf
“Sometimes it’s a song. Sometimes we’ll find a song and we’ll be like, what would a mead taste like that has that song? Or sometimes we’ll have a cocktail somewhere or a sports drink and be like: These are great flavors together, let’s try and turn that into a mead,” Lavender said, explaining the process of coming up with flavor combinations for the meads Silver Hand creates.
Sam Straight, Alchemist, Co-owner and Director of Production at Silver Hand, says he likes to cook, learning how to cook cuisines from all over the world, a skill he picked up in school while working on his Ph.D in Microbiology and Immunology. He says he developed a sense of flavor profiles and worked to share that skill with the rest of the staff. Those are the skills he applies to come up with flavors for new meads.
“It’s really just a question of taking these flavors that you may know culinarily go together or not, it could be opposites, put them together in the right balance to come up with a new flavor,” said Straight.
Once a balance is figured out for the desired flavor profile, then production begins at the main production facility in Toano. Most of the tanks have been given names as well. Some of them are based around musicians, while others are based around pop-culture references like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Notably, Silver Hand’s very first distiller is nicknamed Lion for the now-defunct meadery the equipment was purchased from. It led to a stream of other tanks named after animals, including Tiger, Bear, Croc and Wolf.
Silver Hand ages its mead in all different kinds of barrels, from bourbon to whiskey and even maple syrup. It also collaborates with other local distilleries and meaderies to work on making their product.
Once the mead has finished aging, it is ready for packaging. Silver Hand hand bottles and labels its meads — the only part of the process performed by machine is corking. As production batches grew, Silver Hand found that corks were chipping. It was getting harder on workers, as well, so the decision was made to invest in a machine.
Over its nearly ten years of operation, Strawberry Swing and Bourbon Street Blues have proved to be customer favorites. However, Straight adds a personal favorite is Raspberry Passion, with the on-tap flavor of Meet Me in St. Louis another notable flavor he enjoys.
Lavender also enjoys Raspberry Passion, but also says he is a bit biased to Lavender Hill, which features locally grown lavender from Sweethaven Lavender in Williamsburg.
What About the Honey?
Silver Hand uses three different Virginia sources for honey, and where Silver Hand gets its Virginia Wildflower Honey. The term Wildflower honey comes from honey made with a multi-floral source, as opposed to something like Orange Blossom Honey, which is more from one source, as the hive was likely placed in an orange orchard for honey production. Honeys like Orange Blossom honey are called mono-floral honey.
Typically, Silver Hand finds out about rare honeys and will decide to get some in to try. After sampling, it’ll start experimenting with what types of different fruits, herbs, or spices can go with that type of honey.
The honey that is used in the mead is bought in bulk and kept warm in a 100-degree storage room. The same honey is also jarred in-house to sell in the store. It also makes its whipped honey in-house by taking liquid honey and spiking it with already crystalized honey. Once it’s whipped together with air, the crystallization process starts, and then once it’s at a frosting consistency it’s ready to go to the store for customers
Sustainability
Rediscover and Reimagine are the words Lavender uses when describing the mission of sustainability Silver Hand Meadery. Since opening, the business has said it has found ways to upcycle materials generated by its products. This includes making vases and pitchers hand-blown from the glass of its bottles, and its candles are poured into reused mead bottles as well.
Thes aren’y the only things that end up reused, however. The bricks from the mead lab came originally from an old building in Richmond, and the countertop wood featured in the tap room was also upcycled. Silver Hand has also started to compost the waste generated from the Honey Experience Tastings, as well as fruit and spice waste from its mead production, with locally-owned Fill Happy.
Silver Hand Meadery is located in Williamsburg at 224 Monticello Ave. To learn more about Silver Hand Meadry and its offerings, visit its official website.
