The infamous Bushwakker Brewpub’s Blackberry Mead went on sale Saturday morning at 11 a.m. Dozens lined up around the corner before doors opened to ensure they would be bringing some home.
For Brian Mercer and his buddy Marshall Dixon, the taste of the mead is worth not just their money, but 20 hours and 15 minutes of their time outside, overnight in below zero temperatures.
“It’s not super sweet, it’s carbonated, it’s a beer-wine mixture — it’s really good,” Mercer said.
“It’s kind of become a tradition that we get together, have a few drinks and spend the night out on the street… The last four years have been great.”
They got the wait down to a science and even invested in a bigger tent just for the occasion.
“We got an insulation board to separate us from the ground, blankets… a heater.”
They weren’t alone either. One couple spent the night with just their sleeping bags. Others started showing up at the crack of dawn.
Get breaking National news
The mead is made of honey, water, a special yeast and blackberries.
“It takes a very special person to camp out overnight in the middle of winter in Saskatchewan, to buy some mead outside of a brewpub,” Bushwakker Brewpub bar manager Grant Frew said.
Frew said when they first started making the mead about 20 years ago, it was $2 a bottle. Now, it’s $80 for six, 650-ml bottles.
“The blackberry mead is much more expensive to make than beer because we’re using 400 pounds of honey from the Lumsden Valley, as well as 84 pounds of blackberries, and we have to age it for an entire year,” Frew said.
Only 6,000 bottles are brewed, and they typically sell out during the first day.
“It’s one of our biggest days of the year. We spend all yearlong brewing our blackberry mead for our release on the first Saturday, every December,” Frew said.
The mead is available on tap for the rest of the month.
As for Mercer, he plans to nurse his bottles of mead until the next time it’s on sale.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.