Is mead ready for an urban revival? Hamilton-based Royal Canadian Mead thinks so, and with help from Niagara College, the company has introduced its contemporary twist on the fermented honey drink – known as the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage – ready to create a buzz with modern consumers.
In collaboration with NC’s Canadian Food and Wine Institute (CFWI) Innovation Centre team, Royal Canadian Mead has produced a line of Canadian craft meads, the first pure session meads in Ontario. Carbonated, refreshing and naturally gluten-free, the craft meads have a 5.6 percent alcohol content – half the alcohol content found in traditional meads.
The first release, a hopped buckwheat called ‘Feels Like Friday’ hit shelves at the LCBO in June and is currently selling in 86 locations; while its second release, a Niagara peach named ‘ All Day Croquet’ was packaged in early August and released in bars and restaurants, with LCBO listings expected next spring.
While mead is gaining popularity in the United Statess, Royal Canadian Mead set its sights on growing the industry and becoming a leader in the session mead category in Canada, where there are only a handful of meaderies across the country.
“We wanted to introduce people to the category of mead, but we wanted to meet them halfway,” said Royal Canadian Mead president Matt Gibson. “People are already enjoying session beers and dry ciders, so we wanted to put mead in that same frame of reference. It’s light, crisp and very crushable.”
The crisp, Canadian meads are brewed in Hamilton using modern techniques and were developed after more than a year of prototyping and innovation.
Royal Canadian Mead turned to the College’s CFWI Innovation Centre for help in recipe development. NC is not only home to an award-winning Research & Innovation Division, but the College’s trailblazing Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus includes Canada’s first commercial Teaching Winery, Teaching Brewery, and Teaching Distillery, as well as Eastern Canada’s first Commercial Beekeeping program with actively managed hives on campus.
“We knew from Niagara College’s reputation that they had the experience and tools to help turn what was in our heads into a reality,” said Gibson. “We thought the College’s unique breadth of knowledge of honey, bee-keeping, brewing, and winemaking would all be useful tools to create our final product.”
“We were proud to work alongside Royal Canadian Mead on this project, which not only supported innovation in the beverage industry, but offered valuable hands-on learning opportunities to our students,” said Marc Nantel, PhD, NC’s vice president of Research, Innovation and Strategic Initiatives.
The College’s CFWI Innovation Centre first conducted exploratory research and competitive market analysis. They discovered a main demographic of urban professionals ages 25 to 40, who enjoy food, fine dining, exploring new things, and are seeking the new and unique. They also found a sub-set of target consumers: gluten-free shoppers and low-sugar/healthier alcohol drinkers.
The research team then brought in faculty and staff from the College’s wine and Commercial Beekeeping programs to assist with recipe development. They collaborated with Royal Canadian Mead to establish parameters for a first exploratory phase recipe development, which involved nearly 30 different products, then through two more development phases before honing in on four recipes. In addition to a series of batch trials, and product testing with chemical and sensory analysis, the research team conducted parallel business development work provided by the NC beekeeping/honey experts. All recipes used 100 percent Ontario-produced honey and adjuncts, such as fruit and hops.
The research project concluded with four session meads, all with distinct flavours, produced: Hopped Buckwheat (Feels Like Friday), Niagara Peach (All Day Croquet), Ontario Cherry (Quarter Life Crisis), Ontario Wildflower (Awkward Dinner).
For College winemaker and instructor Gavin Robertson, who led the research team, this was a chance to explore a new fermented beverage category. “While I had experimented with honey ferments on a small scale in the past for fun, this was an opportunity to approach mead production in a really systematic way, from the hive up,” said Robertson.
“Royal Canadian Mead was an amazing company to work with in that they understood the unique dynamics involved with working with student researchers and they really encouraged them to think broadly and creatively about the possible formulations, and used the project as a two-way educational opportunity that was effective in achieving our goals in the end,” added Robertson. “It’s so great to see all of the work by so many people result in well-received, commercial products.”
As a student in the Winery and Viticulture Technician program, Niagara-on-the-Lake resident Emily Royal was a research assistant who worked on the project during a five-month period in 2018. She helped to create the recipe for mead fermentations while conducting trials of different locally-sourced honey, and researched Niagara College-grown hop varieties and stone fruit infusions to add to the mead ferment for complexity and balance. Now that she has graduated and works at a Niagara winery, Royal continues to value the experience she gained.
“I feel that my contribution to this research project provided an incredible opportunity to experience and experiment with different types of mead, honeys, yeast and fermentation variables while creating a recipe for desired marketable beverages,” said Royal. “There is such a feeling of pride when you see something you worked on in a team, where all the work and effort you put into it is now a finished product with a label and a story.”
The research project was made possible with funding by the Ontario Centres of Excellence’s College Voucher for Technology Adoption (CVTA) program.
This project is just one example of innovation from Niagara College’s Canadian Food and Wine Institute (CFWI) Innovation Centre which has a new home within the Marotta Family Innovation Complex at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus. The new Complex, which opened in early September 2019, is poised to make great strides in the agri-food industry. View Sept. 3 news release here.
Royal Canadian Mead is a new venture from food and beverage enterprise New Skew.
New Skew is a Toronto-based food innovation company, which owns and operates a portfolio of craft food brands. Founded in 2017 by Alex Yurek, New Skew comprises a team of former advisors to consumer food brands who recognize the dearth of innovation in the food and beverage category.
Celebrating 20 years of research excellence, Niagara College’s Research & Innovation Division provides real-world solutions for business, key industry sectors and the community through applied research and knowledge transfer activities. They conduct projects that provide innovative solutions, such as producing and testing prototypes, evaluating new technologies, and developing new or improved products or processes for small- and medium-sized businesses. With funding support from various regional, provincial and federal agencies, students and graduates are hired to work alongside faculty researchers to assist industry partners leap forward in the marketplace. For more information, visit ncinnovation.ca
Niagara College offers more than 130 diploma, bachelor degree and advanced level programs; as well as more than 600 credit, vocational and general interest Part-Time Studies courses. Areas of specialization include food and wine sciences, advanced technology, media, applied health and community safety, supported by unique learning enterprises in food, wine, beer, distilling, horticulture and esthetics. For more information visit niagaracollege.ca.
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Media inquiries please contact:
Julie Greco
Niagara College
Communications Consultant
Office: 905 641-2252 ext. 7368
Cell: 905 328 2532
Matthew Gibson
President – Royal Canadian Mead
(647) 965-7289