Mead Crafters Competition

The National Honey Board is in search of the best meads for its Mead Crafters Competition.Online Registration Due October 1, 2021Shipments Due October 4-15, 2021Registration for the National Honey Board’s Mead Crafters Competition is now open through Oct. 1. The annual competition is free to commercial meaderies in the United States and recognizes the best meads in the nation. Last year’s competition featured 305 entries, with Columbus, Ohio-based Zen Bee Meadery’s Mara Ume, a session mead inspired by Japanese plum wine, coming out on top.“Our annual Mead Crafters Competition is an exciting showcase of one of the most dynamic categories in the alcohol industry,” Catherine Barry, National Honey Board’s director of marketing, says. “The mead industry has really expanded in the last couple of years with the growing popularity of low-ABV session meads, and this competition does a great job of spotlighting this emerging category and traditional meads.”The Mead Crafters Competition features the following 11 categories:

• Braggot
• Cyser
• Dessert mead
• Other fruit/vegetable melomel
• Metheglin
• Pyment
• Session/draft mead
• Specialty (open category)
• Traditional
• Varietal
• Design/packaging

This year’s entries must be submitted by Friday, Oct. 1, and entries must be commercially available in the United States. Meaderies may submit multiple entries per category (up to five entries), but each mead may only be entered in one category. The competition will be limited to 350 entries. To register, visit http://meadcrafterscompetition.com