Stian Krog, the founder of Mjøderiet ('The Meadery'), is looking forward to coming to Trondheim Brewery Festival July 29-31 and talk a lot about mead. Because, he says, considering Norway's thousand-year long tradition of brewing mead it's a bit weird that he in 2016 was the first one to found Norway's only meadery.

- In the United States there are around 600 meaderies, so mead over there is a well-established thing. Mead is new in Norway, even though the tradition of drinking mead here is well known from over a thousand years ago, he says.

Stian Krog (back row, in the middle) and the brewers at Mjøderiet are busy preparing for Trondheim Brewery Festival and for the Vinmonopolet launch this fall.

Mead with three different kinds of honey

He was a home beer brewer for many years, before mead spiked his curiosity. Mead takes less time to brew than beer, and he found himself brewing more mead than beer. And the more mead he brewed the more he liked it.

- Mead is a very exciting brew. It's entirely different than beer, wine and cider. Mead is a category of its own. Mead is brewed with honey and a variety of herbs, spices, berries and fruit. Our meads are lightly sweet to moderately sweet, he says.

These are the breweries coming to Trondheim Brewery Festival this year

It's very busy at Mjøderiet these days. They will be listed in the Vinmonopolet main selection this fall, and they are brewing a variety of new kinds of mead. 

- Right now we are brewing a traditional and complex mead based on three different honeys; one from Ethiopia, one from Spain and the third one from Norway. We are also brewing a mead with raspberries and lemon, which will be a lighter brew. In addition to that we are brewing something called a cyser, it's a combination of mead and cider. It's fermented with honey and apple juice from the cider region of Hardanger, he says.

Mead is brewed with honey, with many flavor combinations of herbs and spices. 

Mead to Trondheim Brewery Festival

The next few weeks they are busily preparing all the meads, and Krog is looking forward to coming to Trondheim Brewery Festival July 29-31.

- What's so fun about coming to Trondheim is that it's so inspiring being there and serving mead and meeting the people. People of all ages and backgrounds are coming up to us, curious to learn more about mead and the process of brewing it. It's fun to see how people respond to the different meads we have and to hear their feedback. We get a lot of energy being at Trondheim Brewery Festival and we're looking forward to coming, he says.

Read more about Trondheim Brewery Festival here

Mjøderiet is situated in Bergen, and they will be bringing selected favorites when they come to Torvet, the town square in Trondheim July 29-31.

What is mead?

- Mead is an alcoholic beverage, which in its most basic form consists of honey, water and yeast.

- When the yeast ferments the sugar from the honey produces alcohol and you get a beverage that can resemble a wine,
with honey as the primary contributor to flavor, as opposed to grapes.

- Just like a wine - a mead can be sweet, semi-dry or dry. It can be sparkling or still, high in alcohol or "sessionable" -
all depending on the mead maker's intention with the product.

Learn more about Mjøderiet here

Here is a list of all the breweries coming to Trondheim July 29-31