〈Brewer's Note〉DEEPSEEK - strawberry-

In this day and age, I shouldn't say this too loudly, but I have a certain yearning for what used to be called "masculinity." What I mean is that I am drawn to romance. I believe alcohol is romance itself, and I find something indescribable in barrel aging in particular.

We have created a barrel-aged lineup called DEEPSEEK. It’s a series we launched with the desire to continuously pursue the quintessential honey characteristics of mead while embracing the complexity brought on by barrel aging, specifically using bourbon barrels. We are releasing three types of DEEPSEEK this time, and one of them is DEEPSEEK-strawberry-.

The vanilla notes from the bourbon combined with the strawberry aroma make it practically a cake. We’ve created a drinkable sponge cake.

〈Yasu→World〉

There is a meadery we deeply respect and love: Superstition Meadery in Arizona, USA. I visited them last month and had the opportunity to drink many of their barrel-aged meads. While being overwhelmed by the quality of their mead—which has taken top honors in mead competitions time and again—I found myself strongly wishing, "I want us to get there, too."

DEEPSEEK-strawberry- features a flavor combination often seen abroad, and we took on that challenge. Since we used whole strawberries grown in Yasu, it has a more pure fruitiness than the concentrated juices often used overseas.

People in America were drinking mead with pizza in one hand, but I feel that might be a bit too early for us🍕
I still think it tastes best with ice cream or chocolate. It’s also delicious mixed with cocoa and served hot. Why not spend this year relaxing under the kotatsu with some mead?

〈Tasting Note〉

The vanilla aroma from the bourbon barrel blends with the fresh scent of strawberries, creating a sense of bliss as if you were eating a shortcake. It possesses the balance of sweetness and acidity characteristic of the modern American-style mead that is currently in season.

Style: Bourbon Barrel-Aged Fruited Mead

ABV: 13%

Carbonation: None

Volume: 500ml

Ingredients: Pure honey, strawberries

Sweetness (10-point scale): 10 (Very Sweet)

Recommended Serving Temperature: Room temperature (14-20℃)

Storage: Store in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight

〈Mead making〉

All of the DEEPSEEK series releases this time use the same base mead. We create a must (the liquid before fermentation) that has a higher ratio of honey than water and let it ferment slowly. While techniques exist abroad to complete fermentation in a week—and we could do that if we wanted to—we still believe in the school of thought that slow fermentation produces a better result, so we’ve chosen that approach.

Moving on, we added fresh strawberries that we pureed ourselves to the mead before primary fermentation was completely finished, and placed it directly into bourbon barrels to age.

After over nine months of aging, the strawberry and bourbon barrel aromas have gradually melded together, resulting in a finish that feels perfectly natural on the palate.

This is a limited release of 200 bottles. Get yours soon!