Ancient brews: Mead, hard cider may make comeback in Somerdale

Armageddon may refer to the end of the world as we know it, but four friends with an affinity for that word see a bright future ahead for their passion – craft hard cider and mead.

The friends hope to open the doors to a new cidery, meadery and tasting room in Somerdale as early as next August. Armageddon Brewing would specialize in the ancient beverage of mead, or honey wine, as well as a variety of handcrafted hard ciders.

More: Could a limited brewery be on tap in Riverton?

More: Holiday gift idea: New Jersey wine and Chardonnay Go

More: Haddonfield brewery will tap into town's history

Sharing a love of home brewing, Christian Annese, Matt Olsen, Kyle Laird and Gill Cornwall believe that beer, wine and spirits lovers, and particularly millennials, are ready to embrace less familiar tastes. They stress that if you have sampled commercial hard cider in the past that experience bears little resemblance to the fresh craft brews they have perfected over the last several years of homebrewing.

Armageddon Brewing, and in particular, Annese’s new life path, has its origins in a medical misdiagnosis.

“I thought I had some gluten-related allergy, and I went to a doctor and he diagnosed me with Celiac (disease),’’ recalls Annese. “But it didn’t seem to fit. My symptoms weren’t that severe. I’d had it for about a year. I went gluten-free, which meant I couldn’t drink beer, of course. As a homebrewer and a beer lover, that was not a bright point in my life.’’

Further testing meant Annese was able to resume a regular diet, but during his gluten-free year he learned about hard cider from a coworker at Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia, where Annese works as a senior interactive web developer.

“A friend here at my job also was a big homebrewer and he had done cider before, and he said, ‘Why don’t you start drinking cider?’ ’’ Annese remembers. “The commercial examples were not that spectacular, so he took me out to lunch at the place called The Dandelion (Stephen Starr’s Philadelphia restaurant modeled after a British pub), and they had a couple different ciders from France and Britain. We ordered one of each and I had one that just blew me away. It was spectacular! It was as complex as a beer and I wanted a case of it. But it was way too much money to buy a case of it.’’

Already an experienced homebrewer of beer, Annese decided to educate himself and switch to brewing cider.

“I went head-over-heels learning how to make cider,’’ he says. “I brewed about 100 gallons, and it’s been a progression ever since. I just went nuts.’’

It’s always nice in life when someone discovers their true passion, and the stars align to support the dream.

In this case, the stars included the mayor of Somerdale (his hometown), Annese’s parents and three of his best friends, all of whom have played a big role in turning a dietary-inspired hobby into a new career path.

What didn’t align, at least initially, was that there were no laws in New Jersey permitting the licensing of a meadery. And laws regulating making hard cider were complicated and difficult to meet, Annese explains, involving owning a certain amount of acreage and using a high percentage of ingredients that could only be sourced from that land.

While New Jersey is home to several hard cider makers, the only other meadery in New Jersey is the award-winning Melovino Meadery in Union Township, Union County, which had been operating under a special licensing arrangement with the state Alcohol and Beverage Control licensing bureau. (By contrast, Pennsylvania has about 40 meaderies.)

In order to launch Armegeddon, the partners didn’t just have to brew great beverages and raise the money, they had to change the law.

Beginning in 2012, Annese took up the challenge, learning everything he could about the state licensing system, seeking advice from local and state officials and those in the beer and wine industries, and gaining support from key politicians.

“We realized that New Jersey’s laws were so far behind, it was nearly impossible to do what we wanted to do. When breweries open in the state, it takes them about a year. What we wanted to do, it has taken a very long time.’’

Annese had to go so far as to establish the definition for what cider and mead actually are in crafting the bill, which was modeled after similar legislation regulating the state’s many craft breweries. Some wineries make a beverage called mead, which he says is usually made from grapes, with honey added. Mead is made by fermenting honey, he explains, although fruits or grains can be added later.

Somerdale Mayor Gary Passanante, with whom Annese had worked in the past, was instrumental in helping the partners navigate the inner workings of Trenton politics, Annese says.

The bill was signed into law in May, freeing the Armageddon founders to get serious about launching their business.

When it comes to starting any new food or beverage-related business, sourcing is important at a time when farm fresh, healthy, organic and locally sourced all matter to the brewers’ target demographic.

To perfect their cider varieties, the friends needed to experiment to achieve a wide range of flavors and experiences.

“My parents had moved back into the area, and they got seven acres of property in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. They asked, ‘Have you ever thought about growing some trees?’ and set some land aside for me. I have about 50 apple trees right now, and it’s turned into this hobby. This hobby has turned into … a whole career path. It changed my life.’’

As for the mead, the Armageddon folks had to educate themselves on this ancient beverage.

“Mead is really hard to make,’’ says Annese, “and I like things that are challenging. I was in Ireland about 10 years ago and the first time I had it was there … While we were brewing a couple years later, Kyle came over with a bottle of Dragon’s Blood, mead from Sweden or Norway, and it tasted atrocious. It was syrupy and thick and just not good at all.

“We tried to find more in 2013, but we couldn’t find a thing. So what do homebrewers do? You can’t find something, you make it yourself. I buy honey in a 60 gallon pails now. I try to source it locally, but a lot of beekeepers charge eight or nine dollars a pound, so it’s not economical. It would cost $300 to make a batch of mead.’’

Mead at Armageddon will be made with Dutch Gold honey from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which Annese explains is true source honey. That means buyers can track where the honey originated from apiaries all over the country.

Annese and his partners have launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance construction and start-up costs for their brewery and tasting room. While they have a possible location in Somerdale, they say they are not prepared to disclose the location until a lease has been signed.

They have no greater supporter than Mayor Passanante, who is proud that his borough was able to convince Flying Fish, the state’s largest craft brewery, to relocate to Somerdale when it moved into a much bigger space in 2012.

Annese interned and later worked for Passanante’s multimedia company earlier in his career, and the two have remained good friends.

“I’m real excited for both him and for the community,’’ the mayor says. “It’s nice to able to be at the start of someone’s future, and being able to help out in any way I could have. I certainly would have done it for anyone else in the community looking for my help.’’

He says he was impressed watching Annese take on the challenges of getting state law changed.

“He hung in there and did a tremendous job of helping to craft the actual language of the bill,’’ he says. “And he has a great product. He has a knack for this thing. Everything he does turns out delicious. … He’s done a remarkable thing. He started this out of his basement and he’s had the will to see it through. … He created a new industry in this state for us.’’

Establishing Armageddon in Somerdale is in line with the borough’s vision of becoming more of a destination.

“We have Flying Fish in our community and we’ve done a lot of work on economic redevelopment and more business and housing opportunities,’’ Passanante says. “The redevelopment of Cooper Towne Center was the catalyst that really got things going. … Armageddon Brewing will be the next step. I’m extremely excited to see what this business will do for the community. He’s a genuine individual, and he’s an artist in his craft. It’s great to be able to help somebody get something off the ground. We’ll try to keep a home for him here as long as we possibly can, with opportunities to expand.’’

Opportunities that may include some future collaborations with neighbors at Flying Fish, where founder Gene Muller has been particularly supportive in Armageddon achieving its dream.

Somerdale is not just home to Annese, it is also where Laird lives. (Cornwall lives in Magnolia, Olsen in Estelle Manor).

Now that they are legally able to set up shop, will Somerdale embrace ancient beverages the way they’ve embraced craft beer?

One hint came at a Somerdale Day event, which offered free tastes of Annese’s ciders.

“I brought four kegs and we ran through everything in two hours,’’ says Annese with a chuckle. “We were like, ‘OK, there is something to this. Let’s have an actual go at this.' '’

So, with such a bright future, why such a dark name?

“Well, we’re a bunch of really sarcastic guys,’’ says Annese. “We can be a very politically incorrect group, and we don’t like breweries named after someone’s last name or something like that.’’

One of their favorite beers is Stone Brewing’s Arrogant Bastard, so they took their cues from that irreverent tone, he says.

“That fit our personalities, we don’t want to take our selves too seriously, and we have a little fun with the name.’’

And a little fun is certainly called for after a Celiac scare and five years of hard work.

But Annese doesn’t regret the road that got them this far.

Homebrewing is all about patience, after all, especially when you’re learning to make a beverage that is at least 9,000 years old.

“We’re all itching to just get started,’’ Annese says. “We’re all very excited. It’s been a long road, and it taught us to have patience with things and things will all work out. It just takes time.’’

For more information

You can learn more about Armageddon Brewing and its

Kickstarter campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/921790648/kick-start-armageddon-brewing

Follow their progress on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/armageddonbrewing/