It’s Not Just For Vikings Anymore
Oran Mor is helping revive the centuries-old art of brewing mead in award-winning fashion.
Story by A.P. Weber Photos by Thomas Boyd
Near mythical grandeur surrounds Oran Mor Artisan Mead.
The meadery on Roseburg’s Melrose Road lies in a verdant valley striped with vineyards and surrounded by hills where cottony mists cling to the pines as if obscuring a realm of mythical gods in the nearby mountains.
It’s a picturesque setting in which to brew mead, the oldest of all alcoholic beverages produced by humans.
Most often associated with the medieval Celts and Vikings — who used it for both medicinal and celebratory purposes — mead was also produced and consumed by ancient peoples of South America, Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean.
Production of mead represents a timeless tradition honored in every bottle produced at Oran Mor by Lilly Weichberger, brewmaster and CEO, and her business partner, Michael Garcia. That extends to the bottle labels, which depict a mythical deity from world cultures. Clearly the pair have come up with a successful formula. In its four years of operation, Oran Mor has earned numerous awards and gained a loyal customer base.
Weichberger’s interest in mead, whose ingredients include honey, partly began with her father, a beekeeper.
“Watching how the bees were struggling, I wanted to start a company that would help,” she says.
Weichberger attended winemaking school and she was producing mead even before earning her viticulture and enology degree. She brought to the process a scholarly reverence for the history and tradition of mead brewing, coupled with a scientific attention to detail.
Weichberger says she saw mead as something made primarily by homebrewers who respected tradition but lacked “a lot of scientific backing.” She wanted to raise the standard, to produce an artisanal product that would also satisfy discriminating taste buds.
“What I’m tasting is a good start,” she says of sampling homebrews. “But mead has the ability to be of the same quality as a fine wine.”
In addition to honey, mead is made with water and yeast, fermented into alcohol, and those ingredients can at times pose a problem, Weichberger says.
“Honey is hard to ferment,” she says. “It has very little for the yeast to live on.”
Weichberger says it would take a year to make a batch of mead using only those three ingredients, which would produce a variety of unwanted off-flavors in the process.
Oran Mor business partners Michael Garcia and Lilly Weichberger.
“Most likely (historical mead brewers) threw something else in there,” she surmises, adding that additional ingredients such as fruit bring in sugar and nutrients that help the fermentation process. The addition of other ingredients informs Weichberger’s unique recipes and brewing technique. But the honey comes first.
“We are very, very picky about our [honey] sourcing,” Weichberger says. “I know all of my beekeepers personally.”
The quality and flavor of the honey drives Weichberger’s next decision.
“I taste it and ask myself, ‘What does this honey pair with?’” she says.
Regardless of which fruit she chooses, Weichberger maintains one requirement. “All of our fruit is farm-direct,” she says, which gives Oran Mor mead its artisanal reputation. It’s not all just fruit and honey, however. The process provides annual challenges.
“Every year is different,” Weichberger says. “The honey changes, the fruit changes, the weather is different. All of that affects the fermentation process.”
That means flavor profiles change from season to season; sometimes because of something as subtle as changing dominance of wildflowers. That makes each year’s production unique unto itself.
“Each batch is our limited release,” Weichberger says. “And we do no more than 300 gallons per batch.”
Oran Mor is not a large operation. Adjacent to Blue Heron Vineyards, it's a single green barn where production, tasting and events all happen behind the same giant overhead door. The meadery features a regular slate of intimate concerts, other events and a warm, inclusive atmosphere. Beer, wine and food are available, but the mead is the star.
“Mead is a way of connecting to people,” Weichberger says. “Everyone is welcome here.”
Where: 305 Melrose Road, Roseburg.
Hours: Thursdays – Saturdays, noon-6 p.m.; Sundays, noon-5 p.m. or by appointment.
Phone: 505.310.1525 (tasting room); 928.600.8138 (meadery).
Online: oranmormead.com.
