Dolmen is a small scale craft distillary creating artisan spirits of distilled mead in McMinnville, Oregon. We are one of only a few distillers in the world who have taken on creating distilled spirits from mead [fermented honey]. In doing so, we hope to bring forth the delicate floral aromas of honey to what could be called an eau-de-vie or brandy.

Frankly, the Feds who regulate distilleries nationwide didn't know what to call our distillate. Brandy comes from grapes. Eau-de-vie from fruit such as pears. Vodka comes from anything, but is stripped clean of flavors. 'Worker Bee' comes from honey and this had the Feds scratching their heads as to how to classify this ancient elixer. We agreed upon the term Honey Spirits. Looks like we've created a whole new category of distillates. Who knew.

The heart of Dolmen is inspired brewer and master distiller Anders Johansen. Anders spent many years brewing beer between the original Pyramid Brewery in Kalama, Washington; Spencers brewpub in Springfield, Oregon; the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon and most recently at Southern Oregon Brewing in Medford, Oregon. Anders has reached back into history and his Danish heritage to update the classic Celtic and Norsk elixer of distilled mead.

The still is a gas fired hand-made 65 gallon alembic pot still. The mead was originally fremented in 59 gallon in neutral oak wine barrels. Each barrel filled the still once for a truely batch oriented distillate. We've since moved to a larger fermentation container for some of our honey but the still is unchanged and each 60 gallon 'charge' is a unique product in it's own right.

Dolmens are megaliths, huge rock edifices whose functions span from burial mounds to ancient time pieces such as Stonehenge. Many of these stone monoliths were assembled in Neolithic times. Today, they stand as a testament to human ingenuity and the mysteries of early man.