Paisley Meadery opens N. King St. storefront

Oahu’s craft alcohol industry continues to develop at a steady pace, with breweries and distilleries both in operation islandwide. Now that Brian Paisley has set up shop on North King Street in Chinatown, we can add a meadery to the list as well.

Paisley, 38, has lived in Hawaii for nearly 20 years and is no stranger to the local brewing scene. Originally from Southern California, the U.S. Army veteran first opened Pacific Breach Brewery in Kalihi but says a 2014 divorce left him “broke and homeless.”

It took Paisley three years to rebuild his life and find investors who believed in his dream of making mead. Once he secured $250,000 in seed money and signed a three-year lease to open Paisley Meadery at 36 N. King St. in October, he realized he also needed to step up his educational efforts.

“People don’t know what mead is,” he said. “Everybody loves it, but nobody knows what it is.”

Mead, or honey wine, has been produced for thousands of years throughout Africa, Asia and Europe, and can be traced back nearly 9,000 years to China, where honey was left in clay vessels with rice to ferment.

Paisley makes his mead with locally produced honey, water and yeast he cultures himself. He also adds cacao nibs from local supplier Madre Chocolate that are roasted to his specifications before letting the mead rest in a stainless-steel tank for no less than three months. It’s then bottled by hand and left alone for another 90 days before being made available for purchase.

The resulting product is sweet without tasting overly artificial; the cacao nibs provide an astringency that Paisley describes as “the terroir of Hawaii.” More than 40 pounds of nibs go into his 300-gallon fermenter for each batch.

“So when you see the $40 price tag, it’s actually a pretty damn good price,” Paisley said with a smile. “It costs 600 percent more to produce mead than it does wine if you do everything exactly the same. We’re paying a lot more for the honey, and you can’t cheat those guys because they’re working really hard.”

According to Paisley, Hawaii beekeepers produce about 2 million pounds of honey per year, and he hopes to keep them busy as he expands his product line.

“There’s going to be a Paisley Scotch,” he said. “I’ve already pulled something out of a virgin Hungarian oak barrel that tasted equal to a 15-year scotch. It was so smooth, it was like drinking butter.

“There’s also going to be a black rum. And we want to come out with a line of beers where Hawaiian honey is always included or is in the base. And then we’ll have the meads. We’ll make the fruit ones, the spiced ones; we’ll even have those 24 percent-alcohol behemoths. I’ve even got a squid ink stout on the way!”

Paisley plans to expand his partnership with Madre this week as the chocolatier vacates its storefront on Pauahi Street and moves in to share the meadery’s King Street space, which he said will serve more as a classroom, meeting and dining venue than a traditional retail operation.

“We’re going to offer mead-making classes, beer-making classes, distilling classes, chocolate pairings, chocolate-making classes as well as lunch and dinner,” he said. “This is going to be a really dynamic space. By summer, we’ll be going full bore.

“This space is for my guests to come in and have a good time. When they’re having a good time, I’m having a good time.”

The best way to get familiar with Paisley Meadery is to set up a tasting online at paisleymeadery.com; $20 will get you a guided tour and a taste of his signature mead, plus some “meadshine” and other surprises. Full-sized 750-ml bottles are also available directly from Paisley for $40 each.

If you want to try a glass or two before buying, look for Paisley’s mead at Morton’s Ala Moana, HASR Bistro in Chinatown, Pint & Jigger, Ewa Pantry and Bev Mart.

MY VISIT to Paisley Meadery was the latest in a string of visits to Chinatown that revealed how much the neighborhood has changed in the last 15 years.

Hotel Street used to be dominated by nightclub-style venues and parties that catered to 20-somethings looking to rage until 2 a.m. These days, it’s more about the food scene, with talented chefs and award-winning cuisine available at multiple restaurants throughout Downtown Honolulu.

What I’ve also found is some of the best cocktails these days are servied in these recent additions, such as Fete Hawaii at the corner of Hotel Street and Nuuanu Avenue.

While you can order classics like a Clover Club, Negroni or Vesper, Fete also offers a number of delicious signature cocktails in the $12 to $14 range. My new favorite is the Nuuanu Swizzle, made with Panama Pacific and Rhum Clement Agricole rums and elevated to greatness with the addition of hibiscus gomme and banana jam syrups.

“We knew we wanted to use two different rums, but we didn’t want another mai tai,” said Executive Chef Robynne Maii. “We had made banana jam that was too runny, so we strained it and had all this banana syrup left over.”

A few blocks away at Pai Honolulu, 55 Merchant St., the cocktail menu is updated pretty often, so it’s a good bet you’ll find something new by bar lead Kyra Sanders- Brillault each time you visit. I found her earlier this month experimenting with fat-washed whisky. Her Where’s the Beef uses Pig Nose scotch that “marinates” in a bottle with rendered beef fat for an hour before filtering the remaining alcohol to produce a cocktail base with a touch of smokiness and more viscous mouthfeel.

If you’re a fan of Islay scotch, skip the Pig Nose and ask for a Where’s the Beef with Laphoraig instead; you’ll be glad you did!

CONGRATS TO the Myna Bird Tiki Bar’s Andrew Woodley, who brought a taste of the tropics to Sky Waikiki on Jan. 31 when he took part in a drink competition hosted by shochu brand Iichiko BLU.

Despite being tasked with creating a cocktail that spotlighted shochu, Woodley’s entry, Gift of the Islands, tasted more like the rum-based tiki drinks that dominate at his bar in the International Market Place, thanks to the use of pineapple gomme syrup.

Want to make a Gift of the Islands at home? Pour 2 ounces of Iichiko BLU, 1/2-ounce lemon juice, 1/2-ounce pineapple gum syrup and a dash of green chartreuse liqueur in a cocktail shaker; add ice and shake. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with shiso and mint leaves; you can also muddle a few of each while making the drink for an extra flavor kick.

For his efforts, Woodley won an all- expenses-paid trip to the Iichiko distillery in Japan and $1,500 cash. Stripsteak Waikiki’s William Hee and Sky Waikiki’s Tyler Johnson finished in second and third place, winning $1,000 and $750, respectively.

Jason Genegabus has written about the local bar and drink scenes since 2001. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram or email jason@staradvertiser.com.