Valhalla Meadery
As soon as you walk into Valhalla Meadery you notice the comforting smells of salmon chowder wafting from the kitchen and hot mulled mead from behind the bar. Art featuring Norse gods and goddesses like Ullr, Odin, and Skadi hangs on the walls.
Valhalla is Bozeman’s only meadery and touts some major awards for its drinks. Dylan McKenna, Dylan Watson, and Hal Peterson opened the joint in 2018 and have found a loyal following in their hometown. Mead is a drink of olde that has made a comeback in recent years with meaderies popping up around the country.
“Dylan Watson, my co-owner, came up with the idea,” McKenna says, adding that they were backcountry skiing at Bridger Bowl Ski Area in 2017 when the idea really took off. “He’d been making some cider and mead for a little while and we’d been talking about working on something together. We have so many good breweries in town, as well as a cidery, but it seemed like mead was a niche that wasn’t filled.”
Mead is made of honey and water that’s fermented by yeast, but it can also be uniquely flavored with fruits, spices, or hops. According to Britannica, mead is among the oldest of alcoholic beverages and a version made of honey, rice, and fruit was enjoyed in China during the seventh millennium BCE. Mead then became a staple for northern European countries. “It’s really an interesting drink that a lot of people are either extremely passionate about or pretty unfamiliar with. There’s not much in between,” McKenna says.
Mead is made of honey and water that’s fermented by yeast, but it can also be uniquely flavored with fruits, spices, or hops.
Valhalla operates under a winery license, meaning the location is not beholden to the 8 p.m. closure time that breweries must adhere to. Instead, the locale stays open until 9 p.m. Behind the bar, there are several meads on tap with names like Odin’s Tears, Dragon’s Blood, Fire Giant, and Shield Maiden. Mead can range the gamut of colors from honey gold to deep red or completely clear with a head on top similar to beer. The drink ranges from 3 percent alcohol by volume to a whopping 20 percent, with selections at Valhalla typically between 7.5 and 15 percent. Valhalla keeps up to 14 flavors on the menu with five to six mainstays.
Bozeman’s meadery has won several awards. Notably, Valhalla took gold for its Allfather Sweet Mead and silver for Flathead Cherry at the 2021 Mazer Cup International Mead Competition, the largest event for commercial and amateur mead makers in the U.S., with hundreds of entries from across the States and foreign countries assessed by accredited judges, meadery owners, and accomplished mead makers. Valhalla went on to win silver for Sweet Earl Grey, silver for Allfather Sweet Mead, and bronze for Odin’s Tears at the 2020 Mead Crafters Competition, hosted by the National Honey Board aimed at recognizing the best meads in the United States.
To accompany unique drink choices, Valhalla offers a Scandinavian-style food experience different from most places in Bozeman. The menu includes such items as smorgasbord, salmon chowder, Swedish meatballs, and Nordic potato salad. These hearty dishes make for the perfect pairings with a strong glass of mead on Montana’s frequently chilly nights. Check out Valhalla Meadery at the mouth of Bridger Canyon with an open mind and empty stomach after a day spent out in the mountains.