Kinsale Mead Co Tour: Discover Ireland's Honey and Mead Making History

Join us on a one-hour tour of Kinsale Mead Co and discover the fascinating history of mead making in Ireland. Taste our delicious mead and learn all about the art of mead production.

Duration: 1 hour
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • P17 XV10 - About Kinsale Meads | Light and Refreshing | Fermented Off dry (12% ABV)
    Myths & Legends | The evolution of mead through history | Stories about Myths, Legends & Kings in Ireland
    Bee Judgments & Honey Tasting | Ancient Irish Bee Laws | Tasting of 3 unique raw honeys | Learn about all about bees, honey & biodiversity |
    Bee to Bottle | Modern mead making from fermentation to bottling | The stories behind our wine & whiskey barrels that we use for maturation
    Tasting | Sample award-winning meads and cocktails | Kinsale Mead’s best food pairings
    | Family Run | Kate and Denis Dempsey love to share their passion and knowledge!
    Kinsale | Bustling harbour town | Gourmet capital of Ireland | Great pubs & restaurants

It is also an opportunity to visit our beautiful town of Kinsale with its historic streets, harbour and great restaurants.

What's Included
  • Free car parking
  • Guided tasting of award-winning meads
  • Cocktail sampling in the oak bar tasting room
Meal Options
  • Selection of Kinsale Mead Co.’s award winning meads - A guided tasting of our award winning meads will conclude the tour.
Additional Information

Take part in our entertaining, 60-minute exploration that navigates the lore of mead. The tales of mead and honey date back into antiquity, deeply intertwined with the myths and fables of Ireland. Savour the honey that forms the backbone of our delightful mead. Acquire knowledge about the process of mead-making. Indulge in a professionally guided savoring of this uniquely refreshing beverage by our mead connoisseurs. Kinsale Mead Co. takes pride in being the first Meadery in Ireland in over 200 years. We are enthusiastic about sharing our expertise and zeal for all things related to mead and honey.

Location
P17 XV10
Walking - Leave Kinsale Tourist Office right, take a right and right again. Left up Featherbed Lane, first right, in 50m up the steps/ramp, through the gates, past the Post office. Driving - Turn at the Garage, follow the road over the small roundabout, past Lidl, through the gates - free parking.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
5.0
(90 Ratings)
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Jill_w
Sep 18, 2024
Fun, flavor-filled and informative Mead Tour!! Do it!!! - This Meadery Tour was absolutely great! Informative and engaging; welcoming and sublime overall! Kind staff and owner. Beautiful facility. We were waiting longggg time for a taxi and the ownergave us a ride to our dinner restaurant🙏
Review provided by Viator
Raymondbq4253ed
Sep 16, 2024
A must try - We had our tour and tasting with Denis. Denis has a wealth of knowledge and tells some fantastic stories (and jokes). My wife and I both enjoyed it and would definitely recommend to anyone.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
417wendy
Sep 7, 2024
Worth the climb up the hill 🥵 - Excellent experience. I really enjoyed hearing about the mythology of the bees and honey. The tasting of different honey and different meads was delicious. A very enjoyable experience filled with lots of interesting facts. Friendly welcoming staff, who ensured we had a fun afternoon. Thank you
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rosaleenm321
Aug 19, 2024
Very interesting - We visited the Meade distillery in kinsale as part of a tour on a hen party and would highly recommend it to anyone . We were greeted my Denis and Sam who were really lovely people , pleasant and so knowledgeable. They were really passionate about the Meade , and made the tour so interesting with their knowledge. We listened to Sam as he explained the history , he was so impressive and also quite humorous. It’s not a big distillery but you still get to see all that it does . We tasted the various honey used and afterwards tasted the Meade itself . If your planning a trip to kinsale be sure to visit it .
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Patrickn41
Aug 18, 2024
Highly recommended - Lovely people, very knowledgable and clearly passionate about their trade. We did the tour incl. tasting and very much enjoyed the stories, history and mythology around mead and beekeeping. Highly recommended!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Deirdre_l
Aug 15, 2024
Historical, interesting and tasty! - Very cool history about mead as well as some tastes of the varieties of honey they use to make their different delightful concoctions. Bought more than I needed afterward but they had great small sizes in gift packs that were fun to give my family. Would highly recommend.
Review provided by Viator
P7381prsandyr
Aug 5, 2024
Unique and fun! - This was a fun event that did not take too much time but was informative with a nice presentation and a good tasting at the end. My family thoroughly enjoyed this!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Luke
Aug 4, 2024
Excellent experience - My partner and I visited here and took the tour as we were down visiting kinsale for my birthday. The tour started by them taking us through the importance of mead, bees and honey throughout Ireland's past, which was incredibly interesting, before leading us through to the brewing area. This is where we were able to sample the varius delicious honeys they use and for more history and information on its importance to the mead. After this we were shown the impressive brewing and bottling processes and then how they aged the different types of mead they make. Finally after this we were lead through a tasting of a selection of their different meads, which were all beautiful. Throughout the tour our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and a great speaker, and had thoughtful answers for all of our questions and they kept us very entertained the whole way through. The tour itself was very interesting and of course the tasting was amazing and we had to leave with a few bottles of our own. Overall a great experience that we would recommend to anyone, no matter their knowledge on the subject going in.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sheydeco
Aug 4, 2024
Save the bees, drink mead - We had a great time touring the Meadery. We learned loads thanks to our friendly guide Saoirse and capped the experience by trying some lovely meads.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Connector48395553089
Aug 1, 2024
Not to be missed. - Superb. So interesting. Sam the guide was entertaining, knowledgeable, funny, and converted me to mead. Before this tour I thought mead was 'that nasty sweet drink' . I was wrong. Deliscous, informative tasting session after the tour and suggestions for food pairings left me wanting more, and we bought 4 bottles. A big thank you.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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September 2024
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