Hundreds wait in line for Bushwakker mead

REGINA – Dozens braved the cold all night to be among the first to taste this year’s batch of blackberry mead from Bushwakker Brewpub.

“I started lining up at about 12 o’clock, so we’ve been out here for about 10 hours,” said Kyla Wills, who was wearing four layers of clothing.

For her, camping out all night in temperatures close to -50 with the windchill on a leather couch was all for the “prestige and the exclusivity, bragging rights… mead.”

She was after one of around 400, 12-bottle cases of blackberry mead, which bar and marketing manager Grant Frew described as “not beer, it’s not wine, it’s mead.”

The drink, which went on sale at 11 a.m., has been made and sold by the pub for decades every first Saturday of December.

This year’s batch has an alcohol level of 10 per cent, and was made from 400 pounds of honey from Saskatchewan. Each case cost $150.

The mead was sold out within a few hours.