What is Mead? An Ancient Beverage with a Timeless Appeal

Mead, often referred to as "honey wine," is one of the oldest known alcoholic beverages. It’s made by fermenting honey with water, and can be enhanced with fruits, spices, or herbs. Mead has been cherished by ancient civilizations, from the Greeks to the Vikings, for its versatility and its ability to reflect the natural world through its ingredients. Though it shares some similarities with wine and beer, it is neither. Mead stands apart due to honey being the primary fermentable sugar, creating a distinct and timeless drink with endless variations.

Why We Make Mead: Celebrating Sustainability, Tradition, and a Sense of Place

Honey is a renewable, sustainable, and versatile source of fermentable sugars. As long as we have orchards and groves of crops in need of pollination, we will need bees. Their hives require no additional land or any intensive land use.

Our mead-making is an extension of an ancient tradition reimagined for a modern palate; it allows us to be a part of a time-honored tradition while simultaneously pushing forward with inspiration and innovation in flavors.

The flavors in mead come from the honey that is fermented, and that honey’s flavors come from the pollen of all the flowers the individual bees visit. This gives each batch of honey its own unique terroir based on where and when the honey is harvested. We use local Northeastern Wisconsin wildflower honey to showcase the terroir of our local flora.

Each mead we produce tells the story of its ingredients, whether it’s a single varietal floral honey or a more complex co-ferment with fruits and herbs.

Here, we don’t have preconceived notions of what belongs in wine. Whether we’re working with cherries, apples, or grapes, we treat all of our ingredients with the same level of care and respect. This freedom from tradition allows us to experiment and create wines that are not bound by convention. Each co-ferment is a journey, and we love discovering how these different ingredients interact during fermentation, enhancing each other’s flavors and textures.

One of the most exciting aspects of co-fermentation is the chemistry of non-grape ingredients like honey. Honey’s low acidity and complex sugar structure provide a fascinating base for fermentation, offering a whole new realm of possibilities. When combined with other local fruits, honey’s natural sweetness and floral notes add depth and balance, resulting in wines that are rich in character yet refreshingly drinkable.

We choose only whole, local ingredients, never flavorings, to ferment with our meads. We do this to pay homage to the terroir around us and to celebrate the variety of flavors that can be found in our own backyards. We believe that it isn’t necessary to import exotic ingredients to produce world class beverages. While our mead list is ever changing and evolving, ingredients we have worked with so far include black currants, tart cherries, apples, jalapeños, foraged spruce tips and wildflowers, wormwood, mint, lemon balm, blueberries, maple syrup, dandelions, distilled mead spirits, red and white wine grapes and skins, and there is no limit to our imagination. Future plans include using cranberries, ginseng, rhubarb, strawberries, plums, blackberries, and more, so stay tuned!