And it’s been a while….

Keeping pace with the social media demands of the business is difficult to say the least. One day, when I can earn a few bucks from this amazing, challenging, exhausting, exciting, rewarding venture, I shall hire me a twentysomething year old to take over the task of posting and coordinating and kicking me in the backside to make this all seem like it’s the easiest thing in the world. But, alas, it is just me yet trying to find something relevant and interesting to write about and share with the world at large, when I make the time.

So, now it’s August and we are just a few weeks away from our one-year anniversary of our initial release. We are continually searching for our own “home,” while still producing at Mershon’s Cidery in Stoughton. We are slowly reaching farther out from our base, having just gotten a foothold in Janesville. But the demand is not yet there. We have a small (and growing) following, but most people still do not know what mead even is.

The goal now is to raise awareness towards mead. Mead Day (August 6 of this year) has just passed, and meaderies around the world are promoting mead like never before. But what is going to be the catalyst that springs mead into the mainstream? It is said that mead is about twenty years behind craft beer. In 2002, I knew very little of the craft beer market. We were about three years into homebrewing in Racine, and still admiring the professional craft beers on said market, but really knew of just one or two “local” breweries or brewpubs (I hadn’t even hear about New Glarus Brewing Company at that time).

So, how do we get the word out? There are thousands of meaderies around the world, roughly 500 across the U.S., at more than a dozen in Wisconsin. But that is a far cry from the dozen or so breweries just in the Madison area, and over 200 in Wisconsin. We have to step out into the public eye and get noticed.

Tastings and festivals are where people meet new products. At every beer festival there is generally a couple/few ciders available, and meads have been showing up as well. We have started doing tastings at some of the local liquor stores that carry our meads, and there are a couple of events lined up where we will be serving our goods (see the Events page). Other meaderies in the area and around the world are doing the same. When people get mead in their hands and to their taste buds, they generally like it, and want more of it. And that’s a good place to start. One step at a time, one person at a time, one sip at a time.