So ive been home brewing Mead for 2 years now, still a noob but completely engrossed. Now i know im not totally ready to start selling my stuff but i am ready to start the process of getting to that point. Where do i go from here? What should i do first? I
So whats the next step?
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Enter some competitions and see what the world thinks of your mead. If you can, go to those contests and volunteer to be a judge so you can taste many different meads and see how yours stacks up against the others.
Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
Are there more than the one that in CO? that's the only one I've heard of ,not that I've really looked either I guess.
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There are plenty of them all over. A little google time will get you a bunch.
Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
Sent from my galafreyan transdimensional communicator 100 years from now. G
Once you think the world will appreciate your meads, then you'll have to embark upon a different google search: what does it take to legally make and sell mead in my state?
Also there are a few really good informative posts in the Mead Industry section from folks who've started up meaderies in various places. Some of them might even tell you where you need to start looking for what it takes to do it commercially.
Also there are a few really good informative posts in the Mead Industry section from folks who've started up meaderies in various places. Some of them might even tell you where you need to start looking for what it takes to do it commercially.
Only gotten thru 3 pages but an amazing convo here if others are curious...
http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showth...ity-of-Math-and-the-numbers-to-survival/page4
http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showth...ity-of-Math-and-the-numbers-to-survival/page4
Yep, that thread has a wealth of information in it. As CG mentions, start trying to figure out what the specific hoops will be for you in your state. There's a lot of variance, and in many cases, there are issues with what you can and cannot use in a recipe while still using the word "mead" to describe it. Try your hand at a large-scale batch as well; you'll find the complications from scaling up create much more work, and less fun, than you get at the hobbyist level.
I wouldn't mind going commercial someday, when I'm in a position to not need the income, and not worried about the outflow of funds. Unlikely, that.
I remember listening to a podcast with Michael Fairbrother from Moonlight meadery. I remember him mentioning something about writing a book on how to start a meadery. I bet you could email the moonlight meadery website to get more info. It would be interesting to hear his process.... one of kind book. I bought a how to start a winery book a few years ago but never made it past 15 pages... guess I'm just like Icedmetal and kind of conflicted about going pro. I think it would suck the fun out of it personally.
Anything you do for fun becomes work when you're making your living at it. Of course the few lucky ones that get to do what they love and make a living at it are usually very happy. Mead making on a pro level is very hard work, but I a, pretty sure that most of us here aren't afraid of hard work. No one chooses a hobby that requires hours spent building up lactic acid while degassing a bucket with a big spoon, lugging those buckets and carboys around, bottling, labeling, filtering etc... without already being kind of a "workaholic" anyway right?
I would love to go pro once I feel I can produce a product that most people will like. Of course there's the rub. Sometimes what we think is AWESOME just really isn't in a marketing sense. Look at Strongbow ...just changed the recipe to an insipid syrupy sweet concoction that makes me go "blearrgh" but it seems to selling like hotcakes. So the real fear isn't that it's hard...EVERYTHING is hard when it's taken out of the hobby realm. My fear is that I wouldn't be able to make a living despite all that hard work.
I would love to go pro once I feel I can produce a product that most people will like. Of course there's the rub. Sometimes what we think is AWESOME just really isn't in a marketing sense. Look at Strongbow ...just changed the recipe to an insipid syrupy sweet concoction that makes me go "blearrgh" but it seems to selling like hotcakes. So the real fear isn't that it's hard...EVERYTHING is hard when it's taken out of the hobby realm. My fear is that I wouldn't be able to make a living despite all that hard work.
Whereas I'd love to go pro as a part-time job. I'm just not in a situation where I can do it yet because Ontario makes you go big or go home, I can't just do a startup in my basement... unless I wanted to start a microbrewery, those are popping up all over the place on street corners whereas meaderies and winemaking are relegated to agricultural/commercial zoning because you need to be able to grow all your own fruit or be running no less than a hundred hives.
Ontario's liquor laws are mostly set up with the idea that people probably shouldn't drink, ever, but if they're going to, we should make it inconvenient. At least we don't still have the rules against wine made from non-local fruit varieties so we can make wine from something besides concord grapes. We're long overdue for a big overhaul, but every government that talks about doing something seems to hit a brick wall and backpedal afterwards. So frustrating!
Here in BC the Puritans have finally been started to be whipped away from the liquor board. We can get personal amounts of wine sent to us from-gasp-AN OUT OF PROVINCE WINERY without involving the LCB!! We even have two microdistilleries going here in Van.
Over here a puritan is somebody who only drinks good booze, and lots of it.
Sorry to hear of your woes guys. My only worry if I want to sell mead is forking up the licence fee. They don't care what I'm selling nor how I made it. Nor do they even want a tarriff until I turn over $250k pa.
Sorry to hear of your woes guys. My only worry if I want to sell mead is forking up the licence fee. They don't care what I'm selling nor how I made it. Nor do they even want a tarriff until I turn over $250k pa.
Careful...,
You may inspire a bunch of honey-consuming immigrants who'll come in and drive prices up.
My door is always open Medsen, you're welcome to step through it and enjoy the creature comforts of a warm bed and a house full of psychotic children (legal adults included)
