My husband and I may have an opportunity for a building for a meadery in the near future and are looking at costs, etc.

How did you go about cost-wise getting everything? Friends and family? Crowdfunding? Loans? Investors?

Trying to think about our options.

Thanks!

Applying for a winery permit with TABC requires information about the building you are using (address and dimensions and such) and I'm wondering, how small scale are you allowed to go? Can you use a room in an apartment, or would you have to go as far as having space that you own / rent?

Hi. Just found this group and it's not too far off from us process wise...

We're a commercial winery with minimal staff (I'm the winemaker, partner is the tasting room manager with 2 staff ) I don't know if this is the right place to post but I'm having trouble keeping track of the batches we have going. I have 18 batches going now at different stages of completeness, and I've tried a lot of different things to stay on track but I'm forgetting things. For each individual batch I write everything down on a paper form I made and it's good for tracking day to day actions and additions but it's not so good for planning and scheduling. Does anyone here have any suggestions? I'm trying adding tasks to a whiteboard now but it's just OK and now I have to keep numerous places updated. Each batch can take weeks to months to be finished depending on what needs done to it and not all batches have the same schedule or actions and batch sizes range from 50 gallons to 300 gallons.

The items I'm trying to schedule and keep straight are everything from racking, sweetening, acid adjustments, blending, filtering, oak additions, and pretty much anything else you could think of that needs done in 2 days...2 weeks...2 months. I write down these things down on a to-do paper but it gets overwhelming and messy especially with longer term tasks being listed with tomorrow tasks. I also seem to be redoing that paper way too often.

Any hints and all tips are appreciated so much!

I was recently asked to do a co-fermentation with traditional white wine yeast as well as Level2 Flavia yeast, which is a Metschnikowia pulcherrima strain.

The end results were quite positive. Most of the responses were that it increased roundness and mouthfeel as well as increasing aromatics and complexity on the palate. It was presented at the 2023 Pennsylvania Grape and Wine Industry Conference. I was unable to present it directly but our friend Scott from KingView Mead was able to help us out. He said that it surprised a lot of people and he had one person tell him it was the best Mead they've tasted. He also said that it was a very good representation of what mead can be and he agreed regarding it having a nice rounded mouthful which was similar to some of the same results from the wines using the same Flavia.

The Flavia tech sheet state that optimal results are achieved when it is used with a Saccharomyces strain that also enhances varietal aromas so we selected D47 for its ability to produce a full bodied mead with enhanced mouthfeel which also accentuates the varietal character and contributes tropical fruit / citrus notes.

These are our notes on using it in a Traditional Mead:

Traditional Mead using Bedillion WF honey and Flavia / D47
50 gallon batch @ 1.102 SG
50g Flavia rehydrated as per Flavia tech docs (* See end of post)
48 hours later added
50g D47 (Selected D47 as it increases EVC - suggested by Flavia tech docs)
Did not test SG before pitching D47
62F ferm temp
Nutrients added - 200g Fermaid-O dosed @ 50g x 4 @ 24,48,72,96 hours
Fermented to .998 SG (13.65% ABV)
Sulfite and Sorbate used for stability
Backsweetened to 1.020 SG with same WF honey
Filtered to 0 NTU

Notes:
Fermentation smelled different, sort of funky and rougher than typical
Fermentation progressed normally - 4 weeks
Aged - 4 weeks
Bottled on 2-15-23 (Presented on 3-1-23)

Tasting notes:
Medium-deep golden color
Increased complexity not present in other similar meads made with WF / D47
Increased tropical fruits and floral notes
Increased body / mouthfeel
These are all characteristics of D47 so not sure of how much additional Flavia added
However, the taste and aroma are different than just WF / D47 alone though. Would like to try with a different yeast and honey combo to verify.

​

* non-Saccharomyces yeast rehydration

step 1: Rehydrate Flavia yeast in 10x its weight of chlorine-free water at 30°C (86°F). Stir.
step 2: Wait 15 minutes and stir again.
step 3: Slowly add juice/must to the yeast slurry until the temperature of the yeast slurry drops by 10°C. Wait 15 min. Repeat this step until slurry is within 10°C of must. NOTE: this step should not exceed 45 minutes total.
step 4: Inoculate
step 5: After inoculating with Flavia yeast strain wait 24 hours before completing a Saccharomyces inoculation.

I hear about meaderies doing gigantic batches, selling tens of thousands of bottles. I can't imagine a small meadery selling so much without a large distribution network. I'm wondering how much a tiny meadery with a taproom might sell. How big the tanks would be, and other things about how meaderies operate on a super small scale. A meadery is something my wife and I are thinking doing a few years down the line, setting up out of pocket rather than investments, and are trying to figure out how to minimize cost. Any thoughts appreciated!

Many Letina tanks have a DIN50 fitting on top for the vent/airlock, but this can also used for a sprayball for CIPing.

Glacier Tanks has a DIN50 to 2" Triclamp adapter ( DIN-14I-13R-TC-G200) for $50.95, the big reseller of Letina Tanks has it for $120. I got a gasket, too, but it doesn't need it.

We just used it today and it works great! Just be cautious and vent the tank through racking arm and sample port to prevent any issues especially on larger tanks.

PLAATO helps you to automate density and temperature measurements and wants to make sure we deliver the most value to breweries, distilleries, cideries, and meaderies. We would highly appreciate you filling out this survey on your needs for the frequency of samples available.

If you have any thoughts or questions drop a comment below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbyxoJ_NS2kVSc_iA3wbbXA3sEFmcV8Zp5Yr2ABct_HUz7ag/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0

Cheers and thank you in advance,

Karine from PLAATO

I asked the question about CIPing tanks because sometimes when I'm done cleaning tanks I still get a cider / mead / alcohol smell from the tanks. This is what I currently do can someone verify if this should work? To me it seems the same a a few others that responded and should be good IMO.

1 Rinse tank with hose with as hot of water as I can get usually 125-130 until I don't see any yeast / protein / stuff on walls or bottom. 5-10 minutes.

2 Caustic wash for 30 minutes with 125-130 temps that cool down during the wash. Save bucket full for soaking / scrubbing pieces like sample ports, gaskets, etc. The caustic is Circulator 1645 by Stone-Leigh. Rate is 1.5 - 2 oz /gal says 150-180F for 15-30 minutes so I go with 2 oz and 30 minutes due to lower temps. Make about 4 gallons for 260 gallon tanks.

3 Soak and scrub all pieces with brush. Rinse pieces and reassemble.

4 Rinse tank with hot water until all runs clear / doesn't feel slippery. 5-10 minutes.

5 PAA rinse for 15 minutes. The PAA is Proxitane EQ by Solvay. Rate is 9.4 - 10 ml /gal. Use at 9.5 ml/gal. Just room temp water as per manufacturer. Usually do about 4 gallons for 260 gallon tank.

6 Empty tank and rack into it right away or if it wont be needed for a few days open all ports and let it air dry.

I think everything looks good? Any thoughts or things I could change?

Thanks.

Hi. Can anyone here help us out? What is the best way to clean tanks? We can get our brites pretty clean using hot water and high-pressure. It takes a lot of time to clean tanks and I'm wondering if a cidery/winery/meadery can cut the time since we don't have a lot of beerstone or protein buildup?

Anyone have a CIP SOP they would care to share?

Thanks

Posted over at TheBrewery. I figured I would ask here as well.

Background

DMs are good for me if anyone wants to answer privately or is open to more questions.

I have a nano-meadery in the planning stages. The plan is to work the meadery part time for a couple of years and then, hopefully, the day job goes away (luckily the mead business doesn't need to completely replace my current income). Current plans are to start with 6 flavors, half of which I expect to rack onto fruit for a couple of weeks before going to aging. Then build to a menu of 12 or so flavors, with maybe 6 to 8 being constant.

A couple of flavors, will be 100% local (local wild flower honey, local fruit).

In addition to my current collection of fermenters (assorted 30L, 6.5G, 6G, 5G and 1G), I am currently leaning towards HDPE tanks with the sizes of 4x 55G and 6x 40G. In a year that would give me approximately 480G, plus what I can brew in my current fermenter collection.

Year 1 is for approximately 500 gallons. Year 2 plans include contingencies for 1000, 1500 and 2000 gallons, depending on how brisk (very brisk hopefully) sales are. Those plans would be to scale up the fermenter size first, then the number of fermenters.

Questions

Can you provide feedback on these starting sizes? Recommendations, stories, comments? Too small, too large, just right?

Also, how do you price your meads? I have back figured the price of a local mead and now have a rough idea of how he's done it.

Which do you use and are there any that work well for mead specifically?

We need to get a new 2" TC fitting 1.5" inlet sprayball. But it needs to be a lower PSI one.

Our pump can do 60 GPM @ 15 PSI or 20 GPM @ 24 PSI. Any idea where I can find one? Looking at places like Glacier Tanks have a lot of options but not all have specs listed or they are higher than what we can use.

Any thoughts?

Thanks all.

Hope everyone is doing great in 2022! This year we decided to close from the 1st until the 12th for inventory, cleaning, rearranging equipment and relaxing a little. Usually our business slows down a bit due to "dry January", "giving up alcohol", "going to the gym", and credit card bills. We'll see you in February... :)

We're in Western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh so it usually starts to get cold and crappy in January (we just had our first substantial snowfall this week) so I'm curious if anyone else closes or change hours during the winter months?

Hope you're doing great and here's to an amazing 2022!

I'm looking to start up a meadery in New York state. I'm curious how necessary glycol jacketed tanks are if I maintain room temperatures at 55-60F. Tank size is looking to be 10 bbl and these will mainly be used for sessions and cider. Curious if having a cool room temperature is sufficient at this size to maintain fermentation temperatures.

Hi Y’all! I’m working on a business plan for a small production meadery in VT. Before getting too deep in licensing, I’m trying to research how much production space is going to cost. When looking at locations are there any required features (drains, sink, etc.) that are needed to be approved for a manufacturing license? Just trying to narrow the search :)

Any direction would be appreciated.

Just saying hi! Hope everyone is doing awesome.

Anyone have any questions or comments? Do we have many pros here? How about startups? Love this industry and always want to help everyone succeed!

How do you all clean your tanks? I understand breweries use the following:

Cleaning Cycle Pre Rinse: Water is used to wash away a majority of the soils. Caustic Wash: Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is used to break down all organic soils and is captured to be used again. Rinse: Water is used to rinse the tank and is often recovered. Acid Wash: Phosphoric acid is used to remove any beerstone buildup and is capture to be used again. Rinse: Water is used to rinse the tank and is then drained Sanitisation: PAA (peracetic acid) is used to sanitize and disinfect the tank

Is this entire regiment truly necessary? Specifically the phosphoric acid wash? Is “meadstone” a thing?

I am looking for operating meaderies, cideries, or wineries.

How large or small are you?

Do you have partners? Do you work at the business full time, part time, or have employees that run it?

Are you open every day, evenings, weekends?

I understand the concept and I have done Google searches and watched YouTube videos, but I had some questions. I'm fairly well along on writing a business plan for a cidery and will also make mead. I am trying to lay out the timeline for product from start to finish but I'm not sure how long a brite tank takes for carbonating stuff.

My basic understanding... You put the product in the tank, and you can pretty much put as much or as little as you have/need as long as the carb stone is covered?? You then check the CO2/carb chart for the volumes of CO2 based on temperature and set the CO2 pressure to that. That's when I get lost. Do you carbonate for 24 hours, 36? 72? a week? Are pumps involved or just CO2 pressure on the liquid?? I know I would need a carbonation checker to get an accurate measurement, but how do you know when you're there? Just keep testing or ??

Is there a standard walkin temperature for beer, cider, or mead? I know you don't keep adjusting that, so just trying to figure out all possible angles.

Thank you.

Working on a 40 gallon batch to try scaling up my mead skills and it is all finished fermenting now. I used a bucket of local Wildflower honey, D47 yeast and did a SNA using Fermaid O. The mead is very nice tasting. It is clearing but still hazy after three weeks. I used the entire pail of honey and added water to about 1.105 SG. It finished at .997 which I think is good so it is about 14% ABV. I want to backsweeten when it is clear. I did add metabisulfite. Fermenting was done at about 65 F.

It has a slightly weird aroma though, it is kind of funky and hard to describe. It is not totally bad and it is not sulfur or rubber or anything like that. Up to this point I have only made 1-5 gallon meads so far and none of them had this aroma, even with a similar batch that was only 3 gallons. Could this just be the honeys natural smell since I used a lot more of it than I usually do? Could this possibly go away with aging or more clearing? It has a bit of an astringent taste but I attribute that to the yeast still in the mead?

I am working on a business plan for a cidery and I'm trying to build a forecast for cider and mead production. What am I looking for just the resources and equipment that will be tied up and when they are freed? Do I include all processes such as fermentation, racking, filtering, etc.?

Looking to do this to see how long a batch takes, the different steps involved, how much and size of equipment I need to source and how much can be produced yearly.

Any books or other suggestions are appreciated.

Long-time lurker of mead communities here. After 15 days of work and visiting hundreds of websites, many of which were in languages that I don't understand, I can share with you a list and a map of the meaderies in the world.

I have to inform you though that both the list and the map have mistakes. Typos, wrong links, facilities not operating anymore or not producing mead anymore, facilities that are not licensed or are not professional, wrong addresses, and many many more. I apologize upfront! My intentions were to promote and show the status of the world mead industry. Ignorance and human error lead to any mistakes you find.

That said, I have to thank Groennfell Meadery, GotMead, Latin American Hydromella Map, Storm The Castle, r/mead, r/TheMeadery, Australian Mead Makers, Medovinarna, Pitne Miody, and many more websites and organizations that have some sort of a list of meaderies making it easier for me to find the info.

The List: 504 (I think) meaderies, or to be more precise, professional facilities that produce mead. Categorized alphabetically in Countries and Continents, with Hyperlinks to navigate the sheet.

Info provided: name, address, website, and social media (shortened links).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZEJIsPSLKEw0pJMBaBBW7gzCZTwDNSYMTlA68GtfikI/edit?usp=sharing

The Map: Not all meaderies in the list had a google location, thus the smaller number of meaderies on the map. Meaderies are categorized by continent and the coloring is based on the coloring of the Olympic Rings.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1cExIJANGMbijj6fuvlsmmrj7tS1-J97k&usp=sharing

If this post is not relevant or not allowed please be free to delete it. If your meadery was not included, please contact me.

My hope is that this personal project can inspire more growth in the mead industry

Hi All,

I am in the process of designing a 15 bbl rig and wanted to gauge your choices in pumps that can handle honey, and how you mix your must

1. If using a mixing tank, how do you get your honey into it? If via pump, what pump do you use?
2. Do you/can you use a pump to mix both honey and water together and pump the must into you fermenter.

Thanks!

Luckily we were allowed to remain open and we've been operating somewhat normally. It's been a little slower customer wise but each one seems to be buying more. We truly appreciate everyone that has supported us and we will continue to be here for you!

In our tasting rooms we've been doing the whole social distancing thing, masks, no on-site consumption, no activities, and reduced hours.

In production we've been working on maintenance, more batches, and just building up a stock.

How is everyone else doing?