Rogersville-based Hellbender Meadery LLC is introducing a new line of carbonated mead to the market when it opens later this fall, according to co-owner Caitlyn Franklin.
Hellbender’s mead, which is wine fermented with honey instead of grapes, will be made with a mixture of local honey and fruit and spices. In all, Franklin said the company has developed four carbonated mead varieties that will be packaged into 16-ounce cans. Franklin said she and her brother and business partner, Brandon Franklin, have yet to pick a distributor, but they should have one in place by mid-October.
The carbonated beverages, which will contain 6.5 percent alcohol by volume, are described as low-gravity or low-session mead, according to
HellbenderMeadery.com.
“What we’ve found is that mead tends to be either super sweet or super dry,” Caitlyn Franklin said, adding that the meadery's special blends and carbonation should make the Hellbender products more palatable. “It’s kind of like a wine, and kind of like a beer, but is classified as a wine.”
To start, Franklin said the company would produce four flavored varieties of mead: orange blossom, mixed berry, green tea mint and ginger.
The business is being operated on family-owned property at 3820 State Hwy. KK in Rogersville. Construction of its 8,000-square-foot production facility has been led by Bolivar-based general contractor Bermel Corp., Franklin said.
Total investment to date has been nearly $1 million, she said, adding that both Arvest Bank and U.S. Bank approved loans for the project. Franklin said the company, which has received county, state and federal licenses to produce mead and is working on test batches and completing labels for cans, currently employs four people.
Hellbender named Todd Rock, who previously led the packaging department at Mother’s Brewing Co., its head mead maker in January, Franklin said. Rock earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Alaska before completing the master brewers' program at the University of California–Davis, according to
HellbenderMeadery.com.
The startup meadery is named after the Ozark Hellbender Salamander, which is native to this area of the country.
Franklin said the meadery is planning to produce 2,500 barrels of mead through January, and hopes to produce more than 10,000 barrels in its first full year.
“I know it is ambitious, but what’s the point if you’re not ambitious?” Franklin said.
