Here at Starrlight Mead, we have always felt that supporting each other and the industry is what makes all of us better and more likely to succeed. Sometimes, that support and working together leads us outside of the mead industry to collaborate with friends at other businesses. Ben has been a big fan of collaborations and has done several in the past. He’s worked several times with Thomos Vincent at his previous breweries and now at Hatchet Brewing in Southern Pines to make a braggot, honey with hops or grains. Ben likes to take an established beer style and come up with a honey that goes wel ..read more

Mead Day was declared by the American Homebrew Association in 2002 as the day to celebrate the making and drinking of our favorite beverage, Mead! Mead Day takes place on the first Saturday in August. Since we didn’t start making mead as home mead makers until 2004, we heard about it a few years after it’s inception. We started celebrating with our friends, serving up lots of tastings of meads we’d made or meads we’d happen to find in stores. (Not nearly as many then as are available now!) As things progressed, and more and more of our friends found out we were making mead, we ended up with la ..read more

One of the things that we’ve loved about the mead industry is the cooperation and fellowship of the owners of other meaderies. There’s never been a feeling of competition because our real competition for sales is beer and wine… not other meads. We’ve loved the friendship and sharing that we’ve built up over the years with local meaderies, especially Honeygirl Meadery in Durham. Now, as we venture into the cider industry, we’re finding a similar level of friendship and assistance there too. Last week, Ben and I, plus Ethan and Erin (the production team), and their spouses traveled down to James ..read more

Some of you may have heard that we purchased Chatham Cider Works in January from its original owners, Maureen and Jim. This month, we finally have our first ciders, produced at Starrlight Mead, on tap and in bottles ready for your enjoyment. Maureen and Jim approached us back in November and said they were moving out of the area and asked if we were interested in purchasing Chatham Cider Works (CCW). Our first reaction was an emphatic NO! We already owned one business we were trying to keep up with, what on earth did we need another business for? And then we got thinking… We love making mead a ..read more

We see a lot of people each year in our tasting room. Many of them come to see what mead is all about. Some come to see the Mead Hall we’ve built. Most of them come to do a tasting. Many people are curious about mead, having never had it before, others have a long-time love affair with mead. Some are nervous about doing a tasting. What if I don’t like it? What if it’s too sweet? We love showing people what makes mead amazing and are always happy to answer questions. Especially, how do I do a tasting? Do I have to spit it in the bucket? What’s up with swirling? Here at Starrlight Mead, we teach ..read more

Hello everyone! Ben, here. I have taken over the blogpost this month. I was looking at a calendar and realized that I will turn 60 next year on December 7th. I decided I wanted to do something to celebrate with my closest friends and, well, my closest friends just happen to be Mead Club members! I decided I wanted to make something special to share with you. As many of you may know, I love all types of drinks. I have been heard to say that my favorite drink is whatever is in a glass in front of me! I do love a good aggressive red wine. I also like an assertive IPA. One of my favorite drinks t ..read more

About 8 years ago, it was decided that we had outgrown our space at Chatham Mills, and we were going to look for someplace to build our new meadery. A mutual friend said that we should ask Lyle and Tami if they knew of somewhere great. Turned out, Lyle thought that we should build here at The Plant and help create the Chatham Beverage District. The Plant, as it’s been come to be known, has a long history here in Chatham County. Starting as early as 1946, the area was home to Sunshine Gardens growing rows of chrysanthemums. In 1986, an aluminum smelting plant was built. Lyle and Tami acquired t ..read more

It’s the month of love and roses… and chocolate! So of course, we’re wanting to pair our meads with chocolate, because that’s what you do, right? Each year, we do a Mead and Chocolate pairing, and people love it. Ok, it might be the FREE CHOCOLATE. Or it could be that just like wine and chocolate, mead and chocolate are a great combo. In the past, we’ve always paired dark chocolate with either our Off-dry Blueberry or Off-dry Blackberry meads, both similar in flavor to red wine. This year, we are out of the Blackberry and the Blueberry isn’t quite ready yet. So, we have a dilemma. Mmmm, mead ..read more

One of the joys of Summer is making a fruity sangria to serve chilled with the fresh foods of summer coming off the grill or chilled from the fridge. The combination of crisp, lightly sweet, slightly tart, and fruity makes it the perfect drink to serve when friends come over to hang out. Traditionally, sangria is made with: Bottle of dry wine – typically red Brandy or another spirit Fruit juice – often orange to add some acidity Granulated sugar or simple syrup Fruit Optional – seltzer, ginger ale, sparkling water Each Summer, we love making up sangria recipes with our meads. One ..read more

Welcome Fall! We love when the cooler weather shows up because that means it’s Spiced Apple Season! Spiced Apple is our bestselling mead year-round, but so many people say it reminds them of fall or the holidays that we have to make double batches of it just to keep up. Do you know the story of this favorite beverage? Spice Apple was created by Ben, kind of by accident, at home back in the fall of 2005. He was left unattended and mixed together apple juice, spices, and honey. The result was amazing! He only made a one-gallon batch (5 bottles), but it was so good, we decided to enter it in our ..read more