Mead-makers plan site, tasting room near Lewes

Craft beer has a firm footing in Delaware, and some are also making a go of creating wine. But how about some mead with your meal?

Two entrepreneurs want to take boutique brewing in a new direction by starting up Delaware's first meadery. John Talkington and Robert Walker discussed their plans before Sussex County Council Tuesday, as they asked for permission to set up a honey wine microbrewery on agricultural land near Lewes. A conditional-use permit from the county is key to their business plan.

"I've been a meadmaker for 20 years," Talkington, of Seaford, said in a recent interview. "It's a passion for me since I've been doing it so long. I think Delaware really needs a meadery."

Mead is also known as honey wine and was popular in ancient Greece before grapes became a more popular way of making wine. Making mead requires around 3 pounds of honey per gallon, Talkington said. It's the honey that spurs fermentation by marrying sugar and yeast.

Federal laws treat mead as an agricultural wine, while Delaware law categorizes meaderies in the same box as breweries making beer or cider.

"We want to try to purchase our honey as local as possible. We're going to be using thousands of pounds of honey per year," Talkington said.

The founders have plans for a tasting room on the property they've settled on, near the intersection of Coolspring Road and U.S. 9. Walker told the council he and Talkington will be the company's sole employees at first, as they work toward early goals of making 2,000 gallons a year. Eventually, the business could scale up to 10,000 gallons, he said.

Talkington said the company is making arrangements with Delaware orchards to supply fruit they'll add in for specialized recipes.

"We plan to offer a kind of old Scandinavian appearance when you come in," he said. "We think it'll be a neat product to offer the area." The company, he said, is still in the process of obtaining a liquor license.

Several craft breweries have dabbled in meadmaking; Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, where Talkington is a brewer, has made one-off batches of beer-mead hybrids, and its Midas Touch has plenty of honey in it. Redstone Meadery of Boulder, Colorado, says it distributes in 20 states.

But the First State, for now, lacks a dedicated meadery. "We'll be the very first one," Talkington told the council.

No one raised any objection to the conditional-use application at the public hearing; votes on it by the Planning & Zoning Commission and the County Council are likely in the next few weeks.

Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.