From kpcnews.com
AUBURN — It started as a hobby and grew into something much more.
Auburn residents Tom and Candy Cupka decided to try their take on mead — using honey as its primary fermentable.
In development for more than six years, they recently opened their own business, Bee Good Meadery.
The Cupkas explained mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage, predating both wine and beer. “Some describe mead as filling the space between wine with beer, offering something for everyone,” they said.
“The way the wine industry has come into this area really sparked our interest,” Tom Cupka said. “We got to know a lot of the wineries, a lot of the owners and the makers, and we started going on wine trails.
“I grew up on a strawberry farm in Bloomington five miles away from Oliver Winery, and the camelot mead bloom used to land right on our farm, so we helped them pack it up.
“Between the two of them, we wanted to be in this industry. We wanted to be here with all our friends and all the people we’re getting to know, because this industry is great, but we don’t want to do what they’re doing,” he explained.
The Cupkas decided to follow mead path, remodelling garage space into a production facility and honing their craft.
Candy and Tom Cupka are owners of Bee Good Meadery, which opened in February at 112 N. Main St.
While the business began taking shape in the midst of COVID, the Cupkas had been thinking about it for several years before that. Tom made his first wine in 2016, and established several grape plants. The business opened Feb. 18 and is located at 112 N. Main St. It offers two styles of mead — session and still — in a variety of flavours.
Session meads, they explained, are carbonated and lighter in alcohol content and kept on tap. Still meads use more honey, and are bottled and aged for longer periods of time.
Like wine trails, mead trails guide aficionados to establishments that specialize in honey-based drinks. “There’s a few meaderies that make the style that we like to make,” Tom said. “A lot of them are really traditional or go just weird. There’s a lot of different types of mead.”
When asked what sets their business apart, the Cupkas explain they are trying to fill the gap between wine and beer. The business offers traditional mead — comprised of honey, water and yeast — as well as meads brewed with fruit, known as melomels and variations with spices, known as metheglins. Bee Good Meadery uses honey from local sources.
Tom said one of the Christmas wines he plans to make will feature cinnamon, plum and cherry.
The business is open from 5-9 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and from noon to 9 p.m. Saturdays.
In addition to glasses and bottles of several wine varieties, the menu includes flights of honey and carbonated varieties; a charcuterie plate of biscuits, apple chips, pretzels, meats and cheese; slushies; slices of cheesecake; pork sliders; slushies and non-alcoholic honey soda.
A pastor, Cupka said the first Sunday of each month will feature what he calls “pub theology.” The May session will feature a professor from his seminary.
The business has a Facebook page and more information may be found online at beegoodmeadery.com.
“We both still have our day jobs,” Candy said. “This is our fun, empty-nester night business.” She handles the accounting for the business.
“She’s our CFO. I’m the CPO, the chief prayer officer,” Tom quipped. “We run it on a wing and a prayer.”
“We didn’t even drink wine until about 2016,” Candy said.
“It’s just one of those hobbies that got out of control,” Tom explained.
https://www.kpcnews.com/thestar/article_95bc404b-b7ef-53b5-bf8b-c2a39c72d3ab.html
No comments:
Post a Comment