From billingsgazette.com/news
Like the Vikings of lore, JT Robertson has his sights set on distant lands, even as far as Florida. Robertson is the founder of Columbus' Bearded Viking Mead, and his goal is for it to be a household name throughout the states by 2027. He’s well on his way.
A year after the grand opening in Columbus, Bearded Viking Mead has made exponential growth and can now be purchased at 54 locations in Montana. It's available on military bases and is already in a handful of other states across the nation, with more on the way. Robertson said according to the department of revenue, Bearded Viking Mead is the fastest growing wine company in Montana.
“It’s a mead revolution,” Robertson said.
He’s changing people’s perceptions of mead — an ancient form of wine made with honey instead of grapes — one taste at a time.
“The majority of people think mead’s too sweet, my mead is not,” Robertson said. “My mead is just a good flavour, front to back, and sits at 15% alcohol, so you get that nice, warm feeling, but without the terrible effects of too much sweetness, or the effects of too much alcohol. It’s a nice balance.”
JT Robertson's new bottling system can fill seven cases of 750 ml bottles with corks and foil tops in one minute and 30 seconds and can produce approximately 800 bottles in about two hours.
The Bearded Viking Meadery tasting room, located at 4595 on MT-78, in Columbus, is open for tastings through the summer season, 4 – 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday. Lillian Palmer
A year after opening, Robertson has big things planned for his meadery, including new flavours, new projects and a planned expansion.
Robertson’s mead portfolio has transformed and grown from four to 16, including wildflower, apple, jalapeno raspberry, honey pear, peach nutmeg, huckleberry, blueberry lemonade, four-berry chili pepper, choke cherry vanilla, cherry orange cinnamon hibiscus, coffee. And that's not even counting seasonal flavours, like pumpkin spice, or the other ideas he's got brewing.
“Everything we try to do, we try to stick to as natural as possible, and local as possible,” he said.
Bearded Viking Mead Co. Founder JT Robertson is photographed during the grand opening ceremony for the meadery in Columbus on Saturday, May 4, 2024. AMY LYNN NELSON, Billings Gazette
The mead is fermented from honey sourced from Sunshine Apiary right in Columbus. His coffee flavoured mead, the Berserker, is made with coffee beans from Montana Coffee Factory Roasters in Red Lodge. Packed with coffee beans, this mead has a caffeine kick.
The Berserker, named for the legendary Viking warriors who would whip themselves into a nigh invincible frenzy before a battle, has been a big hit, taking third at an American Mead Makers Association's competition. Bearded Viking has racked up prizes at local and regional competitions as well, including Ales for Trails, Stillwater Brew Fest, Livingston Brew Fest.
Bearded Viking Mead was recently challenged to a "mead horde" by Texas Longhouse Meadery and came away as a winner in that friendly competition as well.
“They challenged us and eight other meaderies,” he said. “The winner won a horn which was custom made by the Texas Longhouse Meadery.”
They plan to join in the fun again next year.
“It’s about raising awareness and helping the community. Competition drives excellence. It’s just getting people to understand that not all mead is terrible, first thing,” Robertson said. “For us to only be in business for a year and have six or seven awards now, it’s pretty awesome to be on that leading edge, pushing a good movement.”
That movement just keeps growing. Robertson is working with Willie’s Distillery to source 10 of their whiskey barrels to age mead in for a year, for a barrel-aged mead. He’s also working on getting his hands on juniper berries, for a juniper berry cucumber mead.
“That way we can do a tribute to gin, for all the gin and tonic folk out there,” he said.
The Bearded Viking Meadery tasting room, located at 4595 on MT-78, in Columbus, is open for tastings through the summer season, 4 – 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday. Lillian Palmer
Other new flavours include raspberry lemonade, watermelon, mint chocolate chip, and a mead-mosa.
Bearded Viking Mead has signed on with multiple distributors to reach all corners of Montana, and even all corners of the country. They recently inked a deal with Republic National Districting Company (RNDC), one of the largest distributors in the nation.
“We’ll be end-to-end, top-to-bottom, throughout the state of Montana. We’re starting off our distribution for RNDC in Florida, kicking off in June,” Robertson said. “We already outgrew this [warehouse space], and we barely finished it. So now we’re looking at what it’s going to take to expand to have a giant warehouse.”
Their new warehouse, to come in the next year, will likely be a 10,000 square-foot building, with 5,000 square feet on each floor devoted solely to inventory and “the need for mead.”
“It’s been pretty fun. The adventure has been very stressful, but we're here for it,” Robertson said. “I had no idea it would grow this fast or that people would love the drink so much. We are pleased for sure, and excited to see where this takes us.”
The Bearded Viking Meadery tasting room, located at 4595 on MT-78, in Columbus, will be open for tastings, 4 – 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/business/article_6516b1a2-75c2-41b8-9177-533200619038.html
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