Episode 63: Starting a Meadery (Feat. Texas Longhouse Mead)

[@imageblue1852]

Good to see more meaderies in the south. Took me 2 years to get my license, Meeker's Mead in gulf coast Mississippi

[@brandonjohnston2101]

Super cool podcast! I work at a commercial meadery and everything Texas Long House Meadery is going through is painfully accurate. Buying land is definitely the way to go. So many meaderies, cideries, and breweries go out of business because their rent costs balloon too much.

[@reneaclark7689]

I am so excited for you, Carlos. I have a tentative 5-year plan laid out with my husband. Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge. If our dream is to become a reality, we must learn from those who go before us! I look forward to hearing about the next steps in your adventures.

[@stevenhart6595]

My brother and I are trying to start a meadery here in Texas as well, closer down to Houston. We've run into a few snags so far, and heading about your experience is really helping us prepare for what we need to plan for. Don't quarterly or biannual updates would be so helpful. Thanks for sharing your experience

[@yourmetalgod69]

OH after doing the cost analysis for one of my meads in my PC App, I have one mead that if I sold it would be $110/750ml bottle hahaha that is with a 22% profit margin added to it. so yeah hobby vs commercial way of doing things is TOTALLY different haha.

[@magacop5180]

Which app? I’m trying to figure out how much to sell mine for.

[@magacop5180]

And what made it $110?

[@yourmetalgod69]

it was a combo if the honey , milk, and berries in it along with the rest of the bits an bobs. it was a labor of love really but after costs of all componets including yeast, nutrients etc... when I tacked on a 22% profit margin it was like $109.45 per bottle. @@magacop5180

[@yourmetalgod69]

there are a few out there none are fee sadly. I did a search for winery software. talked to a few sales reps at a few told them what I needed and one guy helped me out based on my needs. cost me $$$ but I like it. but after spending enough time with it it is just a fancey spreadsheet program that has all the math figured out for you lol. So if I was in a huge winery it would save tones of time I am sure, but for the home scale I still have to type in every single addition by weight in grams/Kg and I have to enter in the cost and weight of each and every item into a central data sheet give them all abreaviations for referencing the data sheet. . it gets nuts, every bottle type and price, every gram of product is accounted for. It took me Days of work and going back to invoices for total shipped prices of things. I have a one year lease on the software so I will have to pay again to keep using it every year I want to. But I may work it out one of these day into a spreadsheet and call it good. Sadly this is the reallity of owning a business. they make it easier with another company but you end up with an insane amount of unusable software for mead makers. most of them are set to monitor crops and rotate fields have readings for the grapes on each vine and shit like that. my next search is gonna be for manufacturing software or accounting software and see what pops up there. @@magacop5180

[@yourmetalgod69]

I have been planning mine for a year now and working on ways to make things cheaper and more viable for larger scale batches. It is a lot of work!!! I have been contacting commercial Ajunct makers who already serve wineries and other makers in the similar feilds so I don't have to worry about ingredient approval from state or TTB. I am looking to partner with another maker here to help us both. All the homework invvolved in this is freaking nuts haha. The programs that keep track of all your costs/batch are also not cheap but 100% worth it for figuring out true cost/bottle so you can creat your best and reasonable profit margins, and with that you have to weigh EVERYTHING you add to any batch and document it so you get those costs put in. that side is taking me months to input all the figures I have for my 30+ meads. There are very friendly people out there in the commercial world and in this business and, have found if you treat them with kindness and respect they will help get you all the things you need and want. the cost of fermentors kills me lol I was looking for 30L-60L sizes for one-man batch handling issues. so much work but I am making progress on each step. but I am not done yet and have more to go. the recipies I have figured out with the help of pros in the field. Good luck to ALL who try this adventure.