Ancient honey-based beverage to find new home in Bluffton sometime this spring

Mead, an ancient alcoholic beverage crafted from honey, is making a comeback and will soon be flowing in Bluffton.

Mike Tripka said he plans to open Bee-Town Mead & Cider, a mead production facility, at 1230 B May River Road in the Scotts Market complex. He said he expects to open about the middle of April, though the date is subject to construction restraints.

Bee-Town will feature a tasting room where mead will be sold by the glass or bottles for purchase and mail order, according to Tripka. He said instead of using grapes, he’ll use honey to ferment the beverage. “Honey wine” isn’t an accurate description.

“Mead’s actually the oldest fermented beverage,” he said. “It is experiencing a huge resurgence.”

Tripka said he wants to source local ingredients from South Carolina and neighboring states to make mead while also developing other alcoholic beverages such as apple, pear and even peach ciders.

If you don’t have a sweet tooth, not to worry; Tripka said mead isn’t really sweet and can be infused with different types of spices and herbs.

“It can be,” he said. “...There’s a whole rainbow of flavors and different styles you can do. It can be dry, semisweet, sweet.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Ancient honey-based beverage to find new home in Bluffton sometime this spring."