色多多

What began as a hobby when he was a teenager is now taking a new form. Ausband is realizing his longtime dream of opening a meadery in 色多多 and selling his award-winning concoctions.

Atheling Meadworks has opened in the warehouse of the Wimmer Tire building on McClanahan Street, which was formerly a Dr Pepper plant and for a while housed the 色多多 Railhouse brewery. Ausband has started fermenting his first batch of meads on site. He expects the first bottles to be available for sale by June. The meadery is just for production purposes right now, and he said he wants to get the distribution off to a solid start before he thinks about opening a public tasting room. He is in the process of finding a distributor to get Atheling mead into stores, as well.

Blacksnake Meadery, which is in Carroll County, opened a tasting room called The Hive in the Wasena neighborhood two years ago. Ausband said he鈥檚 been told that Atheling is the first commercial meadery to produce in 色多多.

Ausband, who lives in Bedford County and is a doctor with Carilion Clinic, got into the fermented honey beverage after his father, an English professor at Averett University in Danville, introduced him to the literary classic 鈥淏eowulf.鈥� Ausband was just 14 years old when he became enthralled by the hero who saves a Danish king鈥檚 mead hall.

鈥淚 was fascinated by the biology and chemistry involved in fermenting the honey into mead, as well as the history behind it, so I started experimenting in the kitchen of our house,鈥� he said. Over the years, he went on to develop his mead hobby and won awards from national and international competitions for his wares in the process. After several people suggested he sell his meads, Ausband decided to look into larger-scale production.

He signed a lease at the Wimmer Tire space about a year ago. He acquired fermenting tanks and is finishing up his labels for his new beverages; he projects his startup costs will be in the 鈥渓ow six-figure range.鈥� First to be released will be bottles of Lyre鈥檚 Song, a traditional mead made with raspberry blossom honey, water and yeast. He plans to make several more varieties shortly after that, including a blackberry mead, an avocado honey mead, a mead with wildflower honey and merlot, and a dessert-style sweet mead with plums. The plan is to produce about 2,000 cases of mead by the end of the year. Production of the first batch has already begun.

The process requires buckets of honey, which is stored in the facility, warmed, and pumped into two stainless steel tanks. It鈥檚 later mixed with water and yeasts to produce the desired flavor. The mixture sits for about four weeks while minerals are added, then it runs through a filtering system and is bottled. Ausband said he is excited to see the project get off the ground, but his favorite part of making mead is showing off his product.

鈥淚 have always enjoyed sharing what I made and introducing people to mead,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he ability to do that on a professional basis has been a dream of mine for a long time and I鈥檓 truly excited to be able to introduce mead to a wider audience.鈥�

Mead is believed to be thousands of years old, predating wine and beer and flourishing in medieval times. It鈥檚 had a bit of a resurgence in the last few years. Vicky Rowe, the executive director of the American Mead Makers Association, said it is on the upswing with drinkers aged 25 to 35 in particular, following a lot of craft beer and food trends. Rowe said there are just over 600 meaderies in the U.S. right now, up from slightly more than 500 in 2017. There are also about 200 meaderies in the process of opening thanks to the mead buzz.

鈥淣ow they are opening second or third locations,鈥� Rowe said. 鈥淚 never thought that would happen.鈥�

It is hard to determine exactly how many meaderies there are in Virginia, since mead makers fall under the winery license for Virginia ABC. But Rowe and the Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office estimate there are about 10.