Rock Springs, the western Sauk County community of slightly fewer than 400 located on the Baraboo River, has experienced plenty of disruption over the last decade. The river has flooded the small downtown several times, notably in August 2018 and June 2008. But Brad Allen hopes to bring new life to the village using one of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages.
Last year, Allen bought the community’s former village hall, located in an old church — uphill from the flood zone — with the help of a GoFundMe campaign. The Reedsburg resident then opened the Mead King’s Village Hall, where he makes and sells mead.
Mead at its most basic is honey fermented with water. Signs of mead-making can be traced back to 7,000 B.C. “Every culture produced some form of mead,” says Allen. “Most people who’ve heard of mead relate it to the Vikings, but meads have been historically produced in Africa, Asia and multiple European countries.
“There’s not a huge market for mead, but it’s growing,” adds Allen. Wisconsin has fewer than a half-dozen exclusive mead makers, including Madison’s Bos Meadery, although some state winemakers also produce mead. Many area residents have dropped by to sample his product, and mead fans from Chicago to the Twin Cities have also visited in their pursuit of the beverage, he says.
Mead production can be a little pricey — bulk honey sells for $3 to $4 per pound — but it is easy to make. Allen takes water from a local artesian spring and combines it with yeast and locally sourced honey. The yeast ferments the honey’s natural sugars over 30 to 45 days in a sterile container. The mix is then moved to a different container for secondary fermentation and aging. Allen, who learned mead making from Bo Nelson, a friend and homebrewer, about 10 years ago, repeats the process until the contents are clear and ready to be bottled.
Some mead producers use such additives as potassium metabisulfite, which stops fermentation early in the cycle and allows the mead to be clarified and bottled in about two months’ time. Allen doesn’t do that. “I produce mead as naturally as possible, which means it can take three to seven months per batch,” he says.
Allen has produced multiple meads since Mead King’s inception, including a cherry chocolate, a smoky variety, and one with hibiscus and rose hips. He also has produced cysers (a mead and apple cider blend), pyments (mead and grape juice), melomels (mead blended with various fruit), and metheglins (a blend of mead and spices). He is still waiting to produce his first braggot (mead blended with malted barley).
“We have a variety in stock right now, but nothing with any consistency,” Allen says. “I just started a 135-gallon batch of cyser, which I will split and season with either vanilla or spices to be ready in time for the holidays.”
Currently, public hours are limited to weekends, due to Allen’s full-time job (he’s a field technician for a cable company). Allen is only in the hall on Saturdays. But he’d like to devote more time to mead: “In four or five years I hope to quit the cable company and do this full time.”
The meadery, about a 10-minute drive west of Baraboo on Highway 136 (and even closer to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom) is open Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.
Mead King
110 E. Broadway St. (Hwy. 136), Rock Springs;
608-844-0616; facebook.com/MeadKingMeadery
[Editor's note: The subhead and web description for this article have been corrected to state the meadery is in Rock Springs.]
