Production of mead at
B Nektar Meadery in Ferndale is quadrupling in order to satiate the growing number of mead lovers in Michigan and nine other states.
"We've pretty much reached our capacity, so now we're hoping to tackle to tackle the rest of the country," says Brad Dahlhofer, who started the company with his wife Kerri after crafting mead in the basement of their home.
The addition of the eight-foot tall, stainless steel tanks at the meadery on Jarvis near 9 Mile Road is taking the amount of fermented honey wine made there from 10,000 to 40,000 gallons a year. It's a sweet way to celebrate the company's third year of business.
"When we started we were still working full-time jobs. Our whole business model was producing it and selling it to other retailers rather than being a retailer," says Dahlhofer by telephone from North Carolina, where he was tending to meadery business.
That model has worked as demand rises. The couple keeps finding ways to squeeze more production out of their facility, which now houses 14 tanks.
A birthday party is planned for Aug. 6 at B. Nektar, which usually is opened for tastings and sales of bottled product the first and third Friday of each month. Soon, the first and third Saturdays will be added to tasting room days, he says.
The party runs from 2 p.m. - 8 p.m. There will be live music, drafts by the glass, and barbecue from a smoker on a trailer.
Dahlhofer prefers to keep the amount of the latest investment private, but "we've never put this much money into the company before."
Much of the investment and new tank capacity is going toward production of a new mead called Zombie Killer, a carbonated mixture of all Michigan-made honey, apple cider, and tart cherry juice, with a label made by a Michigan artist.
The plan is to have it ready by Halloween, if not earlier, Dalhofer says.
"It's going to be huge," he adds. An appt description for all that's happened in three short years.
"I'm always thinking that," he says. "It was only three years ago we were doing this in five-gallon batches."
Source: Brad Dalhofer, co-founder, B. Nektar Meadery
Writer: Kim North-Shine
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