Second Kamloops meadery planned as honey wine looks to be next trending craft industry
A second meadery in the Kamloops area has been quietly building over the past year, with opening dates for both honey wine makers still at least a year away.
The owner of a farm just north of Kamloops, Kenton Moore, said he is nearing completion of the red tape required for such a business, and is planning to start the construction of Bone Hill Meadery in McLure in the next few weeks.
With only around a dozen meaderies currently operating provincewide, Moore said he, and his friends in the industry, call it a renaissance era for the ancient mead wine.
“We believe the mead industry is riding in on the coattails of the craft beer industry,” Moore said. “Mead is to wine what craft beer is to the beer lovers. People want an experience, locally-sourced ingredients and holistic products. Craft mead is a culture more than a commercial thing.”
The other meadery in development in the area is Lion’s Head Meadery, located on the South Thompson River in Kamloops. Owners Bernita Wienhold-Leahy and Leroy Harder plan to produce at least 4,500 litres of mead annually.
READ MORE: New Kamloops meadery plans to make honey wine with help from local bees
Moore’s fourth generation farm was started by his Italian descendants who originally operated a cattle company. In more recent years, Moore got into raising bees. He currently has 20 hives scattered throughout the Thompson valley with a goal of increasing to at least 50 hives in the next year or two.
The family sells several varieties of honey, along with other products made from their honey and wax, through their company called Wiley’s Buzz Farm. Moore has been experimenting with mead making since 2019 and getting feedback from friends and family.
“COVID came along and I was in isolation with gallons of honey,” Moore said. “I had studied about mead so I knew what it was. Every culture around the world has made some kind of mead. I ordered equipment and books and made a connection with an expert mead maker.”
To date, Moore has made gallons of mead of 14 different varieties through his home brewing experiments. Of course the special ingredient in mead is honey.
“It is so innovative,” he said. “Once you start down the path of learning mead it's fun, and archeologically speaking, it's like modernizing very old recipes. Our hives produce completely different honeys, some are citric and these properties come through in the mead.
“We prefer drier wines, meads are generally sweet. We bring down the sweetness and bring up the complex flavours, like pear and rose. Our favourite fruit to add is the haskap berry that grows here and tastes like a cross between a blueberry and a raspberry.”
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Moore and his family plan to keep the meadery operation small, offering low batch amounts where everything is handcrafted with no artificial sweeteners or additives. They plan to use homegrown, handpicked ingredients.
“We want to support local industry and local farms,” he said. “There is so much potential in the Thompson valley for these kinds of family businesses.”
Moore plans to open a point-of-sale storefront on the farm and offer private tours and tastings. They are looking forward to bringing their mead to farmers markets in Barriere, Clearwater, Kamloops and Sun Peaks.
“Private tours can reach out to us and book a whole day,” he said. “That gives us the opportunity to give an experience. We are hoping to make it more of an agricultural tourism experience where people can see our hives and what the bees are eating, or jump into a bee suite for a closer look.”
Bone Hill Meadery is named after a hill on the family’s property where some animals were buried. The hill was a place for kids to go tobogganing the family to gather around bonfires.
Both Bone Hill Meadery and Lion’s Head Meadery in Kamloops are working on opening within the next year or two.
Moore is hoping to connect to the other meadery owners.
“In a craft industry like this it is not so much about competition, it is about having fun learning, sharing knowledge and helping one another. I strongly believe the mead industry is growing.”
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