Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Gordon.
Hi Gary, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Breaking Brew Meadery, like a lot of craft beverage companies, got our start as a father son hobby. We started as home brewers and found a passion for mead. We were fascinated with honey and the bees that make it. Honey, being the fermentable ingredient, is amazing. There are over 300 varieties of honey in north America alone. These honeys by themselves or mixed with fruits and spices allows us to create so many more combinations than any other craft beverage in the market.
Since mead was not a well-known beverage but starting to grow slowly in the craft beverage category, we thought it would be the perfect drink to try in the market. So, we opened a small taproom in the Addison/Farmers Branch area in the fall of 2018. We recruited the family, built out our space, and started selling our meads. We’ve been doing so for over 6 years now.
We have since expanded into distribution across the state of Texas and will soon be selling in cans in local markets and liquor stores. We are also the official mead of the Scarborough Renaissances Festival in Waxahachie, Texas.
Our plans are to continue to grow and hopefully work our way into other markets across the country. We plan to be the modern mead for the masses.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Like all small businesses there are always challenges. We are highly regulated by both state and federal government which is always difficult. We also rely on sophisticated machinery for cleaning, canning, cooling and making our mead. We’ve had machinery break down that required us to dump some of our products, machines damaged in shipment, and the occasional sensor go out at just the wrong time.
We were also hurt by Covid. As a tasting/taproom we were classified as a bar for some reason. Because of this we were shut down for 6 months. We found this very frustrating since liquor stores were still open. Our only form of income was our regulars stopping by for to go orders.
We have and will continue to overcome these adversities as we are not the only business that had/has these issues. I guess it’s like to old saying “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
Our moto is “We don’t do this because it’s easy. We do this because we thought it would be easy”.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Breaking Brew Meadery was the second mead tasting/taproom in north Texas. The first closed in 1997 and was in Deep Ellum. Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man. Since honey is antibacterial, it made the perfect fermentable. It gained fame in the Middle Ages and is most notable as the drink of the Vikings. Due to honey being an expensive ingredient, and hard to get, mead lost out to beer and wine. When home brewing started to become popular, mead started it’s come back. It was easy to find and more affordable. It also became a key ingredient in beers, ciders, and distilled liquors.
In 2017/2018 there were only about 90 meaderies in the US. As of the time of this writing there are more than 600 nationwide. Texas holds the distinction of having more meaderies than any other state. Mead is still growing and is expected to exceed 7% growth in the US this year.
Mead comes in two major categories, hydromels, or sessionables, which are below 7% ABV, and traditional style which is from 7% to 20%. At Breaking Brew Meadery we are known primarily for our lower ABV meads. They are lightly carbonated, crisp and easy to drink. They are less filling than beer and are gluten free. Because of meads versatility we have flavors like Jalapeno Lime, Strawberry Lemonade, Blood Orange, Coffee Cinnamon and Root Beer. We have an average of 12 flavors on tap and usually a bottle or two of the traditional meads. We offer a relaxed atmosphere and a friendly knowledgeable staff. We are open from 4pm to 9pm Wednesday and Thursday, 2pm to 9pm Friday, noon to 9pm on Saturday and 2pm to 6pm on Sunday. We offer flights, by the glass along with growlers and cans to go.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
We feel hard work, a grateful attitude, a passion for our meads and being as knowledgeable as possible are the most important characteristics of success. The craft beverage industry is a challenging industry. While we have dealt with equipment break downs, variable sales and a lot of competition, these qualities keep us going and will make us more successful.
Pricing:
- Flight of four meads – $10
- 10oz glass – $7
- 4 pk cans – $20
- 6oz traditional pour – $10
- 32oz growler fill $16 – 64oz growler fill $26
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.breakingbrewmeadery.com
- Instagram: @breakingbrewmeadery
- Facebook: @breakingbrewmeadery
- Twitter: @breakingbrewmeadery
- Youtube: @breakingbrewmeadery
- Yelp: Breaking Brew Meadery
