Believe Meadery owner Brian Harris started making mead after his two daughters were diagnosed with celiac.

“I've been into craft beer and wine making for over 30 years, but about eight years ago, both my daughters were diagnosed with celiac,” Harris said. “Because of that, I stopped making beer and I really focused on mead. When you have somebody with severe celiac, you realize how many chemicals and artificial flavors are in everything. And I thought, ‘If I'm going to do this, I want to get rid of all that stuff and perfect my recipes and make a product that tastes very natural without those ingredients.’”

Mead is a fermented beverage made primarily from honey, and at Believe Meadery, that honey is never blended with artificial flavors or preservatives.

“I just use honey and fruit,” Harris said. “I don't use any artificial ingredients or artificial flavors. I don't use sulfides and I don't use any chemicals whatsoever. It's a product that's very unique in the market space, because there's no one else making something like this.”

Harris crafts meads that appeal to a wide range of palates, from light honey-based drinks with a hint of white peach to bold, fruity meads like red raspberry, blackberry, and roasted plum.

When guests visit the meadery for a tasting, Harris can recommend a blend based on the individual’s flavor preferences. For fans of light beer, Harris recommends a white peach mead. The blackberry mead is similar to a light Italian red wine. He also offers a cherry chocolate vanilla mead that has a similar flavor profile to craft beer. Each bottle Harris makes contains 6% alcohol.

Because Harris uses fresh, seasonal ingredients to make mead, he swaps out the meads on tap every few months. This gives customers a new experience each time they visit.

Mead is different from beer and wine in that it does not need any preservatives because its main ingredient is honey.

“Honey is a unique preservative,” Harris said. “Honey never goes bad, and that's why I don't use any preservatives or chemicals in the product, because honey takes the place of that.”

Located at 308 FM1830 Ste. 8B, Argyle, the meadery is open on Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Guests can purchase mead by the bottle, by the glass, or discover more of the drink’s flavor and history with a mead tasting. Individuals can also place an order online.

Harris said he is happy to answer any questions guests may have and loves talking about the history of mead.

“What a lot of people think is that when people used to get married a long time ago, like in the Middle Ages, there was not a lot of alcohol available,” Harris said. “When people got married, they gave them one moon cycle—about 30 days—of mead for their wedding. Mead was a very popular drink back in the day, but as wheat got more and more domesticated, as barley got more domesticated as grapes got more domesticated, they basically crowded it out because they were an easier product to make and less expensive to make.”

With a commitment to quality, natural ingredients, and flavor innovation, Believe Meadery is reintroducing mead to residents of Argyle and surrounding communities. To learn more about the Believe Meadery, go here.

The above story was produced by Multi-platform Journalist Mary Katherine Shapiro with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.