Blog - Craft Mead brewed in Colchester, VT - Groennfell Meadery

Midwinter Fest 2019

12/9/2019

Warm around the bonfire

Midwinter Fest is almost here!

With flagons of mead, bonfires, hot Winter Warmer, and trenchers of all-you-can eat Viking Food, this is our biggest party of the year.

If you make it to just one event at the new Mead Hall, this should be it. As always, there's no charge to attend and all ages are welcome.

Details:
Saturday, Dec 14, 2019
11;30 am - 8 pm

650 Industrial Park Rd
St. Albans, VT

Thursday Fun Fact 11-7: Badass Oak Table

11/7/2019

Come see it in person at Mead Hall Reborn this weekend!

Thursday Fun Fact 10-17: Emerging Leader

10/17/2019

Thursday Fun Fact 10-17 - Kelly graduated from the SBA Emerging Leaders program today!!! We wanted to take a photo of the ceremony, but... it was Nora's naptime... and the cost of film these days... and the obscene cost of one-hour Fotomats... So here's a picture of Kelly from a different time. - Groennfell Meadery

B Impact Assessment: The Gold Standard for Measuring Impact

9/6/2019

B Corp

In a life full of fluctuating sales, erratic fermentations, and an ever-shifting marketplace - not to mention constantly being covered in honey and yeast - it can be easy to get so distracted by the day-to-day rush that the bigger picture fades into the background.

We didn’t start a meadery to become rich or famous (so far so good), and we certainly didn’t start a meadery for the joy of being sticky and stressed all the time.

When we founded Groennfell Meadery six years ago, we did it for two big reasons: We wanted to build a company we could be proud of and, we wanted that company to make a positive impact on the world.

To hold us accountable to our mission, we have been undergoing the extensive (and sometimes onerous) process of becoming a B Corp.

If you’re unfamiliar with B Corps, we urge you to go learn about this amazing program right now!

After hours and hours of compliance paperwork, interviews, structural changes to the company, and much more we’re proud to announce…

We’re almost there.

That’s right. We’re doing pretty well, but the reason you undergo an assessment like this one is not to pat yourself on the back, but to see just how far you need to go to be the company you want to be.

As of today, August 6th, 2019, we have an unconfirmed score of 79.4, which probably means nothing to you. Very generally speaking, the score is OK, but nowhere near where we want to be as a company.

Since starting the process, we’ve incorporated new benefits for our employees and introduced radical new cleaning procedures to reduce our water and chemical use. We’ve studied all of our packaging material and done life-cycle assessments on cans. We’ve learned more about True Source Certification than we ever thought we could.[1]

Now it’s time to talk about our big areas of improvement: Transparency.

As soon as our answers are all verified and our score confirmed, we're going to begin regularly publishing our B Corp score alongside the full report and asking for feedback.

This is a pretty big deal for us because, to be honest, we’re not where we want to be as a company. But we’ve come to realize, throughout this process, that we’re never going to get there unless we invite our beloved meadiacs to scrutinize our business.

In an industry full of Crafty Beer owned by mega-corporations, we want to go above and beyond to be a company you trust.

Thank you for all of your support for the last six years! If there’s any way you can help us improve, we promise to listen.

[1] As usual, all of our research will be made available as part of our open source policy. We're just tidying it up for publication right now.

Thursday Fun Fact 8-1: National Mead Day

8/1/2019

Thursday Fun Fact 8-1 - Groennfell Meadery - What do Easter, Thanksgiving, and National Mead Day have in common? They all happen on a different date every year, but the day of the week stays the same! You know what else they have in common? Pretty much nothing.

We eat gratuitous amounts of meat on all three, but that’s merely by choice.

Join us this Saturday 8/3 for a Live Mead Demo (2-5 pm) and our Mead Day Festival (4-8 pm) to get an exclusive glimpse into our new digs and, of course, some great food and drink!

Thursday Fun Fact 6-20: Valkyrie's For Export

6/20/2019

Thursday Fun Fact 6-20 - Groennfell Meadery - We’re thrilled to announce the release of a new take on our Classic Mead! Valkyrie’s Choice for Export is being previewed this weekend at the VT Renaissance Faire!

Thursday Fun Fact 6-6: St. Albans

6/6/2019

Thursday Fun Fact 6-6 - Groennfell Meadery - St. Albans, VT, is famous for being the Northernmost battle of the Civil War, something to do with railroads, and now for having a meadery! We're officially moved in!

While our new facility isn’t open to the public, you can find us at St. Albans Bay Farmers' Market on Wednesday evenings and Northwest Farmers' Market in Taylor Park on Saturdays!

Thursday Fun Fact 5-23: Farmer's Market Mead Hall

5/23/2019

Thursday Fun Fact 5-23 - Groennfell Meadery - We’re going to have a pop-up Mead Hall every Wednesday, all summer, right on the Bay in St. Albans!

Thursday Fun Fact 5-9: New Home

5/9/2019

Thursday Fun Fact 5-9 - Groennfell Meadery - You are looking at the new home of Groennfell and Havoc!

Thursday Fun Fact 5-2: Mead in CT

5/2/2019

We’re so excited to be working with Craft Beer Guild of Connecticut for our big Connecticut launch!

Thursday Fun Fact 5-2 - Groennfell Meadery - This is what the state of Connecticut looks like as of May 2nd, 2019. In exactly one week, it will ideally look just the same, but our mead will be available state-wide!