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Company Profile
Medovina: The Formative Years
An Introduction by Mark Beran
I suppose it all started as a childhood curiosity. Not a proud moment in beekeeping, but the adventure was to capture a docile bee or two in a jar and then the challenge – releasing them without getting stung. It worked some of the time.
The next chapter in beekeeping started three or four decades later,
in 1993. Kellie, Medovina’s master mead taster, my partner
in life and Miss Ragweed-Allergy extraodinaire read that eating
raw, locally produced honey can alleviate the symptoms of pollen
allergies. So we decided to visit Jerry Web, a local beekeeper
and bee equipment supplier in Littleton, CO. We just wanted to
see what beekeeping was all about. At the end of the day, we left
Jerry with 2 beehives in the trunk of our Volvo. We figured we
had learned enough about getting started from our 2-hour ear-bending
visit with Jerry. I don’t quite remember what happened when
we got home to Niwot, except to say that I do remember Kellie
and I making tracks in opposite directions, both being pursued
by a host of angry bees. So the next day we did what we should
have done a week earlier – a trip to the public library to
pick up books and videos on beekeeping.
Chapter three, a milestone, was written about 2 years later over
a tennis match. My team member, Chris and I had been speaking
about beekeeping when he asked if he could buy 3 or 4 quarts of
honey to make mead. “Mead?” I asked. “Normally
I enjoy brewing beer or making wine, but every now and again I
like to make a batch of honey wine,“ said Chris. So I agreed
to supply the honey and Chris agreed to allow me to look over
his shoulder. Our batch of Chief Niwot’s Mead was a success
and a few bottles still remain in our cellars (most of it is Chris’
and some day I’ll let him know). A couple of month’s
later Kellie and I were having dinner with our good friends Volker
and Ursula. We talked about mead and Volker mentioned that he
had some old home brew equipment somewhere in his garage and batch
two was born. Actually, between the time we agreed to undertake
batch two and actually doing it, Volker, a world traveler, visited
Scotland and brought back a bottle of mead from an offshore monastery
accessible only on low tide. We enjoyed it as we embarked on our
mead making project. It was truly incredible –sweet as can
be, but it spoke to every taste bud on my palate. I was hooked.
Chapter 4 lasted for years on end and involved Kellie and I making
a batch of mead every other month, keeping mostly good records,
and experimenting like crazy. Needless to say, we ended up with
lots of mead and little closet space in our modest home. Before
long, the normal greeting we got when attending local parties
and social events was, “Hey great to see you guys, thank
you for coming…you did bring some mead, didn't you?”
We never tested the concept of showing up to a party without a
bottle of mead and so far our house has escaped most toilet paper
wrappings and neighborly pranks. Neighbors Brad and Jane are usually
good for something very corny on birthdays, but that’s another
story. Well, now there is a mead following in old town Niwot and
after some level of indulgence and off the wall neighborhood chats
in the hot tub an idea is born – take the avocation to vocation
plunge.
The mead and hot tub combination makes almost anything sound enticing
so the next day I penciled out a business plan. The plan was very
revealing, chock full of rock solid reasons not to go forward,
so we did. After all, I had been dabbling in the stock market
and every time I felt like buying it was time to sell and every
time I felt like selling it was time to buy. Extrapolating this
life’s experience, I figured going forward was a sure bet
– damn the torpedoes! Medovina was born! Production started
a year later and our first sale was for Chuck and Kim’s wedding
in September 2003. And so, the ancient Egyptian custom of sending
off the bride and groom for a full cycle of the moon with a jug
of mead (for their honeymoon) is in tact. Thank you Chuck and
Kim for loving each other, for enjoying our mead and giving Medovina
an historically appropriate beginning.
To Be Continued...
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