Beehive Brae makes second crowdfunding challenge target

Beehive Brae, the Lanarkshire mead and honey beer producer has smashed its latest crowdfunding target.

It is the second such alternative funding success for the Plan Bee Ltd stable having secured 175 per cent overfunding with its Crowdcube project in June last year.

The funding will allow the business to start creating its own onsite brewery at its Motherwell headquarters, meeting the growing demand for honey beer and mead, one of the world’s oldest fermented beverages.

Warren Bader, CEO of Beehive Brae said: “This is a great achievement for Beehive Brae and all the team at Plan Bee. It’s a second crowdfunding success for our business. We can now start putting together a meadery and brewery on our own premises, having also been awarded a licence by North Lanarkshire Council, who have been a great supporter of all that we are trying to achieve in bolstering dwindling honeybee numbers. Crowdfunding is an alternative funding mechanism that we have found extremely successful, being an ethical company it’s a route we prefer rather than loans from big banks.”

The vital funding can now be put towards the development of fermenting tanks, bottling equipment and other related facilities.

Mead has made a resurgence in recent years, not only among those seeking an alternative to beer and wine, but also among twenty and thirty something hipsters looking beyond the craft beer phenomenon.

The real surge has come from fans of fantasy dramas such as Game of Thrones with the American Mead Makers Association directly attributing a massive rise (42 per cent) in production to the spectacular series.

Mike Lees, Beehive Brae Chairman added: “Already in the UK many of our contemporaries are reporting a surge in sales of 15 per cent and above since the show started. A drink that was once considered the poor relation to beer, wine and spirits is now finding a new audience. Game of Thrones and similar fantasy dramas are helping to introduce mead to a new hipster audience of trendy twenty and thirty-somethings. In America, the same young people attracted to the craft beer market are also sampling mead and that’s what we hope to recreate here, with ethical shoppers also attracted to our honey beer.”

Mead, which is a combination of honey, water and yeast dates back around 11,000 years in China and nearly 5,000 years in Europe. The recipe is fermented until it reaches about 14 per cent proof.

Today, Beehive Brae’s mead varieties are infused with elderflower, rose petals and rose hips, making it a completely different offering from what was available to our ancestors.

The Motherwell meadery is finding a new popularity with fantasy drama fans, re-enactment societies and a growing craze in Medieval Fayres, with a number of such events on the horizon over the summer.