April 19, 2024

Buzzed Bee Meadery brings homemade mead to Jasper County

By Kayla Langmaid
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Michelle Spohnheimer pours a mead for a tasting during the Buzzed Bee Meadery ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday night. The mead is made from the Spohnheimer’s bee hives. (Kayla Langmaid)

MELBOURNE — Imagine tasting a wine that is carefully blended and blissfully sweet without grapes as the prime ingredient. At Buzzed Bee Meadery, a winery in Melbourne, owners Wayne and Michelle Spohnheimer have made at least 10 different wine flavors with just one special element — honey.

The Newton Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday night to officially announce the meadery’s grand opening. Located on top of a hill and on a few acres of farmland, where the Spohnheimers bought a house in 2014, has now been transformed into a part-time business.

Mead is an ancient alcoholic beverage that uses honey as the primary fermentable ingredient. The honey is also mixed with water and yeast to create the mead. The Spohnheimers use raw honey from their hives. Other ingredients include fruits, spices and sometimes flavoring such as, chocolate and coffee.

Wayne said he is really into homesteading, gardening and growing fruits.

“We have been beekeeping for five years, and we had all this leftover honey that we needed to do something with,” Wayne said.

Michelle said there are 10 stainless steel tanks in the house’s basement that contain 80 gallons of the mead.

“Mead making is something that is very historic but is something that is becoming popular again,” Michelle said.

The Spohnheimers said it has taken about a year for the business to pick up with traffic and they continue to get alcohol permits. Each time the couple comes up with a new flavor, it has to be approved.

The process doesn’t stop the business owners from continuing to come up with new ingredients and ideas.

“It’s just a continued process of coming up with new flavors,” Michelle said. “We are planning to do a new flavor of peach and basil this summer”

Other flavors the winery has to offer are lemon, blackberry, a buckwheat flavor, aronia and jalepeno.

“It’s a beautiful property and view,” Michelle said. “We are hoping to expand and make the space bigger and have bands come out and play live music and have sitting space outside.”

Buzzed Bee Meadery is located at 1755 340th St. in Melbourne. The meadery’s hours are 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Contact Kayla Langmaid at 641-792-3121 ext. 6513 or klangmaid@newtondailynews.com