The first question I always get asked is “why Three Bear?”

When my now-husband and I were first dating, he called me Mama Bear and I liked it enough that I replied Papa Bear. We both already had sons. When we got married we had another son, and we had our Three Little Bears. I couldn’t do this without the family’s support so I wanted to name it after our boys.

– Deanna Spengler

Our process and our products are very simple. We only use whole foods and items that exist organically in nature to make our meads.  This means actual fruit, vegetables, herbs, flowers, and honey from New York State. Every attempt is made to use fruit from New York State provided it is in season. No pre-made juices, no extracts, and no added sulfites. All of our meads sit at least 12 months before they are bottled. Our batches are all small batches that range from 3 gallons to 15 gallons. We do it this way because it’s easier to control at a smaller batch.

What does Mead taste like? 

Well, mead is often referred to as honey wine. The thing is it’s not really wine. Wine is made from grapes and sugar. Mead is made from honey and water at the very least. Most flavorful meads consist of other fruits, sometimes including grapes. The easiest way to separate mead from wine is by looking at where they derive their sugar from. Wine uses sugar, and Mead uses honey. Mead is the oldest form of alcohol. Therefore wine and beer came from the idea of mead. It can taste like wine if it has grapes in it or it can taste like beer minus the carbonation (we don’t carbonate ours as that’s an unnatural process).

Why have I never heard of mead?

That’s actually a very easy question to answer. Making mead is very time-consuming and the profit margin is not nearly as high as wine and beer. Mead, if made right, is an experience all its own. Just know all alcohol used to be made with honey. Sometimes change isn’t a good thing. This would be one of those times.