Honey Hole: After a decade in the game, Brothers Drake sets the standard for Columbus mead
After over a decade in the Short North, Brothers Drake Meadery pulled up the company’s mead-soaked stakes and relocated to Grandview Heights in late 2023. After years of operating a bar, event space and performance venue, co-owner Sarah Benary described the move as an opportunity to refocus explicitly on the craft of meadmaking. The result is a fresh space along Grandview’s busy 3rd Avenue corridor populated by mead, mead and also mead.
“It looks like a bar, but it’s not,” said Brothers Drake Mead Maker and General Manager Lisa Ferguson. “(The move) is more about selling and focusing on our product, not the other alcoholic beverages, spirits, beers—just becoming a real meadery, not a bar.”
To that end, the taps inside Brothers Drake are today filled exclusively with mead produced on-site, all of it originating from Ohio-harvested honey sourced from a third generation beekeeping family in Custer, Ohio. The meadery’s best seller, Apple Pie, is similarly fueled by a fourth generation apple orchard near Bowling Green and a partnership with nearby High Bank Distillery means even the barrels for the meadery’s barrel-aged varieties are locally sourced.
“I get people who come in and they’re like, ‘Mead, is it beer?’” said Ferguson. “They just don’t know what it is. It’s more of a niche market, but we’re trying to bring it out to the masses.”
As demand for traditional alcoholic beverages among younger generations has waned, the mead industry is on the rise, reporting growth rates far exceeding similar rates for beer and wine, albeit on top of a much smaller existing customer base. Brothers Drake is feeling the effects of that upswing, citing increased demand as the primary motivator for seeking out the Grandview facility purchased in 2020 as a production site before its full conversion in 2023 to house taproom operations.
“Alcohol consumption is definitely on the downturn,” said Ferguson. “People are drinking less. The younger generation is drinking a lot less. We really haven’t seen it hit us that much right now. Talking to other breweries and wine shops, they’re really taking a hit but we just keep growing and growing.”
When Brothers Drake was founded by brothers Woody and Eric Drake in 2007, it was the first such business in Ohio and among only a few dozen meaderies in the United States at that time. Today, the number of meaderies in this country tops 500 according to the American Mead Makers Association, and with that growth comes a growing appreciation for mead itself. A broader and more savvy customer base means Brothers Drake can focus on a mead-first taproom and business model rather than a little-something-for-everyone entertainment venue.
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“My demographics here are so across the board. I’m getting the college kid that comes here after the Ohio State football game. I’m getting the retired couple. I get Renaissance Festival folks,” said Ferguson. “I don’t know why that is, because it’s alcohol, (but) probably because we’re making a good product, selling it at a great price, and we’re local.”
Going forward, the meadery’s strategy includes a renewed emphasis on distribution throughout Ohio both to retailers and restaurants. Over 200 different off-site locations carry Brothers Drake varieties today and future plans include both expanding outside of Ohio and exploring intriguingly-under-wraps mead-adjacent products.
For Ferguson, a career in meadmaking was difficult to envision during a corporate career at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, one of the world’s largest organizations offering alcoholic beverage-related education. After a short stint making wine in her basement, Ferguson ultimately pursued a winemaking certification through Kent State that required on-site experience. Aided by the production similarities in winemaking and meadmaking, Ferguson caught on for a short stint at Brothers Drake that ultimately resulted in her leaving the corporate world and being hired on as mead maker in 2024.
“I really didn’t have aspirations to do this as a career, but it happened and it’s amazing this is what I do for a living,” said Ferguson.
For those interested in learning more about mead, its production and its history as the world’s oldest alcoholic drink, Brothers Drake offers tours each Saturday and Sunday operated by Ferguson and assistant mead maker Andrew Ogilbee. Each tour includes a branded glass and ample samples while discussing the production process. Brothers Drake also offers Mead Club, a quarterly membership program that includes a customizable pack of three meads including year-round, seasonal and experimental options.
“It’s kind of like you come in as I don’t want to say a stranger, but you come in and then you leave as a friend,” said Ferguson. “We know a lot of people’s names and they keep coming back to bring their friends and bring their family. Our customers are family to us.”
____________________________Visit Brothers Drake at 1025 W. 3rd Ave., and visit brothersdrake.com for more information.
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