In this episode of the Kanawha Valley Hustlers podcast I talk with Dave Bragg, owner of Wandering Wind Meadery, Charleston’s first and only meadery. I ask what mead is, and he frames it as honey wine with roots in cultures all over the world. I joke about Thor and Vikings, and he brings it back to a wider history of honey traditions.

I ask how he got started. Dave comes from performing, and medieval re-enactment. Mead shows up in that world, and when he retired from performing he saw a gap in Charleston. There were no meaderies here, so he chose to build one.

We get into the problem he tried to solve and the biggest mistake along the way. He started on a small budget without big investors, so he opened small and grew from there. Looking back, he thinks he started too small and that it slowed growth. About a year to a year and a half in, he commits to bigger fermenters and larger batches.

I ask about how mead compares to beer and wine. He explains the main difference is where the sugars come from. Beer pulls sugar from grain, which adds steps like boiling. Fruit wines and honey wines can start with fruit or honey, add water and yeast, and ferment without that boil step.

Then I ask what challenges he faces now, and it comes down to staffing. Bottling bigger batches takes more hands, and events need people behind the bar. He also shares advice for venues trying to grow: give local performers a place to work, because they help build community and spread the word. We close with his principle to live by: if you fall down eight times, get up nine.

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