Kamloops’ only meadery showcasing locally grown flavours

The doors of Kamloops’ only meadery opened this week on the banks of the South Thompson River after years of hard work and preparation.

A soft opening on July 11 saw numerous friends, families and strangers come through the doors of the Lion’s Head Meadery tasting room, with visitors trying out five crafted meads with different acidity levels and flavour profiles.

“We start with our traditional mead that has honey, water and yeast with no additional fruit added,” said Bernita Wienhold-Leahy who owns the business with her husband Leroy Harder. “Next, we go to our pear mead, then blueberry, raspberry and haskap berry.”

Mead is the oldest alcoholic drink on earth and is made with fermented fruit, honey, yeast and water. Wienhold-Leahy said it tastes like a fruit wine with an added honey taste.

The couple makes their mead with fruit and berries sourced from their property or from nearby properties, and the honey comes from the now 124 bee hives Harder manages.

Each different mead at Lion’s Head Meadery has a creative name with a bit of story behind it. For example, the raspberry mead is called “Ida’s Ruby” after Greek folklore.

“Ida was Zeus’s nursemaid who fed him milk and honey, and mead is known as the milk of the gods,” Wienhold-Leahy said.

Each flavour of mead has a unique, artfully designed label, and all of them show the Lion’s Head, which is a rock formation behind the couple’s property.

The dream for the meadery began in 2022, when the couple turned their garage into a meadery with equipment for fermenting, mixing and bottling, but it took more time and effort to get running than expected.

“This is what I envisioned but it took a lot more work to get it going and we had to learn about bottling and labelling, that was the tough part,” Wienhold-Leahy said.

“Now we have the doors opened, we’ve relaxed a bit more. This is going to be the fun part.”

Now donning a big, beautiful wooden sign, a comfortable tasting room and soon-to-be picnic area outside, the meadery is about to be added to the Kamloops Wine Trail, which attracts locals and tourists alike.

“There are a lot of people who are tasting mead for the first time and it’s fun watching their reactions,” Wienhold-Leahy said. “Many have had fruit wines but see mead has more depth to it because it uses honey instead of sugar.

“One man was just wowed. We’re very pleased with the responses from people so far.”

The tasting room at 4006 Shuswap Road is open every day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and tastings are free with the purchase of two bottles of mead. The couple looks forward to meeting people from near and far while showcasing the flavours of the region.

Go here to see all of what Lion’s Head Meadery has to offer.