If the New Year plans of a Bangor-based company proceed smoothly, visitors to the Hotel Nichols in South Haven and the rest of the community will have a new tasting room from The Great Mead Hall & Brewing Company.
Company officials are slated to appear before the South Haven City Council tonight to request a public hearing regarding their plans for the new tasting room targeted for 201 Center Street in downtown South Haven.
South Haven City Manager Kate Hosier says the company’s plans are to build in a portable bar and pouring station to allow them to move things and keep the display fresh. In the “basement” level, plans are to convert about 1,500 square feet of floor space to set up tables and “drinking lounging stations.” That site will be accessible from the road by way of roll-up doors when the weather is nice and through a regular door when inclement weather is at hand, while hotel guests will have access to the tasting room from the hotel side of the business.
Hosier says that the tasting room will “likely operate 6-to-months a year during the warm weather season and will evaluate its performance following the first year.”
Owners of The Great Mead Hall & Brewing Company, anchored in Bangor, including David McCarty, Jay Moberly, and Bob Schneider. Moberly has served for 12 years in the Army National Guard and McCarty has served the Army National Guard for 34 years.
They work diligently to source local providers for the ingredients of their products, currently using Hasselman honey out of Fremont, MI and Frank Arriaga of Watervliet, MI. Their cider comes from Seedling Farms, of South Haven, Understory Farm Orchards of Bangor. Their pear juice is from Seedling Farms of South Haven, their blueberries are from Adkin Farms of South Haven, and their cranberries come from DeGrandchamps of South Haven.
The best meads are made from fresh fruit and raw honey. The mead is aged on the lees for 9-12 months in an ambient temperature range of 65-75 degrees before bottling.
The Great Mead Hall & Brewing Company insists on making mead the old-school way- the simplest way the head mead maker has developed over the last 35 years.
According to the city’s Liquor Control Ordinance, a public hearing must be set by the City Council regarding the application, and after the City Council has received public comment, they will be asked to consider a resolution to recommend or not recommend the license approval by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission.
