Welcome to Meridian Hive! Established in 2013, Meridian Hive is an Austin based company that is on the cutting edge of honey alcohol. We create delicious beverages made from real honey and pure fruit for your drinking pleasure. Whether you are new or a loyal customer, we are so glad you are here! 

A Bit of History

Meridian Hive started as the brainchild of Mike Simmons and Eric Lowe. Coming from the homebrewing world, the guys wanted to bring something new to the table. While visiting breweries with their buddies, they soon discovered that beer wasn’t the right option for all of their friends. Some had gluten intolerances, some weren’t beer fans, and some simply wanted something new. As an avid and experienced homebrewer, Mike decided to try to accommodate these friends. Mike decided to bring back an ancient drink style using honey, also known as mead.

Mead is the oldest alcohol in the world. Evidence suggests honey fermentation from 7000 B.C.E predating both wine and beer. Mead was a chance discovery by early foragers drinking the contents of rainwater flooded beehives that fermented naturally with the help of airborne yeast. Gotta love nature!

Across the globe, people developed methods of fermenting honey into alcohol, often called ambrosia or nectar. This is how the term “nectar of the gods” became popularized. Meads can vary from very dry to sweet and typically range between 10% and 16% ABV. Mead is a very versatile drink with limitless possibilities to combine different fruits, spices, and botanicals to create unique flavor profiles. We love the canvas that honey provides. Different variations of mead have been made around the world. From Acan in Mexico to the Nepalese version, Dandaghare, mead is a global drink.

Meridian Hive has its own range of award-winning, high ABV, still meads. We produced stills with flavor profiles ranging from smokey chipotle peppers to juicy black currant highlighting the versatile nature of honey.

Mead for the Modern Era

However what makes Meridian Hive unique is that we took the idea of traditional fermented honey drinks and made them modern by creating unique, flavorful low ABV carbonated honey beverages. This new concept took the old-school mead product which has a small but loyal fan base and turned it into a drinkable beverage for everyone to enjoy on any occasion. Served cold, they are refreshing and highly crushable, perfect for the Texas heat.

We love reintroducing the world to mead - a drink that people have forgotten about or have never tried before - and we are proud to lead the way with innovative, modern, low-ABV draft meads that are quickly developing their very own fan base.

Meridian Hive initially launched its draft mead into the Austin craft scene. In a market full of amazing craft beverages, our unique spin allowed us to stand out from the crowd. We went from Mike’s homebrewing days back in his garage to today, where we are the leader in honey wine across Texas! We distribute across 10 states and deliver via our online platform to 37 states. Our drafts continue to grow and we are excited to see where we will be going in the next year.

The Goods 

Our drafts, while still using pure honey and real fruit, step away from the typical still mead style. We dropped the ABV down to 5.0% and lightly carbonated our products for a juicy and refreshing flavor bomb perfect for everyday consumption. We developed our core four flavors – Honey, Blackberry, Lemon, and Peach – to highlight the crisp nature of our drafts. These drafts are available year-round. You can find them in four-packs or our mixed pack where they are all together.

We also create two seasonal drafts. For spring/summer we offer Tropical – a dry-hopped mead that is sweetened with pineapple juice. For fall/winter – our Cherry hits the spot with a tart and crisp bite joined by an awesome combination of almond, vanilla, and cinnamon.

Introducing Skinny Bee

In 2020, Meridian Hive took a look at the world of seltzers and realized that we could do better. We could deliver a ‘better for you’ craft drink that has all the flavor but none of the fakeness. At just 100 calories, Meridian Hive is pleased to present Skinny Bee!

We aren’t your sister’s seltzer. Instead of the stuff that the other guys put in it (does anyone actually know?), our Skinny Bee products use only the highest-quality pure honey, real fruit, and botanicals to deliver a refreshing beverage at 4% ABV, 100 calories, 2 grams of sugar, 7 grams of carbs, and, as always, a gluten-free drinking experience.

We kicked off summer 2020 by launching Skinny Bee Blueberry and just in time for the holidays, released Cranberry in November.  Skinny Bee is the perfect choice for people looking for a lighter option or who simply enjoy a fruity and tart beverage. Skinny Bee it’s what you drink when you graduate from seltzers.

Bee Conscious

Meridian Hive not only believes in producing amazing better-for-you beverages but also in giving back to our community. Our motto is “Bee Conscious.” Whether we are donating a portion of the sales from our Lemon to Texas musicians, bringing awareness to the bee crisis, working with organizations like Southern Smoke who provide financial aid to service industry members, or joining the Black is Beautiful movement from Weathered Souls Brewing Co., we know it is our duty to be a conscious, active leader in our community and we enthusiastically perform that duty. We will continue to bring awareness to issues that remain important to us. Meridian Hive is honored by our ability to give back to causes.

So welcome to Meridian Hive! We are so excited that you’re here and we are honored to have shared a little part of our story with you. Stay tuned with us for new product information, environmental news that impacts our world, and any fun events that we may have going on in the future.

Bee Conscious!

-Meridian Hive