Uprising Meadworks opening August 3

A new meadery is rising up on the east side of Columbus.

Uprising Meadworks co-owners Nate Rhone and Jenn Ganoe are opening the doors to their new meadery on August 3, just in time for National Mead Day on August 4.

“Nate’s been homebrewing beer for years and decided to try mead and we loved it, so one day — maybe after a few glasses of mead — we decided this was something other people would probably like, too, and it grew from there,” said Ganoe.

Uprising is located across the street from Actual Brewing Company and next door to makerspace Cloudhaus. Rhone has been longtime friends with Actual owner Fred Lee and Cloudhaus owner Chris Hartley, connections which helped land the meadery where it is.

“We are completely self funded,” said Rhone. “We don’t have investors, we don’t have bank loans, so the dollar amount we had to make everything work was very, very, very set in stone. One day I was lementing over trying to find the right space and this space kind of fell into our lap.”

Uprising is producing their small batches of mead in a 600 liter fermentater with three 600 liter aging tanks. The meadery sources all of their honey comes from Honeyrun Farm in Williamsport, Ohio and uses Ohio grown fruit whenever possible.

“We try to stay Ohio focused whenever we can,” said Rhone.

Uprising’s taproom, which is still under construction, will feature an 18-foot bar and two tables with seating to accomodate about 25 people. Four taps will be pouring mead at launch with an additional two planned to be added soon after.

The opening mead lineup includes Omega, a traditional mead “with a twist,” Casmere, a raspberry and beet mead; Spruce Goose, with lemon and cherry; and First Rebellion, aged with apples on bourbon oak.

“What we really like doing is exploring all that mead can be,” said Ganoe. “We really like discovering the different flavors and different types and we want to do that with our business. Our goal is to try and have a new release every 4-6 weeks.”

Future plans for the meadery include experimenting with pyment — a type of mead made with both honey and grapes — and producing carbonated “session meads” as soon as they are able to procure a brite tank.

For major mead fans, Uprising is offering membership in the “Uprising Social Club:” a $60-per-year fee which includes early access to new mead releases, discounted drafts on Thursdays, and discounts on merchandise. For a limited time, membership in the “Uprising Founders Club,” with includes lifetime membership in the aforementioned plus a t-shirt and an engraved growler with discounted refills, can be purchased for $150. Membership can be purchased online.

Uprising Meadworks is located at 687 North James Road. Taproom hours after the August 3 opening will be Tuesday and Thursday from 4-9pm; Friday from 4-10pm; and Saturday from 2-10pm.