Kennard & Co · Cheshire, England
Our Story
Kennard & Co began the way most worthwhile things do — with a simple question and an unwillingness to accept a poor answer. The question was:
Kennard & Co. began with two things we have always loved: books and good company. We are George and Amy, two young readers who met while studying at the University of Chester. Like many great friendships, ours was built among libraries, coffee shops, second-hand bookshops, and long conversations about the stories we loved. There was only one problem. When we settled down to read together, Amy would pour a glass of wine while George reached for a whisky. We searched for a drink we could both enjoy—something refined yet approachable, rich in history yet suited to modern tastes. A drink that belonged as naturally beside a well-loved novel as it did at a celebration. That search led us to mead. The more we discovered, the more fascinated we became. Mead is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world, enjoyed by poets, philosophers, scholars, and storytellers for thousands of years. Yet despite its remarkable history, it had become strangely forgotten. We felt that it deserved to change.
After extensive research, countless hours of learning, and an ever-growing collection of books on brewing, history, and honey, we made it our mission to help bring mead back to where we believe it belongs: into the hands of readers, writers, thinkers, and friends. At Kennard & Co., we craft mead for everyone. Whether your shelves are filled with Shakespeare or fantasy, philosophy or romance, classics or contemporary fiction, we believe every book deserves a companion. Our mead is inspired by the past but created for today—made to be shared, discussed, and enjoyed one chapter at a time.
Because great stories deserve a great drink.
Welcome to Kennard & Co.
A Family Business
Made by hand.
From the start.
We are a family business. Every bottle of Kennard & Co mead is brewed by us, in Cheshire, using honey sourced from local beekeepers. There is no factory involved. There is no outsourcing. When you buy a bottle, it has been handled by the same small team from the hive to your door.
That matters to us because it is the only way to maintain the quality we care about. When you scale up, you cut corners. When you cut corners, you make something ordinary. We have no interest in making something ordinary.
"The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams."
— Henry David Thoreau
The Ingredient That Matters
Local honey.
Unique flavour.
The honey is everything. Mead is, at its core, fermented honey — which means the quality and character of the honey determines the quality and character of the finished drink. This is not a minor detail. It is the whole point.
Our honey comes from Cheshire beekeepers whose hives sit among the wildflower meadows, hedgerows, and farmland of this county. That environment produces a honey with a flavour profile you simply cannot replicate with a commercial ingredient. It is floral, complex, and distinctly local — and all of that comes through in the mead.
We use raw, unfiltered honey. We do not heat it, process it, or standardise it. We use it as it comes, because that is where the flavour lives.
The Process
Brewed slowly.
Bottled by hand.
Good mead cannot be rushed. The fermentation process takes weeks, not days, and we do not interfere with it. We monitor it, we tend to it, and we wait. When it is ready, we know.
Each batch is small by design. Small batches mean we can give every fermentation the attention it needs. They also mean that each bottle has a genuine provenance — it came from a specific batch, brewed at a specific time, from honey gathered in a specific season. That variation is not a flaw. It is what makes it interesting.
From Hive to Bottle
- 01Local honey sourced from Cheshire beekeepers
- 02Honey blended with spring water and natural yeast
- 03Slow fermentation over several weeks
- 04Racked, clarified, and rested
- 05Bottled by hand in small batches
What We Believe
We make mead for people who pay attention.
Our customers tend to be readers, thinkers, and people with a genuine interest in the things they consume. They are not looking for the cheapest option or the most recognisable label. They are looking for something that has been made with care and that rewards a little attention.
Mead suits that kind of person well. It is not a drink you knock back. It is a drink you sit with — ideally with a book, a quiet evening, and no particular urgency. The flavour develops in the glass. The more slowly you drink it, the more you get from it.
That is the kind of drink we set out to make, and it is the kind of drink we intend to keep making — for as long as we can do it properly.
"Not all those who wander are lost — and not all those who drink mead are merely thirsty."
— J.R.R. Tolkien