Breaking Brew Meadery

Breaking Brew Meadery opened its doors in Dallas County last fall. As one of only 12 meaderies in Texas, Breaking Brew Meadery is introducing many Texans to a new beverage option. Mead, like wine, is a created by alcoholic fermentation. Rather than fermenting grapes, mead is created by fermenting honey. Breaking Brew uses wildflower honey from Rogers, Texas. Texas Wine Lover readers may be familiar with Dancing Bee Winery, the honey wine-based Texas winery and meadery that supplies the honey to Breaking Brew.

Breaking Brew Meadery owner Gary Gordon, a long-time home beer brewer, has been pleased with the reception that his family’s meadery has received in the past nine months. Since many guests are unfamiliar with mead and how it is made, Gary and the other members of the staff do a lot of education in the tasting room. Gary explained that there are two types of mead.

The first type is traditional mead with higher alcoholic content (approximately 14%) and a fuller body. Breaking Brew carries two traditional meads, Texas Dry and Texas Sweet. Texas Dry is still a bit sweet, but the Texas Sweet is most definitely a luscious dessert in a glass. A third bottling, Bourbon Barrel Mead, was a popular option while it lasted.

The second type of mead is session mead. This lighter bodied style drinks more like a beer or cider and has 5-8% alcohol by volume. In fact, Gary’s original goal for the meadery was to create a mead that drinks like beer.

During my visit, I tried every mead available, and I was delighted by the mead’s bold and well-balanced flavors. Ruby Solstice, a semi-sweet session mead, had the perfect sweet and tart ratio and a healthy dose of tarragon. Another favorite was the red grapefruit-forward Comb Over. Gary jokingly refers to it as an “HPA,” or honey pale ale. Like all additives in the meads, the fruit and herbs are organic.

Menu selections change seasonally. Upcoming flavors include maple cinnamon, cherry amaretto, and apple pie mead. The tasting room may decide to serve these session meads warm and the traditional meads may be warmed with mulling spices. I look forward to a return trip to try these flavor combinations.

Breaking Brew is increasing production to meet demand. The newest flavor (I’m Peachy, Tangerine) sold out in one day and was unavailable during my visit. Gary plans to offer Breaking Brew mead in additional taprooms. Currently, in addition to the Breaking Brew taproom, you can sample select Breaking Brew meads at Outlaw Cider Company in Grapevine. Other expansion opportunities include local restaurants and cocktail bars. One popular bar’s interest in mead-based cocktails sounds promising.

The meadery is tucked in towards the back of a shopping center on busy Midway Road in Farmers Branch. The location is convenient to North Dallas, Addison, and Carrollton. The comfortable, industrial space has been host to pop-up dinners, concerts, trivia nights, and artist collaborations as well as standard mead tasting activities. There are also TVs for game watching and a table of board games available to play. While the venue doesn’t offer food, guests may order food to be delivered. Mead is available to go in 16-ounce cans as well as 32- and 64-ounce growlers.

Gary says the wrecking ball logo encourages guests to break the habit of drinking just beer. With so many delicious meads to sample, Breaking Brew Meadery gives beer and wine drinkers alike new options for discovery.