 | |
| Location | Easton, PA |
|---|---|
| Opened | 2013 |
| Owned by | Mike Manning Greg Heller-LaBelle |
| Website | www |
The Colony Meadery is a meadery founded in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 2013 before moving to Easton in late 2022. Colony Meadery produces both bottled and canned mead with dozens of different flavors and brands, as well as four different flavors of hard cider. [1]
Colony Meadery was founded by Mike Manning and Greg Heller-LaBelle. [2] Manning began brewing craft beer in his basement in 2002 before switching to home-brewed mead in 2008. He met Heller-LaBelle, a craft beer blogger, in 2012 at a beer tasting where he brought his mead. Heller-LaBelle enjoyed the mead so much he convinced Manning to start full time commercial production with him in 2013. When the company was founded it was just one of four Meaderies in the state of Pennsylvania. Colony Meadery brews all their mead in-house with their orange pollinated honey coming from apiaries in South Jersey. [3] [1]
Colony Meadery operated out of a Business incubator at 905 Harrison St. in Allentown from 2013 to 2022. [4] [5]
Colony Meadery won the first ever "Commercial Mead Maker of the Year" award at the inaugural "Mead Free Or Die" competition in New Hampshire in 2014. [6] [3]
In 2015 Colony Meadery expanded to include mead slushies. [7]
Colony Meadery has run a series of event promoting Mead throughout the Lehigh Valley in an effort to not just increase their own sales, but also the sales of other meaderies throughout the state. [8] [9] [10] [1] This includes co-sponsoring and attending several local brewery competitions and fairs with out Lehigh valley based brewers. [11] [12] [13] This includes Bethlehem's annual ChiliFest and Lehigh Valley Pride events. [14] [15] [16] [17] Additionally, Colony Meadery regularly participates in events in South Jersey. [18]
The brand is known for producing Philadelphia Sports themed meads. Most famously is the Joel Em-Mead made in 2018 whose can included images of Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid and themed after the shirley temple, Embiid's self proclaimed favorite drink. After launching, the limited run of cans was sold out after just five minutes, and became a permanent menu item due to its popularity. [19]
Colony Meadery opened a second location, a tasting room in South Bethlehem during Musikfest in 2019. [4] [20] [21] The Southside location was made to replace their earlier Bethlehem location in the Moravian Book Shop which operated from 2015 to 2018 before the location was purchased by Moravian College and Colony Meadery was forced to move. [22] [23] [24] The tasting room also sells local craft beers from the Lehigh Valley. [25]
In 2020 Colony Meadery opened a partnership with local animal shelters, including pictures of dogs up for adoption on their cans in an effort to increase pet adoption. [26] [27]
The Meadery hoped to expand into a larger purpose built brewery in 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic, and more specifically, Governor Tom Wolf's mandate that all businesses serving alcohol that did not serve food shut down, ended their expansion plans. [28]
In an attempt to expand their business, and move out of the what was supposed to be temporary business incubator in Allentown, Colony Meadery announced a partnership with Weyerbacher Brewing where they will produce their Mead in their brewery and open a new tasting room on the ground floor. [4] The move to partner with Weyerbacher came after the brewers second bankruptcy in its 25 years of existence and a total shift in the company's direction. [29]
Northampton County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,951. Its county seat is Easton. The county was formed in 1752 from parts of Bucks County. Its namesake was the county of Northamptonshire in England, and the county seat of Easton was named for Easton Neston, a country house in Northamptonshire.
Allentown is the county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the third-most populous city in Pennsylvania with a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 census and the most populous city in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the nation as of 2020.
Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781, making it the second-largest city in the Lehigh Valley after Allentown and the seventh-largest city in the state. Among its total population as of 2020, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19,343 were in Lehigh County. The city is located along the Lehigh River, a 109-mile-long (175 km) tributary of the Delaware River.
Lehigh Valley International Airport, formerly Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton International Airport, is a domestic airport located in Hanover Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Lehigh Valley International Airport is located in the center of the Lehigh Valley, roughly 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Allentown, 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Bethlehem, and 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Easton.
The Lehigh Valley is a geographic and metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh and Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bounded to its north by Blue Mountain, to its south by South Mountain, to its west by Lebanon Valley, and to its east by the Delaware River and Warren County, New Jersey. The Lehigh Valley is about 40 miles (64 km) long and 20 miles (32 km) wide. The Lehigh Valley's largest city is Allentown, the third-largest city in Pennsylvania and the county seat of Lehigh County, with a population of 125,845 residents as of the 2020 census.
Moravian Academy is a preschool through 12th-grade independent, co-educational, college preparatory school in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Moravian Academy is the ninth oldest independent school in the United States.
Weyerbacher Brewing Company is a brewery in Easton, Pennsylvania, United States, founded in 1995 by Dan and Sue Weirback.
The Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA) is a regional public transportation authority that provides public bus and rapid transit service throughout the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, including Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and their respective suburbs.
The South Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located on Lehigh Street south of Interstate 78 exit 57 near Allentown's southern border with Salisbury Township and Emmaus in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.
The Liberty Bell Museum, also the Liberty Bell Shrine Museum was a non-profit organization and museum located in Zion's United Church of Christ, formerly Zion's Reformed Church, in Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The museum was located in the basement of the church, where the Liberty Bell, an iconic and globally-recognized symbol of America's independence and freedom, was hidden from the British Army by Allentown-area American patriots during the American Revolutionary War from September 1777 to June 1778.
Westgate Mall is a shopping mall located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is anchored by Harbor Freight Tools, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Oak Street Health, Sky Zone Trampoline Park, and Weis Markets.
District 11 of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) is an interscholastic athletic association in eastern Pennsylvania.
Moravian Book Shop is a book store based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1745 by the Moravian Church and lays claim to being the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the United States and the second oldest in the world.
F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company was a Manhattan brewing company.
The Lehigh Valley Silk Mills were a collection of mills located in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, known informally as EPC, EPC18, and East Penn Conference, is an athletic conference consisting of 18 large high schools from Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, and Pike counties in the Lehigh Valley and Pocono Mountain regions of eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania. The conference is a part of District XI of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA).
The 2006 Lehigh Mountain Hawks football team was an American football team that represented Lehigh University during the 2006 NCAA Division I FCS football season. Lehigh won the Patriot League co-championship but did not qualify for the national playoffs.
J. William "Willie" Reynolds is an American politician. He served as a city councilman of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania from 2008 until 2022 and is currently the city's 12th and incumbent mayor. His term began in 2022 which is set to expire in 2026. He is eligible to stand for re-election.
The Fred A. Williams Easton Intermodal Transportation Center is a bus terminal in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania. It serves as a hub for local routes in the Lehigh Valley area operated by LANta and for intercity routes operated by various companies. In addition to buses, the center hosts Easton's city hall and a restaurant. The center opened in 2015.
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