Inspiring Conversations with Ben And Becky Starr of Starrlight Mead & Cider

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben And Becky Starr

Hi Ben and Becky, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We started out as home mead makers in 2004 loving the process of creating new flavors. Our friends told us that it was the “best mead they’d ever had”. We didn’t believe them! In 2006. we entered our first competition, the International Mead Association’s home mead competition. One of our meads took the gold medal in its category and then Best in Show out of 112 meads. We were thrilled and started talking about opening a meadery instead of continuing to work in the corporate world.

After a lot of construction delays, we opened in Pittsboro at the Chatham Mill in Sept of 2010 with 3 flavors of mead (fermented honey or honey wine). As we increased the number of flavors and bottles we were producing, we outgrew our space and started planning for constructing the buildings we’d always wanted. Four years later, In Oct of 2018, we opened our new Mead Hall and moved our operations to the Chatham Beverage District in Pittsboro.

In 2023, we purchased Chatham Cider Works and added ciders to our portfolio. We celebrated our 14th year in business in Sept 2024.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our biggest struggle is that most people don’t know what mead is. There are a lot of questions and preconceived ideas about what a honey wine will taste like and whether they will enjoy it. Many are afraid that it will be sweet and syrupy. Some assume it’s a type of beer. Others are afraid that it will be boring or only one type of thing.

Mead is none of these and so much more! We spend a lot of time educating the public on what mead actually is at our tasting room or at festivals where we pour samples.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Starrlight Mead & Cider?
We are a winery that specializes in mead and cider. We purchase primarily local honey directly from NC beekeepers and ferment it with a wine-maker’s yeast to create alcohol. Most of what we produce is a wine style mead at 12.5% alcohol. We can then create different flavors using organic herbs/spices, or fruit juices. Our most popular mead is Spiced Apple which tastes like apple pie in a glass. We generally have from 15-20 different wine strength meads on our list, with flavors changing with the seasons. We also make session meads which are lower in alcohol (6.9%) and carbonated, and hard ciders that are apple based.

We were the second meadery in NC and the largest producer in the state. We do mead tastings any time that we are open and also have space available for events such as parties, small weddings. and community events.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Ben – Have a plan, but don’t be afraid to pivot. For instance, when we first opened, we thought we would only have 3 flavors of mead for our first few years. We quickly discovered that customers wanted to know what was new. We brought out our next 2 flavors within months of opening. Now we regularly introduce new flavors several times a year.

Becky – Competition is a construct and not really necessary. Since we were one of the first meaderies in NC, we have mentored and helped start several others. So many people have never had mead and there are plenty of new customers to go around. Also, everyone’s taste is different. We can make flavors that we like and still refer customers to our friends in Durham who make a different style of mead than we do.

Pricing:

• Mead Tasting – try 8 meads for $12
• Cider Flights – try 6 ciders for $8
• Mead Bottles 750 mL – $21-35

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.starrlightmead.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starrlightmead/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/starrlightmead
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@starrlightmead