At Black Mountain Cider + Mead, we craft genuine cider and mead from local apples and honey. We ferment cider in small batches blended from heirloom apples throughout the harvest and pressed in house. Our cider is real cider, never filtered or pasteurized, and we never add sugars, concentrates, or manufactured flavors. With mead, we focus on hydromels, meads fermented with a higher water content to achieve a lower-gravity, more sessionable mead. We find that hydromels are more approachable than traditional higher-gravity meads because they are more cider and beer-like and quite suitable for serving on draft.

Previously as homebrewers, we made beer, wine, and dry cider, which we preferred over too-sweet industrial brands. We began developing our cider concept in 2009 while visiting England. There we attended a street fair in a town called Battle and slaked our thirst with real, Kentish country-style cider made from 100% apple juice (scrumpy). It was dry and still, standing in contrast to the syrupy-sweet industrial brands sold in the English pubs and much of the U.S. Market. Our notion was whetted into conviction: cider needn’t taste like artificially-flavored apple candy, and when made with 100% juice—and without concentrates, corn syrups, or other undesirables—real cider is a pure, yet complex and palatable delight. Years later, this experience continues to inspire our own real North Carolina cider and mead. Cheers, to your health and pleasure.