Master Brewer and Mead maker Interview

Greg Fischer

I started homebrewing around 20 years ago. It's hard to imagine today but there were no homebrewing sites on the internet, so if you could not find a local supplier of homebrew equipment and ingredients, it was mail order or a trip to Colorado. I was lucky, my local craft brewery, Flossmoor station and brewery, had a newsletter that listed a local homebrew supply store - Bev Art Beer and Wine supplies on 101st and Western. I made the journey from Homewood to Beverly and walked into Bev Art Beer and Wine and was confused, it appeared to be a pet store. As it turned out he shared the space with his wife's pet store on one side and The homebrew and wine supply store on the other side. Once in the homebrew supply shop, I met this very friendly guy with red hair, and big blues, named Greg, who seemed to have an Irish brogue (my mistake) and certainly knew a lot about brewing, Well that was Greg Fisher the owner of Bev Art and he was my lifeline when I was learning homebrewing, literally walking me thru the equipment I needed and ingredients I needed to get started. Anytime I got stuck during my first year or two, I would call Greg and he always knew how to solve the problem and was ALWAYS right. Think about that, back in 2004 or so I called him on the phone and he gave me expert advice - what a concept! Anyway Greg is truly one of the Good People in the World, always helpful, knowledgeable and generous. I don't think I ever mentioned it to him but because of his great tutoring during my formative years as a homebrewer, I have won 4 medals in National Homebrew competitions, including a Gold Medal in Chicago Beer Societies, Spooky Brew Contest, a competition they used to host each year in October. So thanks Greg. Greg started as a wine make, became a great brewer of beer but ultimately went to the beverage he loved, Mead. Here is my interview with Greg Fischer, brewmaster, winemaker and perhaps one the best mead makers in this country.

Dan: Greg, how did you get started in the brewing business?

Greg: I actually started in wine making. My grandfather was a winemaker in upstate New York. I remember being around 6 years old helping my grandfather with wine making. My grandfather was also a beekeeper, which I also learned from him. I was focused on wine after I graduated from college, and my first job was at a wine shop right next to the United Nations building in Manhattan. I hosted wine tastings there and learned a lot about selling and tasting wine.

Dan: So how did you end up in Chicago?

Greg: My second job out of college was as a wine salesman for Seagrams Wine Company and that job brought me to Chicago in 1985. I was thinking about starting a winery and at the same time I got a homebrew kit and began experimenting with homebrewing. My winemaking experience helped me as a homebrewer. Around this time my wife started a pet grooming and supply store on 101st and Western in the Beverly neighborhood.

Dan: Did your homebrewing hobby lead to you starting your homebrew supply store?

Greg: Yes. Around 1987 I joined the Chicago Beer Society, and began to connect with the homebrew community in the Chicago area. I realized there was not a homebrew supply store anywhere in the Chicago region. My wife’s pet store had some extra space she was not using so I started selling homebrew supplies out of her store.

Dan: When did the business really take off?

Greg: It was around 1992 that I could see craft beer taking off and with it homebrewing got a lot more popular. I was selling a lot of supplies and the Jewelry store next to my wife's store became available, so we bought the space and expanded. I expanded my inventory and began offering homebrewing classes in the back of the store.

Dan: And rest is history as they say (both laughing). So when did the mead making begin?

Greg: During this whole period, I kept up my beekeeping hobby and had a great supply of honey. Sometime around the 1990, I took a mead making class with fellow Chicago Beer Society member, Ray Daniel’s at Sheffield’s bar. So throughout the 1990s I was making mead more and more and it began to surpass my beer making. So in 2000 I decided to open a meadery in the back of our Western ave facility. It was a production meadery, so it was illegal for us to sell it on the premises, so we sold mainly to liquor stores.

Dan: When did you decide that mead was the way to go with your business?

Greg: In 2001 we got into Binny’s and things really began to take off. We had created our own brand, Wild Blossom Meadery and our first mead Prairie Passion was selling well and to that we added Blanc de Fleur and a blueberry mead.

Dan: From my experience with you I know you were an early adopter of putting beer in bourbon barrels (Much more on this in our next newsletter) but you also were one of the first to put mead into a bourbon barrel, tell me about that.

Greg: I had been making bourbon barrel beer for several years so I decided to try it with my Prairie Passion mead and it turned out great. We named it Sweet Desire and entered it into the World Cup and won a gold cup in 2002. From that point on we added bourbon barrel mead to our portfolio of meads. At that point we were selling a lot of mead so we added production (bee hives) in Sawyer Michigan and the Chicago Marriott on Michigan Ave let me put beehives on their 4th floor open garden.

Dan: So when did you decide to open a production meadery?

Greg: In 2010 we came out with two new meads that were big sellers, Pirates Blood which was a mead with peppers and Honey Moon which was a chocolate mead and it was at that point I decided to open a meadery. I found my current site in 2011 and was hoping to open within a year or so. As it turned out the ground was contaminated with gasoline and it was a required EPA cleanup and it took the EPA two tries and almost 4 years to clean his grounds.

Dan: Did you open soon after the cleanup ?

Greg: No. My plan was to open a production meadery with a tap room for customers and the city would not approve his facility for customers, because they said the building had structural problems. At that point it was 2016 and I was tired of the delays and I considered just making it a production facility. But in my estimate without a tasting room the business would not be successful. So I bit the bullet and completely tore down and remodeled the facility. The result is the current facility we are sitting in

Dan: And it is beautiful! What is your production capacity?

Greg: I produce 10,000 gallons a year or over 300 barrels.

Dan: I remember your original production on Western and it took over a year to ferment mead, but I have heard the fermentation can take place faster now.

Greg: Yes, I have the process down to four weeks, two weeks in base and two weeks in fruit. There are special yeast today that turbo charge the fermentation time, without any flavor issues.

Dan: Your tasting room is really large looks like you could host parties

Greg: We have 20 taps in the tasting room and yes it can handle parties of 100 people or so.

Dan: As impressive is the inside the outside is like a beautiful botanic garden

Greg: We really try to create that nice garden feel which I think the bees also appreciate

Dan: Well Cheers to bees and mead!

Greg: I definitely Cheer to that!