Atheling Meadworks

Atheling Meadworks crafts premium small-batch mead in Roanoke, Virginia. Every batch starts with high quality varietal honey, mostly raspberry blossom and wildflower, and many are aged on French oak or in brandy and spiced rum barrels. Our range runs from dry traditional meads that let the honey speak for itself, to fruit meads made with blackberries, damson plum and grapes, to a spiced winter seasonal and a three year barrel-aged reserve.

Shield Maiden was the only U.S. mead to medal at the 2024 Copa Reina Hidromiel in Spain and won Gold at the 2024 National Mead Crafters Competition. Rheda's Longing was the base of Virginia's 2024 Cocktail of the Year.

Our downtown Roanoke tasting room pairs our meads with cocktails, small bites, board games and weekly trivia and game nights. We also distill vodka and gin.

Atheling Meadworks began with Beowulf. Founder Stephen Ausband grew up hearing his father, a university English professor, read the poem aloud in Old English, and was captivated by the hero defending the king's mead hall from the monster Grendel. He started fermenting honey at 14 and kept at it through medical school and a career as an emergency physician. Atheling Meadworks was first housed in the former Dr Pepper bottling plant in Roanoke, Virginia. Our first mead, Lyre's Song, a dry traditional mead designed to let the honey's natural flavors come through, was released in June 2019. Since then the lineup has grown to include fruit meads, barrel-aged meads, a seasonal spiced mead and a premium reserve, along with a downtown tasting room and a distillery producing vodka and gin.

Atheling also distills it's own gin and vodka.