The 2022 Sugarbelt Mead Festival in Review

In May 2021, my brother Brendan and I took a road trip around the Chicagoland area. Our goal was simple: spend a few days trying the best craft beer that the Chicago suburbs had to offer. As we took this trip, for as great as the beer was, we ended up chatting even more about the craft mead in the area. Manic Meadery, Boneflower Craft Mead, Standard Meadery— some of the best craft mead on Planet Earth, all of which can be found within a reasonably short driving distance. When we went to Manic’s taproom in Crown Point, Indiana, we were told that we’d just missed, the weekend before, the first Sugarbelt Mead Festival. And needless to say, we were devastated. A beer festival… for mead? Sounded too good to be true. We made a vow, then and there, to return the next year and attend Sugarbelt, to bask in the beauty of American craft mead, to learn about so many of the best craft meaderies across the country, and to revel in that sweet boozy nectar for an entire afternoon.

We made good on our vow. Last month, we attended the second annual Sugarbelt Mead Festival, and it was everything we’d hoped it would be and more. 29 meaderies gathered together in a covered outdoor space in Bulldog Park, and while we were told the number of attendees had significantly grown from the year before… we were honestly shocked there weren’t *more* people. If you go to Untappd and search the top-scoring places in the world, American craft meaderies hold a high number of spots on the list. And Sugarbelt had 16 of the 20 highest-rated meaderies on Untappd in attendance. We’re talking about some of the best alcohol on Earth. All gathered together in one place. For one afternoon. Make no mistake, the number of attendees is bound to continue to grow.

In addition to the otherworldly quality of the drinks being poured, it was also simply one of the best organized festivals I’ve attended in ages. It was covered from the sun (or, in this year’s case, the rain). It was outside, mitigating COVID concerns. Plenty of food trucks were on hand– and the wood-fired pizza my brother and I enjoyed was terrific. Water bottles were given away for free to keep folks hydrated as they sipped 15+% ABV mead. Even the port-a-potty line moved at a fairly reasonable clip— you can never truly prevent massive bathroom lines at any sort of beer or mead festival, but a high number of port-a-potties can keep the line from stagnating, and Sugarbelt had that on hand. Maybe as the festival invariably continues to grow, they’ll run into difficulties, but for now? Absolutely no complaints, which is pretty rare.

The only suggestion I’d make would be to the meaderies themselves, not the organizers– several meaderies had *completely* kicked their supply roughly an hour and a half after general admission started, and after two and a half hours, the majority of the remaining mead was being saved for timed pours. I understand there must be logistical difficulties in transporting high volumes of mead to a festival like this– and one meadery told me that, the previous year, they’d kicked early because they simply had no clue how big the festival would be. It’s certainly a strong possibility that many meaderies simply weren’t prepared for how busy the festival would be– and since the festival’s so young, I think that’s reasonable. The same meadery I spoke with was one of the last meaderies still pouring during the last hour of the festival, because they “brought more than we thought we needed,” and they drew considerable attention from attendees killing time between timed pours as a result. So I’d encourage any meaderies attending in the future to, if they’re able, bring more than they think they’ll need– the attendants will thank you, and you’ll garner a lot of attention down the home stretch as a result.

I tasked myself with making a video of the best meads at the festival for TikTok– and, as you can imagine, this was a nigh impossible task. We enjoyed an absurd amount of mead from a massive list of elite craft meaderies, so anything we *didn’t* list? It’d still be better than the vast majority of mead in America. A few special mentions: Pips Meadery, the top rated meadery on Untappd, lived up to the hype, its Heart & Sole cashew-and-coconut mead standing out as easily one of the best of the day. Villa Park’s Standard Meadery stood out from the pack with its several timed pours. So did Pye Road Meadworks from the Tampa area– I was fortunate enough to visit them last December, so I knew what I was getting into and visited their table multiple times. Arrangement of Beliefs, Pye Road’s magnificent blackberry, black currant, and cherry elixir, was easily my most consumed mead of the festival.

Other standouts include Waxwing, a bourbon barrel-aged mead collaboration between Anaheim’s Honey Pot Meadery and Oceanside’s Horus Aged Ales; State Lines, a Hex Meadery-Second City Meadery collab where each meadery was pouring their respective version; Nobody’s Poet, a thick Pina colada concoction by Valparaiso’s Misbeehavin’ Meads; Black Agnes, a black currant bombshell from the esteemed masters at Schramm’s Mead in Ferndale, MI; Pina Coconilla, a tropical pineapple coconut delight from the hosts at Manic Meadery; and so, so, so many more.

As the number of craft meaderies in America continues to increase, I firmly expect Sugarbelt to absolutely explode in the next year or two. Bulldog Park may be too small a venue going forward for where Sugarbelt is headed. It’s likely to rank in esteem alongside brewery festivals like Firestone Walker Invitational, FOBAB, and others known for featuring predominantly the upper echelon of available craft. I’ve no idea how the universe directed me to Manic in 2021 to help put Sugarbelt on my radar, but I’m incredibly glad it did. Thanks to everyone who organized and attended Sugarbelt for making it such a fantastic experience– you’ll be sure to see me and my brother again in the very near future.

Until then, please enjoy the TikTok I made listing all of my favorite meads from Sugarbelt– and give the account a follow to make sure you don’t miss out on any of our video festival coverage in the coming months. Cheers!