After several years as home mead makers, we are thrilled to be opening Starrlight Mead. We have had a fantastic time making mead and meeting mead drinkers from all over the world, and now its our turn to share our love of mead with all of you! Becky Starr, Owner, Sales/Tasting Room Manager Ben Starr, Owner, Wine/Meadmaker We first discovered mead in CA at the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Several years later, we found friends that were home brewing mead with good results. We decided to try our hand at it too. In February 2006, we entered our first competition and took Best in Show out of over 210 entries in the home mead-maker category at the International Mead Association’s Mead Festival. The competition was judged by seven professionals in the mead industry; including Ken Schramm, author of The Compleat Mead Maker, and meadery owners from around the world. The Best in Show prize was selected from the gold medal winners in nine categories. Our “Starrlight Mulled Apple Cyser” was awarded not only the gold medal in the cyser (mead made with apples) category, but was also selected as the best overall representation of mead making. It was at that point we decided to try creating a business from our love of mead. Ben shares his expertise and love of brewing by conducting demonstrations and workshops on mead making in the local community. We also organize and conduct the local Mead Day celebration each August (since 2005) and are a key part of the product tasting team for mead reviews on Gotmead.com. Becky worked with Chatham Hill Winery for 2 years learning tasting room and wine club management. We are members of the Chatham County Beekeepers Association, and the NC Winegrowers Association.