Business Monday: Meadery combines traditions of Poland, ingredients from Hawaiʻi

In a decade-long undertaking, Alex Haban and Tomek Bilan combined their European traditions from Germany and Poland with Hawaiʻi-grown ingredients to create Kvasir’s Mead.

In October 2023, Haban and Bilan got their liquor license and were finally able to open their Mountain View meadery, which makes alcoholic beverages created by fermenting honey.

It began with the couple’s common deep love and appreciation for mead. Haban is from Germany, while Bilan hails from Poland, but the two met at a rock climbing gym in Chicago in 2009.

While they were rock climbing partners, Haban and Bilan traveled to different states in the U.S. to climb and would frequent local meaderies when possible. However, the mead was never the same as the mead they grew up with.

For Bilan, who was born in Gneizno, where the first written mead recipe was found, it was especially personal. He learned the art of mead-making at 5-years old from his Babcia, or grandmother, and uses her process and recipes to make Kvasir’s Mead today.

“We would try local meads, which have popped up more on the west coast, but it just was not the same,” Haban said. “At one point we were beekeepers for about 30 hives and had lots of honey, so we decided to make mead at home for ourselves and our friends, and everyone loved it.”

While only a passing thought at the time, Haban came up with the idea to one day open a meadery with her husband.

Haban and Bilan came to the Big Island 10 years ago and purchased 2 acres of land that they cleared and built on over the decade. While the meadery was always the goal, it was only four years ago that they really pursued opening their business, which began with building a certified kitchen themselves, with only a limited hired help.

“It took a lot of time and effort,” Haban said.

They submitted certified plans and documents to the county, state and federal government.

“It was a real challenge,” Haban said. “We had everyone – the Department of Health, the fire department, liquor investigators, and many more – out here to look at our tiny building.”

But it was a passion they wanted to fulfill.

Mead-making is deeply engrained in Polish culture, with the process dating back more than 1,000 years. Historians credit Slavic tribes for developing the process of turning bee honey into mead. This tradition flourished in a climate where grape vine cultivation was not possible, and the rich natural environment was abundant with wild bees. 

“Making mead is just honey, water and yeast, but it is all about the proportions, the weather and the water,” Bilan said. “It’s amazing, the mead I made in Poland would take 12 to 14 months, but in Hawaiʻi with the volcanic water and the climate, I can make meads in half the time.”

While following the traditional Polish recipe, the couple had two commitments: keeping the mead pure without additives or sulfites and sourcing everything possible from Hawaiʻi Island.

“We are proud that our mead is clean without chemicals and that it is sourced from the island as much as possible,” Haban said. “It has always been important for us to support local farming. We grow bananas and blueberries here, but with most everything else, we can buy from farmers we know here and often buy the food they may not regularly have a market for.”

Kvasir’s Mead has made 13 different flavors:

• The Seeker: an original mead made with local honey from Big Island beekeepers
• Kvasir’s Blood: a mead infused with hibiscus roselle flowers grown by Kaiwiki Food Forest
• Your momma made ME cake: a mead infused with locally-grown longan from Daniel Allen at Big Island Allen Brother’s Farm a few miles away
• Strong Dick: a mead infused with bananas from the Kvasir property
• Yeastie Boys: a mead that features the Kvasir bananas and Big Island Allen Brothers longan
• Dark Horse: a Bochet mead that caramelizes local honey before fermentation
• The White Rabbit: a mead that features Kvasir bananas and vanilla beans from John Sharkey north of Hilo
• Karen: an extra dry, original mead that features local honey
• Tiny Butler: a mead that features lychee from several farms
• Krampus: a mead infused with cinnamon, cloves, and oranges
• C-Minus: a specialty mead that features locally grown, but rare lemon drop mangosteens
• Lilith-Koi: a limited edition mead that features lilikoi, or passion fruits, grown on the Kvasir property and other small scale farms in the area
• Rumpelstilzkin: a limited edition mead with thimbleberry and blackberry grown on the Kvasir property

Haban designed each of the labels using her unique art and each bottle features a story with some diving into folklore or mythology.

Lilith-Koi is a limited edition lilikoi mead that is named after the demon goddess Lilith and Bilan’s feline companion. While the label depicts a black cat with red eyes, the mead surpasses expectations and tastes sweet.

“Creating the labels is one of my favorite parts of the process because I can be creative and make them unique, but it can also be difficult getting labels approved by the federal government since they have to be specific,” Haban said. “It’s also more difficult because the [Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau] don’t have a category for mead and our project falls under a winery.”

While it is not called a winery, the couple are using this year to make Kvasir’s Mead more of a winery-experience on the property in Mountain View. They are currently developing a tasting area that can accommodate more people who are either utilizing a tour company, or those who have a designated driver. 

As of now, up to six visitors can come to the meadery for a tasting, which includes a full farm experience with a behind-the-scenes peek at the production process.

“This is also a nice way to share the history and importance of mead from the perspective of our cultures and traditions,” Haban said. “There is so much folklore tied to mead, including the origin of our name, Kvasir’s, which is based on the first mystical mead in Norse mythology.”

Kvasir’s Mead currently sends mead to businesses or restaurants on Hawaiʻi Island and Oʻahu, but does not offer online sales yet. A list of retail sellers can be found here.

In November, Kvasir’s Mead had a booth and introduced hundreds of people to the traditional, Polish beverage at the Honokaʻa Renaissance Faire, selling several flavors of their meads and selling out of the specialty mead, C-Minus.

“For me, my goal was to introduce this product of traditional, Polish mead to Hawaiʻi by using the locally-grown ingredients from the island,” Bilan said. “We grew up with mead, but here, it’s a brand-new product. When people drink our mead, especially as their first experience, and love it, it’s a great feeling.”