Meet Ben Chaney of Scale & Feather Meadery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Chaney.

Hi Ben, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
What started from a bad bottle of mead from the first try to weddings and then finally a business, Scale and Feather Meadery is an obsession then dream turned real. Putting together a team of co-owners each with a certain set of skills, the dream became a reality in May 2019.

Of course, after 10 months of being open, Covid hit and we had to work together to figure out how to survive. Thanks to the City of Avondale and our state’s decisions we turned to bottling and canning our mead and being able to send it out to bottle shops around the state. Between growing the wholesale side of the business and implementing our vision in the tasting room of Mead, Adventure, and friends, we have grown each year since then.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Covid 19 shut us down during our 10th month of being open and was a considerable issue in how we would need to pivot to survive by going back to our business plan and looking at ideas we had.

Also and before this the Government shut down back in 2018 hurt because we had started paying rent but couldn’t get our liquor license which then would allow us to open officially. It took going to our representative in government (wait, what they ACTUALLY can do work for us!?) Raul Grijalva was able to expedite our approval once the shutdown ended.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Approaching our 4th anniversary – Scale and Feather Meadery has set itself apart by really trying some unique flavors, especially with peppers.

Meads like our Mind Flayer (Absinthe Inspired) or Dual Wielder (Blueberry Lemon) to our previous themed one called Superb Owl (all the ingredients of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce with sweet mead) to our award-winning Mantle of Whispers (hatch green chili and vanilla) help distinguish us as a fun and foodie inspired meadery.

We offer not just sweet but at least one mead in each of the levels – Sweet, Semi-Sweet, Off-Dry, and Dry. Our theme inside is a medieval tavern with some pop-outs featuring our love of Dungeons and Dragons. It all comes down to Mead, Adventure, and Friends!

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Spend time on your business plan and really do your best to get the estimates right and the audience you anticipate down.

It was the best thing we did at the beginning was to request FREE help from organizations like SCORE as from our business plan ideas and information we were able to create a plan that saved us during the pandemic…

Pricing:

• $25 – $30 a bottle of mead
• $12 a can of a carbonated mead

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.scaleandfeather.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scaleandfeatherhull/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScaleandFeatherMead/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/scale-and-feather-meadery-avondale

Image Credits
Joey Trujillo and Amber Degiso