The Legend of The Badger & Bird

A Completely Reasonable Hobby

The Badger & Bird started the way many great ideas do:
as a hobby that slowly got out of hand.

What began as a few small batches of mead shared with friends and family quickly turned into a full-blown fascination with honey, fermentation, and the endless question of “what would happen if we tried this?”

There were experiments. There were recipe tweaks. There were late-night discussions about yeast, honey varietals, and whether adding one more strange ingredient was a stroke of genius or a terrible idea.

Sometimes it was both.

Somewhere along the way—between the buckets of honey and the stacks of test batches—we realized something important: we didn’t just enjoy making mead, we loved sharing it.

So The Badger & Bird was born.

Today we craft small-batch meads using Texas honey, creative ingredients, and a healthy respect for both tradition and experimentation. Some of our meads are classic, some are a little unusual, but all of them are made with one goal in mind: to create something worth gathering around.

Because the best part of mead isn’t just what’s in the glass.

It’s the people laughing around the table while drinking it.

  • Gregory Hamberg

    Owner, Official Taste Tester

    Greg is the financial and operations mastermind behind The Badger & Bird, which means he spends a lot of time making spreadsheets behave and making sure everything runs smoothly. When he’s not keeping the business side of things on track, he’s performing his equally important role as the Official Taste Tester—a responsibility he takes very seriously and performs frequently.

    His mission is simple: build systems that keep the mead flowing, the lights on, and the honey bills paid.

  • Joseph Stopkey

    Owner, Head Mazer

    Joseph is the head brewer and resident fermentation enthusiast. What started as a hobby more than a decade ago quickly turned into a full-blown fascination with yeast, honey, and the endless possibilities hiding inside a fermentation tank.

    He loves experimenting with unusual ingredients, testing new techniques, and asking the very important question: “What happens if we try this?”

    Many of the flavors you’ll taste at The Badger & Bird began as one of Joseph’s late-night a-Mazer-ing experiments.

  • Mysterious Other Owner

    There is, of course, a third owner.

    We know who they are.
    You might know who they are.
    But officially… they remain Mysterious.

    They assist with mead making, help guide the creative chaos, and occasionally appear just long enough to stir the pot—sometimes literally.

    Some say they prefer to let the mead speak for itself.
    Others suspect they simply enjoy the drama.

    Either way, their contributions are real… even if their identity remains classified.