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Tuesday 4pm - 9pm Wednesday 4pm - 9pm Thursday 4pm - 9pm Friday 4pm - 10pm Saturday 12pm - 10pm Sunday 12pm - 9pm

Lost Cause Meadery

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San Diego, CA
Lost Cause Meadery

Lost Cause Meadery is an award winning meadery in San Diego, CA. The most award-winning meadery in the world (2019-2023).
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We craft unusually complex and delicious meads that showcase unique honey varietals and our passion for experimentation. Visit us at our Bay Park location inside The Gärten - 5328 Banks Street, San Diego, CA 92110

08/27/2026

Sweet, sweet vanilla beans from our friends at Jones & Co. Vanillas - Vanilla Extract & Wholesale. Sourced from 40+ different countries from around the world, it’s a vanilla nerd’s paradise.

New meads coming very soon…

07/30/2026

DOUBLE RELEASE BOTTLE #2: Damned

Tart cherry mead w/ sangiovese + pinot gris grape pomace, ancho + anaheim chile peppers and orange blossom honey. 13% ABV

From Billy:

It’s always fascinating when we combine our Lost Cause Meadery and Oddish Wine projects and create something completely unique in the process. Damned started as a regular tart cherry mead when we decided to add sangiovese and pinot gris grape pomace (pressed grape skins) from our Oddish grape harvest.

The grape pomace added a wonderful layer of tannin and texture while making the mead slightly lighter and drier. It tasted like a true summer melomel; less intense than our usual berry bombs and ideal for the warm weather.

And because I can’t go more than 3-4 months without adding some kind of dried chile pepper to a mead, in came the ancho and anaheim chiles. We didn’t want anything too overpowering or spicy- this was already a beautiful mead on its own. Ancho and anaheim chile peppers were a perfect complement to the mead, and added a very subtle smokiness and fuit-forward pepper note that really tied the room together.

The end result is a complex yet way-too-easy to drink summer sipper that’s hard not to love.

Tasting notes: Raspberries, pomegranates, roasted peppers and candied apricots. Subtle sweetness that’s balanced by light tannins and acid. The chile peppers are present in both the aroma and taste without any noticeable heat. Nice balanced finish.

Both Apiana and Damned release this Saturday, 8 am online and noon at the tasting room. First 20 ppl to get bottles at tasting room get a free release poster featuring the label art.

Label art from Kyler Suchey

07/28/2026

DOUBLE RELEASE BOTTLE #1: Apiana

Blackberry mead w/ orange blossom honey, aged on oak. 14% abv

From Billy:

Blackberries might be my favorite fruit of all time. I grew up gorging on the wild blackberries that grew around our property and the rest of the Santa Cruz Mountains. That feeling when you finally found an enormously plump, inky black berry on the vine, no trace of red at all... you knew you were in for a treat.

This mead is an homage to that wonderful fruit. We wanted to keep the recipe simple; fresh pressed blackberry juice mixed with local orange blossom honey, fermented together into something magical.

We added more orange blossom honey post fermentation to balance the acidity and tannins of the berries, then aged it all on some American oak to add a punch of vanilla.

We think the result is something pretty special. This melomel was meant to be an intensely jammy berry bomb, similar to Mara or Manticore Tears or Haxa. But maybe a bit more harmonious and elegant in the finish. Either way, the label art from might be his best ever, so you’ll get something beautiful inside and outside the bottle.

Tasting notes: bramble berry, vanilla ice cream, dark cherry and orange blossoms with some woody undertones. Rich and jammy in taste, some acidity that keeps it bright but mostly just velvety blackberry jam all the way to the finish. A dessert-style melomel that still showcases wonderful balance and nuance.

Double release is this Saturday. First 20 ppl to buy a bottle at our tasting room get a free release poster.

Label art from Kyler Suchey (the pic doesn’t come close to doing this art justice)

07/22/2026

Join us for Historical Mead Day next Saturday (8/1)! Here’s what to look forward to:

DOUBLE BOTTLE RELEASE 🍾
We’re releasing two delicious new meads: Apiana (blackberry mead aged on oak) and Damned (tart cherry pyment with chile peppers)

ABSINTHE MEAD ICE LUGE 🧊
How have we not done this before? We’ll be pulling bottles of Monomania, our absinthe-inspired mead, from our cellar and offering ice luge mead shots all day

RELEASE POSTER ART 🖼️
The art for our two new releases is so damn cool we’re bringing back the release posters! First 20 ppl get a free poster of the label art

LIVE MUSIC + FOOD SPECIALS ALL DAY 🎶
DJ starting at 1 pm and live jazz starting at 6:30 pm. Food specials from Pizza Cassette all day

Festivities start at noon at our tasting room. See you next Saturday!

07/16/2026

3 new meads coming out this Saturday!

The PX: a tart cherry and blueberry mead aged for 20 months in a Pedro Ximénez barrel

BA Wicked Counsel: a strawberry and vanilla mead aged for 22 months in an imperial stout barrel

Pearwolves of London: a pear and muscat grape mead with Earl Grey tea and Meyer lemons

07/14/2026

BOTTLE RELEASE: “Pearwolves of London”, a pear & muscat grape mead w/ Earl Grey tea, meyer lemons & lehua blossom honey.

Normally our process involves designing a mead and then finding a suitable name for it. Sometimes, however, there’s a name that is just begging to be used, and the entire recipe concept is built around that. Like Pearwolves of London, named after one of my favorite songs ever.

We started fermentation with a ridiculous amount of Lehua blossom honey from the Big Island of Hawaii, pear juice from the Pacific Northwest and Muscat grapes from Central California. The goal was to accentuate the pear notes as much as possible with the honey varietal and grape choice.

After fermentation we added the Earl Grey tea to tie in the London concept (and because Earl Grey tea is delicious). And to finish it off we added local Meyer lemons to give it some brightness and add acid to the finish.

The end result is a wonderfully balanced mead that is both rich and bright, easygoing yet sophisticated. I’d like to think Warren Zevon would have enjoyed it quite a bit.

Profile: Aromas of peach, Bergamont orange, lemon zest and coconut shavings. Taste starts with intense pear reduction and fruit cup notes, followed by some citrus zest brightness for balance.

Bottle releases this Saturday at the tasting room @ noon.

Label art from Kyler Suchey

07/01/2026

Happy Birthday to my husband, business partner, and fearless leader. He’s even working on his birthday… because apparently that’s what CEOs do. 😂

Thanks for keeping the company running, the family laughing, and the wine & mead flowing. We love you ❤️

06/25/2026

Ever wonder where we get most of our honey from? Meet Jose and Lydia from meljessbees. Based in Murrieta, just north of San Diego County, Meljess is a small family business that supplies some of the most delicious honey you’ll ever taste.

Jose has most of his hives around San Diego and Riverside counties, collecting orange blossom, wild buckwheat blossom, sage blossom and wildflower honey.

Their orange blossom is fantastic, and their wild buckwheat is still the best we’ve found. They’re both amazing expressions of Southern California terroir and flora.

This is a true family run business- Jose cares for the bees, Lydia bottles and delivers the honey, and their two daughters even help out with farmers markets and packaging.

For us, it’s important we source honey directly from the beekeeper whenever we can. We know how the honey has been handled, how the bees are treated, and who we’re supporting.

You need great honey to make great mead. And sourcing locally helps keep our community thriving. Those are two truths you can’t get around.

If you want to try Meljess honey for yourself, stop by the tasting room and grab a bottle, or check them out at farmer’s markets if you’re up in Temecula or Murrieta.

❤️

06/04/2026

Every year we have our Coveters Club design a dream mead recipe from scratch, and then we bring that mead to life.

This Sunday is our annual Coveters Club party (tasting room closed to public) and we’ll be releasing the bottles from our ‘24 and ‘25 club dream recipes!

Here they are:

Monkey Wrench: Caramelized banana, caramelized pineapple and toasted coconut mead w/ meadowfoam + macadamia blossom honeys. Aged 14 months in a combo of apple brandy & bourbon barrels.

Ruby Codex: Raspberry, tart cherry, fig and pomegranate mead w/ pecans & caramelized honey. Aged 9 months in a bourbon barrel

If you’re a Coveters Club member or alumni, check your email for all the release details (alumni emails going out soon).

Label for Monkey Wrench:
Label for Ruby Codex:

05/14/2026

NEW BOTTLE RELEASE…

“Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me”

Captain Ahab’s famously defiant line from America’s greatest novel is usually interpreted as the ultimate example of human arrogance. Yet reading it in full context gives it a slightly different meaning; Ahab is searching for the Truth with a capital T, and will not let anything, especially superficial appearances or societal norms, hinder that quest.

There’s probably a connection somewhere between my favorite novel and the name of our meadery. There might be some Ahab inspiration behind our quest to create something unique and singular.

Who really knows. And all of this has nothing to do with our newest mead, Strike The Sun.

Yes, we’re bringing back a favorite from several years ago, with a twist.

This version features Hawaiian Lehua blossom honey from our friends at MoonBow Farms on the Big Island. And we updated the fruit profile a bit, leaning into the tropical notes by featuring mangos and guavas in addition to Muscat grapes and local kumquats.

It’s bright and electric and delicious. It’s the kind of mead you can enjoy as a complex sipper, or in a cocktail or even as a spritz. Throw it on ice with some soda water, we don’t care. Just enjoy it however you want and keep searching for that Truth.

Profile: notes of tropical fruit punch, citrus zest, caramelized mangos and butterscotch. Zippy with a wonderful balance of sweet and acid, and way too easy to drink.

Strike The Sun releases this Saturday, 8 am online and noon at the tasting room!

Address

5328 Banks Street Ste B
San Diego, CA
92110

Opening Hours

Tuesday	4pm - 9pm
Wednesday	4pm - 9pm
Thursday	4pm - 9pm
Friday	4pm - 10pm
Saturday	12pm - 10pm
Sunday	12pm - 9pm

Telephone

+18582051328

Website

http://www.lostcausemead.com/

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