Paradise Garage, Kelham Island: 'I'm creating a 'groovy hang' music bar in Yorkshire - and it's all thanks to mead'

In the UK, it hasn’t undergone the equivalent of the craft beer revolution or a pivot towards hip natural wine.

However, one man in Sheffield is on a mission to change people’s minds about the drink and has set up his own music-themed meadery called Paradise Garage.

Tim Young opened the brewery in Kelham Island at the end of 2023.

He then turned the front part of it into a tap room, complete with a stereo and hand-picked selection of vinyl, in 2024, and he is now producing mead for a variety of shops, bars, festivals and direct to consumer.

The drink, which is made from fermented honey, sometimes with added fruits, is similar to wine in terms of percentage and Young brews four distinct varieties of it.

Just like the name Paradise Garage, all of the varieties are named after old New York night clubs: Salvation is the traditional offering, combining honey, water, yeast and some organic nutrients that results in a very light, almost white white-like drink.

The Roxy is made with caramelized honey, blackcurrants and Cambodian red peppercorn, while Fun House merges organic dried apricots, habanero and guajillo chilis along with hibiscus.

Young’s latest creation, AM/PM, is made with lapsang souchong tea and plums and has a smoky, almost whiskey essence to it.

“I've got a good hit rate,” he says. “When people try it, they're like, okay, I'm sold.”

Young’s relationship with mead started around 10 years ago.

“My mate had a pagan wedding and he got some Polish mead for it,” he recalls. “Which he drank from a horn. I had some and thought it was very nice but I didn't give much thought to it afterwards.”

During lockdown, Young was working in Vietnam teaching English when all of a sudden, he was out of a job and looking for things to do.

Vietnam has an amazing craft beer scene, says Young, but the expense of the equipment, combined with the plentiful number of brewers already producing excellent beer, made him think there might be something else he could make.

“On Facebook groups there's lots of people selling stuff like local honey and fruit,” he says. “And I thought, well, mead is something I can brew that nobody else is doing. Everything is readily available and you could get brewing equipment from brew shops.

"So, I just started making it and the first brew went well. There was a sort of art cafe venue bar type place near where I was living and they started buying bottles off me and they sold.”

Young returned to England and set up in the corner of a beer brewery in London. However, operations there weren’t really working out so he began looking for a more permanent base.

Knowing that Sheffield’s, and Kelham Island’s, reputation as being a brewing hotspot, he figured he could settle in well here.

“I knew it was a serious place for beer and pubs, and had a culture of that. There is a brewing scene here and I thought I could fit right in because I'm not competing with anybody but there would be that curiosity there. And so far, that's been the case for the most part.”

Also, as a dedicated music fan, he figured he would be well placed on that end of things too.

“I love the music scene past and present, so I just thought Sheffield looks fun,” he says. “Plus, I need a community. Because I'm by myself, I need to be able to go in places and ask if I can borrow this or if they can help me carry that.

"People have been really welcoming and the council have been flawless. They've been incredible and super helpful, have guided me towards loans and grants and I’ve had a real attack dog of a business advisor that they provided.”

However, starting a meadery from scratch in a new city is not without its challenges. Letting people know Paradise Garage exists is one thing but also changing the image around mead as a drink is another.

“Mead can make people think of country yokels or wizards or something like that,” says Young. “Or it might be something you find in a gift shop if you go and visit a castle or something.

"But I'm looking to do something different and show people: look, it's honey wine, doesn’t that sound nice?”

The people of Sheffield are gaining a taste for it pretty quickly, according to Young, and his mead is already seeing him being stocked in numerous Sheffield outlets, such as The Old Shoe bar in Orchard Square. And Young is able to produce a decent amount of mead even with a modest set up.

“About 10 years ago makers did a bit of fairly rudimentary science which means that you don't have to spend two years making mead now,” he explains. “My traditional mead I turn around in four months. You can now get it to a very saleable point a lot faster.”

Music is an essential part of Young’s operation. Not only in the name of his company, and his meads, but also in his grander future plans.

“With Paradise Garage, it’s kind of like a disco meadery,” he explains. “Music is fundamental to the business and I play a lot of it here, mainly soul, funk and disco but also playing classic albums in full on the turntable.

"It means that it puts the focus back on the mead,” he says. “It's just a drink, like beer, like wine, like cider.

"It's not a lifestyle or some kind of cultural choice you've made. It is just a drink and hopefully it's as good a drink as anything else you're going to find.”

The aim is then to connect with other Sheffield producers and explore making one-off runs of mead.

“I want to really get on top of the consistency and the quality of these four and just keep them turning over. Then once I'm happy with that, I’d love to do short runs and seasonal things and do some collaborations with other Sheffield makers.”

And the tap room is going to be pushed more and more, so people can come and drink fresh from source.

“I'm going to get a mirror ball and a lava projector and just make it a groovy hang,” says Young.

“Like a music bar but one that isn’t pompous and if people want to bring their own records too, they can. So, people can just come down to the tap room, listen to some records, and drink some nice mead.”

www.paradisegaragebrewing.com