Odessa’s Pye Road Meadworks, one of Florida’s most award-winning meaderies, announced that the meadery will cease operations on December 1st, 2024. The reasons were varied, but the changes and challenges of 2024 continue to make headwinds for all of Florida’s beverage-makers.
From Pye Road Meadworks:

Pye Road Meadworks Closing on December 1

After much thought and consideration, we want to let our customers know that our last day of operation will be Sunday, December 1.

Pye Road has always been a passion project that we’ve devoted ourselves to while pursuing our respective professional careers. However, unexpected and welcome new career opportunities, family concerns due to the recent hurricanes, and serious pressing medical conditions for our loved ones have led us to reprioritize the time we have available for Pye Road.

With our lease ending at the close of this year – and faced with an undeniable downturn in mead sales coupled with ever-rising costs – we believe now is the right time to wrap things up.

To all our regulars, we hope you’ll continue to come see us as we close this memorable chapter. Seeing your faces at the bar week in and week out has made the past four years an absolute blast. We cannot thank you enough.

For those of you who haven’t stopped by in a while, we hope that you’ll visit us one last time. If you can’t make it in person, consider supporting us by grabbing some bottles on Vinoshipper before we’re gone.

We’re proud to say we’ve done this on our terms—no debts, no regrets. We have produced a plethora of local, national, and international awarded meads. Further, we’ve been lucky enough to pour at countless festivals with our friends and colleagues and share our love of mead with thousands. We’ve done it the right way, and we’ll forever be proud of that.

We’ve got four more weekends, and we’d sure be honored if we could put some Pye Road mead in your glasses one last time.

Editor’s note: This one hits home for Florida Beer News. Matt and Deb from Pye Road were one of the first guests on The BeerWise Podcast, and I have followed their journey from upstart home mead-makers to professional mead-makers, into distribution, many releases, and now to the meadery’s closing.

About Pye Road Meadworks

Pye Road Meadworks is boutique Meadery in Odessa, Florida, a charming small community located 15 minutes north of Tampa International Airport.  Owners Matt and Debbie McDonough opened Pye Road in March of 2021 after almost two years of planning and construction with the goal of creating an upscale but casual spot featuring hand-crafted honey wines, sparkling session meads, and a top-notch selection of craft beers from national brewers on draft and to-go. Our space is casual cool, and we’ve got something on tap for everyone – elevate your drink game with Pye Road!