Responsible Drinking

Drink Well. Ask For Help If You Need It.

We make an alcoholic drink. That comes with a responsibility we take seriously — including being straightforward about the fact that alcohol causes real harm for some people, and that there's no shame in stepping away from it.

If You Need Help Right Now

These are free, confidential, and available 24/7. You don't need insurance, and you don't need to have hit any particular point to call.

If someone may be in immediate danger — including signs of alcohol poisoning — call 911. Don't wait to see if it improves.

SAMHSA National Helpline

1-800-662-HELP (4357)

Free, confidential, 24/7, 365 days a year, in English and Spanish. Treatment referrals and information for substance use and mental health. They'll connect you to local options, including sliding-scale and state-funded programs if you're uninsured. TTY: 1-800-487-4889. You can also text your ZIP code to 435748 (HELP4U), or search FindTreatment.gov.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Call or text 988

24/7 support for anyone in mental health, substance use, or emotional crisis — not only for thoughts of suicide. Free and confidential.

Veterans Crisis Line

Dial 988, then press 1

Connects you with qualified VA responders — many of them veterans themselves. Available to veterans, service members, and their families and friends, whether or not you're enrolled in VA care. Also by text to 838255 or chat at veteranscrisisline.net.

Colorado — 988 Colorado Mental Health Line

Call or text 988

Statewide crisis support for mental health and substance use. The former Colorado Crisis Services number (1-844-493-8255) and text line now route here.

211 Colorado

Dial 211 · or text your ZIP to 898211

Free, confidential connection to local services — treatment, counseling, food, housing, and more. Useful when you're not in crisis but need to find something nearby.

Support Groups

Free, peer-run, and available in most communities and online:

Alcoholics Anonymousaa.org
SMART Recovery (secular, science-based) — smartrecovery.org
Al-Anon (for families and friends) — al-anon.org
Alateen (for teens affected by someone else's drinking) — through Al-Anon

A Word To Our Veterans

We're veteran owned, in a city built around the military. A lot of the people reading this have served, and some are carrying things that make drinking complicated — chronic pain, TBI, PTSD, sleep that won't come, or the plain fact that alcohol was the social glue of every unit you were ever in.

None of that makes you weak, and asking for help doesn't cost you anything you've earned. The VA offers substance use treatment to enrolled veterans, and the Veterans Crisis Line above is staffed by people who've been where you've been.

If you'd rather not go through the VA, the SAMHSA line and the support groups above are entirely separate from it. There's more than one door.

If You Do Drink

Mead is closer to wine than beer in strength, and it doesn't always taste like it. That's the practical thing worth knowing about our product: it goes down easy, and it's easy to misjudge.

  • Know what a standard drink actually is. A pour of something stronger isn't the same as a beer, even in the same size glass.
  • Eat something. Food slows absorption. This is not folklore.
  • Drink water alongside it.
  • Nothing sobers you up but time. Not coffee, not a cold shower, not a walk around the block.
  • Plan how you're getting home before you start. Decide it sober.
  • Check your medications. Alcohol interacts badly with a long list of common prescriptions, including ones for pain, sleep, anxiety, and blood pressure. Ask a pharmacist — they'll tell you free.
  • Don't drink if you're pregnant or might be. There's no amount established as safe.
  • Never pressure anyone. Plenty of people don't drink, and they don't owe anybody a reason.

For official guidance on lower-risk drinking, see the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

When It's More Than A Drink

Nobody needs a label or a rock bottom to deserve help. If any of this sounds familiar, it may be worth talking to someone:

  • Drinking more, or longer, than you meant to — repeatedly
  • Wanting to cut down and finding you can't
  • Time lost to drinking or recovering from it
  • Drinking getting in the way of work, family, or things you used to care about
  • Continuing even though it's causing problems
  • Needing more than you used to for the same effect
  • Feeling physically bad when you stop
  • Someone who loves you has said something about it

This isn't a diagnosis, and we're not qualified to give one. It's a reason to call the SAMHSA line above and talk to somebody who is.

One safety note: if you drink heavily and daily, stopping abruptly on your own can be medically dangerous. Talk to a doctor about how to do it safely rather than quitting cold on willpower alone.

Worried About Someone Else

Watching someone you love drink too much is its own kind of exhausting, and you don't have to wait until they're ready before you get support.

  • Al-Anon exists specifically for you, not for them. So does Alateen, for kids and teenagers dealing with a parent or sibling's drinking.
  • The SAMHSA National Helpline takes calls from family members, not just the person drinking.
  • Talk to them when they're sober, in private, without an audience.
  • You can't force someone into recovery. You can be clear about what you'll do and follow through.

What We Commit To

21 and over, always

We verify age on this site and won't knowingly market to anyone under 21.

No glorifying excess

We won't use imagery or language that treats getting drunk as the point. Our mead is meant to be tasted, not chugged.

Never with driving

We won't associate our product with driving, operating machinery, or anything else alcohol has no business near.

Non-drinkers welcome

If you don't drink — recovery, religion, pregnancy, or just don't want to — you're still welcome here.

A Last Thing

We'd rather sell one bottle to someone who enjoys it than three to someone it's hurting. If stepping away from alcohol is the right call for you, that's a good decision and we're not going to try to talk you out of it.

Kjelärd Mead LLC · Colorado Springs, Colorado
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