Allentown meadery helping Stroudsburg hard-cider maker get started

It has contracted with a Stroudsburg startup, Banter’s Hard Cider, to help make and sell its product.

Greg Heller-Labelle, co-founder and CEO of Colony Meadery, said Banter’s, which is owned by Steve Brancato, is in its early stages. By contracting with Colony Meadery, Brancato is getting his product to market faster, Heller-Labelle said.

“It’s revenue and marketing,” he said.

The other advantage is that Brancato is using Colony Meadery’s equipment as he tests his early recipes without the initial investment in expensive commercial equipment.

Heller-Labelle said the arrangement is also helping his business as it gives a different product for Colony Meadery to sell at its Bridgeworks location in Allentown and at its tasting room in the Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem, where a keg of Banter’s dry hard cider is already up and running.

Helping startups is also an intrinsic part of the local craft beverage industry, he said.

“When we were an upstart, a lot of people in the industry helped us. It’s nice to help someone else get started,” he said.

When Banter’s is open, which Brancato expects will be soon, there will be six varieties of hard cider for sale from recipes he’s been working on for some time.

“My wife and I came up with the idea to make hard cider after visiting a cidery in Canada around 2009,” Brancato said.

The Colony Meadery has 15 varieties of mead for sale.

Heller-Labelle said when Banter’s is open in Stroudsburg, he expects it will carry some of the Colony’s mead and that his meadery will continue to carry Banter’s cider.

“We don’t have a presence up in Stroudsburg, so this helps us,” he said.