ABOUT FITZGIBBON MEADERY

Fitzgibbon Meadery is the husband and wife team of Eric and Misa McAnallen and the story of their Meadery is a story of a hobby that spawned another hobby that became an obsession to make meads and wines.

The original hobby, medieval reenactment, brought Eric and Misa together on a battlefield in the 14th century. Well, actually, it was the battlefield at Cooper's Lake Campground during the annual Pennsic War run by the Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA) in 2006. Eric, known in the SCA as The Honorable Lord Cetach Fitzgibbon, was well-known and feared for his skill as an archer, and Misa, known in the SCA as Lady Myra Frogbayn, was well-known and feared for her ability to wear no less than eight different plaids simultaneously.

It was this medieval hobby that lead to Eric and Misa brewing their first two batches of mead together after getting married, because what else pairs well with the Middle Ages if not mead. Eric promptly dubbed them Frederick and Alawicious when Misa asked him what to call them. Both were pyments made from local honey and wild grapes harvested from their back yard. Frederick didn't turn out too well the first time but Alawicious was a hit around the campfire with friends. Soon, it was a tradition to bring Alawicious in a ridiculous monkey bottle to their annual get together with friends.

For the next decade, Misa would concoct recipes for new flavors and Eric would design sarcastic and humorous labels for the bottles. Soon the mead making had taken on a life of its own with their meads being shared with friends... and always with the question "Can I buy some from you?"

The answer was always "no" because they didn't have the appropriate licensing. Until one winter's evening in 2019 when they finally thought to themselves, "Why not?" and Fitzgibbon Meadery went from being a hobby to a legitimate mead and wine making venture.

Other than the volume of work involved in making commercial wine, nothing much has changed. Misa still concocts mead and wine recipes and Eric designs sarcastic and humorous labels.

So why did they name it Fitzgibbon Meadery? Because Connoquenessing Meadery was too hard to spell.