New owners bring new life to Rochester-based cidery Seed + Stone

Rochester's first (and only) urban cidery will celebrate its new re-launch of its meadery with a party Sunday.

When it opened inside the massive Hungerford Building complex back in 2018, Bill Bly and Bly Travers just wanted to carve out a space to showcase their shared love of fermentation and hard apple cider.

Seed + Stone Cidery started in the basement of the Hungerford, 1115 E. Main St., before coming to the ground floor a year later when it opened its tasting room. And over the preceding four years, Seed + Stone produced a wide range of traditional ciders (think dry, dry dry) from traditional cider fruits (think heirloom and bittersweet apple varietals).

The business also added a meadery called Shertbriar in September 2021. The meads, like the ciders, showcase drinkability, nuance, and balance. Shertbriar remains the only meadery in Monroe County. Both the honey and the apples are sourced from Williamson, Wayne County.

Still Rochester’s only cidery and meadery (the only one in the city proper), Seed + Stone quietly gained new ownership earlier this year. And now the new owners, Andrew Gleason and Matt Carlson, are kick-starting the brand with a relaunch of the renamed meadery, a mead-fueled party Sunday, and then a lot of the same. It kicks off at 1 p.m.

Photo: Seed + Stone co-owners Andrew Gleason and Matt Carlson inside their East Main Street tasting room/production facility.

The recipes aren’t changing. The focus isn’t changing. The mission remains the same. As a nano-producer, Seed + Stone wants to offer something out-of-the-ordinary, all the while giving people an option to experience traditional ciders and meads.

Gleason said it allows him to take more chances. That’s why you’ll find a mead on draft that mimics a hazy New England-style IPA. (Gleason essentially took an IPA recipe and tried to craft a honey-based beverage that would appeal to those hazy drinkers.)

“This all fits our story,” Carlson said. “It was sheer luck that I stumbled across the business listing. It just happened to be that Bill was selling and he already had Andy on staff and Andy wanted to continue to do this. The whole thing is very serendipitous.”

Gleason was brought aboard to help former owner/head cidermaker Bill Bly. Gleason worked almost a year in that role. During his time with Bly, Gleason gained valuable perspective in producing ciders the long, hard, and slow way. (Typically, Seed + Stone ciders age for at least three months, if not longer, before packaging). Gleason also spent time behind the bar and learned about customer service and connecting with patrons. During these bartending shifts, Gleason said more and more he began to think about what it would take to open his own business. The goal had always been to open a brewery. But what might it look like if he took his fermentation passion and focused on ciders and meads?

“I had dreams of opening my own place, and then I was looking at the reality of opening my own place and the logistics of that are challenging,” Gleason said with a heavy sigh, a telling laugh, and a weary smile. “I needed help. And they (Bly and Travers) welcomed me into their taproom. And that was a side of the business I didn’t know anything about, interacting with people, retail sales.

“I jumped in and it was a lot of fun.”

That’s where future cidery co-owner Matt Carlson came in. Carlson was looking to get involved in the beverage industry but didn’t want to necessarily produce it himself. All the while working at Seed + Stone, Gleason never realized that Bly had quietly listed the business for sale. Carlson, looking for a partner, was able to connect with Gleason and that’s when talks intensified between the two parties. It was luck, really, that brought Gleason and Carlson together. That makes the name even cooler and more fitting.

And like a lot of the best ideas in life, the seeds for Lucky Buzz Beverage Co. were planted years before the name was needed. Gleason joked that he and his wife came up with the Lucky Buzz moniker one random evening while enjoying a healthy share of alcoholic beverages. And while Gleason said they should’ve legally claimed the name immediately, they didn’t. But fortuitously (because we know all the best band and brewery names are already taken), no one ever trademarked it. Gleason said he has had “lucky buzz” written on his homebrew kegs for more than three years. So Gleason and Carlson can thank that years-old lucky buzz for providing the inspiration for this new identity. Gleason and Carlson formed Lucky Buzz Beverage and purchased the two brands and related assets from Bly and Travers, essentially meaning both now exist under the Lucky Buzz umbrella.

As Bly said to me in our 2018 interview, the name is about “something that honors the traditionalism of cider-making, the simplicity of it. That's where the name and identity came from — the seed from an apple and the millstone used to crush apples.”

The new look really reminds me of 80s ski movies or early days of Saved by the Bell. The colors are vibrant and often fluorescent. The hope is that the new eye-catching labels will help introduce more and more people to mead.

“If you look in our cooler, it can be hard to tell what is mead and what is cider,” Gleason said. “Mead has been growing in popularity and it is one of the fastest-growing craft beverages. This will help consumers differentiate. We see an opportunity with the mead to make it friendlier, make it more approachable.”

For now, it’s about maintaining the status quo at Seed + Stone/Lucky Buzz, the owners said.

“We took over in March and have really just continued to do what Bill and Bly were doing,” Gleason said. “It’s why I was a customer first and then an employee. I really loved what they were doing here. We want to continue that and continue to get our bearings. We’re starting to find our stride and figure out what we’re going to do.”

And who knows, the future could involve a bigger space (maybe a new space?!) or the addition of beer. To say the least, Gleason and Carlson are energized and jazzed about the potential. Until then, however, they’re going to continue to honor and uphold what is already in place.

Respect the apples (or honey), respect the process.

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