Cocktail syrups capture flavor of Montana

Dec. 15—Doug Satterly has spent years brewing beer, mead and syrups in the Flathead Valley. Last month marked a year since he officially opened Mountain Home Meadworks — a cocktail mixer and syrup brand that he hopes to expand.

“The idea is that you don’t have to be a mixologist or a bartender to make a nice or fancy drink, it can be easy,” Satterly said.

Satterly currently offers four flavors of syrups but is in the process of creating and launching two more. Each bottle of nonalcoholic syrup has a suggested mocktail on its label, which can be turned into a cocktail by adding any spirit.

The goal, Satterly said, is to one day open a meadery and tasting room in the valley where mead would be brewed to beer specs and carbonated, serving a honey-based, gluten-free beer.

Mead, or honey wine, is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water. Brewers can add fruits, spices, hops, grains and more to adjust the flavor.

“My whole concept for both the meadery and these syrups in general is to show that Montana has more than just huckleberries and Yellowstone,” Satterly said.

Montana is the fourth top producer of honey in the country, yet there are only two meaderies statewide, one in Victor and one in Bozeman. Montana also produces a lot of other products, such as lavender, and Satterly uses local ingredients when he can, supporting local farmers and beekeepers.

He graduated from Flathead High School in 1995 and then from the University of Montana with an English degree. After serving in the Army as a special forces officer, Satterly moved back to the Valley in 2011, finding work cutting rock.

Years later, Satterly heard of the brewing science and brewery operations program at Flathead Valley Community College. As a kid, Satterly remembers helping his dad brew his own beer at home once or twice. It was always of interest, and Satterly graduated from the program in 2018.

The program readied graduates to formulate beer recipes, analyze the yeast fermentation processes, perform chemical analysis, and “perform all aspects of commercial brewery production from raw ingredient procurement to packaging with quality, consistency, safety and sanitization as priorities,” according to the college’s website.

While studying, Satterly worked at Tamarack Brewery Company in Lakeside.

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic delayed Satterly’s meadery dream, leading him to open Mountain Home Meadworks in a smaller form through syrup production. Satterly works out of the Ghostland Kitchen, a shared commercial kitchen, and handles everything from production to packaging by himself.

“It’s a way of generating revenue and I enjoy it, and hopefully I’ll be able to get to a place where I can get the meadery going,” Satterly said.

Officially going live took months, Satterly said, as he had to work with the state through a series of tests, labs and studies to ensure the product was good for commercial sale.

Now a year since its inception, Satterly heads to Ghostland Kitchen almost every Monday afternoon to make his syrups, a process he has become proficient at, with the ability to make 100 bottles in just seven hours.

The 12.7 ounce bottle is $23, and the smaller 5 ounce bottle is $9. Currently, Satterly offers four flavors: “Sentinel,” a syrup with herbal tea and hops, “Spiced Orange,” which Satterly says would go well in an old fashioned, “Heidi’s Song,” a lavender and hops infused syrup and “Odin’s Eye,” a hop-based syrup that Satterly compares to the taste of an IPA and acts like a vermouth.

The bottles can be purchased online and in select stores across the Flathead Valley, including Evergreen Liquor Store, Bigfork Liquor Barn and Withey’s Health Foods.

Each bottle comes with a recommended drink, and Satterly also uploads recipes on his website. Mountain Home Meadworks is often at farmers markets and events but is available for purchase yearlong online at mountain-home-meadworks.square.site.

Satterly also encourages wholesale inquiries.

“I stumbled into it,” Satterly said. “But I discovered there’s definitely a market people are interested in by having the ease of making something nice.”

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or kheston@dailyinterlake.com.

Doug Satterly fills a small bottle of Mountain Home Meadworks syrup on Dec. 10, 2024. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Kate Heston

Doug Satterly owns Mountain Home Meadworks, a local cocktail and mocktail syrup company that opened last year. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Kate Heston

All of Mountain Home Meadwork’s syrups use locally sourced ingredients when possible and have unique names that describe Northwest Montana and aspects of mead. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Kate Heston

Doug Satterly corks a large bottle of Mountain Home Meadworks syrup on Dec. 10, 2024. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Kate Heston

Doug Satterly, owner of Mountain Home Meadworks, joked that being a brewer means the majority of your job is doing dishes. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Kate Heston

Doug Satterly fills a small bottle of Mountain Home Meadworks syrup on Dec. 10, 2024. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Kate Heston

All of Mountain Home Meadwork’s syrups use locally sourced ingredients when possible and have unique names that describe Northwest Montana and aspects of mead. (Kate Heston/Daily Inter Lake)

Kate Heston