Moonshine Meadery: Nitin Vishwas is Resurrecting the World's Oldest Alcohol for Modern India
In 2014, while flipping through an in-flight magazine during a business trip, Nitin Vishwas, then a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, stumbled upon an article about meadery. It was a revelation: mead, a fermented honey beverage, was the oldest alcohol known to human civilization, predating even beer and wine. Nitin sent photos of the article to his childhood friend of 35 years, Rohan Rehani, with a simple message: "History meets mystery—why don't we try making this just for fun?" What began as a weekend hobby in a garage would eventually lead to the creation of Moonshine Meadery (Ronin Wines), Asia’s first mead brand, and the lobbying for entirely new alcohol laws in the state of Maharashtra.
Today, Moonshine Meadery is at the forefront of India’s craft beverage revolution. By taking a millennium-old tradition and adapting it for the modern Indian palate with carbonation and fruit infusions, Nitin and Rohan have built a national brand that is now venturing into global markets like the UAE, Australia, and New Zealand.
What is Mead?
Mead is the "Original Alcohol" (the OG). While beer comes from fermented grain and wine from fermented grapes, mead is produced by fermenting honey. It predates distillation and has been part of nearly every ancient civilization's geography.
The McKinsey Exit: From Corporate to "Jugaad"
Nitin’s journey to entrepreneurship was a slow burn. With a background in mechanical engineering and an MBA from ISB Hyderabad, he spent 14 years in corporate roles at L&T, McKinsey, and Abbott. "I never thought I would get into entrepreneurship," he admits on the ELI Podcast.
The transition happened when the "hobby" reached a tipping point of quality. But there was a major hurdle: mead didn't exist in the Indian legal books. Nitin and Rohan had to work with the Maharashtra excise department to create a new category for fermented honey, eventually getting mead classified as a wine. This pioneering effort opened the doors for the entire industry in India.
The Product: Engineering the Perfect Pour
Building a meadery in a country with no mead history required extensive research. Nitin and Rohan turned to online forums, imported books, and eventually, Rohan couch-surfed his way through the US to intern at established meadries. They learned everything from cleaning tanks to perfecting fermentation batches.
However, they quickly realized that the high-alcohol, still meads found abroad wouldn't work in India's hot climate. "We needed to do things differently for the Indian taste palette," Nitin explains. Through over 200 test trials, they engineered a product that was low-alcohol, fruit-forward, and carbonated—making it refreshing and approachable for beer and wine drinkers alike.
The Moonshine Production Journey
- Minimal Viable Plant: Started with just two tanks and a custom-designed bottling machine built for ₹1.2 lakh.
- Incremental Scale: Expanded from 1,000-liter tanks to 20,000 liters, ensuring capacity utilization at every step.
- Raw Material Sourcing: Utilizing over 55 metric tons of honey annually, sourced from sustainable local apiaries.
- Carbonation & Flavor: Infusing traditional mead with real fruits and carbonation to suit the modern consumer.
The Triangle Strategy: Cracking the Market
As a startup in the alcohol sector, Moonshine faced a unique challenge: zero "Above The Line" (ATL) advertising. They couldn't use hoardings, digital ads, or print media. The only way forward was "Liquid on Lips" (LOL)—getting people to taste the product.
To maximize their limited resources, they avoided spreading themselves thin. Instead, they focused on a "Triangle" of micro-markets in Mumbai: **Bandra, Lokhandwala, and Andheri West**. "We said we won't go out of this little triangle," Nitin recalls. "Everything happened here. This amplified the noise enough that retailers outside the triangle started asking us for the product. When they ask for it, the resistance to movement is a lot lower."
Building a Team of "Entrepreneurs"
For the first 18 months, Moonshine was just a three-person team. As they scaled, Nitin’s primary lesson was to build a team that knows more than the founders. He encourages a culture of **"Obligation to Dissent,"** a principle he brought from his consulting days.
"You could be the junior-most person and you have the right to stand up and say 'I don't like this idea.' At the end of the day, it's group consensus that wins. And if it fails, nobody says 'I told you so.' We just take a step back and decide not to make that mistake again."
Nitin's Definition of an Entrepreneur
"An entrepreneur is anyone who has that 'tick' (or keda) to do something new. If that tick keeps you awake at night and you have the intuition that it will work, you must muster the courage to go for it. You should be willing to give up a lot to make that one thing successful."
The Road to Global Reach
After focusing solely on Maharashtra and Goa for four years, Moonshine Meadery has expanded into six new states, including Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, in the last six months alone. Nitin views the mead space as a "rarity"—a genuine white space in the alcohol sector.
As they aggressively chase the export market and consolidate their domestic presence, Moonshine Meadery remains anchored in its origins: history, mystery, and a relentless commitment to great liquid. "Monthly salary is the biggest addiction," Nitin laughs, "but once you make the transition to building your own dream, you can never go back."