Blog - Got Mead? The Largest Mead Resource on the Web – Détails, épisodes et analyse

11-5-19 9PM EST Tonight we're talking with Mike Faul, owner of Rabbit's Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale, CA about several things. Mike has been in the mead industry for over 20 years, and has been a mead maker for much longer, having been involved in mead since the beginning of the resurgence of mead in the US.

We'll be talking about Mike's adventures in Ireland, creating an Irish mead with Irish honey, peak honey in the US (and the world) and what Mike's been up to in creating a more efficient meadery using computers and automation.

http://ow.ly/p1mD50x31Bk

11-5-19 9PM EST Tonight we're talking with Mike Faul, owner of Rabbit's Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale, CA about several things. Mike has been in the mead industry for over 20 years, and has been a mead maker for much longer, having been involved in mead since the beginning of the resurgence of mead in the US.

We'll be talking about Mike's adventures in Ireland, creating an Irish mead with Irish honey, peak honey in the US (and the world) and what Mike's been up to in creating a more efficient meadery using computers and automation.

http://ow.ly/p1mD50x31Bk

5-7-19 We are talking with Greg Heller-LaBelle, Vice President of the American Mead Makers Association, and co-owner of The Colony Meadery in Bethlehem, PA.

Greg is coming on to tell us all about the debut of MeadCon East, the AMMA conference, that will be held in Pennsylvania, September 5-7, 2019. After 3 years of holding the MeadCon in Broomfield, CO alongside the Mazer Cup International, the AMMA has decided to host a second conference on the other side of the country. This event, being in the first year, is as yet small, but is expected to grow each year.

Greg himself is a longtime homebrewer (from wayy back in college). He eventually moved back to his birthplace in Bethlehem, PA. He is a craft beer writer, and when he got back to his hometown, he revived the Lehigh Valley Brewing, a fancy name for a group of guys who got together monthly to share dusty beers they'd collected and stored. (Because beer, of course!). At one of those meetings, this guy, Mike Manning brought along a homemade mead. And boy was it good! Greg, having been deep in the beer culture, saw the writing on the wall that the mead world was going to take off, and spent the next couple months hounding this stranger to go into business with him, and The Colony Meadery was born!

We're going to talk Meadcon, mead, and building and running a meadery with Greg tonight, join us!

4-30-19 Tonight we are joined by Lance Shaner, co-owner of Omega Yeast, and Carvin Wilson, mead aficionado and speaker on fermenting mead at high temperatures.

3-26-19 Tonight we're getting together with Jon Oppegaard, owner of Oppegaard Meadery in Tukwila, WA. Jon makes excellent mead, I've tried many of his products. He's even done savoury meads, like his taco mead (yes, I said taco) that he released recently, and which was a huge hit, and sold out pretty quick.
Jon has been making mead for over 10 years, and loves it. He made his own because there wasn't much available for him to get in his area when he discovered mead, and what he could find strained his bank account to support his mead habit, so, he decided to handle it himself.
He's been making mead ever since. After a while, he figured, 'if I am going to make it and drink it anyway, and others like my stuff, why not go pro?'. And so he did. He rented a small space to keep costs down, and it didn't take long for his meads to become so popular that he had to expand.
He really only expected his friends and family to show up, but that was not to be. In fairly short order, the place was packed all the time. This is what happens when you make great mead! He resisted the idea of mead-making as his 'real job' for a while, but the meadery growth and popularity of his mead convinced him otherwise.
Oppegaard Meadery is a casual place, lots of board games and story telling. There are cool hand-painted shields hanging on the wall, and often mead-infused cheesecakes show up from a local bakery (I've had some, they're very tasty!).
Jon himself is a tall dude, with a Viking-worthy beard, and many cool weapons (which show up on his social media feeds from time to time). He's a great guy, and very dedicated to his mead. The thing he takes most seriously is the quality of his mead.

1-15-19 Part 2 of Mead Myths, because we had so many that came up from our listeners last week! Ryan, Vicky and AJ will be talking about the myths that have arisen on techniques in meadmaking, they pervade a lot of the internet and are passed around by people not aware that they are myths.

Yes, mead is old as people, and yes, it has a long history (we're having a show on mead history next month), but we also have science, and as science has advanced, we've discovered or proven many things about fermentation, and specifically about making mead that lend a great deal of help to making better mead, and in allowing us to repeat our efforts.

So we'll be tackling the myths, some much beloved, and showing the science that gives us reliable, repeatable methods we can use to make better mead.

11-27-18 Tonight we are talking with Kenneth Jenkinson, manager at Savannah Bee Company and fellow mead maker.

Kenneth is heavily involved with the Savannah Brewers Club, works on the Domras Cup competition. He's an avid meadmaker, and is very passionate about mead and honey. Especially honey.

Savannah Bee Company strives to live as bees live: symbiotically with nature and in a manner that contributes positively to the world around us.

Savannah Bee Company grew out of Ted’s passion for bees, beekeeping and honey. They carry several honey varietals, including some rarer ones like desert wildflower, tupelo and sourwood. They have an in-house mead and carry several other meadery's products as well. And they have lots of beeswax goodies, beauty products and of course, a tasting bar for their mead and honeys.

I went to their Broughton St. location last weekend, and it was pretty cool, in a neat old building with high ceilings and lots of wood. We tasted all the meads and honeys, and ended up picking up several of the meads.

Enlightenment Wines started out as a small part time farm winery in 2009 by Raphael Lyon. In 2015 Lyon reached out to Anthony Rock and Arley Marks with the intent to join forces and grow Enlightenment Wines into a full scale production meadery with a tasting room and cocktail bar in Brooklyn New York.

Enlightenment is a little different from many meaderies, in that they are heavily focused on 'natural' or 'wild' meadmaking. They work with wild yeasts, unfiltered honey, and local herbs to create unique meads that Arley also mixes into signature cocktails that he has developed and serves at Enlightenment's bar, 'Honeys'. Their honey is diluted with well water and combined with various botanicals, fruit or fruit juices that are available locally and seasonally, and then fermented in wood barrels until there are no sugars remaining. In some cases they ferment in stainless steel or glass. They primarily use wild yeast that already exists on the fruits and in their honey.

Live from the NYC Fermentation Fest