Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Blog - Got Mead? The Largest Mead Resource on the Web

5-5-26 Tonight we're hanging with Tony Qualls. Tony is meadmaker/owner of Manic Meadery and brewer/owner of Gnosis Brewing. And he puts on the Sugarbelt Mead Festival every year. A busy guy! Tony is not just a meadery owner, he's also a musician. He toured in the band Groovatron for 12 years, doing over 1500 shows in 12 years (makes me tired just thinking about all that travel!). In April 2024, Tony and the gang opened Gnosis Brewing, also in Merrillville, Indiana. Founded by Tony, Keith, Eric, Adam, and Brandon, the brewery embodies an unending quest for beer perfection, continually evolving to delight both new craft beer enthusiasts and seasoned connoisseurs. With a commitment to quality over quantity, Gnosis Brewing rigorously tests each beer recipe through multiple batches and trials before it reaches the customer. The brewery aims to push the boundaries of traditional brewing, ensuring that every release meets their high standards of excellence. Tony is a lifelong entrepreneur, having run a vinyl record company, painting company and a bunch of other businesses. Plus he's a skilled tradesman in welding and carpentry (that would help with build out!). Tony has been married to his lovely wife Vanessa for 12 years, and they have two kids. Not to sit on his laurels, Tony plans to pursue law school and recording backlogs of musical material while running his meadery (getting tired again, lol). He likes to mountain bike and ride his motorcycle in his free time (he has free time?). Tony co-founded Manic Meadery with Keith Cantwell in 2018 in Crown Point, Indiana. Manic is a small batch meadery, and they also do wine and cider. They've gotten a lot of interest in their sweet dessert meads using whole fruit and often multiple adjuncts. Tony is also a BJCP mead judge, and holder of Mazer Cup awards for both home and commercial mead. The plans for Manic in 2020 include increasing self distribution, expanding their production space, and organizing a mead-only festival, the Sugarbelt Mead Fest.   To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events May 6 - Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL - Optimo Swing-Jazz May 7 - DiFrancesco Meadery, Wrightsville, PA - Mead and Meditation May 7 - Vahalla Meadery - Bozeman, MT - Acoustic Jam party May 7 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Trivia Night May 9 - Brimminghorn Meadery, Seaford, DE - US Wrestling Justice May 12 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Writers Night and Open Mic May 13 - The Mead Hall, Charles, MO - Acoustic Jam May 14 - Nucleus Mead, Linesville, PA  - Mead and Read May 14 - Vahalla Meadery - Bozeman, MT - Acoustic Jam party May 16 - Adesanya Brewery, Grandville, MI - Mead Samples with A New Image Salon May 17 - Foxes Den Meadery, Minooka, IL - Rock the PHight Kickoff Fundraiser at Papa Magoos Bar and Grill May 21 - Standard Meadery, Villa Park, IL - After Hours Networking May 21 - Vahalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Acoustic Jam May 22 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink: Forest Fairy May 24 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic music with Mike Rocke May 30 - McAlpine Meadery, Beach City, OH - 30 mile Bike Ride May 30 - Slash-o-Meadery, Nacogdoches, TX - Live Music with Dan McMahon May 30 - Hive Mind Mead and Brew Co., Caldicot, UK - It's CANDY Disco night with Tandoori G May 31 - Bumbling Fools Mead, Minneapolis, MN - Mead Making Class May 31 - Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL - Grown-Up Book Fair May 31 - Helderberg Meadworks, Troy, NY - Mead and Read - the book 'The Corpse Flower' and an Artist Mead Up June 6 - The Ferm Meadery, Houston, TX - Fire NR Bones live music You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

4-21-26 - Tonight we’re talking with Blair Housley, owner of Etowah Meadery in Dalonega, Georgia. A Dahlonega native, Blair grew up fishing and exploring along the Etowah River—a place that shaped his connection to North Georgia and later inspired the name and roots of Etowah. At 21, Blair joined the U.S. Air Force, an experience that strengthened the disciplined, process-driven approach he brings to building brands and crafting beverages. More than 15 years ago, he began brewing beer and mead as a hobby and quickly became focused on honey fermentation and the potential of mead as a modern craft staple. Blair’s belief is simple: mead is the perfect natural alcohol beverage. What began as a hobby in his garage and winning over two dozen medals, he decided to turn it into a business. In 2016, Blair founded Etowah to make mead more approachable, refined, and relevant, built to stand confidently alongside beer, cider, and cocktails. Etowah is recognized as one the most awarded meaderies in the Southeast with over 60 commercial mead awards and over a dozen craft beer awards to-date, with flagship mead favorites including RB&B, Black & Blue, Granny’s Apple Pie, Stone Pile Peach, and Georgia Standard. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows April 21 - Blair Housely - Etowah Meadery Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events April 22 - Captain’s on Main, Brighton, MI - Buzzin and Bloomin 2026: Mead, Music and Earth Day Vibes April 23 - Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Acoustic Jam April 25 - Moon Dog Meadery, Durham, NC - Modern Calligraphy for Beginners April 25 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - It's Raining Cats and Dogs - Make. your own round house sign April 25 - Monks Meadery, Atlanta, GA - Meadery Meet Up April 26 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Spring Mead Fest with 8 local meaderies! April 26 - DiFrancesco Meadery, Wrightsville, PA - Artist Mead Up April 26 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic Jam April 28 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Open Mic night April 30 - McAlpine Meadery, Beach City, OH - 30 Mile Bike Ride May 6 - Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL - Optimo Swing-Jazz May 7 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Trivia Night May 9 - Brimminghorn Meadery, Seaford, DE - US Wrestling Justice May 13 - The Mead Hall, Charles, MO - Acoustic Jam May 14 - Nucleus Mead, Linesville, PA  - Mead and Read May 21 - Standard Meadery, Villa Park, IL - After Hours Networking June 6 - The Ferm Meadery, Houston, TX - Fire NR Bones live music You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

4-7-26 Tonight we’re getting back together with Carlos Herrera, owner and Meadmaker at Texas Longhouse Meadery in Wylie, Texas. Carlos is the owner and mead maker of Texas Longhouse Meadery, where Nordic inspiration and Texas craft meet in the glass. With over two dozen awards and a passion for building community through mead, Carlos is also the President of the Texas Mead Association, working to grow the mead industry and bring more people into the Longhouse. Carlos, an Army Veteran, a Paramedic, and a Diplomatic Security Specialist, started learning how to make mead from an outgoing mentor. After learning the basics from his mentor, Carlos was injured at work and was sent home to recover. While home recovering from multiple surgeries, he set out to improve his new hobby. After many hours reading, researching, and experimenting Carlos fell in love with mead and really started to hone his craft of mead making. Fast forward several years and Carlos was really making waves in his new endeavors by entering many Mead competitions, winning awards, and giving his fellow competing mead makers quality feedback as a BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) Certified Mead Judge. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows April 21 - Blair Housely - Etowah Meadery Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events April 9 - Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Acoustic Jam April 10 - Bløm Mead and Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - Fool Moon Candle Bar April 10 - Bumbling Fools Mead, Minneapolis, MN - Karaoke Mead Up April 10 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink: Spring Chickens April 10 - Blöm Mead + cider, Ann Arbor, MI - FoolMoon Candle Bar April 11 - Mershon’s Artisan Cider, Stoughton, WI - Wisconsin Cider and Mead Festival April 11 - Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL - Wine Run 5k Aprl 12 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic Jam April 12 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Portrait of Ritual - Painting Birds of Prey April 12 - Moon Dog Meadery, Durham, NC - Modern Calligraphy for Beginners April 14 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Wrights Night and Open Mic April 15 - Mead Hall, St. Charles, MO - Acoustic Jam April 15 - Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery, Chicago, IL - Optimo Swing - Jazz April 16 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Fiber Crafts Evening April 17 - Pips Meadery, Gurnee, IL - Magneen live music April 18 - MAC Ice House, Berkeley Springs, WV - Uniquely WV Wine and Mead Festival April 18 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Mead-ieval Day April 18 - Hex Meadery, Kaukauna, WI - Link and Ink with Sealed with a Spark and Shelby Lynn April 18 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Europe Under Siege: The Weapons that Won Kingdoms April 19 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Make a Sand Art Terrarium April 19 - Meduseld Meadery, Lancaster, PA - Meadery Dance April 25 - Moon Dog Meadery, Durham, NC - Modern Calligraphy for Beginners April 25 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - It's Raining Cats and Dogs - Make. your own round house sign April 26 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Spring Mead Fest with 8 local meaderies! April 26 - DiFrancesco Meadery, Wrightsville, PA - Artist Mead Up April 30 - McAlpine Meadery, Beach City, OH - 30 Mile Bike Ride May 7 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Trivia Night May June 6 - The Ferm Meadery, Houston, TX - Fire NR Bones live music You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

3-24-26 Tonight we're talking with Melody and Kyle Stout, the new owners of Spacetime Mead and Cider in Dunmore, PA. They bought and took over Spacetime from owner and mead-maker Dan Schreffler has retired to take time for, well, whatever he decides to do on any given day. They are the next generation for Space Time! Melody began homebrewing in fall 2021, and really got into it, like it does for so many. She continued and got her BCJP Mead Judge certification in spring 2024. Her meads have done well in competition, including at Valhalla, the Mead Stampede and Your Honey or Your Life. Medaled in multiple competitions including Valhalla; Mead Stampede, and Your Honey or Your Life In late 2025, Melody and Kyle bought Spacetime from Dan, and  Melody and Kyle will be working closely with Dan to fully transition the winery into their care over the next few years. Kyle isn't a mead maker, but he is handling the marketing side of the meadery. “We make high-quality craft mead and cider with high-quality ingredients and local ingredients as much as possible. And we typically make sci-fi and fantasy-themed meads and ciders, along with some others. We're very focused on providing the highest quality and the most excellent product that we can provide,” said Stout. Stout said Space Time’s offerings are locally inspired, and she shares some of the fan-favorite selections. “One of the things that sets us apart is that we are a PA Preferred Winery, which means that about 75% of our product is made using local ingredients. That's not very common in this area. There's not a lot of PA Preferred Winery, and we're very proud of receiving that designation. So, it's really important to us to maintain that designation and have products that are high-quality and locally inspired,” said Stout. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows April 7 - Carlos Herrera - Texas Longhouse Meadery April 21 - Blair Housely - Etowah Meadery Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Mar 26 -  Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Music Jam Night Mar 27 - Pips Meadery, Gurnee, IL - Cousins Maine Lobster Mar 28 - Zymarium Meadery, Orlando, FL - Bonsai and Cheers with L&J Nursery Mar 28 - Folklore Brewing and Meadery, Dothan, AL - Dothan Songwriters Festival Mar 28 - The Queens Arms, Helston UK - Meadery Night Mar 29 - Wandering Wind Meadery, Charleston, WV - Mead Making Workshop Mar 31 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Writers Night and Open Mic April 1 - Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery, Chicago, IL - Optimo Swing - live Jazz April 2 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Trivia Night April 2 -  Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Music Jam Night April 4 - Queens Reward Meadery, Tupelo, MS - A Meadery and Books April 10 - Bløm Mead and Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - Fool Moon Candle Bar April 10 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink: Spring Chickens April 11 - Mershon’s Artisan Cider, Stoughton, WI - Wisconsin Cider and Mead Festival April 11 - Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL - Wine Run 5k Aprl 12 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic Jam April 12 - Moon Dog Meadery, Durham, NC - Modern Calligraphy for Beginners April 16 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Fiber Crafts Evening April 17 - Pips Meadery, Gurnee, IL - Magneen live music April 18 - MAC Ice House, Berkeley Springs, WV - Uniquely WV Wine and Mead Festival April 18 - Hex Meadery, Kaukauna, WI - Link and Ink with Sealed with a Spark and Shelby Lynn April 18 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Europe Under Siege: The Weapons that Won Kingdoms April 19 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Make a Sand Art Terrarium June 6 - The Ferm Meadery, Houston, TX - Fire NR Bones live music You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

2-24-26 Tonight at 9PM ET, we're talking with Ryan Kretchmer, owner of Barbarian Mead, a meadery in planning in the Philadelphia area. Like many people, Ryan has lived a quiet, normal life growing up in the suburbs of Chicago — quietly wrestling tigers in the Roman Colosseum, serving as a United States Senator, accepting a beauty pageant crown, conducting questionable laboratory experiments, and occasionally floating through low Earth orbit as an astronaut. Unfortunately, a demanding schedule of international diplomacy, space travel, and tiger hand-to-hand combat made it difficult to maintain a work-life balance, so he reluctantly retired from his many prestigious careers. The official story is “career exploration.” The real story is that the tigers unionized and HR got involved. In reality, Ryan is married to amazing and beautiful woman named Mary, who has given him more patience then he usually deserves...and a house full of dogs.  He spent many years working as a general contractor and carpenter, building and renovating homes. After a serious health scare forced him to reassess life and priorities, he stepped away from the physically demanding side of construction and transitioned into working as a quality inspector, where he now evaluates new homes for several national builders. While he no longer swings a hammer all day, the attention to detail and problem-solving mindset followed him into his next unexpected chapter. That chapter began one morning slightly hungover when he checked his email and discovered he had apparently purchased a mead-making kit the night before. Instead of canceling the order, he decided to see what would happen — and promptly fell down a very deep rabbit hole. What started as curiosity turned into an obsession. To date he has made more than 180 batches of mead. He plans to eventually operate **Barbarian Meadery**, where creativity, experimentation, and a refusal to take himself too seriously are part of the process. There are many more batches — and probably a few more questionable late-night purchases — still to come. Cheers. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Feb 25 - Silver Hand Meadery, Williamsburg, VA - A Reading by Stephen R. Lawhead (and mead) Feb 26 - Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Meadery Jam - bring your instrument Feb 26 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sepulpa, OK - Karaoke Night Feb 28 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Anatomy of a Killer: When Doctors Become Predators Feb 28 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Mead and Girl Scout Cookie Paring Feg 28 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barefoot Music party Mar 1 - Brothers Drake Meadery, Columbus, OH - Sabor Sundays - Salsa and bachata social Mar 5 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Paint and Sip Mar 5 - Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Meadery Jam - bring your instrument Mar 5 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Trivia Night Mar 8 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic Jam with Mike Rocke Folk Music Mar 13 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink Mar 15 - Jane Austen Society of North America, Columbia, MD - March Mead Madness - Mead Making class Mar 15 - Harvest Ridge Winery, Toughkenamoon, PA - Mead and Cheese Pairing Mar 15 - Frederick CUUPS, Frederick, MD - Mead Making workshop Mar 20-21 Valkyrie’s Horn Mead Competition, Minneapolis, MN Mar 21 - Monks Meadery, Atlanta, GA - Armored Combat Exhibition Mar 28 - Zymarium Meadery, Orlando, FL - Bonsai and Cheers with L&J Nursery Mar 28 - Folklore Brewing and Meadery, Dothan, AL - Dothan Songwriters Festival April 11 - Mershon’s Artisan Cider, Stoughton, WI - Wisconsin Cider and Mead Festival April 11 - Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL - Wine Run 5k April 12 - Moon Dog Meadery, Durham, NC - Modern Calligraphy for Beginners April 19 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Make a Sand Art Terrarium You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

2-10-26 Tonight we’re talking with Roger Wanner, owner and meadmaker at WA Meadwerks in Long Island, NY. Roger is the founder and mead maker of W A Meadwerks. Founded in 2018, they have experienced rapid growth in the early years of operation and disappointment in the post COVID years. After right-sizing the operation and focusing on small batch production, as they did when founded, they’ve added a new fan base and are reshaping the way mead is perceived and enjoyed. W A Meadwerks will be celebrating its 8th anniversary this year with a focus on barrel aged meads. The celebration starts on Mead Day, Aug 1st and ends on their anniversary Sept 8th. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Feb 11 - Green Mountain Mashers, Essex Junction, VT - Traditional Mead Night with Man Made Mead Sensory Tests Feb 12 - Bardic Wells Meadery, Montague, MI - Mead & Mehndi Feb 12 - Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Jam session Feb 12 - Thirsty Bee Meadery, Tomball, TX - Larry Lane Live music Feb 13 - Starrlight Meadery at the Honeysuckle Tea House, Chapel Hill, NC - Valentines Mead Tasting Feb 13 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Make Your Own Mosaic Heart Feb 13 - Hex Meadery, Kaukauna, WI - Anniversary Party Feb 13 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink: Valentine Animal Feb 14 - Bee Immortal Mead, Round Rock, TX - Valentines Mead Workshop Feb 14 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Valentines Murder Mystery Dinner Feb 14 - Southern Origin Meadery, Canon, GA - Couples Painting Each Other (Tiktok trend) Feb 15 - Meduseld Meadery, Lancaster, PA - Meadery Dance Feb 15 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic Jam - Mike Rocke Folk Music Feb 15 - Chubby Cheeks Meadery, Temecula, CA - Pet and Paint - Valentines Day Fundraiser! Feb 18 - Lancashire Mead Company at the Jorvik Viking Centre, York, UK - Mead Tasting event Feb 19 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sepulpa, OK - Fiber Crafting Feb 21 - Monks Meadery, Atlanta, GA - Exhibition Armored Combat Feb 21 - Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR - Expedition 33 Mead Up Feb 21 - W A Meadwerks, Lindenhurst, NY - Mead Becomes Her - cult cinema and themed cocktails Feb 26 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sepulpa, OK - Karaoke Night Feb 28 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Anatomy of a Killer: When Doctors Become Predators Mar 5 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Paint and Sip Mar 20-21 Valkyrie’s Horn Mead Competition, Minneapolis, MN - entries open! Mar 28 - Zymarium Meadery, Orlando, FL - Bonsai and Cheers with L&J Nursery Mar 28 - Folklore Brewing and Meadery, Dothan, AL - Dothan Songwriters Festival April 11 - Mershon’s Artisan Cider, Stoughton, WI - Wisconsin Cider and Mead Festival April 11 - Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL - Wine Run 5k April 19 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Make a Sand Art Terrarium You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

2-3-26 We're doing a pre-recorded episode today! We are talking with Krzysztof Jarek and Mateusz "maTEJ" Błaszczyk, meadmakers and founders of the Mead Madness Cup and the European Mead Makers Association. Kings of Mead represent the powerhouse duo of Krzysztof Jarek and Mateusz "maTEJ" Błaszczyk, two recognizable mead authorities in Europe. Hailing from Poland—the global heart of mead tradition—both have been crafting mead for over 15 years, blending deep-rooted heritage with modern innovation. As cornerstones of the global mead community, they launched their YouTube channel over 8 years ago, becoming pioneers in digital mead education and inspiring a generation of makers worldwide. As Master MJP (Mead Judging Programme) judges, they have trained the vast majority of European mead judges, conducting certification courses across the UK, South Korea, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Norway, Italy, and Mexico. Their leadership is fundamental to the industry: Mateusz "maTEJ" Błaszczyk is the visionary initiator of both the European Mead Makers Conference (EMMcon) and the Mead Madness Cup. He is also a published author of books on mead making. Krzysztof Jarek has served as the Director of the Mead Madness Cup since 2019, overseeing its growth into one of largest and most prestigious competitions. In a landmark move for the industry, Kings of Mead are coming to the USA this year to conduct the first-ever MJP (Mead Judge Programme) training in the United States. This historic event marks a bridge between the ancient traditions of Europe and the vibrant, growing American mead scene. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Feb 10 - Roger Wanner - W A Meadwerks - New York Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Feb 5 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Trivia Night Feb 6 - Red’s on 7th, Delavan, WI - Meads and Masterpiece - mead tasting and wine glass painting Feb 6 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Grown Up Book Fair Feb 6 - Chubby Cheeks Meadery, Temecula, CA - Halo Mega Bowl LAN party Feb 8 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic Jam with Mike Rocke Feb 8 - Drinking Horn Meadery, Flagstaff, AZ - Beeswa Candle Making Valentine Workshop Feb 13 - Starrlight Meadery at the Honeysuckle Tea House, Chapel Hill, NC - Valentines Mead Tasting Feb 13 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Make Your Own Mosaic Heart Feb 13 - Hex Meadery, Kaukauna, WI - Anniversary Party Feb 13 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink: Valentine Animal Feb 14 - Bee Immortal Mead, Round Rock, TX - Valentines Mead Workshop Feb 14 - Southern Origin Meadery, Canon, GA - Couples Painting Each Other (Tiktok trend) Feb 18 - Lancashire Mead Company at the Jorvik Viking Centre, York, UK - Mead Tasting event Feb 19 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sepulpa, OK - Fiber Crafting Feb 21 - Monks Meadery, Atlanta, GA - Exhibition Armored Combat Feb 28 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Anatomy of a Killer: When Doctors Become Predators Mar 20-21 Valkyrie’s Horn Mead Competition, Minneapolis, MN - entries open! Mar 28 - Zymarium Meadery, Orlando, FL - Bonsai and Cheers with L&J Nursery Mar 28 - Folklore Brewing and Meadery, Dothan, AL - Dothan Songwriters Festival April 11 - Mershon’s Artisan Cider, Stoughton, WI - Wisconsin Cider and Mead Festival You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

1-27-26 Tonight we’re talking with Ryan Carlson again. He had a lot of information, and we just ran out of time last time! Ryan is a Colorado mead maker who has been making mead for quite a while. Those of you who have listened to the early GML episodes may remember him. He has been quiet publicly  for a few years, dealing with personal things, but during that quiet time, he’s also been doing a lot of learning and experimentation to deepen his mead making expertise. I'll just let Ryan tell you himself: Hi, my name is Ryan. Some of you will know me from the mead world going back a long way. Some of you won’t know me at all — and that’s just fine. I was very active in mead for many years, right up until around 2020. Then life hit hard. Multiple things at once. Survival mode. For about five years I was mostly just circling the drain and trying to stay upright. Things are finally closer to normal now, and I guess you could say I’m back in the saddle. I’ve been a successful meadmaker for a long time. I’m a certified judge. I’ve taught hundreds of people — maybe more — how to make good mead. I love teaching, but I’m picky about it. I only teach what I’ve lived. I only teach what I can prove. If someone wants receipts, I can bury Mount Rushmore with them. I also teach mead in a way most people have never experienced. From here forward, I’ll be approaching things a little differently. We’re going to “get small.” We’re going to pretend we’re a single-celled yeast and jump down inside Mead City. We’ll look at fermentation from the inside of the vessel outward and change our perspective completely. Mead is going to do what mead does. Yeast is going to do what yeast does. When we actually understand the science and biology, our job isn’t control — it’s assistance. We learn when the window opens, and when it does, we can hand the yeast exactly what they need so they can do the job they were already built to do. Most of the time, when people don’t understand what’s happening, they get in the way. They step on the yeast without realizing it. They try to force outcomes that biology simply doesn’t allow, and they miss the chance to co-create. My goal is to help raise everyone’s bar by changing perspective first, then layering in real science and real biology — not folklore, not wives’ tales, and not parroted bad science. If you want to understand mead well enough that you don’t have to beg for recipes anymore — recipes that often produce mediocre results at best — then this is a good place to sit down with us and learn the craft the way it’s actually lived. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Feb 10 - Roger Wanner - W A Meadwerks - New York Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Jan 29 - Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Live Music by Bozeman Area String Jams Jan 29 - Bardic Wells Medery, Montague, MI - Henna Party by Bohemian Awakenings Jan 29 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sepulpa, OK - Karaoke Night Jan 30 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink: First Snowflake Jan 31 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - Barefoot Music party Feb 5 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Trivia Night Feb 6 - Red’s on 7th, Delavan, WI - Meads and Masterpiece - mead tasting and wine glass painting Feb 6 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Grown Up Book Fair Feb 6 - Chubby Cheeks Meadery, Temecula, CA - Halo Mega Bowl LAN party Feb 8 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic Jam with Mike Rocke Feb 8 - Drinking Horn Meadery, Flagstaff, AZ - Beeswa Candle Making Valentine Workshop Feb 13 - Starrlight Meadery at the Honeysuckle Tea House, Chapel Hill, NC - Valentines Mead Tasting Feb 13 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Make Your Own Mosaic Heart Feb 13 - Hex Meadery, Kaukauna, WI - Anniversary Party Feb 13 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink: Valentine Animal Feb 14 - Bee Immortal Mead, Round Rock, TX - Valentines Mead Workshop Feb 14 - Southern Origin Meadery, Canon, GA - Couples Painting Each Other (Tiktok trend) Feb 18 - Lancashire Mead Company at the Jorvik Viking Centre, York, UK - Mead Tasting event Feb 19 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sepulpa, OK - Fiber Crafting Feb 21 - Monks Meadery, Atlanta, GA - Exhibition Armored Combat Feb 28 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Anatomy of a Killer: When Doctors Become Predators Mar 20-21 Valkyrie’s Horn Mead Competition, Minneapolis, MN - entries open! Mar 28 - Zymarium Meadery, Orlando, FL - Bonsai and Cheers with L&J Nursery Mar 28 - Folklore Brewing and Meadery, Dothan, AL - Dothan Songwriters Festival April 11 - Mershon’s Artisan Cider, Stoughton, WI - Wisconsin Cider and Mead Festival You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

1-13-26 Tonight we’re talking with Ryan Carlson. Ryan is a Colorado mead maker who has been making mead for quite a while. Those of you who have listened to the early GML episodes may remember him. He has been quiet publicly  for a few years, dealing with personal things, but during that quiet time, he’s also been doing a lot of learning and experimentation to deepen his mead making expertise. I'll just let Ryan tell you himself: Hi, my name is Ryan. Some of you will know me from the mead world going back a long way. Some of you won’t know me at all — and that’s just fine. I was very active in mead for many years, right up until around 2020. Then life hit hard. Multiple things at once. Survival mode. For about five years I was mostly just circling the drain and trying to stay upright. Things are finally closer to normal now, and I guess you could say I’m back in the saddle. I’ve been a successful meadmaker for a long time. I’m a certified judge. I’ve taught hundreds of people — maybe more — how to make good mead. I love teaching, but I’m picky about it. I only teach what I’ve lived. I only teach what I can prove. If someone wants receipts, I can bury Mount Rushmore with them. I also teach mead in a way most people have never experienced. From here forward, I’ll be approaching things a little differently. We’re going to “get small.” We’re going to pretend we’re a single-celled yeast and jump down inside Mead City. We’ll look at fermentation from the inside of the vessel outward and change our perspective completely. Mead is going to do what mead does. Yeast is going to do what yeast does. When we actually understand the science and biology, our job isn’t control — it’s assistance. We learn when the window opens, and when it does, we can hand the yeast exactly what they need so they can do the job they were already built to do. Most of the time, when people don’t understand what’s happening, they get in the way. They step on the yeast without realizing it. They try to force outcomes that biology simply doesn’t allow, and they miss the chance to co-create. My goal is to help raise everyone’s bar by changing perspective first, then layering in real science and real biology — not folklore, not wives’ tales, and not parroted bad science. If you want to understand mead well enough that you don’t have to beg for recipes anymore — recipes that often produce mediocre results at best — then this is a good place to sit down with us and learn the craft the way it’s actually lived. OPEN-TOP FERMENTATION — HISTORICAL RECEIPTS & DEEP DIVES JIAHU — Neolithic China (~7000 BCE) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-chinese-used-fermented-beverages-180964191/ https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0407921102 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiahu GODIN TEPE — Ancient Near East (~3500–3000 BCE) https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0507742102 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godin_Tepe ROMAN FERMENTATION — POMPEII & DOLIA https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/winemaking.html https://www.britannica.com/topic/dolium https://www.pompeii-sites.org/en/ MEDIEVAL & MONASTIC FERMENTATION https://www.medievalists.net/2014/10/medieval-brewing-ale/ https://www.britannica.com/topic/monasticism/Brewing-and-winemaking GENERAL FERMENTATION ARCHAEOLOGY https://www.penn.museum/sites/biomoleculararchaeology/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/ancient-alcohol-drinking-history To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Feb 10 - Roger Wanner - W A Meadwerks - New York Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Jan 15 - Pinesmoke Bee Company, Eustis, FL - Monthly Mead Up - gathering for home mead makers Jan 17 - Slash-O-Meadery, Nacodoches, TX - Bonfire and Mead Jan 18 - Michigan Mead Coalition at Cadillac Straits Brewing Company, Madison Heights, MI - Beginning Mead Making Class Jan 22- Nucleus Mead, Linesville, PA - Mead and Read Jan 23 - MeadKrieger Meadery, Loveland, CO - 3 Year Anniversary Party Jan 24 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Zoe Vox live music Jan 24 - Hive Five Meadery, Kingman, AZ - Music and Mead with The Park Rangers Jan 26 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Yoga, Mead and Pancakes Jan 31 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - Barefoot Music party Feb 6 - Red’s on 7th, Delavan, WI - Meads and Masterpiece - mead tasting and wine glass painting Feb 13 - Starrlight Meadery at the Honeysuckle Tea House, Chapel Hill, NC - Valentines Mead Tasting Feb 14 - Bee Immortal Mead, Round Rock, TX - Valentines Mead Workshop Feb 18 - Lancashire Mead Company at the Jorvik Viking Centre, York, UK - Mead Tasting event Feb 28 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Anatomy of a Killer: When Doctors Become Predators Mar 20-21 Valkyrie’s Horn Mead Competition, Minneapolis, MN - entries open! April 11 - Mershon’s Artisan Cider, Stoughton, WI - Wisconsin Cider and Mead Festival You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

12-2-25 Tonight we're talking with Matt and Lauren Bloom, owners and meadmakers at Bløm Mead and Cider in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan. Bløm Meadworks (pronounced “bloom”), makes modern ciders and session meads – they’re light, dry, carbonated, and remarkably sessionable. For their meads, they start with the same ingredients as a traditional mead - honey, water and yeast - which means they can source all of our ingredients from Michigan. They ferment it like a dry craft cider, so the result isn’t nearly as thick or sweet as traditional mead. So, if the word “mead” automatically conjures a drinking hall filled with Vikings for you, think of theirs as its friendly, approachable descendants, without the pillage and plunder. After years in the nonprofit sector, Lauren realized that what had become her hobby and outside-of-work stress reliever was actually the thing that she cared about most – food. And more specifically, local food production. Soon after, she joined the board of Slow Food Chicago, an organization that advocates for the value and pleasure of good food for all. A few years later, Lauren and Matt moved to Ann Arbor, looking to put down roots in their home state and open Bløm - a business that would allow them to create sessionable brews and highlight some of the mouth-watering ingredients grown in Michigan. Matt started his professional life as a financial geek. Turned out it was far more exciting to apply those geeky skills to brewing chemistry than options software. He kicked off this new career as a home brewer in Chicago and was lucky enough to have two friends who were passionate enough to start a brewery with him. While owner and head brewer for Begyle Brewing, Matt sadly learned that he was among the unfortunate crew that can't process gluten - his love affair with beer had come to an abrupt end. Hooked on the creative fermentation process, and always intrigued by the quirky possibilities for mead and cider, Matt found Bløm to be the perfect love child of what he enjoys making and drinking. Join us to see what Lauren and Matt are doing with their meads and ciders! Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows We are done for 2025. We return January 13, 2026. Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Dec 4 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sepulpa, OK - Trivia Night Dec 4 - Adesanya Mead & Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - Trivia night Dec 5 - Nate and Jake's Meadery, Edmore, MI - Locked In live music Dec 5-7 St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Bee Merry Weekend Holiday Festival Dec 6 - Slaymaker Cellars, Idaho Springs, CO - Meadery Tour with tasting Dec 6 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Ornamentpalooza - make your own angel ornaments Dec 7 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Sunday Brunch Dec 9 - The Old Lifeboat House, Penzance, UK - Meadery and Medium - book ahead Dec 12 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink Dec 13 - Wandering Wind Meadery, Charleston, WV - Christmas at the Meadery Dec 13 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barefoot live music Dec 13 - Nate and Jake's Meadery, Edmore, MI - Comedy Night Dec 13 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Pressed Flower Cardinal Paint and Sip class Dec 13 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Pictures with Krampus Dec 17 - Washtenaw Food Hub, Ann Arbor, MI - Community Mead Making w/ Rachel Kanaan Dec 20 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary and Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Dec 20-21 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Yule Market Dec 21 - Meduseld Meadery, Lancaster, PA - Meadery Dance Dec 26 - Windchaser Meadery, Williamsburg, VA - Comedy Night Dec 27 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Tom Borek and Veronica Mary Agnes live music Dec 31 - Ironsword Meadery, Ridge Spring, SC - New Year's Eve celebration You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

11-4-25 Tonight we’re talking with Bill Bellair, founder of the Michigan Mead Coalition. We’re going to talk about mead in competition. Bill Bellair began his mead-making journey in 2008 when his mother expressed interest in trying tej, a traditional Ethiopian honey wine, which was unavailable locally. His early attempts—while not without the occasional "bottle bomb"—yielded surprisingly delicious results. Following this, Bill turned his attention to beer brewing, and it would be several years before he returned to crafting mead. During this time, he joined the Metro Enologist 'n' Zymurgist (MENZ) club, where he expanded his skills in winemaking. This experience gave him valuable insight into the mistakes he had made in his early mead-making efforts, reigniting his passion for the craft. This marked the beginning of a dedicated era of mead production that continues to this day. In 2019, Bill founded the Michigan Mead Coalition, the state's largest mead-exclusive organization. The coalition has fostered a thriving community of skilled brewers, many of whom have earned prestigious awards and even pursued the coveted title of Mead Maker of the Year. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows November 18 - Blair Houseley - Etowah Meadery December 2 - Blöm Meadworks Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Nov 7 - Funktastic Meads and Beer, Midlothian, VA - Mead and Music by Damian Allen Nov 7 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Open Mic Night Comedy Nov 8 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Mead and Cheese Pairing with the Cheese Lady Nov 8 - UNL Bee Lab & Kimmel Orchard, Nebraska City, NE - Mead Making Workshop Nov 8 - Stardust Cellars, Wilkesboro, NC - Mead Making Course Nov 8 - Stardust Cellars, Wilkesboro, NC - Harvest Mead Fest Nov 8 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Potions, Poisons and Snake Oil Nov 9 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Sunday Brunch Nov 13 - Silver Hand Meadery, Williamsburg, VA - 10th Anniversary Dinner Series - Mead Pairing Dinner Nov 15 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Mead and Cheese with the Cheese Lady Nov 18 - WTF What to Ferment Meadery, Milford, DE - Mead and Cookie Pairing Nov 20 - Nucleus Mead, Linesville, PA - Mead and Read Nov 22 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Mead and Meditation Nov 22 - Dawg Gone Bees Meadery & Apiary, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Nov 22 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Tom Borek and Veronica Mary Agnes Musician live music You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

10-21-25 Tonight we're chatting with Brian Bookmiller, co-founder and meadmaker at Queen City Meadery in Buffalo, NY. They been making mead since 2018. Brian Bookmiller is a driving force behind Queen City Meadery, serving as both co-founder and mead maker. His passion for craft fermentation began as a hobby shared with lifelong friends, eventually evolving into a full-fledged business. Bookmiller’s leadership has helped shape the meadery’s identity as a community-focused, artisanal producer of honey-based beverages. In 2023, Queen City Meadery announced a major expansion at its current location, signaling strong growth and continued commitment to the Western New York region. The meadery’s presence has become a cultural touchstone in West Seneca, offering educational tours, tastings, and events. Queen City Meadery has won numerous awards for their meads and continues to create new unique flavors for all to enjoy! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/zEKNujQTtM Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows November 18 - Blair Houseley - Etowah Meadery December 2 - Blöm Meadworks Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Oct 24 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Dags Und Timmah Live Music Oct 25-26 - St. Louis Renaissance Festival - Mead-evil Tasting - get 4 mead samples, mead tasting flask and entertainment (must buy faire ticket separately) Oct 25 - Beeserker Meadery, Lexington, KY - Monsters & Mead: A Night of Adventure, Ale, and Mayhem at Chaotic Good Oct 25 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Andy Six live music Oct 26 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Seaford, DE - Sips and Succulents - create your own terrarium Oct 31 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Luke Woltanski live music Nov 1 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Adult Book Fair Nov 1 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Mischief Halloween Party Nov 1 - Brown County Historical Society and Hazelwood Historic House, Green Bay, WI - Historic Skills Workshop: Learn to make Wine and Mead Nov 7 - Funktastic Meads and Beer, Midlothian, VA - Mead and Music by Damian Allen Nov 7 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Open Mic Night Comedy Nov 8 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Mead and Cheese Pairing with the Cheese Lady Nov 8 - UNL Bee Lab & Kimmel Orchard, Nebraska City, NE - Mead Making Workshop Nov 8 - Stardust Cellars, Wilkesboro, NC - Mead Making Course Nov 8 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Potions, Poisons and Snake Oil Nov 9 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Sunday Brunch Nov 18 - WTF What to Ferment Meadery, Milford, DE - Mead and Cookie Pairing You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

10-7-25 Tonight we're talking meadmaking with Bill Bellair and Rob Barnhart. Both are experienced meadmakers that create excellent meads. And both have taken their share of awards at competitions. Bill Bellair began his mead-making journey in 2008 when his mother expressed interest in trying tej, a traditional Ethiopian honey wine, which was unavailable locally. His early attempts—while not without the occasional "bottle bomb"—yielded surprisingly delicious results. Following this, Bill turned his attention to beer brewing, and it would be several years before he returned to crafting mead. During this time, he joined the Metro Enologist 'n' Zymurgist (MENZ) club, where he expanded his skills in winemaking. This experience gave him valuable insight into the mistakes he had made in his early mead-making efforts, reigniting his passion for the craft. This marked the beginning of a dedicated era of mead production that continues to this day. In 2019, Bill founded the Michigan Mead Coalition, the state's largest mead-exclusive organization. The coalition has fostered a thriving community of skilled brewers, many of whom have earned prestigious awards and even pursued the coveted title of Mead Maker of the Year. Rob Barnhart has been making mead since 2018. He started making mead January of 2018 because he doesn't like beer. He was playing Skyrim a lot and looked it up on YouTube. Down the rabbit hole he went. Soon after he found Gotmead and Modern Mead Makers. He then talked Vicky into meeting him at St Ambrose and Vicky and Kirk told Rob to enter comps. He didn’t do too badly. So far he has 25 medals but still haven’t gotten the coveted best in show. 😥. He also hasn’t had HOD yet. Rob retired early from the military and the Post Office and now he just hangs out in his inner city garden paradise and makes mead. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4PEnAumq Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows October 21 - Brian Bookmiller - Queen City Meadery November 18 - Blair Houseley - Etowah Meadery December 2 - Blöm Meadworks Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Oct 8 - Kalamazoo Bee Club, Portage, MI - Mead Making Class Oct 10 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Fred & Smed Live music Oct 11 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Craft Class: Create a Cauldron Oct 11 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Euchre Tournament Oct 11 - Michigan Mead Cup, Brighton, MI - Competition Oct 11-12 - St. Louis Renaissance Festival, Wentzville, MO - Mead flights Oct 11 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Oktoberfest Oct 11 - Premier Prairie Gardens, Spring Hill, KS - Mead Making Class Oct 12 - Skäl Beer Hall, Seattle, WA - Fall Mead Festival with 9 meaderies pouring Oct 16 - Nucleus Mead, Linesville, PA - Mead and Read Oct 17 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Stephen King Trivia Nov 18 - WTF What to Ferment Meadery, Milford, DE - Mead and Cookie Pairing Oct 24 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Dags Und Timmah Live Music Oct 25 - Beeserker Meadery, Lexington, KY - Monsters & Mead: A Night of Adventure, Ale, and Mayhem at Chaotic Good Nov 1 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Adult Book Fair Nov 1 - Brown County Historical Society and Hazelwood Historic House, Green Bay, WI - Historic Skills Workshop: Learn to make Wine and Mead Nov 7 - Funktastic Meads and Beer, Midlothian, VA - Mead and Music by Damian Allen Nov 7 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Open Mic Night Comedy Nov 8 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Mead and Cheese Pairing with the Cheese Lady You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

9-9-25 Tonight we're talking with Kris and Karen Pruitt with Kold Prairie Mead in Elizabeth, Colorado. They opened their meadery in 2022 and have been out there kicking it! Kristopher Pruitt’s journey into meadmaking began in 2017 with an initial desire to become a beekeeper. Within a short time, his curiosity led him to explore mead, and on Thanksgiving Day that year, he and his wife, Karen, brewed their first experimental batches. Those early efforts quickly earned recognition, beginning with the Mead Free or Die competition and eventually included two Mazer Cups, Best of Show at the Domras Cup, and multiple medals at the Mead Madness Cup in Poland, to name a few of their homebrew accomplishments. In 2022, the Pruitts founded Kold Prairie Mead in Elizabeth, Colorado. The meadery officially launched in 2025, with Kris stepping into the role full-time. Together, they also run 2BeeKPers, their small honey business. Both ventures reflect their shared passion for beekeeping, craftsmanship, and community engagement. Kold Prairie Mead has steadily grown its presence through festivals, tasting events, and partnerships with select liquor stores and brew pubs. Certified through both the MJP and BJCP programs, Kris has judged and competed in mead competitions across the U.S. and internationally, including serving as Best of Show judge for the 2023 Mead Madness Cup commercial division. Driven by a love for craftsmanship and community, Kris values the camaraderie of judging and the shared knowledge that connects meadmakers worldwide. When not immersed in mead, Kris and Karen enjoy traveling—whether discovering new experiences in Europe or exploring closer to home in their 5th-wheel camper—and caring for the bees, chickens, and cats on their property. Join us to talk with Kris and Karen! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4PEnAumq Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Sept 10 - Savannah Bee Company, Greenville, SC - Mead and Trivia Sept 11 - KingView Meadery, Pittsburgh, PA - Paz and Ukulele Eddie live music Sept 12 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Seaford, DE - Mead n D&D Sept 13 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barn Dance 2025 Sept 13 - The Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Artist Market Sept 13 - Bumbling Fools Mead, Minneapolis, MN - Play Dungeons & Dragons: A Fundraiser for Six Elements Sept 13 - Oregon Honey and Mead Festival, Medford, OR - Event by Cascade Girl Organization and Oregon Honey Festival at Eden Valley Orchards and Winery Sept 13-14 - St. Louis Renaissance Festival, Wentzville, MO - Ticket includes 4 samples of mead, a mead flask and entertainment (festival admission separate) Sept 14 - Furrows to Fences, Fond du Lac, WI - From Hive to Glass: Mead Making Basics Sept 18 - KingView Mead, Pittsburgh, PA - The Honey Earners live music Sept 20 - Texas Mead Fest, New Braunfels, TX - enjoy 8 tasting tickets and a keepsake glass. Sept 20 - Andrews VFW Post 7620, Andrews, NC - Medicinal Mead Class from Gigi is from Nantahala and the Murphy Area Farm and Homestead Bartering group Sept 27 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Mead Fest 2025 with CLAWS Oct 4 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Viking Festival - Mead on Main Oct 4-5 - House on Willow, Adamstown, PA - Mead, Magic and Mystery Oct 11 - Michigan Mead Cup, Brighton, MI - Competition Oct 11 - Premier Prairie Gardens, Spring Hill, KS - Mead Making Class You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

8-26-25 Tonight we're talking with Brian Green, owner of Centeur Imports in New Hampshire. Brian is bringing meads from Europe to the United States, and even has a direct online sales platform for people to get these meads shipped to them. During a long career as a professor of sociology, Brian spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe traveling and doing research.  While there, he discovered incredible Polish, Czech and Slovakian meads.  In 2013, together with his wife Jana, Brian founded Centeur Imports to import wine and mead from Central Europe.  They quickly found that mead was their best selling product.  After learning all the ropes about how to handle import logistics and national U.S. distribution, Centeur Imports is thriving as a company and currently selling mead around the USA and online.  Their company goal is to be the premiere importer of mead for the U.S. market. After establishing the company in 2013 as a family-owned-and-operated business, Brian and Jana have steadily increased the number of wines and mead imported, distributing both locally in New Hampshire and nationally.  Today, they offer wines and mead from across Europe and are working hard to expand our product line to include a wide range of rare and award- winning wines from the best producers. Come and hear what Brian is up to and what meads he's planning to bring into the States! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4PEnAumq Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Aug 28 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Mini X2 - paint minis Aug 29 - Wandering Wind Meadery, Charleston, WV - Karaoke & Mead Aug 30 - MoonJoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfullness Sept 5 - White Winter Mead, Iron River, WI - Mead Mile race Sept 5 - pHunkadelic, Farmville, VA - Let's Talk Mead! Sept 5 - Marlobobo Mead, Leuven, Belgium - Mead Madness Sept 6 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead Learn Thngs - Victorian Potions and Poisons Sept 6 - The Bee Store, Lake Ridge, VA - Mead tasting with meads fro Negus Winery Sept 13 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barn Dance 2025 Sept 13 - The Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Artist Market Sept 13-14 - St. Louis Renaissance Festival, Wentzville, MO - Ticket includes 4 samples of mead, a mead flask and entertainment (festival admission separate) Sept 14 - Furrows to Fences, Fond du Lac, WI - From Hive to Glass: Mead Making Basics Sept 20 - Texas Mead Fest, New Braunfels, TX - enjoy 8 tasting tickets and a keepsake glass. Sept 27 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Mead Fest 2025 Oct 11 - Michigan Mead Cup, Brighton, MI - Competition Oct 11 - Premier Prairie Gardens, Spring Hill, KS - Mead Making Class You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

8-12-25 Tonight we're talking with Matthew Mead, a home meadmaker who has burned up the competitions over the last couple years with his excellent mead. He has set out to win in competitions in every US state. And so far he's doing really well! Matthew been making mead since around 2017, he got into making meads when a local friend who was opening up his own meadery told him with his last name he needed to start making mead. He started entering his meads into competitions to get better feedback on them and from there he joined Modern Mead Makers on Facebook to learn how to make better meads. His first mead wins were the Texas Mead cup around 2018 and that got him hooked into competitive homebrewing which eventually led him into judging.Matthew is one of the few BJCP Beer, Mead and Cider Judges. He is well known for his excellent cherry meads using local fruit and honey. Matt has a wife and two kids, his daughter is 18 and about to go to college, and his son is almost 13. They put up with his homebrewing mess around the house for the most part but they do love his wins and celebrate dad when he wins. Sometimes he talks them into tagging along with him to pick fruit or go to his competition / judging weekends. Matthew is a member of a couple Michigan Homebrew clubs: PrimeTime Brewers, Keepers of Kraft, Michigan Mead Coalition. He is also a member of the Master Homebrewer Program with a rank of Grandmaster V, with Master of Mead, Cidermaster, Golden Gavel and Jack of all Trades awards. Matt has multiple best of show wins over the years for Beers, Meads and Ciders at various US competitions. Last year he managed four Mazer cups wins, which was a personal best for him. He has won medals at Mead Madness in Poland twice. He haswon medals in both Canada and Mexico mead competitions. He usually finishes in the Top 5 for meadmaker of the year. Matt is not listed this year because hedid not renew my membership. Matthew's goal last year was to win a medal in every state that offered a homebrew competition. He managed to complete that early this year with a win in South Carolina.  If there are any homebrew competitions in DL, HI, ME, MS, MT, SD, WV let Matt know. His latest big win was that he won Amateur Grand Champion at the Indiana State Fair for winning a Silver in Weissbier, a gold in Traditional Mead, a gold in Fruit Mead, a gold Perry and a Silver for Indiana made cider. He took 3rd for Best of Show Mead/Cider as well. Join us to talk mead with Matthew! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4PEnAumq Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Aug 26 - Brian Green - Centeur Imports Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Aug 13 - Hidden Hive, Vista, CA - Cheese and Bees: A Social Cheese & Mead Event Aug 13 - Barcade, Detroit, MI - Mead-Evil Madness! - Costume Party, wear your ren faire garb and win a season pass to the MI Ren Faire! Mead from Nidhoggr Mead Aug 14 - Breeden's Orchard, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead & Meditate - Skeptic Meadery Meads Aug 16 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Aug 16 - Ravenwood Meadery, Huntsville, AL - Mead Experience and Tour Aug 16 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music Aug 16 - DMen Tap, Chicago, IL - Mead Fest 2025 Aug 16 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - 732 the Electric Duo live music Aug 20 - KingView Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Aug 22-23 - Brewery 33, Logan OH - Mead Fest - live music, vendors and merch. Plus maple cinnamon mead and other flavors! Aug 29 - Wandering Wind Meadery, Charleston, WV - Karaoke & Mead Aug 30 - MoonJoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfullness Sept 5 - White Winter Mead, Iron River, WI - Mead Mile race Sept 6 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead Learn Thngs - Victorian Potions and Poisons Sept 13 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barn Dance 2025 You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

7-29-25 Tonight we're talking with Corey Mason, owner and meadmaker at TreeHive Meadery in Brocton, Illinois. Corey was introduced to mead in 2012. IHe started picking up bottles for a friend when he went on trips. He finally found one he liked. It was a Polish mead, and he picked up several other meads.  After that he went down the rabbit hole of mead and never looked back. He  would get Moonlight Meadery, B. Nektar, Wild Blossom, and Wyldewood Cellars meads there. But that wasn't enough. He found New Day Meadery when he went through Indianapolis. He started ordering from VinoShipper. There were not many to order from back then. Now there are tons of options. Along the way he decided to start making his own mead. His first two batches failed. They tasted good but they didn't ferment. He put everything from the recipe in... he joined all the mead making groups he could find. Started trying out everything that he learned. Basically Lived and Breathed mead all of the time. Obsessed is probably the best way to describe it. Around 2017 Carrie his wife said he needed to stop or make it a business. So Ihesigned up for the Advanced mead making class at UC Davis. While sharing there a wise person told him what he needed to change to make my mead better. He met some truly great individuals there and many of them are award winning mead makers and a lot are professionals now. It still took two more years for things to fall into place. Corey was making mead with the guy who introduced it to him and they entered the Mazer Cup together. They got a gold and a silver. They were trying to get something going together but it fell apart. Around tbis time Corey also decided to try his hand at judging. He stewarded at the Mazer Cup one year then started the process to become a judge. It truly helps you figure out what you're doing. Fast forward and Corey ended up giving the mead meeting for the local homebrew Club in Champaign and while he was there he talked to someone who had a friend with bees and a building. Within a week they decided to start a meadery together. It took over a year to get all of the paperwork right but they did and he started making mead professionally on November 5th, 2020. So almost 5 years but it seems like yesterday. Corey has lots of respect for all that have come before him and all of the knowledge that was shared with him and others along the way. He has over 500 bottles of other meaderies meads in his cellar. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours.   To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Aug 12 - Matthew Mead Aug 26 - Brian Green - Centeur Imports Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events July 30 - Hidden Hive, Vista, CA - Cheese and Bees: A Social Cheese & Mead Event July 30 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Improv July 31 - Breedens Orchard, Juliet, TN - Mead and Meditate - Skeptic Meadery Meads Aug 1 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Summer Comedy Showcase Aug 2 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - National Mead Day! Aug 2 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - gonesouth live music Aug 2 - Heidleberg Meadworks, Esperance, NY - 2025 Mead Weekend Aug 2 - Funktastic Meads and Beer, Midlothian, VA - Mead Day Aug 2 - Scotzin Brothers, Lemoyne, PA - Mead Day Aug 2 - Brothers Drake Meadery, Columbus, OH - Mead Day Aug 2 - WA Meadworks, Lindenhurst, NY - Mead Day Aug 2 - Alternative Beverage, Belmont, NC - Mead Day Aug 2 - Metsiederei Eckert, Zofingin, Switzerland - Mead Day Aug 2 - Viking Alchemist, Smyrna, GA - Mead Day Aug 2 - Honeygirl Meadery, Durham, NC - Mead Day Aug 3 - Fae Nectar, Lake Lure, NC - Mead & Mischief D&D Night Aug 6 - Kingview Meadery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Aug 6 - Hidden Hive, Vista, CA - Cheese and Bees: A Social Cheese & Mead Event Aug 9 - Four Fires Meadery, Maumee, OH - Make Your Own Mead - Hands On Fermentation Workshop Aug 9 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Discord and Rhyme live music Aug 9 - Four Fires Meadery, Maumee, OH - Make Your First Mead - A Hands On Fermentation Workshop Aug 10 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Alpacapalooza! with Northern Alpacas Aug 13 - Hidden Hive, Vista, CA - Cheese and Bees: A Social Cheese & Mead Event Aug 14 - Breeden's Orchard, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead & Meditate - Skeptic Meadery Meads Aug 16 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Aug 16 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music Aug 16 - DMen Tap, Chicago, IL - Mead Fest 2025 Sept 13 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barn Dance 2025 You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

7-15-25 Tonight at 9PM ET we'll be talking with Tom Repas. Tom has been on the show before, and we're having him back, as he's an absolute fountain of information! And he makes 'ok' mead. We're going to delve into the bees and their care. What you may not be aware of is that 3 years ago, Tom started making his 'ok' meads professionally. Apiflora Mead, made and available at Zymurcracy Beer Company in Rapid City, South Dakota. Tom is a Master Beekeeper and owner of Canyon Rim Honey Bees, providing bees and honey in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Tom speaks on beekeeping all over the country, and has presented several times at the AMMA MeadCon on both beekeeping and meadmaking. Tom has won a large number of awards for his mead as well. Tom is a 4th generation beekeeper, and has been working with bees since he was a kid. He kept bees and sold the honey for extra money in high school. He went into professional beekeeping while he was still active as a medical doctor, and has developed a cross for bees that are gentle, overwinter well, and are mite resistant. On the mead side of things, Tom is a very talented mead maker who consistently wins medals with his meads, and has a skill for thinking outside the box for flavor profiles. His mushroom mead was the talk of the mead community for some time when he brought it out to taste. I got to try it, I was stunned at how good it was. Of course, Tom uses his own honey, as well as honeys from other providers and areas, and they're all good! Tom says his meads are 'ok'. We think they're better than that, lol. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Sponsor: From July 23-August 2, 2025, take a magical meadery tour, and step into the heart of Central Europe on a journey that blends history, culture, and craft in three remarkable capitals — Prague, Bratislava, and Warsaw. Explore vibrant cityscapes and quiet countryside, from medieval old towns and historic abbeys to family-run meaderies and world-renowned breweries. You will visit the Mead Museum in Prague, Strahov Monastery Brewery, Pilsner Urquell Brewery, Apimed Mead, Branislav Novosedlík Mead, Richtár Jakub Brewery, Pasieka Jaros Mead, Corpo Mead, and Apis Mead. This tour is limited to 25 people, reserve your spot now at europeandiscoveriesllc.com/tours/250723cmm  If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows July 29 - Corey Mason - Treehive Meadery Aug 12 - Matthew Mead Aug 26 - Brian Green - Centeur Imports Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events July 16 - Kingview Meadery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night July 16 - Hidden Hive Meadery, Vista, CA - Cheese & Bees: A Social Cheese and Mead Event July 17 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Blair Miller live music July 18 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Comedy Summer Showcase July 19 - Four Brothers Meadery, Festus, MO - Femme Fatales live music July 19 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class July 19 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Tim Krause & the Downtowners live music July 20 - White Winter Meadery & Winery, Iron River, WI - WPR Music Bingo July 20 - Thistlerock Mead Company, Charlottesville, VA - Kinnfolk live music July 21 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Marketplace July 23 - Hidden Hive Meadery, Vista, CA - Cheese and Bees: A Social Cheese and Mead Event July 24 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Thursday South Hills Group Run July 26 - Four Brothers Meadery, Festus, MO - CheriBomb live music July 26 - Moonjoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfulness July 26 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - CLAWS Bird Rescue visiting July 26 - Drunken Smithy, Lebanon, PA - Forged Viking Mead Fest July 28 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honeybee Marketplace July 31 - Breedens Orchard, Juliet, TN - Mead and Meditate - Skeptic Meadery Meads Aug 1 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Summer Comedy Showcase Aug 2 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - National Mead Day! Aug 2 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - gonesouth live music Aug 2 - Heidleberg Meadworks, Esperance, NY - 2025 Mead Weekend Aug 2 - Funktastic Meads and Beer, Midlothian, VA - Mead Day Aug 2 - WA Meadworks, Lindenhurst, NY - Mead Day Aug 2 - Alternative Beverage, Belmont, NC - Mead Day Aug 2 - Metsiederei Eckert, Zofingin, Switzerland - Mead Day Aug 2 - Viking Alchemist, Smyrna, GA - Mead Day Aug 2 - Honeygirl Meadery, Durham, NC - Mead Day Aug 6 - Kingview Meadery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Aug 9 - Four Fires Meadery, Maumee, OH - Make Your Own Mead - Hands On Fermentation Workshop Aug 9 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Discord and Rhyme live music Aug 10 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Alpacapalooza! with Northern Alpacas Aug 14 - Breeden's Orchard, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead & Meditate - Skeptic Meadery Meads You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

June 17, 2025 - Tonight we’re talking with Adrian Beebe, owner of Cloud City Mead in Leadville, Colorado, and is the highest meadery in the country at over 10,000 feet. Adrian is making mainly session meads, and doing it well. Adrian has been homebrewing beer & mead since 2009. Volunteering at various homebrew competitions and beer festivals, he became a certified beer judge in 2015 and got a job brewing at a brewpub in the small mining town of Leadville, Colorado where, in 2022, he opened the world's highest meadery, located dead center of CO at an elevation of over 10,000 feet. Cloud City employs modern methods for production, often borrowed from beer brewing, to create unique and distinctive flavors. Life is sweet at 10,000 feet. Adrian is going to be getting into his use of kveik yeast in commercial mead, as well as sours, hopped meads and more! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Sponsor: From July 23-August 2, 2025, take a magical meadery tour, and step into the heart of Central Europe on a journey that blends history, culture, and craft in three remarkable capitals — Prague, Bratislava, and Warsaw. Explore vibrant cityscapes and quiet countryside, from medieval old towns and historic abbeys to family-run meaderies and world-renowned breweries. You will visit the Mead Museum in Prague, Strahov Monastery Brewery, Pilsner Urquell Brewery, Apimed Mead, Branislav Novosedlík Mead, Richtár Jakub Brewery, Pasieka Jaros Mead, Corpo Mead, and Apis Mead. This tour is limited to 25 people, reserve your spot now at europeandiscoveriesllc.com/tours/250723cmm  If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows TBA Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events June 18 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, VA - Trivia Night June 21 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Mead and Meditation June 21 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Spirit Faerie Jar Workshop June 21 - Dawg Gone Bees Meadery & Apiary, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class June 21 - Ravenwood Meadery, Huntsville, AL - Meadery tour and tasting flight June 21 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music June 26 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - Disney Trivia Night June 29 - Ironstone Meadery, Erie, PA - Mead and Draft Gaming night July 2 - Kingview Meadery, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night July 6 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Mead, Music and Merchants July 9 - Tree Trust, Centre Wellington, Ontario, CN - Mead and Meander forest walk You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

6-3-25 Tonight we‘re talking with Peter Taylor, founder and meadmaker at Niddhoggr Mead in the UK. Peter Taylor is the owner and founder of the Multi Award winning Nidhoggr Mead Co. based in the UK. His mead is has won the Mazer cup and Mead Madness cup several times and has a total of 11 medals across his 7 flavours. All his mead is made using 100% honey and natural ingredients and he now has a 12,000 sqft factory and 20 staff in York in the UK. In the heart of York, Nidhoggr Mead Co. has revived the ancient art of mead-making. Founded in 2020 by Peter Taylor, a Viking reenactor, the company began as a hobby in his girlfriend Ellie’s spare bedroom before transforming into a thriving business. The breakthrough came when the Jorvik Viking Centre sampled the mead and asked if Peter was selling it. Their interest motivated him to start up a company producing mead commercially alongside his girlfriend (now his wife) and close friends John Bardwell and Severin Gammon. Soon, Peter and Ellie’s home was filled with fermenting batches — even their bathtub being used to melt raw honey. Due to demand, the company moved from Acomb to a 4,000-square-foot facility in Pocklington. Nidhoggr mead, made with 100% pure honey, mineral water, and yeast, gained a reputation for their smooth, refreshing taste. Their ambition took Nidhoggr to America, securing £2 million in deals across 14 states, including distribution at medieval fairs and ren fairs. With over 40,000 bottles set for export, the company expanded production further to meet demand. Their dedication to quality has earned accolades, including Drink StartUp of the Year and multiple international medals for their wide range of meads. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Sponsor: From July 23-August 2, 2025, take a magical meadery tour, and step into the heart of Central Europe on a journey that blends history, culture, and craft in three remarkable capitals — Prague, Bratislava, and Warsaw. Explore vibrant cityscapes and quiet countryside, from medieval old towns and historic abbeys to family-run meaderies and world-renowned breweries. You will visit the Mead Museum in Prague, Strahov Monastery Brewery, Pilsner Urquell Brewery, Apimed Mead, Branislav Novosedlík Mead, Richtár Jakub Brewery, Pasieka Jaros Mead, Corpo Mead, and Apis Mead. This tour is limited to 25 people, reserve your spot now at europeandiscoveriesllc.com/tours/250723cmm  If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows   Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events June 4 - Honey & Hops Brew Works, Front Royale, VA - Mead and Cheese pairing June 4 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, VA - Trivia Night Jun 6 - Okatu Detroit, Madison Heights, MI - Sea Shanty Mead Night Jun 6 - Apis Winery and Meadery, Carnegie, PA - Eric Fletcher of Springs and Arrows live music June 6 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Comedy Summer Showcases June 6 - Thistlerock Mead Co., Charlottesville, VA - Kinnfolk live music June 6-8 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Party Like its 793 - Mead, Metal and Viking Festival June 7 - Mountain Run Meadery, Culpepper, VA - Age of the Viking - Viking Mead Festival 2025 featuring 11 meaderies, food, music and artisans June 13 - Cupka's Good Bee Meadery, Auburn, IN - Steven Gallagher live music June 14 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Summerween Market June 18 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, VA - Trivia Night June 21 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Mead and Meditation June 21 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Spirit Faerie Jar Workshop Jun 21 - Dawg Gone Bees Meadery & Apiary, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class June 26 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - Disney Trivia Night You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

5-20-25 Tonight we're hanging out with Joe and Tricia Marshall, owner of Lily Belle Meads in Lancaster, NY. This husband and wife team are kicking it outside Buffalo with their meads! Joe and Tricia's journey into mead was gradual but Tricia definitely led the charge on it.  In 2004 Tricia got Joe a home brewing beer kit for his 26th birthday and got herself a winemaking kit for his 26th birthday!   She made wines, Joe made beers.  Tricia's personal goal was to make a delicious blueberry wine.  She wasn't happy with the results, so she did some research and found that she could replace the white sugar in the wine must with honey.  Well,, that changed everything and she never went back to making wine again.  It was all mead from then on.  Tricia won an amatuer award for one of her meads, that started all this.   Joe was home brewing with a group and they had plans of a brewery but none of them would pull the trigger.  Tricia’s meads were great, but they were standard strength or higher…she wanted to start selling them but Joe just couldn’t see how when it took so long for them to make. Then in 2012 or so she started making some 9-10% abv meads and it got Joe thinking…why couldn’t they make meads that were more like beers along with the honey wine style ones?  From there on in it was a lot of 1 gallon experimental batches for the next 2-3 years as they developed a business plan.  They incorporated in April of 2014. In 2016, Joe and Tricia got their commercial license and started selling at the various farmer's markets.  It was at an indoor Farmer’s Market that they met John and Cathy Cimperman from 42N Brewing Company in nearby East Aurora NY and they asked if Joe and Tricia like to be part of the Full Circle Fest.  That led to another brew festival and from there it was a whirlwind and they opened their tasting room on W, Main St. in Lancaster NY on Sept 23, 2017.  Lancaster is about 20 minutes east of Buffalo NY.  Go Bills! (Go Lions! - Vicky) Lilly Belle was the first meadery in Erie County and was embraced by the local craft beer scene where Joe and Tricia found niched out their place and eventually took their 7-8% session meads down to 5% and that has been a game changer for them.  They use a variety of yeasts, including wine and beer styles, and they are not shy to play around with flavors.  They can turn around session meads in 2-3 weeks and most traditionals and melomels in 2-3 months.  They also do some bochet's and those are 2-3 months as well.  They have expanded their food menu and kitchen operations, added more space and entertainment options in the taproom, they expanded production capacity by 5x and probably the biggest change was how much Mead we package in bottles and cans.  Their initial model was to sell more by the glass in our taproom but that all changed with Covid.  Covid was the biggest obstacle they had no way of predicting.  The world is "back to normal" in many ways but the 2 years of Covid changed customer habits, wants, needs and expectations and they've been evolving to meet all of these ever since.  They've also entered a National Mead Competition the past 2 years and taken 2nd place overall and last year 1st place overall. Tricia started her career at Roswell Park Cancer Institute as a floor nurse, then moved onto Research Nursing, onto Assistant Corporate Compliance Officer then Senior Quality Analyst.  She stepped away in 2015 to put time into growing Lilly Belle Meads, but continued to work part-time jobs.  During the pandemic, she found herself working a med-surg floor at BGH.  Such an eye opening experience to witness how the pandemic rocked the healthcare system.  She spent 2 years full time at the meadery but now finds herself back at Roswell, in a job that is 80% remote thanks to the pandemic.  Joe's current role is Budget Compliance Specialist in the Clinical Trials Office and he loves it!   Joe was a Special Education Preschool Teacher for Gateway-Longview Therapeutic Preschool.  While with Gateway-Longview IJoeworked with countless families, school districts and other professionals and also started the first preschool classrooms in Downtown Buffalo for Gateway-Longview.  This diverse work environment really set him up for the challenges of starting a business by giving him invaluable experience from interacting with so many different people and entities and learning to be flexible, considerate, and also confident in choosing a direction and re-assessing when necessary to ensure the best outcomes for all involved. Join us as we talk mead and meadery running with Joe and Tricia! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Sponsor: From July 23-August 2, 2025, take a magical meadery tour, and step into the heart of Central Europe on a journey that blends history, culture, and craft in three remarkable capitals — Prague, Bratislava, and Warsaw. Explore vibrant cityscapes and quiet countryside, from medieval old towns and historic abbeys to family-run meaderies and world-renowned breweries. You will visit the Mead Museum in Prague, Strahov Monastery Brewery, Pilsner Urquell Brewery, Apimed Mead, Branislav Novosedlík Mead, Richtár Jakub Brewery, Pasieka Jaros Mead, Corpo Mead, and Apis Mead. This tour is limited to 25 people, reserve your spot now at europeandiscoveriesllc.com/tours/250723cmm  If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows May 20 - Joe Marshall - Lily Belle Meads, Buffalo, NY June 3 - Brian Taylor, Nidhoggr Mead Co, UK Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events May 21 - Clear Skies Meadery, Washington, DC - Intro to Mead Seminar May 21 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night May 22 - The Skeptic Meadery, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead Making 101 May 22 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Cover 2 Live music May 23 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Dungeons and Dragons Mead Up May 23 - Scuffleville Brewing Company, Collinsville, VA - Manuka Mead release May 23 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - The Electric Duo live music May 23 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Rebekah Jon live music May 25 - Ironstone Meadery, Erie, PA - Draft & Mead - draft packs from Tarkir DragonStorm and Dungeons & Dragons Baldur's Gate Blocks May 26 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Artisans Market May 29 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - Movie Madness Trivia Night May 29 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - LaRose live music May 31 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: The Macabre World of Medieval Medicine June 2 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Artisans Market June 4 - Honey & Hops Brew Works, Front Royale, VA - Mead and Cheese pairing June 4 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, VA - Trivia Night June 6-8 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Party Like its 793 - Mead, Metal and Viking Festival June 7 - Mountain Run Meadery, Culpepper, VA - Age of the Viking - Viking Mead Festival 2025 June 13 - Cupka's Good Bee Meadery, Auburn, IN - Steven Gallagher live music June 18 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, VA - Trivia Night You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com  

5-6-25 - Tonight we’re talking with Alen RadoŠević with Fool Moon Meadery in Romania. Alen makes excellent mead and has a meadery that sells in Romania only (for now). Alen is owner and meadmaker at FoolMoon Transilvania - Romania. Alen is Certified through the Level 2 Mead Judging Program at the European Mead Makers Association. He is also winner of gold and silver medals at the 2025 Mead Madness CUP (MMC). Alen is relatively new to mead, but it hasn’t slowed him down at all. He’s been making mead since 2020, and has a long family tradition of making wine and rakija. Somewhere in 2020, Alen switched from sourdough to mead because he wanted to feed his sourdough with honey. There was a small experimental batch and it grew into passion. Fool Moon opened in 2023, but didn’t go public until 2024, after wending their way through a mess of paperwork in Romania. I got to meet him and sample his mead, and hang out at the Copa Hidromiel 2024 in Mexico City, where he nabbed a couple medals. Join us to talk mead with Alen! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! From July 23-August 2, 2025, take a magical meadery tour, and step into the heart of Central Europe on a journey that blends history, culture, and craft in three remarkable capitals — Prague, Bratislava, and Warsaw. Explore vibrant cityscapes and quiet countryside, from medieval old towns and historic abbeys to family-run meaderies and world-renowned breweries. You will visit the Mead Museum in Prague, Strahov Monastery Brewery, Pilsner Urquell Brewery, Apimed Mead, Branislav Novosedlík Mead, Richtár Jakub Brewery, Pasieka Jaros Mead, Corpo Mead, and Apis Mead. This tour is limited to 25 people, reserve your spot now at europeandiscoveriesllc.com/tours/250723cmm  If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows May 20 - Joe Marshall - Lily Belle Meads, Buffalo, NY June 3 - Brian Green - Centeur Imports - mead importers Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events May 8 - Kingview Mead, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic music May 9 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Vinyl Rewind live music May 10 - Mr. B’s Meadery, Seattle, WA - Charcuterie Making Workshop at Mr. B’s White Center May 15 - Nucleus Mead, Lineville, PA - Mead and Read event - bring a book and find new reads May 17 - Sugarbelt Mead Festival, Crown Pointe, IN - Many meaderies with their wares at this festival - live music, food trucks and more! May 17 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - JJ playing live music May 18 - Perry Vine, South Bend, IN - Brews and Bites: Five Course, Small Bites and Mead Pairing May 21 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night May 22 - The Skeptic Meadery, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead Making 101 May 23 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Dungeons and Dragons Mead Up May 23 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - The Electric Duo live music May 26 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Artisans Market May 29 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - Movie Madness Trivia Night May 31 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: The Macabre World of Medieval Medicine June 6-8 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Party Like its 793 - Mead, Metal and Viking Festival You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

4-22-25 Tonight we’re talking with Arne Defurne, owner and head meadmaker of Clockwork Bee Mead in Antwerp, Belgium. Arne has a nano-meadery that is growing, and makes some pretty ‘ok’ mead, producing mostly dry and off-dry meads, which is uncommon. We will dig into this and see what Arne is up to over there. Back in 2019, Arne came to the 2 first European meadmakers conferences and at the end of the second one was told to bring his own mead next time. Little did they know he had started making first batch right before leaving for EMMAcon. Arne is one of the people behind European meadmakers Association and worked on the just launched realmead certification program in Europe. It was 2019 and Arne did not have a pico meadery but a shower meadery (see photo to the right). He had a separate spare shower where he installed a rack where all fermentation was done. In 2020 he entered in the Mead Madness Cup home competition in Poland, but due to covid EMMcon was canceled and the Mead Madness Cup was an online medal ceremony and Arne won 2 gold medals. From then on the hobby became too expensive (he made more than 15 different meads in 1 year) and he started as a gypsy meadery at the Blacksmith's Meadery. From a mead enthusiast to home meadmaking spiraling out of control, and two years ago launching the first Belgian gypsy meadery under the guidance of the Blacksmith's Meadery. Driven by a passion for intricate flavor combinations, Arne’s goal is to reintroduce this ancient beverage to modern audiences with a fresh twist. As a mead maker, he focuses on crafting what he loves to drink. He’s deeply intrigued by how different flavors interact and how to blend them effectively. This curiosity leads him to explore methods that allows him to elegantly and fully integrate these flavor profiles into his meads. As a result, his products are uniquely positioned as semi-dry and dry meads, setting them apart from the more typical sweeter options. As a certified Belgian craft producer, Arne uses only the finest local ingredients and honey sourced from controlled European origins, resulting in high-quality meads that have already earned several awards. Join us to chat with Christian and explore meadmaking! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Crafting excellent mead requires excellent honey. Luckily The Honey Jar is here to help. Since 2005 The Honey Jar has been supplying delicious pure raw honey in easy to handle 12-pound pails to hobbyist brewers around the United States. Visit us at TheHoneyJarHome.com/gotmead If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows May 6 - Alen RadoŠević - Fool Moon mead, Transylvania May 20 - Joe Marshall - Lily Belle Meads, Buffalo, NY June 3 - Brian Green - Centeur Imports - mead importers Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events April 23 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfullness Mead Up April 24 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - Open Mic night April 25 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Luke Woltanski live music April 26 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Sigurblot: A Spring Viking Festival April 26 - Moonjoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfulness April 26 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - Jesse Jefferson live music April 26 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Tanglefoot Collective Live Music April 26 - The Colony Meadery, Bethlehem, PA - Mead, Mayhem and Myth April 26 - Thistlerock Mead Company, Charlottesville, VA - The Donnybrook at the annual Thistlerock Beltane Festival April 29 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - The R&B Sushi Experience - make 3 sushi rolls, all materials provided April 30 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfullness Mead Up May 2 - Patriot Brewery and Homebrew Supplies, Elkhorn, NE - Mead Making Seminar May 3 - Dawg Gone Bees Meadery and Apiary, Hanover, PA - Mead Making class May 3 - Four Brothers Meadery, Festus, MO - Zoe Vox live music May 3 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - Wing It Weekend - hot sauces from mild to wild May 3 - Kingview Mead, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night May 4 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Double Disc Open frisbee golf - May the Fourth Be With You! May 7 - Kingview Meadery, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night May 8 - Kingview Mead, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic music May 10 - Mr. B’s Meadery, Seattle, WA - Charcuterie Making Workshop at Mr. B’s White Center May 17 - Sugarbelt Mead Festival, Crown Pointe, IN - Many meaderies with their wares at this festival - live music, food trucks and more! May 17 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - JJ playing live music May 18 - Perry Vine, South Bend, IN - Brews and Bites: Five Course, Small Bites and Mead Pairing May 22 - The Skeptic Meadery, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead Making 101 May 26 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Artisans Market You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

3-11-25 Tonight we’re hanging out with Jason Elder, a home mead maker from Kansas City. His name shows up regularly on the comp results, and I can confirm he makes some pretty ‘ok’ mead. Jason has been homebrewing in Kansas City since 2010 and started making Mead and Cider in 2016. He wanted to broaden his brewing experience and found that his love for making mead was higher than for making beer. He’s won awards at several competitions such as NHC and Mazer Cup. He’s considered the "Honey person" for Kansas City as since he has over 2000lbs of honey in storage and about 110 different varieties. He loves talking and drinking anything mead and enjoys mentoring people that are new to mead and are interested in making it for themselves. Jason is a BJCP Judge in Beer, Mead and Cider and is also a proctor for Cider exams. Jason was President of the Kansas City Bier Meisters for 2 years as well as an officer on their board for 2 years before that. He has also been the First Round site organizer in Kansas City for the past 5 years as well as part of the Mazer Cup staff for the past 2 years. He believes that he brings a unique perspective from his experience and knowledge along with a flair from the Plains! Join us to chat with Jason and talk mead! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Crafting excellent mead requires excellent honey. Luckily The Honey Jar is here to help. Since 2005 The Honey Jar has been supplying delicious pure raw honey in easy to handle 12-pound pails to hobbyist brewers around the United States. Visit us at TheHoneyJarHome.com/gotmead If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows March 25 - TBD April 8 - TBD April 22 - Arne Defurne, Clockwork Bee Meadery, Antwerp, Belgium Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events March 12 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfulness Meadup March 12 - Green Mountain Mashers, Essex, VT - Mead Series Part 3: Spiced Meads March 13 - Scale and Feather Meadery, Avondale, AZ - Mead and a Medium March 14 - Blöm Mead and Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - Femme Feedback Mic Night March 15 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary and Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class March 15 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Five Year Anniversary Party and St. Paddy’s Day Party March 15 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Spirit Dragon Jar Workshop March 15 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Minis: Dragons March 15 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - CLAWS Avian Rehab March 16 - Harvest Ridge Winery, Toughkenamon, PA - Mead and Cheese Pairing March 16 - Scale and Feather Meadery, Avondale, AZ - Spring Mead-eval Market March 19 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfulness Meadup March 19 - Kingview Mead, Mt Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night March 22 - The Great Minnesotan Mead Tour, St, Paul, MN - 3 meaderies, tasting flights, charcuterie and lunch! March 23 - Maniacal Meadery, Ypsilanti Township, MI - Michigan Mead Coalition March Meeting March 26 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfulness Meadup March 26 - Cupka’s Bee Good Meadery, Auburn, IN - Mead Makers Night March 29 - Hive Mind Mead & Brew Co, Caldecott, UK - Eastside Kings - Live Music April 5 - Ellis Island Coffee and Wine Lounge, Edmond, OK - Mead & Greet Tasting Charity Fundraiser & Silent Auction featuring Dancing Skeleton Meadery April 6 - Thunderbird Lounge, Phoenix, AZ - 3rd Annual Nordic Meadmaking and Tasting April 6 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Mead and Cheese Pairing April 9 - Green Mountain Mashers, Essex, VT - Mead Series Part 4: Specialty Meads April 12 - The Great Minnesotan Mead Tour, St, Paul, MN - 3 meaderies, tasting flights, charcuterie and lunch! May 17 - Sugarbelt Mead Festival, Crown Pointe, IN - Many meaderies with their wares at this festival - live music, food trucks and more! You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

1-14-25 Tonight at 9PM ET, we're talking with Kyle Ducharme and Bill Boyer Bill is in the Minnesota Mead Mafia, and if you've competed, you know he makes good mead. Kyle is from Vermont and has been tearing up the mead world as well. We're going to be exploring what they've done with their meads, and how they put their recipes together. We'll also be talking about chocolate meads! Kyle Ducharme from Northern Vermont and is a home mead maker that has experience with quality assurance positions in the food and beverage industries. He has been making mead since the fall of 2019, really diving deep during the pandemic. He originally learned from podcasts/youtubers such as Gotmead, The Mead House, Doin the Most, and Man Made Mead. He later joined his homebrew club where he discovered some other mead makers, but mainly beer brewers and judges. He was motivated by the online community to enter competitions and after winning some medals, he entered more competitions to get feedback and improve his skills. That was a valuable step, but becoming a beer and mead judge was really what made him grow exponentially in his mead making. By traveling to learn from others and to judge meads, he could bring that knowledge to others in his homebrew club and online communities. Outside of competing and judging comps, he has started a mead class and small Iron Bee style mead competition to share knowledge/feedback with others. His major goal is to create another major mead competition in New England and to bring up the homebrew mead scene in the area. He is passionate about using foraged ingredients and fruit from local farmers and utilizing honey from all over the world. His parents own a small hop yard and that is what got him initially interested in fermentation. Back in 2010, Bill started brewing with a Mr. Beer Kit and rapidly upgraded to doing all grain brewing. Knowing his wife was not a fan of hops but loved sweet ciders, he started exploring meads & ciders. In 2020, he started expanding his meads & ciders, not only because the shelf life was longer but also because no one was around to drink his beer (Damn COVID). With an abundance of mead & ciders cluttering up his basement, he’s branched out from the local homebrew competitions and started submitting to nationwide ones, having won more than 500+ awards since 2021. Bill is an active member of the North Georgia Malt Monkeys, Marietta Association of Schoolhouse Homebrewers (MASH) and runs the Mead & Cider Makers & Tasters group in the Atlanta Area.  He is also the competition organizer of the North Georgia Homebrew Competition.   This player will show the most recent show.  [break] To listen live, you can find us on Youtube (Youtube starting 1-15-25), Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClXObw9sufjUx3NWRX02CxA X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Jan 15 - Green Mountain Mashers, VT - Mead Series Part 1: Traditional Mead Jan 15 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfulness Mead Up Jan 15 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Jan 16 - Nucleus Mead, Linesville, PA - Mead and Read Jan 18 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Lisa live music Jan 18 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Jan 21 - Blom Meadworks, Ann Arbor, MI - Babies and Brew - family gathering Jan 22 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfulness Mead Up Jan 23 - Edible Education Experience, Orlando, FL - Culinary Curiosities: The Art and Science of Turning Honey into Mead Jan 25 - MeadKrieger, Loveland, CO - 2 Year Anniversary Celebration! Jan 25 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Mead and Meditation Jan 25 - Crafted Artisan Winery, Mogadore, OH - Mead 101 Class Feb 2 - Honey and Hops Brew Works, Front Royal, VA - Mead and Seed - seed exchange Feb 5 - Mead People 716, Hamburg, NY - Galentine's Day Cookie Class at the Meading Room Feb 6 - Mjodgard, Haslev, Denmark - Mead and Food Pairing at Bregnen Feb 8 - Thistlerock Mead Company, Charlottesville, VA - Kinnfolk live Celtic music Feb 8 - Hierophant Meadery, Freeland, WA - Imbolc Golden Hours - Pizza Pop Up - Herbal Offerings - Mulled Mead Feb 12 - Green Mountain Mashers, Essex Junction, VT - Mead Series Part 2: Fruit Meads You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com  

12-3-24 We are headed for the warmer climes down in Mexico today for our last show of the year. We'll be talking with Alberto Leyva, owner of Hidromiel Aliens Kaab in Bacalar, Mexico. Alberto has been a Beekeeper in the Riviera Maya, Bacalar, Quintana Roo since 2013,  and founded of Aliens Kaab in 2019. His expertise ranges from hive management to the fermentation of artisanal mead, ensuring a product that embodies the richness of local honey. Alberto is passionate about fermentation processes and wild yeasts, and crafts his mead through cold and wild fermentation, which in his point of view results in unique flavors and aromas while making the mead gentler on the body. His goal is to reflect the natural wealth of our surroundings in every bottle. Alberto has won some medals and recognitions and considers himself an eternal learner. The motto at Aliens Kaab is "let yourself be abducted by new experiences", and they take the term abduct as arousing in someone a powerful attraction and that is what they are looking for, to abduct more people to discover this great world of Mead. Join us to hear more about Alberto and his mead making adventures! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows On break for the month of December, we're back in January!! Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Dec 4 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Dec 7 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Mead Making Classes Dec 7 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Emma Nobbe Rocks the House live music Dec 7 - Honey & Hops Breworks, Fredricksburg, VA - Winter Wine Festival Dec 8 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Tasting with the Meadmakers Dec 10 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Trivia Night Dec 12 - KingView Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Good Brother Earl live music Dec 12 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Mead and Cheese pairing Dec 13 - Blom Mead + Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - Permanent Jewelry with BOGO deal for multiple chains! Dec 14 - Crafted Artisan Winery, Mogadore, OH - Mead 101 Class Dec 18 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Dec 20 - Valkyries Horn Mead Competition Entries open! Dec 20 - Midwinter Homebrew Competition Entries open! Dec 20 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Springs and Arrows live music Dec 21 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music Dec 21 - Mjodgard, Haslev, Denmark - Celebrate the Winter Solstice with a 2 course dinner, mead and a solstice ceremony Jan 25 - Crafted Artisan Winery, Mogadore, OH - Mead 101 Class Feb 6 - Mjodgard, Haslev, Denmark - Mead and Food Pairing at Bregnen You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

11-18-24 Tonight we're headed to Alberta, Canada in the now-frozen north. We'll be chatting with her about mead in Canada, what she's doing with her meads, and what she's seeing for mead's direction. Kristeva's journey into the world of meadmaking began as a humble hobby beekeeper. In her third year of tending to her bees, they produced an impressive 450 pounds of honey. Knowing the incredible labor that goes into producing even a single teaspoon of honey, she was determined not to let this liquid gold go to waste. Prior to this, mead had never held a special place in her heart. In fact, she had often dismissed it as unpalatable. However, on a snowy Christmas Day in 2017, she decided to take a chance. She delved into the world of mead crafting, using her own honey as the primary ingredient. To her surprise and delight, the mead that she produced was unlike any other that she and her husband, Eric, had tasted before. For them, it was a revelation. Their mead was unique, a flavor profile distinct from the offerings found on the commercial market. It left them curious and craving more. Kristeva was not content with just savoring her newfound passion; she sought to share her creation with others. To do so, she needed unbiased opinions from the most discerning critics: judges at a mead competition. With the courage to take a step into the unknown, she submitted her mead to a competition. The anticipation was palpable as the results were announced. To her astonishment and sheer delight, she clinched a gold medal, and the judges provided glowing feedback that lit her path forward. It was a pivotal moment that encouraged Kristeva to follow her newfound dream. With fresh determination, she continued crafting mead throughout the year. The following year, she took her passion even further, entering five distinct meads into various competitions. To her joy, each of these meads earned medals, validating her skills and innovative approach. As she stood before the judges to collect her fourth medal, a voice from the crowd pierced through the room. "We want to come drinking at your place!" The words resonated in her ears, marking a turning point in her journey. It was that precise moment when Kristeva made a life-altering decision: she would embark on the path of making mead on a commercial scale, sharing her unique creations with the world. The Stolen Harvest journey had just begun. Motivated by a daily awareness of the need for change, Kristeva takes action on various fronts, from aiding the homeless to navigating the bureaucratic challenges of the alcohol industry. As a woman in a male-dominated field, she faced many barriers, overcoming them through self-funding and the support of a dedicated group of friends. Located in scenic Grovedale, Alberta, Stolen Harvest Meadery is hand carved from the Alberta boreal forest: it is ten acres of a rural oasis. There are hand planted gardens with a wide variety of vegetables and numerous heritage garlics growing. There is a fruit forest as well as a newly planted orchard (2018) with Saskatoons, haskaps, and prairie cherries. Each spring, the fields come alive with a symphony of wildflowers. Some, such as dandelions and wild roses, are lovingly harvested each year in anticipation of the moment when water, yeast, and local raw wildflower honey come together and magic unfolds. The property is adjacent to a larger forest where mother nature provides a bounty wild edibles, some of which make it into our micro-batch hand crafted meads. Her community involvement extends beyond the walls of Stolen Harvest Meadery, with contributions to charities, fundraising events, and local initiatives. Kristeva's impact is felt not only through financial donations but also in the relationships she builds and the small acts of kindness she executes, such as giving warm meals and clothes to those in need. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows December 3 - Alberto Leyva, Hidromiel Aliens Kaab, Mexico On break for the month of December, we're back in January!! Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Nov 20 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Nov 21 - Scale and Feather Meadery, Avondale, AZ - Mead and Chocolate Pairing Nov 22 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Springs and Arrows live music Nov 22 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Make Your Own Mead with Us! Nov 23 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Veronica Live Nov 23 - Red Lion Smokehouse, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada - Meadmaking with TBay Mead Nov 23 - Thistlerock Mead Company, Charlottesville, VA - Kinnfolk Live Music Nov 26 - PNWonderland Wine,  Port Angeles, WA - Mead Tasting with Hierophant Meadery Nov 27 - The Cellar Wine Bar and Kitchen, South Bend, IN - Perry Vine Wine Mead Tasting Nov 29 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Nov 30 - Treehive, Brocton, IL - 35th Anniversary Collab Mead with the Abnormal Brewers Dec 3 - Obed & Isaac's The Cidery, Springfield, IL - Mead Tasting with Unpossible Mead Dec 4 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Dec 7 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Mead Making Classes Dec 7 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Emma Nobbe Rocks the House live music Dec 8 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Tasting with the Meadmakers Dec 14 - Crafted Artisan Winery, Mogadore, OH - Mead 101 Class Dec 18 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

11-5-24 We are abandoning the election stuff (in the US) tonight, and visiting with Raul de la Garza, owner of Freya Brewing Company in Monterrey, Mexico. Raul is also a guest host here on Gotmead Live! We got the chance to hang out with him when Kevin and Vicky went to the Copa Hidromiel mead competition in Mexico City. Raúl de la Garza, meadmaker at Freya Brewing in Monterrey, Mexico started making mead as a hobby in 2008 and later went professional in 2015. Over the years Raul has won several awards (including best in Mexico) in Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and Panama. They've sold mead all over Mexico and even in San Diego (crossing it through the border the Han Solo way). After a break thanks to COVID-19, they're trying to make a comeback with plans to relocate the meadery and open a taproom. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows November 19 - Kristeva Dowling, Stolen Harvest Meadery, Alberta, Canada December 3 - Alberto Leyva, Hidromiel Aliens Kaab, Mexico Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Nov 6 - Kingview Meadhouse & Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Nov 7 - KingView Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Day One (acoustic) live music Nov 7 - The Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Minis Two for One - Painting D&D Miniatures Nov 8 - Adesanya Mead & Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - TYFYS (Thank You For Your Service) Mead Release with Talons Out Honor Flight and Mosher Family Apiary Nov 9 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Nov 9 - The Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Artisan Market Nov 10 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Tasting with the Meadmakers Nov 12 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Make Your Own Mead with Us! Nov 13 - Adesanya Mead & Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - West Michigan Pink Boots Society Chapter November Meet-Up Nov 14 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - Thursday South Hills Group Run Nov 15 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Viking Warrior Societies Nov 15 - Bumbling Fools Mead, Minneapolis, MN - Karaoke Mead-Up Nov 16 - Crafted Artisan Winery, Mogadore, OH - Mead 101 Class Nov 16 - Cigar City Cider & Mead, Tampa, FL - Celebrating 10 Year of Cigar City Cider and Mead Nov 16 - Kimmel Orchard, Nebraska City, NE - Mead Making Workshop Nov 16 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Nov 17 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - 8th Year Anniversary and Sea Wolf Voyages Mead Release Party Nov 22 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Make Your Own Mead with Us! Nov 23 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Veronica Live Nov 23 - Red Lion Smokehouse, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada - Meadmaking with TBay Mead Nov 27 - The Cellar Wine Bar and Kitchen, South Bend, IN - Perry Vine Wine Mead Tasting Nov 29 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Dec 8 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Tasting with the Meadmakers Dec 14 - Crafted Artisan Winery, Mogadore, OH - Mead 101 Class You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

10-8-24 Tonight we're talking with Dominic Roth, a relatively new meadmaker in Australia. Dominic feels he's 'new' in that he thinks there is much more he can learn about making mead. We'll be talking technique, styles, recipes and more! Dominic is a home mead maker in Australia. He started making mead a couple years ago, as a replacement hobby following the birth of his most recent child. A dodgy mead recipe in a cookbook led him to the hobby, and then to more reliable sources! He thoroughly enjoys the 'art and science of mead making'; consuming as much knowledge as possible on the craft, and playing around with different styles, techniques and ingredients. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows October 22 - Alberto Leyva - Aliens Kaab Mead November 5 - Kristeva Dowling, Stolen Harvest Meadery November 19 - Raul de la Garza - Freya Mead Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Oct 11 - Breeden's Orchard, Mount Juliet, TN - Charcuterie, Mead and Music with Graze Craze Oct 11 - Thistlerock Mead Co,, Charlottesville, VA - Conley Ray and the Joneses live music Oct 12 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Mead Making 101 Oct 12 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary and Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making class Oct 13 - Skal Beer Hall, Seattle, WA - Fall Mead Festival Oc 16 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Oct 17 - Combgrown Mead, Auburn, NY - Mead and Whiskey Cocktail Class with Cellar and Folly Whiskey Company Oct 18 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - 732 the Electric Duo & Mary Spayd-Armstrong live music Oct 19 - Iron Stone Meadery, Erie, PA - Mead and Bleed Craft Fair and Bleeding Disorder Fundraiser Oct 19 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music - the Halloween Show! Oct 25 - Windchaser Meadery, Williamsburg, VA - HallowMead Oct 27 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - HallowCHEESE: A Mead and Cheese Pairing Event with the Cheese Lady Nov 2 - Amber Dragon Meadery, Abilene, TX - Meadfest 2024 Nov 2 - MeadKrieger, Loveland, CO - The Sogs live music Nov 2 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Mead Making class Nov 6 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Nov 7 - KingView Meadhouse & Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic music Nov 8 - Adesanya Mead & Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - TYFYS (Thank You For Your Service) Mead Release with Talohns Out Honor Flight and Mosher Family Apiary You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

9-24-24 Tonight we're talking with Frederick Rodriguez, Francisco Olachea and Rob Tyrrson in Mexico. Kevin and I were in Mexico for the Copa Hidromiel Mead Competition a couple weeks ago, and got to check out the meads that these folks produce, and we'll be talking about their methods, meads and plans. And bonus, we are bringing in a new guest host, Raul de la Garza, owner of Freya Meadery in Monterrey, Mexico. Francisco Olachea is a biochemical Engineer, and holds general Certificate in Brewing and Spirits by the IBD, is a Certified BJCP judge, Certified Cicerone®, and a Mead BJCP judge, Cider BJCP judge, Unionbirrai Beer Taster, Master Mezcalier, Cigar Sommelier and Sommelier member of the Mexican Sommeliers Association. He is also an instructor at the Mexican Academy of Sommeliers. Finally, he is CEO at I+D CERVEZA SA de CV since 2011. Frederick Rodriguez is a photographer, producer and director with more than 30 years of experience in the audiovisual industry.  He has produced, photographed and carried out various feature film, short film, video clips, corporate, institutional and documentary projects.  In 2012 he edited and post-produced the documentary series “Hallazgos” of the INAH, Partner and founder of La Valija Industriarte, obtaining the PACMyC award for the development of the documentary “Los paths that van” 2014 as director and photographer, In 2012 with the company Museum he developed a 360º mural for the Museum of Music in Puerto Rico and from 2015 to 2017 he developed an interactive table for the exhibition of the Constitution in the National Palace at the same time he developed 2 video walls for the Museum of Constitutions of the UNAM, since 2022 he documents the “Copa Hidromiel México”, creator of the documentary “Fermentos Ancestrales”  (watch the trailer) in which he focuses on mead and pre-Hispanic ferments of Mexico and he is a mead judge (in process) since 2023. Frederick has also done a 2023 collective exhibition “I Feel Then I Re-sisto” UAM- University of Brighton” video art “Viaje sin Regreso”, 2022 researcher of the script “Tierra barbara” mini series. Currently he is the owner of Phocal Photography where he directs, produces, post produces and photography for different companies such as Lincoln Towncar, Laboratorios Decrha, Intervet Schering Plougth, MSD Salud Animal, Sony Entertainment, Municipality of Lerma, Adidas, Nissan, América Express, Sicario, KRBO Bikes, Del Pacifico Sea Foods, US Meat, Crayola and the guild meadery. Rob Tyrsson is owner of Tyrsson Meadery in Mexico City. Rob started in 2019 in the middle of the COVID era, all starts trying to pay some bills and deal with a few problems he had, his first batch wasn't ready for the first Copa Hidromiel México, and he just sold it pretty cheap, fortunately a few friends told him he was making a pretty good thing, and he sent it to Guatemala at Copa Quetzal and won a gold medal. In 2020 he tried to go professional and sell his mead at festivals.  After that everything is history!     This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows October 8 - Dominic Roth - beginning in mead in Australia October 22 - Alberto Leyva - Aliens Kaab Mead November 5 - Kristeva Dowling, Stolen Harvest Meadery November 19 - Raul de la Garza - Freya Mead Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Sept 25 - Oppegaard Meadery, Seattle, WA - Paint and Sip Sept 26 - Skal Beer Hall and Heirophant Meadery, Seattle, WA - Mead the Makers: Mead 101 Tasting Class Sept 26 - Hex Mead, Watertown, WI - Mead tap takeover at the Drafty Cellar Sept 27 - Standard Meadery, Villa Park, IL - Makers and Mead Friday Fall Market Sept 27 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Warrior Dog Rescue Sept 28 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Craft Event Sept 28 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Lisa live music Sept 28 - Blissful Folly Farms, La Grange, TX - Texas Mead Fest Sept 28 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Spooky Season Crown Making Workshop Oct 2 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Trivia night Oct 4 - Moonjoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfulness at Wolf Moon Salt Cave Oct 5 - Four Brothers Meadery, Festus, MO - Mead on Mead and Metal Music Oct 5 - Maniacal Mead, Ypsilanti, MI - Mead Day Celebration Oct 6 - Blom Mead & Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - Barrel Signature Workout Class Oct 6 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Mead and Macrame Oct 11 - Thistlerock Mead Co,, Charlottesville, VA - Conley Ray and the Joneses live music Oct 12 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Mead Making 101 Oct 12 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary and Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making class Oct 19 - Iron Stone Meadery, Erie, PA - Mead and Bleed Craft Fair and Bleeding Disorder Fundraiser Oct 19 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music - the Halloween Show! You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

8-27-24 Tonight at 9PM ET we will be talking with Matthew Chrispen, with the Texas Mead Association and Texas Mead Cup, and we're doing a live demo of the BJCP Mead Exam tasting, and will be talking about getting certified and things to be aware of. Matt started brewing in November 2009 after a gift of Mr. Beer from a buddy and got hooked. He started blogging at Accidentalis.com a year later, focusing more as a journal focusing on personal progress, homebrewing perspectives, the Brew-Magic, Grainfather, and how Brew-Easy gear setups, and brewing water chemistry how-to's. IHestarted making mead in 2014, under the guidance of members of the Austin Zealots and immediately found success with a medal at his first NHC. 2015 was the year Matt started helping with NHC First Round here in Austin, and he passed the original Mead Examination (written and tasting together) with the help of classes with Eric Lowe and Mike Simmons. As he honed his mead-making, he had a little success at various competitions, including The Mazer Cup and the old Masters of Homebrewing Competition. A few years ago, he made BJCP National and has been grading since. After a short stint at Meridian Hive as GM during Covid and the great Texas Ice Storm, Matt has refocused on mead making and working with the Texas Mead Association and Texas Mead Cup to increase mead awareness and qualify mead judges in Texas.He is passionate about writing high-quality scoresheets and providing helpful feedback. Join us to chat with Matt! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Sept 10 - Copa Hidromiel competition in Mexico with Vicky and Kevin Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events May 1 - Sept 1 - Copa Hidromiel Mexico Competition Registration - get your entries in now, Copa Hidromiel is offering an entry discount of Aug 28 - Oppegaard Meadery, Seattle, WA - Paint and Sip Class Aug 30 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - August Rendezvous Aug 30 - Apis Wine and Meadery, Carnegie, PA - 732 the Electric Duo Live Aug 30 - Lancaster Homebrew, Lancaster, PA - Mead Making Class Aug 31 - Black Mountain Cider and Mead, Black Mountain, NC - 11th Anniversary Celebration Sept 4 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Sept 7 - Dawg Gone Bees Meadery and Apiary, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Sept 7 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Mead Making Class Sept 12 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - One Ray Live Sept 14 - Maniacal Meadery, Ypsilanti, MI - Annie's Experimental Mead Release Sept 19 - Bumbling Fool Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Charcuterie Design and Trivia Sept 20 - Green River Bee Company, Hendersonville, NC - Mead Making Class Sept 21 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many Live Sept 21 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Meadfest SCA Mead Demo Sept 27 - Standard Meadery, Villa Park, IL - Makers and Mead Friday Fall Market Sept 10-12 Copa Hidromiel, Mexico City - international mead competition for home and commercial mead You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

8-13-24 Tonight we’re talking with Kyle Ducharme in Vermont. Kyle has been doing a lot of mead making classes and education and helping more people with the love of mead. Kyle Ducharme is from Northern Vermont and is a home mead maker that has experience with quality assurance positions in the food and beverage industries. He has been making mead since the fall of 2019, really diving deep during the pandemic. He originally learned from podcasts/youtubers such as Gotmead, The Mead House, Doin the Most, and Man Made Mead. He later joined his homebrew club where he discovered some other mead makers, but mainly beer brewers and judges. He was motivated by the online community to enter competitions and after winning some medals, he entered more competitions to get feedback and improve his skills. That was a valuable step, but becoming a beer and mead judge was really what made him grow exponentially in his mead making. By traveling to learn from others and to judge meads, he could bring that knowledge to others in his homebrew club and online communities. Outside of competing and judging comps, he has started a mead class and small Iron Bee style mead competition to share knowledge/feedback with others. His major goal is to create another major mead competition in New England and to bring up the homebrew mead scene in the area. He is passionate about using foraged ingredients and fruit from local farmers and utilizing honey from all over the world. His parents own a small hop yard and that is what got him initially interested in fermentation. Join us to chat with Kyle! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Aug 27 - Matthew Chrispin - Live BJCP mead exam mead evaluation and discussion of BJCP certification Sept 10 - Copa Hidromiel competition in Mexico with Vicky and Kevin Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events May 1 - Sept 1 - Copa Hidromiel Mexico Competition Registration Aug 14 - Queen Bee Brews, Denver, CO - Magic and Mead Aug 14 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Bill Frary live music Aug 15 - Barcade, Detroit, MI - Mead-evil Madness! Aug 17 - Zymarium Meadery, Orlando, FL - First Bee-Day! Aug 17 - McAlpine Meadery, Beach City, OH - Oddmall: Mead and Feed Aug 17 - Apis Wine and Mead, Carnegie, PA - Live Music with Push Aug 17 - Etowah Meadery and Dahlonega Brewery, Dahlonega, GA - Sourwood Honey Extraction on National Honey Bee Day! Aug 18 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Market Aug 18 - Skäl Beer Hall, Seattle, WA - Viking Faire Aug 19 - Bardic Wells Meadery, Montague, MI - ModPoge Mixed Media art and Mead Aug 21 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night! Aug 22 - Thistlerock Mead Company, Charlottesville, VA - Tacos and Mead Aug 23 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Delilah DeWylde Live music Aug 24 - DMen Tap, Chicago, IL - Mead Fest 2024 Aug 24 - Haley's Honey Wine and Mead, Fredericksburg, VA - Mead and Read Aug 24 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary and Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Aug 28 - Oppegaard Meadery, Seattle, WA - Paint and Sip Class Aug 30 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - August Rendezvous Sept 7 - Dawg Gone Bees Meadery and Apiary, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Sept 10-12 Copa Hidromiel, Mexico City - international mead competition for home and commercial mead You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

Tonight we'll be talking with newer meadmaker Stewart Jacobs. Stewart is in the Seattle area. We'll talk techniques, recipes and mead making in general. Stewart is an aerospace engineer in the Seattle area who has been making mead in 5 gallon batches since 2016. He has made at least a dozen unique batches with a variety of different additives since starting. He currently has a smoked apple mead awaiting bottling and has two unique batches in storage which he made after the birth of each of his kids. Stewart wants to dig into a bunch of things, like: preparing your honey best practices for caramelizing honey Figuring out the appropriate amounts of fruits and herbs in a mead to have good balance How to make braggot Adding nutrients - best practices for timing Yeast strain recommendations We'll have a good time talking with Stewart and trading mead making info tonight! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Calling all mead lovers and adventure seekers! Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows July 30 - Matthew Chrispin and Kevin Meinstma - live mead judging with proctors Aug 13 - Kyle Ducharme - making mead, classes and mead competitions Aug 27 - Christy Hemenway - Run Amok Meadery Sept 10 - Copa Hidromiel competition in Mexico with Vicky and Kevin Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events May 1 - Sept 1 - Copa Hidromiel Mexico Competition Registration June 15-Aug 4 (weekends) - Honnibrook Craft Meadery, Castle Rock, CO - Colorado Renaissance Festival this summer June 15th-August 4th. At the festival you can find our Black Currant, Huckleberry, Black Cherry, Elderberry, Blackberry and Dragonfruit meads July 19 - Michigan Beer Cup, Kalamazoo, MI - MBC Mead Judging and Social Event July 19 - Three Hands Mead Company, Plant City, FL - Billy Ray Wheaton solo acoustic music July 20 - Haley's Honey Meadery, Fredricksburg, VA - Mead and Read July 20 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Mead Make and Take Class July 20 - Apis Mead and Wine, Carnegie, PA - Springs and Arrows live music July 20 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music July 24 - Oppegaard Meadery, Seattle, WA - Paint and Sip at the Meadhall! July 27 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class July 27 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - HK live music July 28 - Bløm Meadworks, Ann Arbor, MI - Body Boost workout July 31 - B.Nektar, Ferndale, MI - Finer Things Mead and Food Pairing Aug 1 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Lynn Callahan live music Aug 2 - Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR - A Night of the Seven Kingdoms - House of the Dragon Cosplay and Finale Pre-Party Night Aug 3 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Mead Day Celebration Aug 3 - Helderberg Meadworks, Esperance, NY - Mead Weekend 2024 Aug 3 - White River Mead, Cider and Spirits, Iron River, WI - Mead Day - Legacy Mead Tasting Aug 3 - Honnibrook Craft Meadery, Castle Rock, CO - World Mead Day Celebration with live music all day and Polynesian Fire-Dancer show starting in the evening. For the celebration we will be serving 8 different varieties of mead slushees and 20 different varieties of draft mead.  Additionally we will be giving away a free honnibrook glass with your first pour (while supplies last) The celebration starts at noon on Saturday. Aug 4 - Bløm Mead and Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - Perfectly Paired: Cheese, Cider and Mead Aug 10 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Çlass Sept 10-12 Copa Hidromiel, Mexico City - international mead competition for home and commercial mead You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com   

Tonight at 9PM ET we'll be getting together with Francisco Olachea, Elba Copado, Frederick Rodriguez and Andrés Torres, with surprise guest Raul de la Garza. Francisco, Elba and Frederick are the organizers of the Copa Hidromiel México, a BJCP competition in Mexico City. Between them they've an impressive collection of education and experience. We will also have Bob Slanzi, US Mead Ambassador to Mexico. Copa Hidromiel México 2024 is a mead competition organized with the purpose of supporting, disseminating and promoting the production and consumption of artisanal drinks made from bee honey. The competition is endorsed by the BJCP organization based on its official guidelines, widely recognized internationally.The direction and coordination of the 2024 Mexico Hidromiel Cup will be carried out by NINKASI/IBQ. Francisco J. Olachea M. and PHOCAL/Frederick Rodriguez and as Judge Director Elba Copado, with the objective of disseminating the culture of mead. The 2024 Mexico Hidromiel Cup will take place in Mexico City on Tuesday, September 10, Wednesday, September 11, and Thursday, September 12, 2024 and will have both home and commercial entries. The winners will be notified on Saturday, September 14, 2024 on social networks. You can see the 2023 highlights of the Copa Hidromiel México here: Francisco Olachea is a biochemical Engineer, and holds general Certificate in Brewing and Spirits by the IBD, is a Certified BJCP judge, Certified Cicerone®, and a Mead BJCP judge, Cider BJCP judge, Unionbirrai Beer Taster, Master Mezcalier, Cigar Sommelier and Sommelier member of the Mexican Sommeliers Association. He is also an instructor at the Mexican Academy of Sommeliers. Finally, he is CEO at I+D CERVEZA SA de CV since 2011. Elba Copado is a Graduate in Chemistry from the University of Guadalajara and a Graduate of Siebel Institute of technology WBA (concise course in brewing technology / Brewing Microbiology). She has also taken the Specialist Course in Beer by the University of Alicante. Elba is a pioneer in homebrew in Mexico, and is a  commercial beer (2003), mead (2014) and cider (2021) producer. She is a BJCP judge of beer, mead and cider and is a Certified beer server of Cicerone’s program. She is President of Ceryder A.C and Founder of Cup San Arnulfo.And she is Adiministrator of BJCP exams of beer, mead and cider in Mexico. Elba is also owner of the Beer Lounge in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, where she and her husband Aguirre sling her unique beers. Imbibe tells her story well here. Frederick Rodriguez is a photographer, producer and director with more than 30 years of experience in the audiovisual industry.  He has produced, photographed and carried out various feature film, short film, video clips, corporate, institutional and documentary projects.  In 2012 he edited and post-produced the documentary series “Hallazgos” of the INAH, Partner and founder of La Valija Industriarte, obtaining the PACMyC award for the development of the documentary “Los paths that van” 2014 as director and photographer, In 2012 with the company Museum he developed a 360º mural for the Museum of Music in Puerto Rico and from 2015 to 2017 he developed an interactive table for the exhibition of the Constitution in the National Palace at the same time he developed 2 video walls for the Museum of Constitutions of the UNAM, since 2022 he documents the "Copa Hidromiel México", creator of the documentary "Fermentos Ancestrales"  (watch the trailer) in which he focuses on mead and pre-Hispanic ferments of Mexico and he is a mead judge (in process) since 2023. Frederick has also done a 2023 collective exhibition “I Feel Then I Re-sisto” UAM- University of Brighton” video art “Viaje sin Regreso”, 2022 researcher of the script “Tierra barbara” mini series. Currently he is the owner of Phocal Photography where he directs, produces, post produces and photography for different companies such as Lincoln Towncar, Laboratorios Decrha, Intervet Schering Plougth, MSD Salud Animal, Sony Entertainment, Municipality of Lerma, Adidas, Nissan, América Express, Sicario, KRBO Bikes, Del Pacifico Sea Foods, US Meat, Crayola and the guild meadery. Andrés Torres, coming on as a friend and translator, as well as an experienced meadmaker and brewer, is a BJCP Certified Beer Judge, BJCP Mead Judge, BJCP Cider Judge, BJCP IT Director, MJP Mead Judge Level 2, has KU Leuven - Beer the Science of Brewing and is Cicerone Certified Beer Server. He works at Katz&Brew Brewery. Join us to explore mead in Mexico and this great upcoming competition! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Calling all mead lovers and adventure seekers! Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees.  Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows July 16 - Stewart Jacobs - new to meadmaking Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events May 1 - Sept 1 - Copa Hidromiel Mexico Competition Registration June 15-Aug 4 (weekends) - Honnibrook Craft Meadery, Castle Rock, CO - Colorado Renaissance Festival this summer June 15th-August 4th. At the festival you can find our Black Currant, Huckleberry, Black Cherry, Elderberry, Blackberry and Dragonfruit meads June 19 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, NY - Fantasy Game night June 20 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic live music June 20 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Thursday South Hills Group Run June 21 - Moonjoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mingle: Find Your Honey speed dating June 21 - Bløm Mead and Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - Hoot and Hollers live music June 21 - Meadkreiger - Old Norse Mead, Loveland, CO - Summer Solstice with the Sogs live music June 21 - Four Brothers Meadery, Festus, MO - Emma Nobbe Live Music June 22-23 - Stardust Cellars, Wilksboro, NC - 5th Annual Mead Festival June 22 - Stardust Cellars, Wilksboro, NC - Mead Making Workshop June 23 - Moonjoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfulness June 23 - Bløm Meadworks Ann Arbor, MI - Body Boost workout June 23 - Skãl Mead Hall, Seattle, WA - Summer Mead Festival June 25 - Steffenshire Wine and Meadworks, Hanover, PA - Mocktails and Mead with Wholly Holistic June 28 - Bumbling Fools Mead, Minneapolis, MN - Warrior Dog Rescue adopton event June 29 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Mead Making Class with Cumberland County Beekeeping Association June 30 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, PA - Brunch at the Meadery June 30 - Superstition Meadery, Prescott, AZ - Meadmaking Demonstration for the Homebrewer virtual event July 10 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, NY - Open Mic night July 12 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - CherriBomb debuts - live music July 12 - Kingview Meadery, Harborcreek, PA - Velvet Waves live music July 13 - Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival, Eastsound, WA - 2024 Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival, to benefit the Orcas Island Historical Museum. July 13 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Archery on the Medieval Battlefield July 13 - ARTifice Ales and Mead, Manheim, PA - Trucks and Mugs and Stars and Stripes Fun Run/Walk Aug 1 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Lynn Callahan live music Aug 3 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Mead Day Celebration Aug 3 - Honnibrook Craft Meadery, Castle Rock, CO - World Mead Day Celebration with live music all day and Polynesian Fire-Dancer show starting in the evening. For the celebration we will be serving 8 different varieties of mead slushees and 20 different varieties of draft mead.  Additionally we will be giving away a free honnibrook glass with your first pour (while supplies last) The celebration starts at noon on Saturday. Sept 10-12 Copa Hidromiel, Mexico City - international mead competition for home and commercial mead You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com   

5-21-24 Tonight we're talking with Adam Bystrom, Josh Mahoney, Al Boyce and Josh Holbrook, members of the aptly-nicknamed 'Minnesota Mead Mafia'. Josh Holbrook has been home brewing for since 2011 and making mead since 2013. He discovered mead at his local homebrew club when a club member brought a bottle of an attempt at Curt Stock’s Triple Berry Melomel. Clouds parted, angels sang, and Josh became obsessed with mead. Josh has won numerous medals for beer, cider and mead, including AMMA National Mead Maker of the Year in 2020, and a couple Best of Shows at competitions such as Minnesota Mashout and Hoppy Halloween. He is also a certified BJCP judge and mead judge as well as a novice beekeeper, and one of the organizers for Valkyries Horn Mead Competition. One of Josh’s long term mead goals is to make mead with each of the 300+ varietal honeys found in the United States. He has 44 under his belt already and shows no signs of stopping. In November of 2017 Adam Bystrom suddenly got a craving for that sweet nectar we all know; mead. With no meaderies in the area and little to no availability at liquor stores he decided to learn how to home brew. Since then mead has been the exclusive beverage he's fermented with a particular focus on session meads. He's been fortunate to win awards in a number of competitions all around the country and is a proud member of the Minnesota Home Brewers Association. Making mead since 2008. BJCP mead judge, addicted to collecting Mazer Cups, thinks JAOM is underrated, and his favorite spice is vanilla. Al Boyce has been a homebrewer since the early 1990’s.  He tasted his first mead at Bunratty Castle in Ireland, and was hooked. Orange Blossom is his favorite honey, Sangiovese is his favorite grape, and 71B is his favorite yeast. He is obsessed with Jamaican Sorrel (hibiscus), and vows to keep making Sorrel meads until he finally gets it right.  He recently moved to a lake home in central Minnesota where he lives with his wife Beth and his Golden Retriever Cooper. Join us for what will most likely be mead madness! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Monin liqeuer concentrates Upcoming Events May 22 - Beer Barons of Milwaukee, Hales Corner, WI - Modern Mead Making with Mazer Cup Best of Show winner Jason Rohloff May 25 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Lisa playing live music May 25 - Lilly Belle Mead, Holland, New York - Mead Festival May 25 - Wye Valley Meadery, Caldicot, UK - Groove Jacks Live May 31 - The Barge Inn, Pewsy, UK - Mead and Cider Weekend June 1 - Battle Axe Mead House, Hickory, NC - 1st Anniversary Party June 1 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Japanese Swordsmanship June 7-9 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Party Like it's 793: 2024 Mead, Metal and Viking Festival Jun 13 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - Hurry Up, Say Something Funny Comedy night June 15 - Mutton & Mead Tavern and Inne, Greenfield, MA - Medieval Bash: Roads to Revelry with mead from Sap House Meadery and beer from Berkshire Brewing Aug 3 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Mead Day Celebration You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com   

5-7-24 Tonight at 9PM ET we will be talking with Christopher Clarke, Owner/Meadmaker at Four Fires Meadery and Head Brewer at HEAVY Beer Co. in Toledo, Ohio.  Chris got into making mead after first getting into homebrewing.  In late 2014  he took up homebrewing, a short half a year after first getting into craft beer. His brewing buddy at the time, Mack Garton, and he would brew every single Monday for a year and a half, and somewhere halfway through that they made their first meads. In the next few months he would meet a new friend group and eventually went in on a mead together. Of that group, 4 of them continued further and began making meads as a collective, to share amongst the group as a whole. The 4, Andrew Lynch, Athreya Rajan, Josh Kirk, and Chris would go on to form Four Fires Meadery! In 2015, Chris had his first mead, B. Nektar’s Episode 13, and was in love. He jumped in and made his first mead just a month later. That same year, he met the other Four Fires guys at a local craft hideout called the Local. They kept meeting at Chris’s place, and continued their confederation of mead makers who wanted to create a meadery. Their first group project that year was Hail Satin. In 2016, they made meads, and homebrew beers, and enter contests, taking some awards and started forming the base business plan, and reaching out to angel investors, and worked on looking for a location.  Chris’s enjoyment of craft beer, and meads intertwined with the fun he was having homebrewing, and eventually professionally brewing, seemed to have been accelerants for one another, so in the time between making his first mead, the meadery opening, and now, a LOT has changed.  In 2017, Chris was hired as a production brewer at Maumee Bay Brewing Co. with the intent of revitalizing the portfolio. Later that year, Four Fires signed a lease on their building, and work began immediately on converting the space into a production facility. And the first mead found its way into the tanks in early 2018. As they neared their first release, Four Fires gained visibility amongst mead lovers with them getting some of their pre-production mead out there for people to try.  Join us to check in with Chris and see what Four Fires is up to! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows May 21 - Minnesota Mead Mafia Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Monin liqeuer concentrates Upcoming Events May 9 - Kingview Mead and Winery, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Good Brother Earl live music May 11 - Hickory Tree Farms Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Mead Make and Take class May 11 - Maniacal Mead Company, Ypsilanti, MI - Wax Kings / Echo labs light industries presents Krystal Palace electronic event May 11 - Bløm Mead and Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - 6th Birthday Party! May 11 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - saint chuck live May 12 - Mikkeller Beer Festival at Warpigs Brewpub,  Copenhagen, Denmark - Chicken Maple Brunch and Mead Pairing May 12 - Artifice Ales and Meadery, Manheim, PA - Session 2: Mothers Day - Pottery class May 17 - Mead Meander, Scandanavia, WI - a fun-filled evening of mead tasting, a.k.a. honey wine, and exploration at participating businesses in Scandinavia. Nine venues, 8 in downtown Scandinavia, serving tastes of various Wisconsin-made mead in commemorative glass. May 17 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Springs and Arrows live music May 17-19 - Bull and Bee Meadery, Albany, NY - 2024 Saint Sophia Greek Festival, Bull and Bee Meadery will be vending their delicious Meads for tasting and bottle sales at this awesome annual event May 18 - Sugarbelt Mead Festival, Crown Pointe, IN - Unlimited tasting of over 20 meaderies from around the country, lagers and other beers from Gnosis, Food Trucks, Live Music from Groovatron, Charity raffles and more! $75 GA and DD tickets available. May 18 - Hickory Tree Farms Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Mead Make and Take Class May 19 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - Sourdough social and class May 22 - Beer Barons of Milwaukee, Hales Corner, WI - Modern Mead Making with Mazer Cup Best of Show winner Jason Rohloff May 25 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Lisa playing live music May 25 - Wye Valley Meadery, Caldicot, UK - Groove Jacks Live May 31 - The Barge Inn, Pewsy, UK - Mead and Cider Weekend June 1 - Battle Axe Mead House, Hickory, NC - 1st Anniversary Party Aug 3 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Mead Day Celebration You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

Tonight we're talking with Bryce and Savannah, husband and wife owners of Fox and Raven Meadery in Carollton, Texas. Fox & Raven Mead is Savannah and Bryce, a husband and wife team, creating Meads inspired by the stories that enchant them. They met at a movie theater eighteen years ago where they worked (mainly for the perk of free movies). They are self proclaimed Bibliophies, cinephiles and just all around big nerds. Bryce initially began homebrewing beer as a hobby but switched to Mead making due to a lack of availability of mead in his area. He’s been making Mead for about 9 years now. Savannah is a graphic design school dropout and artist. She mostly handles marketing and design but also has a hand in helping craft flavor profiles as well. Bryce and Savannah are committed to never releasing a mead that they would not be happy to drink themselves. With a focus on balanced flavors, their mead tends to stay on the dry to semi-sweet side. Designwise, each mead label is designed to look like a comic book, book cover, or movie poster to tie back to their love of storytelling, Currently, the meadery is a production only with no taproom but you can find Fox & Raven out at several local markets as well as special events from time to time. Their Mead has also found their way into a few local breweries and bottle shops with more to come soon. Come hang out with us as we talk mead with Bryce and Savannah! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Monin liqeuer concentrates Upcoming Events April 10 - Green Mountain Mashers, Essex Junction, VT - Mead Class - Specialty Meads taught by Kyle Ducharme April 12 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Dungeons and Dragons Meadup April 13 - Mead Judging Programme Level 1 and Level 2 in Olsztyn, Poland by Mate Blasczyk and the Mead Judging Programme April 13 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Hearth Broom Making Workshop April 13 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Meadiversary - One Year April 13 - Creative Art Center, Battle Lake, MN - Mead Making class - make a Joe's Ancient Orange April 13 - Maniacal Mead Company, Ypsilanti, MI - Kristal Palace electronic music event April 13 - Mead Judging Programme, Olsztyn, Poland - Mead Judging Programme Level 1 and Level 2 April 14 - ARTifice Ales and Mead, Manheim, PA - Terrarium Workshop with Cottage and Vine April 14 - Ivy League Brew, Alabaster, AL - Mead Talk April 20 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - 4th Annual Sigurblot Viking Festival April 21 - Oppegaard Meadery, Seattle, WA - A Great Shenanigan of Mead, Violence, Music, Art and Feast! April 23 - What's Brewing Supply, Palatine, IL - Mead Making Class April 25 - Kingsview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - One Ray Live April 25 - Liquid Alchemy Mead, Wilmington, DE - Mead Cocktail class April 26 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Fry Project Live Music April 27 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things - Tree of Life Wreath Workshop April 27 - Kingview Mead, Harborcreek, PA - Young Erie Professionals Free Mead, Wine and Cider Tasting April 28 - Skål Beer Hall, Seattle WA - Spring Mead Festival including Hierophant Mead - Freeland, WA, Contrivance Mead - Tukwila, WA, Oppegaard Meadery - Tukwila, WA, Sky River Mead - Redmond, WA, Æsir Meadery - Everett, WA, Melchemy Craft Mead - Carson, WA, Odin's Alchemy - Olympia, WA, Thunderland Mead - Duvall, WA April 28 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Mead and Cheese, a Cheese Lady Pairing Event May 31 - The Barge Inn, Pewsy, UK - Mead and Cider Weekend May 3 - Blacksmith's Meadery, Brussels, Belgium - Meet the Mead Makers with Blacksmiths Meadery, Clockwork Bee Mead, De Mederie and Fermenthings Aug 3 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Mead Day Celebration You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

3-26-21 Tonight we're talking with Bray Denard, creator of the BOMM, Bray's One Month Mead. Bray Denard, PhD is the inventor of Bray’s One Month Mead (aka “the BOMM”), one of the more popular mead styles among home mead makers. Bray has continued to refine his methods over the years to create a never fail nutrient protocol that works with any yeast! In addition, Bray continues to provide mead making knowledge through consulting and OmniMead. OmniMead provides a free Mead Making Course as well as recipes and calculators for mead makers. Check it out: https://www.omnimead.com Constantly aspiring for better mead, he eternally experiments with new nutrients, spices, fruits and wood types. As a result, he is in the process of writing a world inspired mead making book complete with food pairings! Join us tonight at 9PM EDT to talk mead shop with Bray! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Monin liqeuer concentrates Omnimead - https://www.omnimead.com Upcoming Events Mar 28 - Kingview Mead, Lebanon, PA - Live music with the Mingo Creek Trio Mar 30 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Emma Nobbe Live Music April 5 - Kingview Mead, Lebanon, PA - Live Music with Jim and Scott April 10 - Green Mountain Mashers, Essex Junction, VT - Mead Class - Specialty Meads taught by Kyle Ducharme April 13 - Mead Judging Programme Level 1 and Level 2 in Olsztyn, Poland by Mate Blasczyk and the Mead Judging Programme April 13 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Hearth Broom Making Workshop April 14 - ARTifice Ales and Mead, Manheim, PA - Terrarium Workshop with Cottage and Vine April 21 - Oppegaard Meadery, Seattle, WA - A Great Shenanigan of Mead, Violence, Music, Art and Feast! April 23 - What's Brewing Supply, Palatine, IL - Mead Making Class April 25 - Kingsview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - One Ray Live April 26 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Fry Project Live Music You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

Tonight at 9PM ET, we're hanging out with Bob Slanzi, beekeeper, meadmaker, industry influencer and general all around pretty cool guy. Bob Slanzi has been keeping bees and making award winning meads for years. He is very active in the meadmaking, homebrew and beekeeping communities, having held offices in both his clubs in NY in the past. he is the past president of the Home Governing Committee of the American Mead Makers Association, and very active in helping bring the word of mead to everyone. He was the person who set up and maintained the monthly deals the American Mead Makers Association has for members. Bob was a speaker at the 2022 European Mead Makers Association Conference and judged at their Mead Madness Cup mead competition. He went to the Mead Madness Cup again in 2024 and judged there. He was awarded Mead Personality of the Year at the EMMA as well. He is known for his meads, and isn’t afraid to try new flavors, like seaweed or toasted walnuts. Bob likes to experiment, and talks about layering flavors in meads to get the result you want. Join us as we talk with and chat about what he's making, and what he's seen and learned. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows March 12 - Laura Angotti - Historical Mead March 26 - Bray Denard - Mead Experimenting, One Month Mead Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Monin liqeuer concentrates Upcoming Events Feb 29 - Patriot Homebrew Supply, Elkhorn, NE - Mead Making Seminar Mar 1 - Mar 3 - NC Mead Alliance Beekeepers and Meadmakers, Wilkesboro, NC - 2024 Conference Mar 6 - Green Mountain Mashers, Essex, VT - Spiced Mead Making Class offered by Kyle Ducharme Mar 14 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Thursday South Hills Group Run on PI Day! Mar 14 - What's Brewing? Supply - Palatine, IL - Mead Making Class Mar 16 - The Bee Shop, Toronto, ON, Canada - Mead Making Workshop Mar 16 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Live Music from Veronica Mary-Agnes Mar 16 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Intermediate Mead Making Class - Melomels - Adding Fruit Mar 23 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things - Irish Voyage Tales You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

2-13-24 Tonight we're headed to Texas to talk with Traci Kuhfuss, home meadmaker and mead consultant. Traci Kuhfuss comes to us from Texas by way of Arizona. She ís been active as a homebrewer and mead maker for 20 years now, participating in brew clubs and competitions in all the places she has lived and traveled.. Traci is a professional graphic designer who loves making mead. Traci got into brewing once upon a time, she was newly divorced and her friends were all getting married and having kids. She was bored with sitting at home with nothing to do. Her friends got her a home brewing kit that year for Christmas. She made her first beer that New Years Eve. She eventually joined a homebrew club and was introduced to mead. She started making mead then and winning more medals with mead than beer. She has been consistently winning awards since 2005 to include many BOS wins such as Great Arizona Home Brew Competitions, Orpheus Cup, Queen of Beer, and Mead Stampede. After moving to Texas, she briefly dipped a toe in the commercial realm but went back to the homebrew scene. She has even helped with Texas Rivers Distilling in advising how to make good mead to make award winning Honey Creek Honey Spirits. Which took a silver medal in February 2023 at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. She has been involved in many competitions including The Great Arizona Homebrew Competition and The Great Arizona Mead Competition when she lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Upon moving to Texas she became involved in the local Houston homebrew scene with her clubs the Cane Island Alers and Sugarland Imperialists, helping to grow the mead community & assisting in Operation Fermentation. Traci also ran the Texas Mead Cup from 2019 to 2023 and has new plans to grow the mead judging pool and assist other Texas clubs in growing mead entries in their competitions. Join us to talk mead with Traci, and explore making better mead. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Feb 27 - Bob Slanzi - Thinking Outside the Box March 12 - Laura Angotti - Historical Mead March 26 - Bray Denard - Mead Experimenting, One Month Mead Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Monin liqeuer concentrates Upcoming Events https://emmconference.comThe European Mead Makers Conference is coming up, and registration is open until Feb 18. Feb 14 - Bee Well Mead and Cider, Bellaire, MI - Valentines Day Book Fair for Grown Ups Feb 14 - Odin's Alchemy Brewing, Olympia, WA - I'm the One You Mead - Valentines Day Celebration Feb 16 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Valentines Mead Make and Take Class Feb 17 - Harvest, Holland OH - Mead Day Celebration featuring meads from Schramm's, Four Fires and Meads of Midgard. Feb 17 - Perry Vine Mead and Cider, South Bend, IN - One Year Anniversary Celebration Feb 17 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Oddsoul Duo Live Music Feb 18 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Love and Cheese: A Mead and Cheese Pairing Event with The Cheese Lady Feb 24 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Casting Runes live music Feb 25 - Skål Beer Hall, Seattle, WA - Winter Mead Festival Feb 27 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Oddsoul Duo live music Feb 29 - Patriot Homebrew Supply, Elkhorn, NE - Mead Making Seminar Mar 1 - Mar 3 - NC Mead Alliance Beekeepers and Meadmakers, Wilkesboro, NC - 2024 Conference Mar 6 - Green Mountain Mashers, Essex, VT - Spiced Mead Making Class offered by Kyle Ducharme You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

1-30-24 We're off to Arkansas tonight (where it's warmer) to visit with Tony Fry, owner and meadmaker at Arkansas Meadery in Alexander, Arkansas. Since 2001, Tony Fry has been deeply passionate about the art of fermenting, starting with beer and wine and eventually delving into the world of mead. As a founding member of CAF ("Central Arkansas Fermenters") in 2003, a prominent homebrew club based in Little Rock, Arkansas, he played a pivotal role in fostering a vibrant community of enthusiasts, making it one of the largest homebrew clubs in the United States. In 2014, Tony ventured into beekeeping, which further sparked his interest in mead-making. This journey led him to acquire a small farm in Saline County, Arkansas, in 2015. Serendipitously, that same year, the dry county lifted restrictions on alcohol sales, providing the perfect opportunity for Tony to explore his passion for mead-making and the possibility of opening a Meadery. Tony views this sequence of events as a divine sign, inspiring him to establish Arkansas's first Meadery, opening the meadery in September of 2021. Today, he is thrilled to share his creations with the world, inviting everyone to join the journey. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Valkyries Horn Mead Competition Home and Commercial Entries are open until Feb 2! Enter your Meads! Commercial https://commercial.valkyrieshorn.com/ and home https://comp.valkyrieshorn.com/ https://emmconference.comThe European Mead Makers Conference is coming up, and registration is open until Feb 18. The Mead Madness Cup is taking entry registrations until Jan 31. Registration for MMC https://meadmadnesscup.com/ Registration for EMMcon https://emmconference.com/ Feb 2 - The Green Lady, Chicago, IL - Hey Ciderfriends, Nice to Mead Ya - Mead Happy Hour Hang Feb 2 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things - The English Longbow at War! Feb 3 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - John Jarrett Live Music Feb 4 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, NY - Brunch at the Meadery Feb 6 - Bee Well Mead and Cider, Bellaire, MI - Antrim Writers Series: Jerry Dennis Book Discussion Feb 8 - Breedens Orchard, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead 101, the Joy of Meadmaking Feb 8 - Adesanya Mead and Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - Open Mic Comedy Night Feb 9 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Mead in Heaven Valentines Day pop up Feb 10 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Mead and Chocolate pairing Feb 10 - KingView Meadhouse, Harborcreek, PA - Galentine's Shopping Event Feb 14 - Bee Well Mead and Cider, Bellaire, MI - Valentines Day Book Fair for Grown Ups Feb 16 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Valentines Mead Make and Take Class Feb 17 - Harvest, Holland OH - Mead Day Celebration featuring meads from Schramm's, Four Fires and Meads of Midgard. Feb 17 - Perry Vine Mead and Cider, South Bend, IN - One Year Anniversary Celebration Feb 17 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Oddsoul Duo Live Music Feb 18 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Love and Cheese: A Mead and Cheese Pairing Event with The Cheese Lady Feb 29 - Patriot Homebrew Supply, Elkhorn, NE - Mead Making Seminar Mar 1 - Mar 3 - NC Mead Alliance Beekeepers and Meadmakers, Wilkesboro, NC - 2024 Conference You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

1-16-24 Welcome to 2024! GotMead Live is back with Carlos Herrera, owner of the soon-to-be Texas Longhouse Meadery in Wylie, TX, just north of Dallas. Carlos has done a lot in his life so far. He spent 8 years in the army as an airborne infantryman. He was medically discharged in 2011 due to combat injuries and became a Paramedic in 2013. In 2015 decided he wasn't ready for civilian life and went back overseas as a high threat diplomatic security contractor team medic. He then spent 2 years at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan and a year in Northern Iraq with the US Consulate before injuring his back again. He's had 3 spinal surgeries since then. Thank you for your service, Carlos! Carlos has been solo brewing mead since 2016. He was helping an older gentleman before that who used to make it for his Norse Heathen kindred group's ceremonial purposes. They used to make it what he would call the 'old ways' (open ferment in a bucket or old wood barrel, with no nutrients, and would add the kitchen sink if they could). Carlos thought there was a better way to do it so he started off on his own and learned a lot long the way thanks to people like Carvin Wilson, Tom Repas, Ken Schramm, and others. He decided to go commercial after winning multiple awards and being pushed by his homebrew club and friends to take the leap. Carlos loves bochets, pyments, and barrel projects. Carlos is in the process of building his meadery and is going to be talking with us about his journey in licensing and building a meadery, and also about his meads. Join us to see how he's doing! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Valkyries Horn Mead Competition Home and Commercial Entries are open until Feb 2! Enter your Meads! Commercial https://commercial.valkyrieshorn.com/ and home https://comp.valkyrieshorn.com/ https://emmconference.comThe European Mead Makers Conference is coming up, and registration is open until Feb 18. The Mead Madness Cup is taking entry registrations until Jan 31. Registration for MMC https://meadmadnesscup.com/ Registration for EMMcon https://emmconference.com/ Jan 19 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, NY - Music with Trever Stribing Jan 20 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Music with Lisa Jones Jan 20 - Meduseld Meadery, Lancaster, PA - Mid-Winter Mead and Music including Music, Magic, Trivia and Axe Throwing Jan 20 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Mead Make and Take Class Jan 21 - Old Station Honey and Mead, New Sarepta, Alberta, Canada - Northern Alberta Mead Makers Meet Up Jan 21 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, NY - Brunch at the Meadery Jan 23 - J. Bird Wines, Cambridge, MN - January Mead Pairing Dinner Jan 25 - Adesanya Mead and Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - Open Mic Comedy Night Jan 25 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Trivia Night Jan 27 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Music with Veronica Mary Agnes Jan 27 - MeadKrieger Old Norse Mead, Loveland, CO - 1st Anniversary Party Jan 27 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things - Tabletop Game Design and Publishing Feb 2 - The Green Lady, Chicago, IL - Hey Ciderfriends, Nice to Mead Ya - Mead Happy Hour Hang Feb 2 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things - The English Longbow at War! Feb 4 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, NY - Brunch at the Meadery Feb 6 - Bee Well Mead and Cider, Bellaire, MI - Antrim Writers Series: Jerry Dennis Book Discussion Feb 8 - Breedens Orchard, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead 101, the Joy of Meadmaking Feb 8 - Adesanya Mead and Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - Open Mic Comedy Night Feb 10 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Mead and Chocolate pairing Feb 10 - KingView Meadhouse, Harborcreek, PA - Galentine's Shopping Event Feb 16 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Valentines Mead Make and Take Class You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

12-5-23 Tonight on GotMead Live at 9PM EST we're talking with Brian Galbreath, owner of Unpossible Meadery in Dwight, IL, just off Route 66. Brian started fermenting ciders and then mead in 2013. Pete Bakulic told him to focus on traditionals when he got started. [break]Brian went on to take a Mazer Cup win with his Montmorency Barrel Aged Mead, where he won the 2016 Home Mead Competition in the experimental mead category. Now his commercial meads are still taking awards in competitions. Unpossible Mead is located in Dwight, IL (which is about 80 miles southwest of Chicago).  Just having celebrated 5 years, Brian Galbreath and his small crew are looking forward to many more years of making session, varietal trads, and running their barrel program. Join us on the live chat and don't be afraid to call in if you want to! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows December 5 - Brian Galbreath, Unpossible Mead Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Dec 6 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Mead and Cheese and Cheese and Mead pairings Dec 6 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Dec 7 - Manaical Mead Co, Ypsilanti Township, MI - Thorsday, bring your viking horns Dec 7 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Mead Club Party - Ben's 60th Birthday Bash Dec 8-10 -  Honeygirl Meadery, Durham, NC - Mead and Macaron tasting Dec 9 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Decemberfest Party with 732 The Electric Duo - live music Dec 9 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - John Jarrett live music Dec 14 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic music Dec 16 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Ugly Sweater Party Dec 17 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Chocolate Dip and Sip You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

Tonight at 9PM ET we'll be talking with Tom Repas. Tom has been on the show before, and we're having him back, as he's an absolute fountain of information! And he makes 'ok' mead. We're going to delve into the bees and their care. What you may not be aware of is that a year ago, Tom started making his 'ok' meads professionally. Apiflora Mead, made and available at Zymurcracy Beer Company in Rapid City, South Dakota. Apiflora is rapidly approaching the anniversary and December mead releases. Tom is a Master Beekeeper and owner of Canyon Rim Honey Bees, providing bees and honey in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Tom speaks on beekeeping all over the country, and has presented several times at the AMMA MeadCon on both beekeeping and meadmaking. Tom has won a large number of awards for his mead as well. Tom is a 4th generation beekeeper, and has been working with bees since he was a kid. He kept bees and sold the honey for extra money in high school. He went into professional beekeeping while he was still active as a medical doctor, and has developed a cross for bees that are gentle, overwinter well, and are mite resistant. On the mead side of things, Tom is a very talented mead maker who consistently wins medals with his meads, and has a skill for thinking outside the box for flavor profiles. His mushroom mead was the talk of the mead community for some time when he brought it out to taste. I got to try it, I was stunned at how good it was. Of course, Tom uses his own honey, as well as honeys from other providers and areas, and they're all good! Tom says his meads are 'ok'. We think they're better than that, lol. Join us on the live chat and don't be afraid to call in if you want to! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows December 5 - Brian Galbreath, Unpossible Mead Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Nov 22 - ARTifice Ales and Mead, Manheim, PA - Comedy Brews Nov 24 - Maniacal Mead Co, Ypsilanti Township, MI - Black Friday Bottle Release, Serpent's Deed, 14% apple pie inspired mead Nov 24-25 - Scale and Feather Meadery, Avondale, AZ - Mead-ieval Market - Black Friday Nov 25 - Hive Mind Mead/Wye Valley Meadery, Caldicot, UK - Groove Jackes LIVE at Wye Valley Meadery and food by Hungry Monkey Nov 25 - Triaxial Meadsmiths, Lake Orion, MI - Small Business Saturday - 10% off your entire bill Nov 25 - White Winter Mead, Iron River, WI - Holiday Open House Nov 25 - Wye Valley Meadery, Caldicot, UK - Groove Jacks Live Dec 2 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Whisk-Broom Making Workshop Dec 6 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Mead and Cheese and Cheese and Mead pairings Dec 6 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Dec 7 - Manaical Mead Co, Ypsilanti Township, MI - Thorsday, bring your viking horns Dec 8-10 -  Honeygirl Meadery, Durham, NC - Mead and Macaron tasting Dec 9 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - 732 The Electric Duo - live music Dec 9 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - John Jarrett live music Dec 14 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic music Dec 16 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Ugly Sweater Party You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

7-7-23 Tonight on Gotmead Live, we're talking with Will Otte and Jacob Thill, both in Minnesota and meadmakers. They work with high gravity meads, and use several different nutrient protocols in their craft. Will has dabbled in fermentation off an on most of his life, from helping his father and opa make mediocre wines (well, mostly vinegar to be honest) from Texas grapes during his childhood to brewing a bunch of mediocre beer in the late ‘aughts until Tennessee finally repealed it’s crazy prohibition era laws that kept most craft beer out of the state. He mostly swore off fermenting things until, after learning that the city he’d moved to in Minnesota allowed him to keep bees, he got a bumper 70lb harvest (leaving plenty for the bees!) his first year keeping bees in 2019. Not knowing what else to do with so much honey, decided to make a couple batches of mead. Fortunately by getting off on the right foot, thanks in no small part to the Modern Meadmaking series on GotMead (thanks Ryan!) and the Reddit meadmaking community, those first batches were to his surprise entirely not mediocre and spawned an obsession. After the pandemic hit, he used the newfound glut of free time to really dive deep into the hobby. As an engineer by trade, he really enjoys digging into technical aspects of the meadmaking process; as a recovering academic, he really enjoys understanding the science behind the process, brewing experimeads, and educating others. You can find Will in The Mead Hall (https://discord.gg/the-mead-hall-627621875408961537) discord community, where he’s better known as Chef. He is also the current maintainer of the Modern Meadmaking wiki (https://meadmaking.wiki). Jacob Thill is a passionate Minnesotan meadmaker who is on a journey with a dream of opening his own meadery alongside his wife. His meadmaking style spans from high ABV meads reaching 18% to hydromels and standard strength meads enjoyed at his Dungeons and Dragons table, but most of his showpiece meads are all sack mead. His current goals are accumulating local medals and developing a mead calculator to support both enthusiasts and professionals that will hopefully serve as a functional ERP for batch management, and one dedicated to accuracy in mead math rather than fitting in a solution from related brewing industries. Join us to hang out and talk shop with these gentlemen! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows November 21 - Tom Repas - beekeeping and going pro December 5 - Brian Galbreath, Unpossible Mead Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Nov 8 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Mead Making Class Nov 9 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Hurry Up, Say Something Funny comedy show Nov 10 - Adesanya Mead and Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - TYFYS Mead Release - partnering together with Talons Out and Mother Apiary in support of veterans Nov 11 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Artisan Market Nov 12 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Mead Making Class Nov 15 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Nov 19 - Monks Meadery, Atlanta, GA - Mushrooms & Mead Nv 22 - ARTifice Ales and Mead, Manheim, PA - Comedy Brews Nov 24-25 - Scale and Feather Meadery, Avondale, AZ - Mead-ieval Market - Black Friday Nov 25 - Hive Mind Mead, Caldicot, UK - Groove Jackes LIVE at Wye Valley Meadery Dec 2 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Whisk-Broom Making Workshop Dec 7 - Manaical Mead Co, Ypsilanti Township, MI - Thorsday, bring your viking horns You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

10-24-23 Tonight we're headed to the other side of the world, to New Zealand, to talk with Jay Bennett, owner and mead maker at Beehave! Craft Meadery, on the North Island, in Taupo. Jay lives in the center of the North Island of New Zealand and is the Mead alchemist and owner of Beehave! Craft Meadery. He lives in the bush at the southern end of Lake Taupo and operates the Meadery in the township of Taupo. In Jay's own words, He is an alchemist, a wizard and a guardian of the land. Jay first served product to the public in December of 2020 at NZs largest beer fest in Wellington - beervana……he had two kegs of his lemon and ginger mead, Suckerpunch, and left there with empty kegs and was voted in the top 10 of the peoples choice leader board. Jay had a pretty organic journey with 8 years of beekeeping which started with the capture of a swarm in the wall of his house to running 200 beehive...not enough to be viable, so in the search for products he could make with his honey, he came across mead and started making it in 5 liter carboys. During winter to supplement his non-existent bee income he drove trucks for a friend and listened to every podcast he could find on Mead making, including GotMead, and then put into practice what he was hearing. He made some pretty rough stuff to start with but had a couple of early good results that gave him hope. Jay saw the opportunity to bring something new and exciting into the NZ market place and set up Beehave! Craft Meadery in 2020. Beehave! is a nano brewery with 4000 liters of fermentation space and another 1200 of brite tanks. Jay built the current set up for easy growth with a massive glycol chiller and space for larger tanks. His goal is to have 12000 liters of fermenters. There is no culture of Mead in NZ so he is pacing the growth. This has morphed into being the only Mead brewbar in New Zealand and a range of both session and still meads including a non-alcoholic offering. As of last week, they now have created a collaboration with Texas Petes BBQ joint at the Meadery and as they head into a New Zealand summer they are looking to enjoy a successful time introducing more locals to Mead. Join us to see what Jay is up to and how things are going with Beehave! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows We'll let you know! Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Oct 27 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things - Celtic Halloween and Spooky Stories Oct 28 The Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Mischief '23, annual Halloween event Oct 28 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Yoga and Mead Oct 28 - Brix Urban Winery, Sainte Genevieve, MO - All Hallows Mead Oct 28 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Mead and Monsters 2023 Oct 28 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Mead-O-Ween weekend Oct 28 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Heavy Hearts Trio Halloween Party Oct 29 - Trazo Meadery, Clarksville, TN - Viking Mead Fest Nov 1 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Nov 3 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Death Faire Opener: Tending to the Heart Nov 8 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Mead Making Class Nov 9 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Hurry Up, Say Something Funny comedy show Nov 10 - Adesanya Mead and Microbrewery, Grandville, MI - TYFYS Mead Release - partnering together with Talons Out and Mother Apiary in support of veterans Nov 12 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Mead Making Class Nov 15 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

Tonight at 9PM ET, we're talking with Ali and Shane Fox, owners of Dragon Meadery in Aurora, CO. Dragon Meadery is a craft meadery located in Aurora, CO. and is owned  and operated by Shane & Alexandria Fox, two former chefs who have spent 20 years each in the restaurant & hospitality industry. Having a deep appreciation for food, and respect for the quality of the ingredients, have extended their passion to mead. They create craft meads that span the spectrum style, flavors, and sweetness. They believe that fresh seasonal produce and honey locally sourced, makes the best meads. Back in the early 2000 A friend of Shane’s introduced him to mead, it was one of his new favorite beverages and something lacking in the restaurant industry. Shane met his wife Alexandria in 2004 & introduced her to mead with a trip to a local meadery. After which he explained he had the equipment and honey for two 5 gallon batches. She wanted to know why they weren’t making mead “we’re chefs, playing with recipes is what we do!” They went and picked up his equipment and honey, took it back to her place to start making their first batch, an orange blossom traditional. They learned a lot from that batch, like the importance of racking, bottling it when it is ready and not still fermenting also to use proper corks not tasting corks. They lost half the batch to “bottle bombs” in the first week after bottling and had a huge mess in their dining room. With lessons learned they made their second batch, a  semi-sweet traditional and even entered into the International Mead Festival home competition 2007. To their surprise the mead took silver. Maybe they were on to something. The recession hit them pretty hard as new parents so in 2012 they decided to start the licensing process for a commercial meadery. Fast forword almost a year and several conversations with the city, they became the first meadery in the Denver metro area. They started their first commercial batches in August 2013. With a focus on high quality, full strength aged meads, and a goal to see othemelves on wine menus in upscale restaurants. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows October 10 - Brian Galbreath at Unpossible Meadery October 24 - Beehave Craft Meadery, New Zealand Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Sept 28 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - Hurry Up, Say Something Funny - Comedy night Sept 29 - Atheling Meadworks, Roanoke, VA - Viriginia Mead Cup Sept 29-Oct 1 - American Mead Makers Association - East Coast Mead Conference in Roanoke, VA Sept 30 - Honey Wines Australia, Broke, New South Wales, Australia - Honey and Mead Tasting Sept 30 - Nutmeg State Mead Cup, Lebanon, CT - 1st Annual Nutmeg State Mead Cup at the Lebanon County Fair Grounds Sept 30 - Norse Hawk Axe Throwing, Branstaple, UK - Axe Throwing, Mead Tasting and Viking Games Oct 1 - Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR - Mead and Magic Sundays Oct 4 - KingView Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Oct 5 - Maniacal Mead, Ypsilanti, MI - Thorsdays, bring your drinking horns Oct 6-8 - B. Nektar, Ferndale, MI - the Finer Things Tasting: A new Mead Day Event Oct 7 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Meadtoberfest Oct 7 - Lost Cause Meadery, San Diego, CA - October Meeting and National Mead Day Celebration Oct 7 - Treehive Meadery, Brocton, IL - National Mead Day Celebration Oct 7 - Maniacal Mead, Ypsilanti, MI - 2023 Mead Day Celebration Oct 7 - Honey Pot Meadery, Anaheim, CA - National Mead Day Celebration Oct 7 - Juniper Tree Meadery, Paragould, AR - National Mead Day Celebration Oct 7 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - 4th Annual Mead on Main Viking Festival Oct 7 - Antelope Ridge Mead, Colorado Springs, CO - National Mead Day Celebration Oct 7 - Honey Moon Mead, Bellingham, WA - Mead-ieval Dinner at Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine, WA Oct 7 - Triaxial Meadsmiths, Orion, MI - National Mead Day Double Dessert Release Oct 12 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic music Oct 14 - Michigan Mead Cup - Judging OCt 14 - Frankfort-Elberta Area Chamber of Commerce, Frankfort, MI - Beer, Wine, Mead and Cocktails under the Big Tent Oct 15 - Skål Beer Hall, Seattle, WA - Washington Mead Festival - 8 meaderies in attendance Oct 20 - MeadKrieger - Old Norse Mead, Loveland, CO - Sogs, live music Oct 21 - The Brimming Horn Meadery, Lewes, DE - Mead O'Ween Party Oct 28 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Yoga and Mead Oct 28 - Brix Urban Winery, Sainte Genevieve, MO - All Hallows Mead You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

9-12-23 Tonight at 9PM ET, we'll be talking with Don Miller, head distiller and owner at Texas Rivers Distilling Company in Freeport, Texas. Texas Rivers Distilling Co. was created in February of 2019 in Brazoria County… “Where Texas Began”.  They are an LLC registered with the State of Texas as a Distilled Spirits Manufacturer and engage in Distillation and Rectification of craft spirits. They make Bourbon, Rum, Sour and Sweet Mash, and Indian Corn (Milo) Whiskey; all sourced from Texas Grains, as well as Honey Spirits.  All their Recipes bear the name of a different river or waterway in the Lone Star State. Don and a few friends were hanging out, back in 2014, and got to talking about the the show ‘Moonshiners’. One of the group mentioned seeing a website that sold stills for a reasonable price. Don pulled the trigger and put up $200 for his share and to get his friends to get on board. They made some pretty awful stuff at first, as they were learning to use a still. But Don was stubborn and kept researching. He found some ‘tried and true’ grain bills and they ended up being ‘just ok’. So, Don dove into all the things like water chemistry, yeast healt, brewing, distillation, fluid mechanics, chemistry and esterification. He studied books and online, and got up with uncles and his dad (who’s a preacher now), who used to run moonshine back in Tennessee. They started out with five gallon batches, two at a time to fill their 10 gallon still, and netted about 2 gallons of drinkable spirits. They started getting together one weekend a month. Then Don really got the bug, and started distilling throughout the month, mostly so they could have fermented mash to run on the group weekend. That turned into mashing four days a week and distilling every weekend. At that point Don had 20K sunk into the hobby, and he hit up his friends and asked them to pitch in for more equipment and grains. That lost two of the group. They figured Don was delusional and obsessed. But one stuck it out, and he and Don are partners today. Don brought the time and drive, and the friend and partner brought a modern barn and additional cash flow. Flash forward about two years and they were buying grains from a brew and wine supply store in Houston every week. They had a “sample counter” where customers could leave their brews and wines for others to try and leave notes for feedback.Don started sneaking a bottle of our whiskey in and leaving it, picking up the previous week’s empty bottle.. One day the owner of the store calls out to Don “hey you!” Don stopped, palefaced, and turned around.. .”me?” And he said “yea, you. Are you the one leaving this whiskey every week?” Don admitted it was he. He asked if they were a legal distillery.. and Don replied “Not exactly..” still unsure where this was going. He replied “I hope you plan to go legal with it. I mean, I don’t care what you do wherever you are doing it, but this stuff needs to be in store shelves.” Don replied “do you think it’s good enough?” He said “good enough? This is the best Bourbon I have ever tasted, and no I don’t mean homemade… I mean THE best.” Don knew Scott Birdwell was a nationally recognized beer judge, and his private spirits collection would make Spec’s jealous. Don went back to the barn and talked to his friend Jason Wierzbicki about what had happened. They did a LOT more taste testing with people they knew … more than 300 people and they all agreed with Mr. Birdwell.. so Jason and Don decided to start working on going legit. In January of 2019 they scraped up $7500 to send Don to Moonshine University in Louisville, KY for a six-day distilling course. This was so we would be able to answer the question on the license application of “Where did you receive your training “.. with a straight face. When Don got back from Kentucky, Jason asked him “So… what did we learn?”.. Don replied “that we are already making it better than they are teaching in Kentucky. The next month, we hired a lawyer and filed their LLC with the State of Texas .. that was February of 2019. They started looking for a location to open the commercial business and Don got word that there was a new Meadery in West Columbia, Texas.. a few miles from his house. He thought they might be able to answer a few questions to help him prepare for introducing himself to the local City Hall and EDC. So he paid them a visit. That is when he met Traci Kuhfuss. She was a co-founder and the master Mead-maker and extremely kind and chock-full of knowledge.. Don left there with more questions than answers, which was incredible, considering she had answered almost everything he had asked… We became friends instantly. I found someone that could talk as much as me and keep it interesting 😎 After things went uphill and downhill and sideways while Covid played out, Jason and Don ended up buying an old mechanic shop in Freeport and remodeling it into their distillery.  Traci had been such a huge help that he wanted to do something with Honey as a thank you to her. She had helped with digitizing their label designs, but when Don decided to make a honey brandy and name it Honey Creek… it came out great, but then he got the idea to age it on Amburana Wood, something else Traci had introduced him to.. the result was amazing. Their selection consists of several well proven proprietary Bourbon, Sour, and Sweet Mash Whiskies…as well as a unique spirit they like to call “Indian Corn Whiskey”, or Neches for short.  They also offer several Texas-grown wine brandies and honey spirit, as well as vodka, rum, and gin.Texas Rivers now has five legal labels, and are in distribution in about 16 Total Wines and 22 Specs stores all over the state of Texas. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows September 26 - Ali Fox at Dragon Meadery October 10 - Brian Galbreath at Unpossible Meadery October 24 - Beehave Craft Meadery, New Zealand Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Sept 16 - Half Moon Hill, Marathon, WI - Wine, Mead, Cider and Music Sept 16 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Artisans Alley Sept 16 - Black Mountain Cider + Mead, Black Mountain, NC - 10th Anniversary Celebration Sept 16 - McAlpine Meadery, Beach City, OH - Metal and Mead - live music Sept 20 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Sept 22 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middlevile, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things - Scottish Highland Warriors Sept 23 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - MeadFest 2023 Sept 23 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Yoga and Mead Sept 23 - Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR - Wyr's Comic-Con After Party Sept 28 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - Hurry Up, Say Something Funny - Comedy night Sept 29 - Atheling Meadworks, Roanoke, VA - Viriginia Mead Cup Sept 29-Oct 1 - American Mead Makers Association - East Coast Mead Conference in Roanoke, VA Oct 7 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Meadtoberfest Oct 7 - Juniper Tree Meadery, Paragould, AR - National Mead Day Celebration Oct 7 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - 4th Annual Mead on Main Viking Festival Oct 12 - KingView Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic music Oct 14 - Michigan Mead Cup - Judging Oct 21 - The Brimming Horn Meadery, Lewes, DE - Mead O'Ween Party You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

8-15-23 Tonight we're talking with Ben Chaney, owner of Scale and Feather Meadery in Avondale, Arizona. Scale & Feather is a small meadery run by three friends, Ben and Tamara Chaney are high school sweethearts who are going strong with 25 years together. Amber DeGiso is a graphic design specialist–creates cool labels and logos. They specialize in using local ingredients to produce their products. Chaney and one of the other founders, Matt Cross, took a class at UC Davis to learn more about honey wine. Their first foray into the mead business was making it for friends’ weddings.   Decorated like an ancient mead hall complete with a flickering chandelier, the tasting room’s theme is reminiscent of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Chaney says a highlight of the space is a dragon head with glowing eyes that’s poised above the bar. Scale & Feather is also located next to a Nintendo-themed brewery called 8-Bit Aleworks. Ben has been making mead at home since 2011, and inspired by friends living their dreams, He decided that it was time to play with the big boys and, along with his wife and friend, opened Scale and Feather Meadery in 2019. A Native Arizonan, Ben graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing degree and has over 18 years of advertising, marketing, and event management experience. Ben completed the UC Davis Advanced Mead Making and Business of Mead Making course and won a silver medal from the Arizona Society of Homebrewers before going pro. Scale & Feather Meadery has received bronze medals from the National Honey Board in 2021 and Texas Mead Cup in 2022. Spicy meads started in 2019 and have since become a focus point for sales as in Arizona sweet and spicy seem to be a winning combination. Join us to see what Ben, Tamara and Amber are up to and talk mead! This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows August 29 - Kent Slaymaker at Slaymaker Cellars September 12 - Don Miller at Texas Rivers Distilling Company September 26 - Ali Fox at Dragon Meadery October 10 - Brian Galbreath at Unpossible Meadery Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Aug 17 - MeadKrieger - Old Norse Mead, Loveland, CO - Free Trivia by Geeks Who Drink Aug 17 - Elgin Meadery, Elgin, TX - Beekeeper 'Mead" Up Aug 18 - Leonard Oakes Estate Winery,  Medina, NY - Mulberry mead release Aug 19 - Arthurdale Heritage, Arthurdale, WV - Mead Workshop and Tasting Aug 19 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Honey 5k Fun Run Aug 20 - Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR - Mead and Magic Saturday Aug 25 - Good Omen Mead, Escondido, CA - Latin Night (Salso, Bachata, Cumbia) Aug 26 - World of Beer, Melbourne, FL - Cider and Mead showcase Aug 26 - B. Nektar, Ferndale, MI - Italian Honey and Mead Pairing by Bees in the D at B. Nektar Aug 26 - DMen Tap, Chicago, IL - Mead Fest 2023 Sept 2 - Run Amok Mead, Gardiner, ME - Down East Dead live music Sept 16 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Artisans Alley Sept 23 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - MeadFest 2023 Sept 23 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Yoga and Mead Sept 29 - Atheling Meadworks, Roanoke, VA - Viriginia Mead Cup Sept 20-Oct 1 - American Mead Makers Association - East Coast Mead Conference in Roanoke, VA Oct 7 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Meadtoberfest Oct 14 - Michigan Mead Cup - Judging Oct 21 - The Brimming Horn Meadery, Lewes, DE - Mead O'Ween Party You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com 

8-1-23 Tonight at 9PM Eastern we're headed out to Colorado, to talk with Mike and DJ from Honnibrook Meadery. AJ and I met Mike and DJ at the 2019 MeadCon and MazerCup, and I was *blown away* by their salted mango session mead (and all their other meads). These guys are doing something right, and if you haven't tried it, you need to. Kevin visited them in 2022 and loved their meads. Honnibrook Craft Meadery has been open for 4 and a half years now and the guys are really dialing in on serving session meads, refreshing meads below 8% ABV that are easy drinkers. The meadery is located just a little over a mile south of downtown Castle Rock Colorado in a man cave garage unit. They have over 85 approved mead recipes and offer 20 meads on tap along with mead slishees or mulled meads, depending on the season. They're currently up to 15 barrels a week in their production. They are up on Vinoshipper, so you can get their meads for your very own! DJ and Mike are both longtime home brewers that met at church and started brewing beer religiously every weekend for about ten years, experimenting with all the spectrum of styles. DJ even worked part-time as an assistant brewer at a very successful Denver Brewery to learn a lot about the beer business. DJ also has a culinary degree and worked as executive chef at the local country club. Their experimenting was not limited to beer, and they made several meads too. The meads received such a positive response they changed their focus to mead completely. They have attended the mead making classes at UC Davis to hone their craft and understand the commercial side of mead making and tinkered on draft mead recipes for several years with the focus on being professional mead makers. They both have won awards individually and together in the amateur and professional mead competitions. DJ is working full time at the meadery and Mike has his day job working in IT, so the meadery is open Tuesday-Sunday evenings and you can even set up an appointment. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows August 15 - Ben Cheney at Scale and Feather Meadery August 29 - Kent Slaymakers at Slaymaker Cellars September 12 - Don Miller at Texas Rivers Distilling Company Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Aug 3 - Maniacal Mead, Ypsilanti, MI - Mead Hall Thursday Aug 4 - Kinsale Mead, Cork, Ireland - Mead-Ella - Kinsale Mead at BarBarElla Cork Mead Masterclass Aug 4 - Good Omen Mead, Escondido, CA - Latin Nights featuring Salsa, Bachata, Cumbia Aug 5 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - National Mead Day Aug 5 - Honeygirl Meadery, Durham, NC - National Mead Day featuring Kelly Jackson Live Aug 5 - Meadiocrity Mead, San Marcos, CA - National Mead Day Aug 5 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - National Mead Day Aug 5 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - National Mead Day Aug 5 - Alternative Beverage, Belmont, NC - National Mead Day Aug 5 - Hunters Moon Meadery, Severence, CO - International Mead Day open house Aug 5 - Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR - National Mead Day Aug 5 - Wildflyer Mead Co, Navasota, TX - International Mead Day Aug 5 - 5/4 Meadery, Roswell, GA - International Mead Day Aug 5 - Stonehaus Meadery, Stroudsburg, PA - National Mead Day with the Two Taboo Aug 5 - Laurel Highlands Meadery, Greensburg, PA - Cousins Main Lobster - National Mead Day Aug 5 - MeadKrieger Meadery, Loveland, CO - Stand Up Comedy Showcase featuring Jozalyn Sharp (Standup NBC, VICE TV) Aug 5 - Honey and Hops Meadery, Front Royal, VA - Music and Mead with Bearded Harmony Aug 5 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI -Drink Mead, Learn Things - Celtic Mythology: Where to Begin? Aug 5 - Helderberg Meadworks, Troy, NY - Blackbraid Mead release - a blueberry and sumac mead Aug 5 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Mead Make and Take class Aug 5 - Sandwich Medieval Centre, The Quay, Sandwich, UK - Mead Making Workshop Aug 5 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Mead Make and Take Class Aug 8 - Battle & Brew, Sandy Springs, GA - Minis and Mead: Aquatic - Geek Paint and Sip Class Aug 10 - KingView Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Day One (acoustic) music Aug 12 - Moonjoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfulness at Wolf Moon Salt Cave & Stress Reduction Center Aug 12 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Free Axe Throwing Aug 12 - North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC - Cider, Mead and Art Experience: What's the Buzz? Aug 18 - Leonard Oakes Estate Winery,  Medina, NY - Mulberry mead release Aug 19 - Arthurdale Heritage, Arthurdale, WV - Mead Workshop and Tasting Aug 19 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Honey 5k Fun Run Aug 26 - World of Beer, Melbourne, FL - Cider and Mead showcase Aug 26 - B. Nektar, Ferndale, MI - Italian Honey and Mead Pairing by Bees in the D at B. Nektar Aug 26 - DMen Tap, Chicago, IL - Mead Fest 2023 You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com