Blog - Got Mead? The Largest Mead Resource on the Web

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...

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...

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 ma...

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....

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 Cra...

7-18-23 We are back from our hiatus with a new episode of GotMead Live. Tonight we're talking with Brian Woerner, founder of the World Honey Exchange. World Honey Exchange curates specialty honeys from places such as Chile, Columbia, Ethiopia, Mexico and Tanzania. They have provided honeys for meaderies to make unique meads. Brian Woerner is the Founder of World Honey Exchange, a company focused o...

11-29-22 Tonight we're chatting it up with Manny Elgarresta, friend, mead maker, previous co-host on Gotmead Live and denizen of Miami. Manny has been making mead for quite a while, and has even converted his garage to making mead, enhancing it so he could make mead and beer in the Miami heat. He has cooling systems, freezers as fermentation enclosures and has even decorated his mead cave with a t...

11-15-22 Tonight we're headed to Illinois to talk with Luke Goucher and Carson Souza, proprietor and head brewer/meadmaker at Obscurity Brewing and Mead. Obscurity Brewing and Mead was founded 6 years ago, and has been open for the last 2.5 years, with Obscurity Mead Hall being open for about 1.5 years. The brewery side is a brew pub in Illinois that features would class Beer, BBQ, and Braggots. T...

Tonight we're talking with Chad Wiltz, owner and meadmaker at Garagiste Meadery in Tampa, Florida. Chad has been making mead since 2014, and opened Garagiste in late in 2017, after winning the Home Meadmaker of the Year in early 2017. Chad had a life-altering event (though he didn't realize it at the time) in 2014, when he visited a small meadery in Michigan and tried their meads. And that started...

10-18-22 Tonight on Gotmead Live at 9PM ET, we're looking forward to talking with Keith Seiz with the National Honey Board. We usually like to have Keith and Alison on during National Honey Month in September, but this year we're doing October.  We'll be finding out what the Honey Board has been up to, and talking about their Honey20 Project, the Mead Crafters Competition (5th year!), and the Hone...

October 4, 2022 - Tonight we're headed to the west coast, to talk with Mark Tanner, owner of Seattle Mead Company and Deception Cellars in Washington state. Mark is a Seattle native, and retired Army Lt. Colonel. He's been homebrewing for over 25 years, and making mead professionally since 2018. Mark got interested in mead a while back, and was the first Washington resident to pass the BJCP Mead e...

9-20-22 - Tonight is a night of mead and madness, as we welcome the Minnesota Mead Mafia gang to the show. Right on the heels of the Valkyries' Horn Mead Competition, this bunch of maniacal mead makers have a lot of great info to bring, and even more craziness. Matt Weide likes to make mead. He is also on the AMMA home board, Founding board member of the Valkyries Horn Mead Competition, 2014 Mead...

9-6-22 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 Cra...

Tonight at 9PM ET, we will be talking with Dan Kesterson at Antelope Ridge Mead in Colorado Springs, CO. Dan is the father of 2 boys, and he is an Army Veteran, Mechanical engineer, and the mead-maker at Antelope Ridge Mead. He started making mead when he received 30 lbs of local honey from hives on his Father-in-law's ranch in South Dakota. He immediately switched his focus from brewing beer to m...

7-12-22 Tonight we're chatting with Jeremy Kyncl, co-owner of Hierophant Meadery in Washington with Michelle, his wife, with two locations on the Green Bluff loop in Mead, Washington and a tasting room on Whidbey Island. Jeremy and his wife Michelle have a background in herbs and are focused on local-sourcing their mead ingredients and creating a uniquely local product. They love the 'back-to-natu...

Tonight at 9PM ET, we're hanging out with Bob Slanzi, beekeeper, meadmaker, industry influencer and general all around pretty cool guy. We're going to ramble around and talk mead both here in the US and in Europe. 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...

4-26-22 Tonight on Gotmead Live, we're talking with Rachel Lipman, owner of Loew Vineyards, in Mt. Airy, Maryland, one of the oldest vineyards in Maryland. The mead production in the Loew family dates back to the mid-1800's in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with a few prominent meaderies and distribution all over Europe. Rachel is one of the youngest winemakers in Maryland (if not the youngest), and...

4-12-22 Tonight at 9PM ET we'll be getting together with RJ Cassle, head brewer and meadmaker at Bragging Rooster Beer, Mead and Cider in Warrenton, NC, just a half hour from Vicky's place. RJ is hard at work in getting Bragging Rooster to opening, which should be very soon! Robert J. Cassle aka RJ is a level 43 character in this game called life. He calls himself a jack of many trades and master...

3-29-22 Tonight we're talking with Pierre Rodrigue, home meadmaker in Alberta, Canada. Pierre has been with us before, he's an  award winning meadmaker  who likes to work with juice, and like us, is a flavor maven. Pierre has been fermenting wine since 1985. Early batches consisted of kits, and fruits and berries. As there weren’t a lot of publications then and zero internet, he learned a lot by t...

3-15-22 Tonight at 9PM ET, we're talking with Ian, Adam and Isaac Rushing, owners of Honey and Hops Brew Works in Front Royal, VA. Honey and Hops Brew Works is a meadery started on a shoestring, and the Rushing brothers have gotten it to a thriving business. It started in 2019, with a Kickstarter that raised 11K in funds.  Then the brothers went on to find a location, and secure that, and get the...

2-15-22 Tonight we're hanging out with TJ Cline, past President of the Savannah Brewers League and Organizer of the Domras Cup Mead Competition, which was held two weekends ago. TJ describes himself as a 'novice mead maker', with 18 batches under his belt over the last six years. He says he's always learning, and his current favorite styles are braggots, bochets and black currant fruit meads. He h...

2-1-22 Tonight we're hanging with Ty Wheeler, mead maker, and host of the 'TK and Drinks' video podcast. Ty is a denizen of Arizona, and is a dad of two boys and purchasing agent in his day life. By night, he's a podcaster and is working on mead distribution. At the beginning of COVID, he got laid off and decided to make a career in the mead industry. Ty got into mead a few years back after re-con...

1-18-22 Tonight we're talking with Mike and Cathy Rape, owners of The Ferm Meadery in Conroe, TX. They're making great mead and having a good time spreading mead, music and food around to their customers. Cathy and Mike are native Texans, and grew up in Conroe, TX. They've been married 26yrs and have 3 grown kids and a grandchild. They also own and operate a company that provides temporary power a...

11-23-21 Tonight we’re venturing back into the world of mead sensory analysis. Stephen from experimeads.com will be joining us again to talk about the latest mead experiments he's been conducting. Stephen is a home mead maker, three time Canadian mead maker of the year, and BJCP certified beer and mead judge. In the process of honing his craft, he has been testing the parameters of mead fermentati...

11-9-21 Tonight we're headed to Texas to talk with Wendy Rohan and Rosie Haines at Rohan Wines and Meads in La Grange, situated between La Grange, Round Top and Fayetteville in south central Texas. Rohan Meadery is at Blissful Folly Farm. The farm is home to Rohan Wines and Meads, Blissful Folly hard ciders and La Grange Brewing Co. All the beer, wine, mead & cider is made on site and served at th...