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

10-16-28 Tonight we're off to cooler climes in Wyoming, and meeting with Michaell Jordan. Michael Jordan is a hobby mead maker looking to go commercial in the near future. He has been keeping honey bees now for over 20 years. Michael’s family has been making mead not only as a tasty beverage, but for medical usage. Michael blends herbs, and uses honey from all over the world for his medical meads....

10-9-18 Tonight we're going across the pond, in a recorded episode with Mateusz Blaszczyk, who is putting on the European Mead Makers Association's first Mead Conference, November 8-9 in Poznan, Poland. The group Kings of Mead YouTube channel will also be putting on two mead competitions, the Mead Madness Competition one for home meadmakers and one for professional meaderies. Currently it is expec...

10-2-18 We're dropping into teaching mode again tonight, and bringing in Ryan to talk mead. He'll be digging into pairing yeasts to your mead recipes, continuing the conversation from last week. Possibly one of the larger questions in mead making is 'what yeast do I use?'. And a big question is is indeed. There are hundreds of yeasts out there, for wine, beer, cider and even a few mead specific ye...

9-25-18 We're dropping into teaching mode tonight, and bringing in Ryan to talk mead. He'll be digging into pairing yeasts to your mead recipes. Possibly one of the larger questions in mead making is 'what yeast do I use?'. And a big question is is indeed. There are hundreds of yeasts out there, for wine, beer, cider and even a few mead specific yeasts. But which one to choose? That is the questio...

9-18-18 We're headed up to Pennsylvania tonight, to talk with Scott Neeley, head meadmaker at Kingview Meadery. Scott has been making mead since 2011, and did a lot of work at it, until he began to enter competitions in 2015. He has since picked up a number of medals, and a couple BoS medals. He ended up starting a meadery after visiting a number of meaderies around PA and OH, and as a man of Germ...

9-11-18 Today we're getting together with Thomas Hubbe, co-owner of Bee Seasonal, a purveyor of Brazilian Honey. Thomas and Larissa founded Bee Seasonal because they love honey. Larissa noticed that in Europe, they routinely stock seasonal honeys from around the world, but in the US, not so much. So she and Thomas set out to rectify this. Their mission is to source organic honeys from beekeepers d...

9-4-18 We're back after my trip to Australia (yes, we'll talk about the mead there too). And our first guest now that we're back is none other than Susan Ruud, co-founder of Prairie Rose Meadery in Fargo, ND. Susan makes pretty amazing mead, and when last I was there, last summer, I ended up getting nearly every one of her meads, because I just couldn't leave them out. All were excellent. Susan sp...

8-7-18 We're skipping over to Wyoming this week to visit with Sam Clikeman, owner of Big Lost Meadery. Sam started making beer back in the early 2000's in Logan, UT with a buddy. In a forest service cabin in the middle of the woods. No running water, very little electric, and not much by way of supplies. That takes dedication! It actually worked out better than you might think it would, and a coup...

7-31-18   Mountain Rose Herbs is an online purveyor of the highest quality organically grown herbs and spices, teas, essential oils, & botanical goods. They focus on sustainability and offer one of the most thorough selections of certified organic herbs, spices, and botanical products today. Organics are their first choice regardless of price or profit. They try to stay as close to zero waste as t...

7-24-18 Tonight we're talking with Justin LeVaughn, who is the Quality Assurance and Quality Control Officer at Ethereal Brewing in Lexington, KY. Justin does the microbiological and sensory analysis there, and maintains their yeast stocks. Justin started home brewing beer about 10 years ago in college, and combined his formal biology training with the hobby. He fell into the mead world about 4-5...

7-17-18 We're baaccckkk!! Tonight we have on the show Alison Heath, owner of Apothecary Mead in Sherwood Forest (yes, that one) in the UK. Alison is the first female commercial meadery owner in the UK, and her meadery is a small artisan business, making cold-fermented mead over time. Her operation is on the historic Welbeck Estate in North Notthinghamshire. Alison is huge into recycling her mead m...

6-19-18 Tonight we're up to a couple of things. We're going to do some chat tonight around our to-brew lists, mistakes we've learned from, equipment we didn't know we needed when we got started, and other things. AND, we're happy to welcome Fred Minnick, author and speaker. Fred gave the Mead Cocktails talk at the 2018 AMMA MeadCon. Wall Street Journal-bestselling author Fred Minnick loves his bou...

Enlightenment Wines started out as a small part time farm winery in 2009 by Raphael Lyon. In 2015 Lyon reached out to Anthony Rock and Arley Marks with the intent to join forces and grow Enlightenment Wines into a full scale production meadery with a tasting room and cocktail bar in Brooklyn New York. Enlightenment is a little different from many meaderies, in that they are heavily focused on 'nat...

Photo by Matt Furman 6-12-18 Tonight we're hanging out with Raphael Lyon, owner of Enlightenment Wines in Brooklyn, NY. Enlightenment Wines started out as a small part time farm winery in 2009 by Raphael Lyon. In 2015 Lyon reached out to Anthony Rock and Arley Marks with the intent to join forces and grow Enlightenment Wines into a full scale production meadery with a tasting room and cocktail bar...

6-5-18 Tonight Ryan is going to tackle one of the tougher aspects of mead making, creating a balanced end result. Meadmaking is  really about making a good balance of ingredients. Once we can produce clean mead without any faults, ( and that's pretty easy with a little knowledge) it becomes an art form. Much like being a food master. So we're asking you to call us at 803-443-6323 to ask your quest...

5-29-18 Tonight we're getting with Billy Beltz, award-winning mead maker. Billy Beltz is the Co-Founder of Lost Cause Meadery located in in San Diego, CA. Billy and his wife Suzanna opened the doors to Lost Cause in November of 2017. After only six months of being open they have already amassed several national awards for their meads including medals at the Mazer Cup International, the San Diego I...

5-21-18 We're back! Tonight we're talking with Adam Thompson, owner of Machination Meadworks in Loveland, Colorado. Adam envisioned Machination Mead Works in 2013 and began the long path to starting his own meadery. Now with over a decade of brewing experience and a few dozen medals, including five Mazer Cups, he is ready to share his mead with the world. It has been a long uphill fight but his ti...

4-24-18 we are yeast hunting today! Our guest is Luke Holcombe, with Scott Labs. Born and raised in California’s Central Valley, Luke grew up surrounded by wine grapes. This led him to pursue a degree at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo in Wine and Viticulture. Prior to joining Scott Laboratories, Luke was the Assistant Winemaker at McManis Family Vineyards in Ripon, California and Head Winemaker for Post...

4-17-18 Tonight our guest is Alex Gonzales, owner of Honeypot Meadery in Anaheim, CA, and one of the founders for the Southern California Mead Alliance and the Southern California Mead Club. Alex has been all over the mead world in the last couple years, and launched Honeypot Meadery after doing custom crushes with Golden Coast Mead. They will be opening a tasting room this summer. Alex is one of...

4-10-18 We're off on a honey run today! If you went to the AMMA Conference, you may have gotten to hear Evan Himes speak about Dutch Gold Honey and the honey market, and maybe even gotten to taste the varietals Sergio made from their honeys. Evan is coming on tonight to talk with us about what Dutch Gold is up to, discuss varietals of honey, and dig into the honey market. And a little bird told us...

4-3-18 Tonight we're venturing into the world of mead data. Stephen Snudden is an avid home mead maker and BJCP certified beer and mead judge in Canada. Stephen is also a huge proponent of studies and data and because he was frustrated at the lack of formalized study of mead, he decided to design his own and founded the web site experimeads.com. This is an outlet for mead makers to share data obse...

3-27-18 Whew, it’s been a busy few weeks! We return this week with something different, a cidery owner. Mead and cider go hand in hand, and there are many similarities. So, we're talking with Chris Sheldon, owner of Diner Brewi Co, in New York state. Chris first began trying his hand at brewing in 2008 while he was a junior at Boston College. He and his roommate were feeling unsatisfied with the b...

2-27-18 Tonight we're mixing it up a bit, with a regular guest, and an AMMA Mead Conference Speaker. Julie Lawson and Kristen England will be here with the BJCP, and Adam Crockett, owner of Haymaker Meadery, talking about mead and oak. Kristen is a medical doctor. And spent some time overseas pursuing his studies, where he discovered awesome beer. Upon returning to the U.S., England began homebrew...

Live from the NYC Fermentation Fest

2-20-18 We're continuing our speaker showcase for the AMMA Conference with Carolyn Peepall. Carolyn is originally from South Africa, and has been a beekeeper since 2007. She started the Bee Town Bee Club in Bloomington, Indiana in 2014, with a focus on sustainable beekeeping within the Bloomington area. The Bee Town Bee Club is a growing group of bee minded folks who are striving to raise Indiana...