GotMead Live Radio Show

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,

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

3-12-24 Tonight we're getting together with Laura Angotti, who has written books on mead in history and delved deeply into the writings and recipes of people going back thousands of years to provide information on how mead was made and imbibed in various cultures and at differing levels of society. Laura's most current book, "Wellcome Mead" is available on Amazon, and her new book, "Gold and Sweet, Ensnaring" will be out soon. She has also done a book on cider, "Cider and Perry in Britain to 1700: A Collection of Material from Primary and Selected Secondary Sources - Historical Brewing Sourcebook". Laura Angotti has been making mead for over 30 years. Her focus is on uncovering, understanding, and writing about the history of mead - specifically historical mead recipes and the meads that can be re-created from these recipes. She has cataloged over 4000 mead recipes dating from before 1750 CE and has made and tasted over 100 of these. To better understand the recipes and their context, her research includes broader topics such as genetics of yeast and other microorganisms, the density of hen eggs, and day to day operations of Medieval Abbeys, proving that context is everything and all things are interconnected. Laura uses her training in Engineering and Biology from MIT and Northeastern University, as well as professional experience in techno-economic analysis/modeling, industrial fermentation, and water treatment to weave together the threads of history and connect the past with the present. Laura writes about her work at www.mysteryofmead.com and Mystery of Mead on Facebook. Her books on historical mead and cider are available on Amazon, including the soon to be published “Gold and Sweet, Ensnaring: Mead in Great Britain Prehistory to Elizabeth I”. Laura started making mead because it sounded different, easy, and tasty, and she knew several people who made meads she had enjoyed, including her soon-to-be fiance. She kept doing it initially because it was nice to have something to share, and it was a fun hobby to do with her husband. Their shared interests in history led them to researching the history of mead through Early English Books - now online but then hundreds of reels of microfilm. The hobby lay fallow for a number of years while they raised kids and had careers, then a chance inquiry after the information she had written up years before led her to review it, look for more, and then dive right back into a world of digitized texts and manuscripts. Her books are available on Amazon, under her name, Laura Angotti, Gold and Sweet, Ensnaring will be published very soon, and she's already working on the next two books in what she's calling her Historical Brewing Sourcebook series. For those with either a serious aversion or an inability to access Amazon she can often work out other ways of getting books to them. Join us to dive into history with Laura! 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 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

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

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.

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,

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

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,

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

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

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.

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...

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

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 on creating and furthering linkages between honey producers and end makers of many kinds. Brian began beekeeping in 2012 in Guinea, west Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer. He subsequently worked for a small honey startup in Cambridge while doing graduate research at Boston University. While studying and working in the Northeast, Brian worked to further beekeeping relationships in various places, including Tanzania & Colombia, before starting WHE as a wholesale honey company. Operational since 2019, WHE has become known for specialty honeys and worked extensively in the specialty craft beverage with partners including Heidrun Meadery in California, Deschutes Brewing in Oregon, and Lamplighter and Aeronaut Brewing in Massachusetts. Join us to learn more and see what Brian is up to with World Honey Exchange! 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 - Scale and Feather 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 July 20 - Meadiocrity Mead, San Marcos, CA - Dungeons and Dragons and Mead July 20 - Wildflyer Mead, Navasota, TX - Bingo Night July 22 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - Yoga and Mead July 22 - Honey Wines Australia Meadery, Broke, New South Wales, Australia - Honey and mead tasting July 22 - Orpheus Mead Fest, Golden, CO - Mead Festival - tasting and bottle sales July 22 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Emma Nobbe music July 22 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Axe Throwing at the Meadery July 25 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Golden Boar release and BBQ feast day July 29 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Making Mead class Aug 3 - Maniacal Mead, Ypsilanti, MI - Mead Hall Thursday Aug 5 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - National Mead Day 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 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI -Drink Mead, Learn Things - Celtic Mythology: Where to Begin? Aug 5 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - 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

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 ton of Star Wars memorabilia, much of it due to late nights with mead on Ebay and other sales sites. Manny Elgarresta is a native New Yorker now residing in Miami Beach,  who got into homebrew after moving to Miami in 1987 and finding that the variety of beers was limited to Budweiser and Coors with some exotics like Beck's.  After the craft beer boom made beer brewing kind of moot, he looked for a new way to use his fermenter and found mead.  For a little over 10 years he's been trying to perfect a high heat traditional, making gallons of JAOM for the holidays and annoying gotmead podcasters with yeast questions. Special for tonight, our last show of 2022, Manny has obtained 10 *gallons* of rare Florida Keys mangrove honey, and another 5 gallons of Keys wildflower honey. 180 pounds of rare, organic, unprocessed honey. And here at GotMead Live, Manny is offering these honeys to 10 special folks, to make a really special mead. We will be choosing talented mead makers from our faithful listeners to get a gallon of honey, and make a special mead from it. We intend to feature those meads on GotMead social media and here on GotMead Live in the spring. The rules are simple: receive the honey (there will be shipping costs, Manny is giving the honey for free) create a mead that showcases the honey post to Gotmead (social and/or forum) the recipe and technique be willing to come on the show later to discuss what you did, why you decided the approach you took, and how it turned out be willing to get a bottle (can be like a 375) to us on GML so we can enjoy it with you! (and cheer your mead) So join us tonight to talk meadmaking, combatting the heat, varietal honeys and other great meadmaking info! 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 are off for December, see you January 10! 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 1 - Hierophant Mead, Mead, WA - Spokane Valley Winter Market Dec 2 - Bragging Rooster Beer & Mead, Warrenton, NC - Live music by the Mary Selvidge Band Dec 3 - For You Brewing Supplies, Terre Haute, IN - Mead Competition Dec 3 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Community Solstice Party, including Ugly Sweater Day and the return of Coffee Mead! Dec 3 - Gladheart Wine & Brews, Roanoke, VA - Kinnfolk Mead and Cocktails - music by Kinnfolk Dec 4 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - December First Sunday Sound Bath

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. They focus on making the best product they can. The Mead Hall is a small niche tasting room with production. They specialize in ciders, still meads, sparkling session meads, and pyments. Or basically anything they can get weird with. Luke Goucher is a real estate tycoon, restauranteur, and commercial banker with the absolute love and passion for mead and craft beer. He is an alumni of Augustana University. Luke grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago. It's his visionary sight that brought along Obscurity as well as many other things. Father and husband, he never sleeps trying to see the bigger picture. Carson Souza grew up in New Jersey and went to college for music. But he never left food and beverage the whole time. He's been a commercial brewer for the last 15 years on and off. Luke actually got him fermenting mead. His passion grew from there. 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 29 - Manny Elgarresta - Mangrove honey and mead making challenge 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 15 - Moonjoy Meadery and Bottle Shop, Durham, NC - Mead n' Make: Quirky Tarot Nov 16 - KingView Mead, Lebanon, PA - Name that Tune and Trivia Night Nov 18 - Bragging Rooster Beer and Mead, Warrenton, NC - Flannel Party! Nov 19 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Getting Ready for Turkey Day - mead and Thanksgiving food pairing Nov 19 - Moonjoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfulness Nov 23 - Bootleg Hill Honey Mead, Davenport, IA - Jim & Leigh Acoustic Nov 23 - Haley's Honey Meadery, Fredericksburg, VA - Thanksgiving Food and Mead Baskets Nov 24 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Temecula Turkey Trot - Harvest Honey Run 5k Nov 26 - Honey & Hops Brew Works, Front Royal, VA - Music & Mead - Featuring: Gunner Heathe Nov 26 - Graham Ordinary, Bedford, VA - Drink Mead, Bee Thankful Nov 26 - Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR - Small Business Saturday Nov 27 - Wildflyer Mead, Navasota, TX - Goat Yoga! Nov 27 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Holiday Artisan Market - Sip and Shop Dec 1 - Hierophant Mead, Mead, WA - Spokane Valley Winter Market Dec 3 - For You Brewing Supplies, Terre Haute, IN - Mead Competition Dec 3 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Community Solstice Party Dec 4 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Holiday Pop Up Market Dec 7 - Over the Moon Farmstead, Pittsfield,

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 a quest for him. He wanted to have more mead that was THAT good, and headed back to Tampa to give it a shot, making home meads Having no local meadmakers to draw from, this gave him the luxury of being unafraid to experiment with flavors and ingredients not associated with meads.  Some experiments failed and others worked great, all had a powerful influence on how he saw mead and what he thought mead could be. Like any hobby he dove face first into meadmaking.  His goal was simple, to create memorable experiences through mead using locally produced ingredients to the extent possible.  Soon he was sharing those meads with friends and they shared them with others. A phenomenon of sorts was born and fast forward another year and he was being invited to pour at local festivals. In early 2016 he decided to make Garagiste Meadery a legitimate business.  The original concept was a side job of sorts, he'd make mead between the other day jobs.  In April 2016 he launched a crowdfunding campaign to get started.  Without much expectations or fanfare they put themselves out there.  The campaign closed a month later making Garagiste Meadery the largest publicly funded Meadery in history. After some soul searching we decided that we'd throw our fate to the winds and let the voice of the people be heard.  Garagiste Meadery would be a full Meadery with a Tasting Room and become the family business.  As the Meadery came together they felt the impetus to get better.  Still making home meads as they worked their way towards opening,  and opened in late 2017. Thankfully, some great meadmakers embraced them and helped refine Garagiste Meadery to where they are today. Join us to talk with Chad! And get a 20% listener discount by using GOTMEAD = 20% at Garagiste! 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 15 - Luke Goucher - Obscurity Mead and Cider/Obscurity Brewing - Elburn, IL November 29 - Manny Elgarresta - Mangrove honey and mead making challenge 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 2 - Over the Moon Farmstead, Pittsfield, NH - Mead and Read November - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Nov 2 - Drinking Horn Meadery, Flagstaff, AZ - Mead Hall Trivia Nov 4 - Pye Road Meadworks, Odessa, FL - Murder and Mead - murder mystery event Nov 5 - Meadiocrity Mead, San Marcos, CA - 3rd Anniversary Party Nov 5 - Wandering Bard Meadery,

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 Honey Spirits Competition, as well as their other involvement with honey in craft beverages. We'll dig into how it went with the Mead Crafters Competition, and what's coming in future competitions. We'll also be talking with Keith about his MeadCon talk around mead positioning itself as the next big thing, and follow the track of spirits-based RTD. And of course, honey. Seems that the demand for honey in the last year is the largest ever, and it keeps growing. For the last eleven years, Keith has traveled the country educating bakers, distillers, brewers and now mead makers about honey and its many uses. It’s his passion, and one that has him working with bees and meads, two of his favorite things. Before working for the National Honey Board, Keith served as editor and associate publisher of a trade publication that covered the wholesale baking industry. Come on in and have a listen! 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 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 19 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, NY - Mead and Massage Oct 19 - Drinking Horn Meadery, Flagstaff, AZ - Mead Hall Trivia Oct 19 - ARTifice Ales and Mead, Manheim, PA - Cigar Night! Oct 19-30 - Hierophant Meadery, Mead, WA - Harvest Festival Oct 21 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Autumn Mead Pairing Dinner Oct 21 - Gypsy Circus, Knoxville, TN - Birthday Mead Release: Chai and Cosmopolitan Oct 22 - The Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Mead O'ween Spooktacular Oct 26 - Stardust Cellars, Greensboro, NC - Mead Tasting at the Loaded Grape Oct 27 - WildFlyer Mead Co, Navasota, TX - Adult Coloring Night - Halloween Theme Oct 29 - The Viking Alchemist, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Mischief '22 Oct 29 - Brix Urban Winery and Market, Sainte Genevieve, MO - All Hallows Mead Oct 29 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Mead-O-Ween Oct 29 - Trazo Meadery, Clarksville, TN - Mead Mayhem Oct 29 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Halloween Party - Tasting, Dinner and Costumes are Encouraged Oct 30 - WildFlyer Mead Co, Navasota, TX - Halloween at the Honey Farm Nov 5 - Wandering Bard Meadery, Greenville, SC - Guided Mead Tasting - Special Reserve Bottles and Introduction to Mead Making Class Nov 6 - Lilly Belle Meads, Lancaster, NY - Sunday Brunch Nov 12 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Live music with Bacon Nov 12 - Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland,