10-12-21 We're headed to Baltimore, where we'll catch up with James Boicourt, founder and owner of Charm City Meadworks. James began making mead back in college (NC State) around 2004, after taking a great class on introductory beekeeping. He was already trying out homebrewing, and got so interested in beekeeping and entomology that he ended up taking a graduate level bee class. What else was a college kid going to do with a bunch of surplus honey anyhow? Of course he fermented it. It seemed like a great idea for a business someday, as there was very little available anywhere at that time, and when you could find or order it, choices were usually very limited. The knowledge base for making mead at that time was also very limited, particularly with regards to yeast strains, care and feeding of the yeast, etc. he remembers looking up some of the early example recipes on GotMead.com. He took what he was able to find and did several large controlled experiments over the years, doing a few batches of a control recipe, and working out which variables had the largest impact on taste. Needless to say 25 5 gallon batches running in parallel was not always the most easy of things to find a person willing to host early on. In early 2014, James and a good friend were looking to invest their time in something in the craft beverage industry. After some hard looking, Andrew and James circled back to mead because we felt like it was a relatively untapped opportunity that they could bootstrap. From early on their focus was on lighter, lower abv products, and predominantly canned ones, primarily because they enjoyed drinking them on a daily basis, and friends highly encouraged those as a very drinkable option. Covid has certainly been a big hit, but going from 1200 sq ft a few years ago to 10,000 in just a few years has been an interesting ride. The Charm City Meadworks taproom is at 400 E Biddle St, Baltimore, MD 21202. [break] 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 26 - Yancy Bodenstein - Clear Skies Mead November 9 - Wendy Rohan - Rohan Mead November 23 - Steve at Experimeads Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Oct 14 - Capital Hive Meadery, Leesburg, VA - October Mead Up Oct 14 - Wildflyer Mead Co, Navasota, TX - Adult Coloring Night Oct 14 - Victory or Valhalla, Dixon, CA - Ax throwing venue is hosting a mead making class Oct 16 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - NC Wine Festival at Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary, NC Oct 16 - Cape Town Mead Company, Maitland, Cape Town, South Africa - Mead Tasting Oct 1-31 - Humblebee Meadery, BC, Canada - Huck it in the Bucket: A month-long special promoting HumbleBee Meadery and Axewood Axe Throwing at the Whistler Racket Club’s Courtside Cafe, Patio, and Bar Oct 16 - Michigan Mead Cup - Awards Ceremony - 5PM ET

GotMead Live Radio Show

10-12-21 James Boicourt – Charm City Meadworks – Session Meads – on the Dry Side

9-27-21 Tonight we're changing up a bit, Charm City had to reschedule into October. We're tickled to have Bob Slanzi step in to talk with us tonight. He's going to work with Vicky to rescue a mead of hers that went a bit sideways, and we're going to talk about making mead (of course), as Bob is a no-measure meadmaker, he's all about the flavor profile and the palate. There may be a special guest or two! And we'll be talking about the awful damage done to meaderies during Hurricane Ida, and what people and meaderies are doing to help out. 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 is known for his meads, and isn’t afraid to try new flavors, like seaweed. 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: It's now mead slushee season, and we are celebrating with four rotating flavors. Each one is a dangerously delicious glass of heaven. Visit the 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 slushee taster!  They love visitors! www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows September 28 - James Boicourt - Charm City Meadworks - Baltimore, MD Sponsor: Having trouble keeping accurate brew logs? Construct recipes and manage tasting notes with Adventurous Brewer. Adventurous Brewer has your needs in mind--generate staggered nutrient additions, create timers and calendar events, and track active batches. You can even split batches mid-brew to experiment with different flavoring agents in secondary. Visit https://adventurousbrewer.app/login.html today. Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Sept 30 - Clear Skies Meadery, Gaithersburg, MD - Mind, Body and Mead - Yoga class Oct 1 - Honey & Hops Brew Works, Front Royal, VA - Music and Mead with Gunner Heathe Oct 2 - Bos Meadery, Madison, WI - Live on the Patio: Elements new single release, and featuring Sigra and Flow Poetry Oct 2 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - 2nd Annual Mead on Main - A Viking Festival Oct 2 - Nordic Moon Meadery, Lebanon, CT - Charter Oak Mead Cup at the CT Renaissance Faire - get entries in! Oct 2 - Orpheus Mead Cup Meadfest Tasting, Golden, CO Oct 6 - Vineria Fine Wines and Spirits, Shreveport, LA - Mead Tasting Oct 9 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Intermediate Mead Making class Oct 9 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Viking Night! Souvenir Horn and Pizza! Oct 14 - Capital Hive Meadery, Leesburg, VA - October Mead Up Oct 14 - Wildflyer Mead Co, Navasota, TX - Adult Coloring Night Oct 14 - Victory or Valhalla, Dixon, CA - Ax throwing venue is hosting a mead making class Oct 16 - Cape Town Mead Company, Maitland, Cape Town, South Africa - Mead Tasting Oct 1-31 - Humblebee Meadery, BC, Canada - Huck it in the Bucket: A month-long special promoting HumbleBee Meadery and Axewood Axe Throwing at the Whistler Rac...

9-28-21 Bob Slanzi – Making Mead, Rescuing a Mead, Saving a Meadery

9-14-21 Tonight we're celebrating National Honey Month with Alison Conklin at the National Honey Board. The NHB has a bunch of really interesting events and campaigns going on during September.

9-14-21 National Honey Month with Alison Conklin – National Honey Board

8-31-21 Tonight we're doing a pre-recorded session with Tom Gosnell, owner of Gosnell's of London. Tom got interested in meadmaking in 2013 after a visit to the US and going to Maine Meadworks. He liked it so much, he decided to try meadmaking at home. After three years of increasing meadmaking in his kitchen, he decided it was time to go commercial, and took the plunge. Tom got hooked up with a commercial brewery in London, and when it closed down, they decided to get their own space. Tom is really fond of Spanish orange blossom honey, which is quite nice. They have it blended with some other European honeys to get a custom blend that they use in many of their meads. they make session/hydromel strength meads, and carbonate them. They launched their can line in August 2019 and their customer base really loved it. Their meads run from a hibiscus session to a complex sour mead. Gosnell's uses flash pasteurization to stabilize their meads, and Tom has done a lot of research into this, and is a big fan of pasteurization for meads.  Gosnells is very export focused, sending a lot to southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore and is in 24 US states, and the US market is growing for them. You can find them in the US in Total Wine and More stores. During COVID Gosnell's pivoted to an online model, like many meaderies around the world. But they saw a 20 times spike in sales in the UK when they did this. This led to other ideas to keep customers interested, like an online tasting product with Instagram Live sessions to let people try the mead in a virtual tasting. He’s even doing corporate tastings for companies to do virtual gatherings with their employees Once things opened back up, Tom partnered with London breweries Anspach and Hobday in their taproom space and gardens. And now they've a full space for their weekend gardens events. Come listen to Tom! 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: It's now mead slushee season, and we are celebrating with four rotating flavors. Each one is a dangerously delicious glass of heaven. Visit the 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 slushee taster!  They love visitors! www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows September 14 - Keith Seiz - National Honey Board for Honey Month September 28 - James Boicourt - Charm City Meadworks - Baltimore, MD Sponsor: Having trouble keeping accurate brew logs? Construct recipes and manage tasting notes with Adventurous Brewer. Adventurous Brewer has your needs in mind--generate staggered nutrient additions, create timers and calendar events, and track active batches. You can even split batches mid-brew to experiment with different flavoring agents in secondary. Visit https://adventurousbrewer.app/login.html today. Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Sept 2-5 - Orchid Cellars, Middletown, MD - releasing Alchemist, black currant mead with notes of passionfruit, red grapes, vanilla and allspice Sept 3 - Bos Meadery, Madison, WI - KatH Presents: Seesaw, Mock Nine, DJ Femme, Noir, Amethyst Von Trollenberg and more

8-31-21 Tom Gosnell – Gosnells of London

8-19-21 Tonight we're 'across the pond' visiting with Ann Farrell and Gordon Baron at Lancashire Mead in Horwich, Lancashire, Great Britain. They make meads in a natural fashion, without stabilizers or finings. Gordon is a Druid and uses mead in ritual.  He wanted a pure mead for this purpose (and didn’t want to put chemicals into the earth) so in 2009, he decided ‘how hard can it be?’, emptied his local supermarket of honey, dumped it in a bucket with some yeast…… the rest is history!  Three years homebrewing, whilst being a tramping trucker, and an ever increasing circle of friends (strange that!) and then he met Ann in 2012.  Easter 2013, Ann figured she earned enough (self employed teacher) to keep both of them and suggested he start the meadery.  Three months later, Ann was laid off from her job, and joined Gordon at the meadery. Lancashire Mead was started in Nov 2013.  Their first mead was available for sale Feb 2014.  They expanded their space by 50% Sept 2014.  In Oct 2014 they were asked to supply Michelin restaurant L’Enclume (Owned by Michelin starred chef Simon Rogan) – and are still supplying them.  In October 2015 their product was used on BBC’s Great British Menu (women’s institute).  They expanded again by 100% in 2016.  They were ranked second in the UK mead chart in the Independent Newspaper.  And won their first Mead Madness medals in 2019 and second medals in 2020. Their premises are currently 5x bigger – they started with 1034 sqft, and now are at 5170 sqft. The philosophy that Gordon and Ann have at Lancashire mead is 'be natural'.In line with their spiritual beliefs, they wanted to keep their Mead as natural as possible. This means, firstly, that the honey they use is raw, unpasteurised, and un-sterilised. For the technically minded, throughout the process at their suppliers, the honey has never been heated above 44 degrees Celsius (112 Fahrenheit). It also means that throughout their process it has never been heated above 40 degrees Celsius.Secondly, it means that there are no chemical additions throughout the whole process, with the exception of the yeast nutrients which are digested along with the sugars in the honey during fermentation. They do not use “fermentation stoppers” or “stabilisers”, the yeast naturally dies off and sediments without the aid of any finings (usually animal products like isinglass). Join us as we hang out with Gordon and Ann to explore their 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: It's now mead slushee season, and we are celebrating with four rotating flavors. Each one is a dangerously delicious glass of heaven. Visit the 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 slushee taster!  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 31 - Tom Gosnell - Gosnell's Mead, Great Britain (recorded episode) Sponsor: Having trouble keeping accurate brew logs? Construct recipes and manage tasting notes with Adventurous Brewer. Adventurous Brewer has your needs in mind--generate staggered nutrient additions, create timers and calendar events,

8-19-21 Gordon Baron and Ann Farrell – Lancashire Mead, Lancashire, Great Britain

7-27-21 Tonight we're back across the pond and hanging out with Danique Staal, owner of De Noordelijke Mederij (The Northern Meadery). Danique makes some very interesting meads, including a Stroopwafel mead that took gold and Best in Show at the European Mead Makers Kings of Mead Competition Mead Madness Cup in 2020, the largest mead competition in Europe. Danique got interested in mead at an early age, he was always interested in the old sagas, myths and legends. There was a lot about mead in those stories, and he only really knew it was made from honey. Life goes on, and after high school, Danique joined the military, and after his service became a police officer. And as a police officer, he realized after a traffic accident that he couldn't help out the injured people, and decided to study nursing. Whew! Busy man!! Once he completed his nursing studies and was working as a nurse, he picked up various activities, like doing national strongman competitions.....and making mead. Making mead became his passion. While he was doing an international internship for nursing, he was invited to a Medieval festival, where he was given a horn of mead. And he was off and running. He decided to make mead for himself, and when he got home to the Netherlands, he dug up an online mead recipe, and proceed to make a really bad mead. Everything he could do wrong, he did wrong. (Don't we all? LOL) A few years later he went to another Medieval festival, and had more horns of mead. He decided to try again. One carboy became two, which became four, and before he knew it, he'd taken over an entire room of his house with buckets of mead. He was taking it to parties, and his friends starting 'paying for supplies' and he was breaking even. This was looking good, so he applied for the licenses, got a location, and opened Northern Mead. He was in the process at the time of switching from handicapped healthcare to forensic nursing, and when he asked for a day a week to work on the meadery from his job, they said no, then he took a gold and two silver medals at the Mead Madness Cup and his decision on what to do was made for him. Danique quit nursing, and jumped into meadmaking full time professionally. Now Danique is bringing mead to the larger public. People were confused with what mead really is, since it's 'new' to so many. He changed his meadery name to 'De Noordelijke Mederij' (The Northern Meadery) where he makes regular mead (Northern Mead), braggots (Viking Mjød) and session mead (Nord Mead). This way, people can differentiate between the different products and they don't have problems with the pronunciation of the meadery itself. Danique won 3 bronze medals at the Mazer Cup last year and 1 gold medal, 2 silver medals and Grand Champion of 2020 at the Mead Madness Cup. But the most important thing for him is to share my passion with everyone. Join us tonight at 9PM EST to talk mead with Danique! 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: It's now mead slushee season, and we are celebrating with four rotating flavors. Each one is a dangerously delicious glass of heaven. Visit the 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 slushee taster!  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,

7-27-2021 Danique Staal- De Noordelijke Mederij, Netherlands

7-13-21 Tonight we're getting together with Frank Golbeck from Golden Coast Mead and Alyson Schramm Naeger from Schramm's Mead to talk about the Mead institute, a non-profit they have founded to establish Mead as an industry with a more than 1000 year future. The Mead Institute was co-foounded by Alyson and Frank to provide resources to mead professionals to enrich the mead experience from production through consumption. They have a detailed view of what they'd like to create with this venture: Getting a tasting protocol published and distributed with the goal of getting prominent wine writers to write about it. Educate the general population on mead terminology, including the process of how it is made and standards for quality. Achieve regular coverage of mead in beverage alcohol publications and media outlets. (“Beer, mead and cider” should be the standard of description for the “craft” beverage family.) Introduce mead as a premium beverage, able to be placed on the beverage lists of premier restaurants across the world and hold its own against the best beers and wines in the world.  They also want to build up a Mead Institute library of premium commercial meads they can send out when needed. Create a curriculum for the education of individuals involved in the many aspects of mead making and sales. Create a scholarship fund to provide education for mead professionals. Establish a honey database - to include GCMS, HPLC and MRS data of major varietal honeys, to document authenticity markers and enable yeast and honey compatibility analysis pre-fermentation. After establishing a mead market nationally, define and enable regenerative honey to deliver on the promise of mead transforming the honey industry regenerative for the benefit of the earth, bees, beekeepers and consumers. Alyson Schramm Naeger cofounded Schramm's Mead in 2013 and currently serves as the CEO there.  She is a Certified Specialist of Wine, a Certified Specialist of Spirits, a Certified Cicerone, a BJCP Mead Judge and a Certified Sommelier.  She co-founded the Mead Institute in 2020 and envisions a mead industry that endures and thrives for 1000 years. Frank Golbeck cofounded Golden Coast Mead in 2010 and currently serves as the President there.  He is a BJCP Mead Judge and co-founded the Mead Institute in order to establish a forum for the Mead Industry to discuss and formalize standards of quality in a professional and transparent way so that the industry can thrive as it grows.   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: It's now mead slushee season, and we are celebrating with four rotating flavors. Each one is a dangerously delicious glass of heaven. Visit the 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 slushee taster!  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 July 27 - Danique Staal- De Noordelijke Mederij, Netherlands August 17 - Gordon Baron - Lancashire Mead, Great Britain August 31 - Tom Gosnell - Gosnell's Mead, Great Britain (recorded episode) Sponsor: Having trouble keeping accurate brew logs? Construct recipes and manage tasting notes with Adventurous Brewer.

7-13-21 Frank Golbeck and Alyson Schramm Naeger – The Mead Institute

6-24-21 Tonight we're continuing our travels in Europe with Gert Smet and the Blacksmith's Meadery in Antwerp, Belgium. Gert is a reenactor - a living history nerd. His living history group, Ortus Phoenix, portrays the late 15th century, just after the death of Charles the Bold. Gert drank his first mead on one of the medieval festivals in 2011. Needless to say it was 'high quality' rotgut (some cheap German swill) that made his stomach dissolve. He was sure that he could make something more palatable himself and got to experimenting. In retrospect his first mead must've been quite horrible - no technique, no Idea of fermentation management, no nutrients other than raisins (hey, it was the dark ages, right?). His very first mead was a JAO clone I got from stormthecastle.com. It was abysmal, but compared to the "mead"  available at the festivals it was like amazing. Ortus Phoenix (his group) liked it instantly (doing the friend thing) and they got other reenactors to try it. They liked it as well. What ensued was not unlike the story of the bucket of mead with the bottle of aspirin on top. Luckily Gert started reading (The Compleat Mead Maker among others), and discovered GotMead? This upped his game fairly quickly and some people started badgering him to go pro. Which he did in 2016. The first official batch he made was for the wedding of a couple of friends. He'd been making mead in his basement but that rapidly became too small. This hindered the growth of the meadery in a big way. His batch sizes were limited to 120 liters at a time. This year they moved to a bigger location and the production took a huge leap. ...and now the new location is becoming too small.. They used to produce drier meads, traditionals and melomels, and the occasional braggot (being a Belgian he had little choice there...). Fairly quickly he got into the sweeter stuff -after tasiting some of Ken's meads- and that's now the main stay in their production. Every now and again they still make a dry traditional. He loves working with fruit, especially berries, apples and pears. A while ago Gert discovered the joys of barrel aging. Like there wasn't already a problem space-wise. They're continuing to grow, have some interesting collabs going on and on the docket, and their name is starting to get peoples attention. Interestingly, Gert's son, Ares, (10 YO)  discovered their meads on a craft beer bar menu and promptly declared that he did like having a famous dad. Gert nearly shot a € 12 Lambic out of his nose. 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: Having trouble keeping accurate brew logs? Construct recipes and manage tasting notes with Adventurous Brewer. Adventurous Brewer has your needs in mind--generate staggered nutrient additions, create timers and calendar events, and track active batches. You can even split batches mid-brew to experiment with different flavoring agents in secondary. Visit https://adventurousbrewer.app/login.html today. 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 July 13 - Frank Golbeck and Alyson Schramm-Neager - The Mead Institute July 27 - Danique Staal- De Noordelijke Mederij, Netherlands August 10 - Gordon Baron - Lancashire Mead, Great Britain August 31 - Tom Gosnell - Gosnell's Mead, Great Britain Sponsor: It's now mead slushee season,

6-24-21 Gert Smet – The Blacksmith’s Meadery, Antwerp Belgium

6-15-21 Tonight we're staying in North American and headed for the Great White North, Manitoba, Canada, to be precise. Kon and Julie Paseschnikoff own Bee Boyzz Honey and Mead in Oak Bluff, Manitoba. Theirs is a multi-generation business, starting out with Kon Sr. keeping bees many years ago in Venezuela, then Kon getting involved in his dad's market gardening business, and being pulled into bees when his dad started as a hobby beekeeper. Just before his dad passed, he suggested Kon continue with the bees, and those bees arrived shortly after the funeral. Those bees brought Kon closer to his dad, and helped him in his grief at his loss. His wife Julie was big on encouraging him with his bees. Now, the Paseschnikoffs have around 250 hives, and three kids ranging in age from 23 down to 16 who all help to run the honey business. They named the business BeeBoyzz after the 'boys' tending the bees. As they grew, they realized that they wanted to diversify and stand out in the honey business. So they created a line of flavoured honeys and got them into local stores. At that point Kon said, 'we need to make mead'! Kon and Julie went off to mead classes at UC Davis in California, and got hooked. They figured their prairie honey would make great mead (we all know how flavorful that prairie honey is!), and they were right. So they hired a talented mead maker who was a hobby meadmaker to help them ramp up production. They started off with a traditional they called Harvest Gold, and have since expanded to several meads, including canning now. 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: Having trouble keeping accurate brew logs? Construct recipes and manage tasting notes with Adventurous Brewer. Adventurous Brewer has your needs in mind--generate staggered nutrient additions, create timers and calendar events, and track active batches. You can even split batches mid-brew to experiment with different flavoring agents in secondary. Visit https://adventurousbrewer.app/login.html today. 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 June 22 - Gert Smet - Blacksmiths Meadery, Belgium July 13 - Frank Golbeck and Alyson Schramm-Neager - The Mead Institute July 27 - Danique Staal- De Noordelijke Mederij, Netherlands August 10 - Gordon Baron - Lancashire Mead, Great Britain Sponsor: It's now mead slushee season, and we are celebrating with four rotating flavors. Each one is a dangerously delicious glass of heaven. Visit the 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 slushee taster!  They love visitors! www.honnibrook.com Show links and notes Top, Middle and Base Notes: A Comprehensive List The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual - James Green and Ajana Food Pairing website The Flavor Bible The Flavor Matrix - the Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extrordinary Dishes On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Unlock'd - Historical mead recipes Wellcome Mead by Laura Angotti Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Take part in Kevin Meintsma's Hydromel Study - email hydromel@wtibiz.

6-15-21 Kon and Julie Paseschnikoff – Bee Boyzz Honey and Meadery in Manitoba, Canada

6-8-21 Tonight at 9PM ET/3AM Norway time, we're continuing our journeys around Europe and talking with Anders Riseng, co-owner of Askheimer Meadery in Askim, Norway. Askheimer Meadery is one of just a few meaderies so far in Norway, but that is changing, as mead awareness grows in Europe. Anders and his partner Jarl-Magnus teamed up with the idea of starting a meadery during a tasting session at the local beer club – Askim Beerclub, back in 2017. Both guys had then been homebrewers for several years, and Anders had one brewery behind him as well as just started up Slakteren Brygghus (The Slaughter Brewhouse) in the next city. Jarl-Magnus studied phytotherapy - commonly defined as the study of the use of extracts of natural origin as medicines or health-promoting agents. At the tasting session, they tasted some mead, and it sudden hit them that they could do this better. And so the test brews started up. After the first rounds of test-batches, using local summer blossom honey, herbs, fruit and/or berries, they tested the mead upon two chefs and a wine sommelier. After considering their feedback, they understood that their mead was a bit on the sweet side, and lack of acid. So they did new batches, and they came out great. The Askheimer name comes from a rewrite of the old name of the city Askim, located in Viken county. The cities' name in the Viking age was Askheimr. They chose this name to show that this is where the idea of starting a meadery was conceived. It also describes the desire to use as much local products as possible. And Anders and Jarl-Magnus use Norwegian or Nordic ingredients as much as they can. After Superstitions Meadery's Jeff Herbert gave them good feedback at a between sessions tasting at the Mikkeller Beer Celebration 2019, they decided to go commercial. When they got home from Denmark they started to planning the meadery. After months of preparations and plenty of paperwork they got their permits in early 2020 and the company was offically founded in April,.2020. They moved into the meadery production location in May 2020. Their first meads hit the market in November 2020. In their first year of operations, they won two gold medals at the Mead Madness Cup 2020, which got them off to a great start! Anders was kind enough to send mead samples to us, and we'll be tasting them tonight on the show! Join us on the live chat! Sponsor: Having trouble keeping accurate brew logs? Construct recipes and manage tasting notes with Adventurous Brewer. Adventurous Brewer has your needs in mind--generate staggered nutrient additions, create timers and calendar events, and track active batches. You can even split batches mid-brew to experiment with different flavoring agents in secondary. Visit https://adventurousbrewer.app/login.html today. 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! 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 June 15 - Kon and Julie Paseschinikoff - Bee Boyzz Honey and Meadery - Manitoba, Canada June 22 - Gert Smet - Blacksmiths Meadery, Belgium July 27 - Danique Staal- De Noordelijke Mederij, Netherlands August 10 - Gordon Baron - Lancashire Mead, Great Britain Sponsor: It's now mead slushee season, and we are celebrating with four rotating flavors. Each one is a dangerously delicious glass of heaven.

6-8-21 Anders Riseng – Askheimer Meadery in Norway – Making Norwegian Mead with Nordic Ingredients

5-11-21 This episode, we're headed off to the Netherlands, and hanging out with Jeroen Krikke, owner of Kollectiv Mead in Den Haag (The Hague). Jeroen is a long time mead maker, and has taken his love of mead commercial, with his small, but growing meadery. Jeroen used a sabbatical to start Kollektiv Mead in 2018, following his ambition to introduce The Netherlands to "Dutch Craft Mead". At Kollektiv he makes small batch Dessert style meads, often very fruit heavy, made with modern mead practices. His fermentation journey started with beer in 2015, with mead entering the picture around 2017. Inspired by great examples from the U.S. (Think NEIPA's, Pastry stouts, Dessert and Pastry style meads) he makes meads based heavily based on science rather then artistry. He learned a lot at the Mead Making 301 course at U.C. Davis, was present at the first ever EMMA conference and became a MJP certified judge. all the while making more and more mead. Kollektiv Mead was started on pretty much a shoestring budget causing batch sizes to be on the smaller side. Mead is hardly known at all in The Netherlands and when it's already known, it's from the medieval or fantasy angle. That has proven both a challenge as well as an opportunity, as a new path could be paved. From the 3-5 other commercial meaderies operating in The Netherlands, Kollektiv has clearly positioned itself on the modern craft side, introducing complex and intense meads.In response to a demand that is continuously rising, the decision was made to transform Kollektiv to a membership meadery with currently 120 spots and a waiting list several times that size. Currently Jeroen divides his time between occupying and permitting Kollektiv Meads first very own production facility, introducing a brand new session mead style beverage, current production at Kollektiv, starting a hot sauce brand and a full-time job in IT. Join us on the live chat! 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! 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 May 25 - Kon and Julie Paseschinikoff - Bee Boyzz Honey and Meadery - Manitoba, Canada June 8 - Anders Reising & his partner Jarl- Askheimer Meadery, Norway June 22 - Gert Smet - Blacksmiths Meadery, Belgium July 27 - Danique Staal- De Noordelijke Mederij, Netherlands August 10 - Gordon Baron - Lancashire Mead, Great Britain Show links and notes Top, Middle and Base Notes: A Comprehensive List The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual - James Green and Ajana Food Pairing website The Flavor Bible The Flavor Matrix - the Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extrordinary Dishes On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Unlock'd - Historical mead recipes Wellcome Mead by Laura Angotti Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Take part in Kevin Meintsma's Hydromel Study - email hydromel@wtibiz.com and he'll send you questions Upcoming Events May 12 - American Mead Makers Association - MeadCon week 3 - Carvin Wilson on mead judging and Billy Beltz on building and operation a successful tasting room May 13 - Sweet Rebel Honingwijn, Antwerp, Belgium - Copenhagen Mead tasting May 15 - Haley's Honey Meadery, Hopewell,

5-11-21 – Jeroen Krikke – Kollectiv Mead – Dutch Modern Craft Mead

4-27-21 This week on Gotmead Live we're going international! Our guest is Stian Krog, owner of Mjøderiet in Norway, the first meadery to bring back mead in that country. This episode is not live, we got together with Stian yesterday so he wouldn't be up at 3 am! Stian started brewing beer in 2011 and got curious about mead around the same time. He and Erlend Johnsen (now one of the Mjøderiet partners) made their first traditional in 2012 and increasingly made more and more batches during the next few years. This was partly due to the fact that making a batch of mead took far less hours than brewing a batch of beer, so every time he felt like brewing but didn’t have the time, he just made a batch of mead instead. In the beginning, few of them were good but eventually he bought Ken Schramm’s book and started upping his game. He started toying with the idea of opening up a meadery around 2014, as there were no other meaderies in Norway at the time. In 2015, he decided to put a crew together and try to materialize my dream. He resigned from being the leader of Bergen Ølfestival, the biggest beer festival in Norway to run the meadery. In the fall of 2016, after a lot of planning and paperwork, Mjøderiet (the name simply means “The Meadery” in Norwegian) was launched as Norway’s first meadery. Although it has been quite a struggle being alone in the mead business in Norway, with customers having no realistic notions of what mead is and can be and running our operation small-scale and part-time (except for Benjamin, all of the five people running the meadery have had full time jobs all along), he is pretty happy with what they have achieved. In 2019, they won two gold medals in the first Mead Madness Cup (for “Barrel Aged Meadlife Crisis” and “Julemjød”). They have opened up the beverage market in Norway for the public in terms of mead, with an increasing number of people being conscious about mead as an option on the menu. He also feel really pleased that we have resurrected mead as an ancient cultural drink in Norway – a country that actually has a rather famous historical relationship to it through the viking sagas and era. It’s a shame that modern-day Norwegians to a large degree still don’t know much about mead, but this is starting to change now, largely due to their efforts and hard labor. Also, two other meaderies (Askheimer and Marlobobo) were launched in 2020 and are doing well, so mead is slowly starting to come back from the veil of history in Norway. Stian is positive and excited about the future of mead in Norway and internationally, as well as the prospects of Mjøderiet. Mead is back, and it’s here to stay. Join us on the live chat! 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! 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 May 11 - Jeroen Krikke - Kollektiv Mead - Netherlands May 25 - Kon and Julie Paseschinikoff - Bee Boyzz Honey and Meadery - Manitoba, Canada June 8 - Anders Reising & his partner Jarl- Askheimer Meadery, Norway June 22 - Gert Smet - Blacksmiths Meadery, Belgium Show links and notes Top, Middle and Base Notes: A Comprehensive List The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual - James Green and Ajana Food Pairing website The Flavor Bible The Flavor Matrix - the Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extro...

4-27-21 Stian Krog – Mjøderiet – bringing back mead in Norway

4-13-21 Tonight we're chatting with Pierre Rodrigue, a prolific wine and meadmaker living in Alberta, Canada. Pierre has been fermenting wine since 1985. His 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 trial and error. Pierre began mead making in the fall of 2016, and has won several medals and Best of Show at Canada’s Mellarius Cup. His penchant for all juice meads is fairly well known on social media, where he moderates GotMead, Modern Mead Makers, Home Made Wine Making, and his own page, The Modern Art of Wine and Mead. In his spare time you can find him drawing, baking, cooking, curing and smoking meats, or long distance target shooting. 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! 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 soon! Show links and notes Top, Middle and Base Notes: A Comprehensive List The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual - James Green and Ajana Food Pairing website The Flavor Bible The Flavor Matrix - the Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extrordinary Dishes On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Unlock'd - Historical mead recipes Wellcome Mead by Laura Angotti Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Take part in Kevin Meintsma's Hydromel Study - email hydromel@wtibiz.com and he'll send you questions Upcoming Events April 14 - Scale and Feather Meadery - Beer Talks - Online April 17 - Point Lookout Vineyards, Hendersonville, NC - Mead Tasting and Mead History April 18 - MoonJoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfulness April 22 - Bulgarian Craft Mead, Plovdiv, Bulgaria - Launch Party - Get Buzzed! April 24 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Sigurblot - A Viking Festival April 30 - Charm City Meadworks - Online Mead Tasting May 10 - el Bait Shop, Des Moines, IA - Mead Week - Tapping kegs from Schramm's Mead, Moonlight Meadery, B. Nektar, East Grove Farms. Bottle pours from Superstition, Moonlight, Schramm's and more. May 21-22 - UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center - Mead: Getting Creative May 22 - Sugarbelt Mead Festival - put on by Manic Meadery, Crown Point Indiana June 1 - Leaky Roof Meadery, Buffalo, MO- Open Jam with food vendor Ben’s Hotdogs & Brats June 20 - Orchid Cellar Meadery, Middletown, MD - Father's Day Flight of Spice - try their spicy meads July 3 - White Winter Meadery, Cidery and Distillery, Iron River, WI - 25th Anniversary Celebration You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com Got an event you’d like us to mention on GotMead Live? Send us an email at gotmead@gotmead.com and tell us about it!

4-13-21 Pierre Rodrigue – Making Mead and Wine in Canada

3-30-21 Tonight we're talking Polish mead, and all other things mead with Kris Plizga and Scot Schaar. Both of these gentlemen are accomplished mead makers, and both are pretty darn good Polish mead makers. Kris' mead adventure started many years ago while he was still living in his home country. At that time Poland was probably the only place on earth where mead was still produced by several companies and was available almost in every better supplied liquor store. After tasting many of them and his first try of Jadwiga półtorak he was hooked and it became his favorite drink for special occasions and celebrations. There were several other styles of mead produced and each regional manufacturer would have some sort of historically or locally connected special edition usually with a nice story or legend behind it. After moving to the US he was only able to get mead while visiting Poland or very seldom in ethnic stores in areas densely populated by emigres from Central Europe. This situation was not satisfactory for him and since he also had become a beekeeper and had an abundant supply of honey, he decided to try reproducing some of the favorite meads on his own. This in turn led to searching for knowledge, learning about mead history and also meeting like minded people. The first group he got in contact with was an online forum frequented by many polish home meadmakers. The guidance and help he got from them was priceless. It is from them, that he learned about American competitions and online resources. He was not aware that mead was gaining popularity and had such following on this side of the Atlantic. He signed up for mead making classes at UC Davis, became a member of GotMead Forums, signed up for AMMA and National Homebrewers Association, attended MeadCon and Mazer Cup few times. In 2018 he entered his first mead competitions; MidWinter, Mead Free or Die and Domras Cup. To his surprise won BOS mead at MidWinter competition and few 1st, 2nd and 3rd placings at the others. 2019 brought even more prizes and a few BOS placings. In 2020 he participated for the first time in Mazer Cup competition and his Buckwheat and Sour Cherry historical Polish mead was rewarded BOS placing and two other meads placed second. Scot Schaar is head brewer at Crawford Brew Works and former distiller at Mississippi River Distilling Company. He is a BJCP beer and mead judge. Scot was the 2017 AHA Meadmaker of the Year (MMOTY) and shared the 2019 MMOTY award with Michael Wilcox and Carvin Wilson. He was the 2015 East Coast MMOTY; has won multiple mead, beer, and cider bests of show; and has had his recipes professionally made by Moonlight Meadery and Prairie Rose Meadery. Scot and his wife Karen earned their Level 5 certification in the European Mead Judging Programme this past year while judging the Kings of Mead competition in Poznań, Poland. Scott is very active in meadmaking, and turns up often in the Modern Mead Makers and GotMead Facebook groups. He was one of two people awarded an honorary Polish 'passport', along with Bob Slanzi, for his Polish style meads, which are excellent. Scott has also been active in promoting mead in his area and in his homebrew club, the St. Paul Homebrewer's Club, which also, in conjunction with the Minnesota Home Brewers Association puts on the Minnesota Mashout, one of the larger homebrew competitions in the US. 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! 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 you...

3-30-21 Cristoff Plizga and Scot Schaar – Polish mead and beyond

3-2-21 Tonight we're back on our regular schedule, and are happy to be talking with Clint Walker and Chase Cohagan, of Walker Honey Farm and Dancing Bee Winery. Clint Walker III is a third-generation beekeeper and the owner of Walker Honey Farm in Rogers, TX.  In 2011, Walker Honey Farm opened Dancing Bee Winery as the mead making arm of the business. Walker Honey Farm was founded in 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression, when Clint Walker Sr. started with 150 hives. Over the years, the business has expanded and grown to encompass bee operations all over Texas. Clint is a third generation Texas beekeeper. Like his father and grandfather before him, he is a full-time beekeeper. His son, Jonathan— became lead beekeeper in 2018. That makes him the fourth generation in the Walker family since 1930 to choose beekeeping as a profession and lifestyle. During Clint's lifetime their family has operated bees for profit—either pollination services for a fee or for honey production—in every ecoregion of Texas except the Trans Pecos. Chase Cohagan has been Dancing Bee's mead maker since 2014, specializing in meads that appeal to wine drinkers.  The choice to call ourselves Dancing Bee Winery rather than Meadery was deliberate.  Most of Dancing Bee's meads are still, in a corked bottle, and around 12-14% alcohol by volume.  We also make carbonated session meads on tap, for growler fills or canning.  Chase also helps with beekeeping and honey extracting at Walker Honey Farm. 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! 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 March 16 - Chris Plizga and Scott Schaar - Amazing Meads Show links and notes Top, Middle and Base Notes: A Comprehensive List The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual - James Green and Ajana Food Pairing website The Flavor Bible The Flavor Matrix - the Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extrordinary Dishes On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Unlock'd - Historical mead recipes Wellcome Mead by Laura Angotti Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Take part in Kevin Meintsma's Hydromel Study - email hydromel@wtibiz.com and he'll send you questions Upcoming Events Mar 4 - Bishop's Bees - Online Mead Making Class Mar 5 - Mjødladen, Odense, Denmark - Online Mead Tasting Mar 5-6 - Kinsale Meadery - Kinsale, Ireland - Online Mead Talk and Tasting Mar 6 - Starrlight Meadery - Pittsboro, NC - Fairy Hair for Everyone party Mar 7 - Starrlight Meadery - Pittsboro, NC - First Sunday Sound Bath Sound Therapy - Online Mar 12 - Honeygirl Meadery - Durham, NC - Queen Bee Honey and Mead Virtual Tasting Mar 13 - Wandering Bard Meadery - Greenville, NC - Mead Making for Beginners Mar 20 - Online Class - Meadmaking Without Equipment Mar 24 - Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and Honey and Pollination Center at UC Davis - Sips and Bites: Mead - The Best Thing You've Never Tasted Mar 26 - Ancient Fire Mead and Cider - Manchester, NH - Virtual 3rd Anniversary Celebration April 17 - Point Lookout Vineyards, Hendersonville, NC - Mead Tasting and Mead History

3-2-21 Clint Walker and Chase Cohagan – Texas Honey and Texas Mead

Weekly podcast discussing mead, mead making, meaderies and mead info from around the world

hubhopper

GotMead Live Radio Show

hubhopper