Episodes

10-24-17 We're baaaaccckkkk! We took a 2 week break, and are back talking mead, this week with Jason Todd Phelps, owner of Ancient Fire Mead and Cider, and award winning mead maker. Jason has been around the block for many many years and has won countless awards with all things fermented. It seems fitting that tonight we should talk about cysers since it's apple season in many parts of the US. Cysers are mead made with apples. As simplistic as this sounds, in my opinion this is one of the more d...

10-3-17 We're back for another episode of Modern Meadmaking, featuring Ryan Carlson. We have covered the most current protocol for making great mead, from the very beginning all the way to stabilization. Now for a while we will be looking at specific categories, and how make these specific meads. Although not in any specific order. Tonight we have a very special guest, David Thiebault. David is one of those guys who makes mead making look easy. He has won 10 Mazer Cup medals and many other medal...

Photo by Jaden Birchmore 9-26-17 We are continuing with Making Modern Mead, hosted by Ryan Carlson. I'm proud to announce that we have a very special guest speaker this evening. Tom Repas will be joining us this evening to speak about the proper use of sulfites. Also known as sulfur dioxide, k-meta and SO2. As we all know the web is full of misinformation about everything. And probably nothing more than how to properly employ sulfites and sorbate to stabilize a mead. And even more confusion come...

Photo courtesy Petar Bakulic - his Paso Extreme Zin 9-19-17 We're continuing our series on Making Modern Mead. We talked yeast for the last two weeks, and had lots of great info from Ryan, and lots of great questions from the listeners. Now we're moving on to staggered nutrient additions, racking, stabilization and aging. There is a ton of info here, and we're going to dig into it and see what we can get out there. Mead is a science, and knowing the basics means being able to make better mead, a...

Meads created by Bob Slanzi 9-12-17 We are continuing our 'Making Modern Mead' series on Gotmead Live, led by Ryan Carlson. Tonight we're doing Yeast, Part 2. So as most everybody realizes at some point in learning the process of making mead. The yeast do the work and we are relegated to being their caretakers. I jokingly call myself from time to time a yeast cowboy. In essence, what we are learning to do is to provide a safe environment, and all the miscellaneous materials to our little friends...

9-5-17 We're continuing with a series on Modern Mead Making, lead by Ryan Carlson. So with so many newcomers joining our forum. And with conflicting information on the interweb. I have decided to do a short series where we will work from front to back of the process of making good meads using today most modern techniques. I would never declare that I know it all, or that my way is the only way. There are many different approaches to mead making as there are mazers making mead. As I have often sa...

8-29-17 Tonight we're talking with Ryan Carlson (known as Squatchy on the Gotmead Forums). Ryan has been making mead for quite a while now. And along the way, he's learned quite a bit as well. And one of the things he's been talking about a lot lately is oaking mead. Oak in mead can add a ton of complexity and depth, and the methods, time and type of oak make a difference. This is an often-discussed technique, and one that has many answers. Ryan is going to lead the discussion tonight, with the ...

8-1-17 We're having fun tonight! We are being joined by Mary Izett! Mary is a passionate homebrewer specializing in fast and alternatively fermented beverages. She is author of "Speed Brewing", and she co-hosts Fuhmentaboudit!, a live weekly show on all things fermentable, on Heritage Radio Network and is a BJCP National ranked beer judge. She has been the president of both the New York City Homebrewers Guild and the Malted Barley Appreciation Society and has written for Ale Street News, All Abo...

Tonight we're thrilled to be talking with Steve Piatz, author of the top-selling mead book, "The Complete Guide to Making Mead". The first meads Steve made were when he was training with his brewclub to become a BJCP judge, back in the 90's. They weren't the best meads, but they worked at it. Then he attended a session taught by Ken Schramm and Dan McConnell, and he found what good mead tasted like. Then Ken wrote "The Compleat Meadmaker", and then the discussions of staggered nutrients and frui...

7-18-17 Tonight we're talking with Scott Schaar, 2017 NHC Meadmaker of the Year. Scott and his wife Karen were watching a viking movie in about 2000, and they were drinking mead in the movie. Scott and Karen were intrigued, so they hunted down a commercial mead to try. They decided that it was pretty interesting, but thought they could make a better mead themselves. The result was raspberry mead on the ceiling, and they were hooked! Scot has been meadmaking since 2001?? He has multiple Mead BOS ...

7-11-17 UPDATE: Steve had a last minute medical thing, he'll be fine, but couldn't be on the show tonight. We will have him back later. We were lucky to have Sergio Moutela, Bob Slanz *and* Tom Repas, all at once, and the show was awesome! Tonight we're thrilled to be talking with Steve Piatz, author of the top-selling mead book, "The Complete Guide to Making Mead". The first meads Steve made were when he was training with his brewclub to become a BJCP judge, back in the 90's. They weren't the b...

6-20-17 Bobby Slanz is back on Gotmead Live! In our continuing conversation with amazing mead makers, we're bringing him back to talk shop about making awesome mead. Along the way we're going to dig into what he's been working on, and talk some more about the seaweed mead he makes that is becoming the talk of the mead world, and creating a splash whenever it turns up. At some point, I really want to try this, since I wasn't fast enough at the Mazer Cup to get some! Bob likes to play with unusual...

6-13-17 We're stepping out of our series featuring amazing home mead makers to take an evening with Bill Oliver, of Oliver Winery. Bill’s father Professor William Oliver started winemaking as a hobby back in the 1960's, and Bill grew that hobby winery into a high quality winery. Oliver happens to make one of the older professional meads in the United States, Camelot Mead. Professor Oliver was instrumental in passing legislation allowing for the creation of small wineries in Indiana. The Indiana ...

6-6-17 Tonight we're looking forward to talking with Tom Repas. Tom is a soft-spoken guy, and seems quiet and retiring. What you don't know is that a mead making *beast* lurks under that deceptive exterior. Tom is a two-time Best in Show winner at the Mazer Cup International Home Competition in 2015 and 2017. He came in 2nd and 3rd for Best in Show at the Mead Free or Die in 2016 and 2017. He's a BJCP Mead Judge. And he's a Master Beekeeper. Plus, he's a doctor in his 'real life'. We're wonderin...

5-30-17 Welcome to another episode of GotMead Live! We're chatting with Carvin Wilson tonight. In case you've been hiding under a rock, no, Carvin isn't a meadery owner, he's a regular meadmaker. And this year he burst out of the woodwork at the Mazer Cup and took home 4 Mazers. (He's also snagged 3 medals at Mead Free or Die and 6 Midwinter Competition medals). He also rented a big party suite in the hotel and entertained, well, *everybody* for the entire week of the AMMA Conference and the MCI...

5-9-17 We're tickled to be talking with James Boicourt, co-owner with Andrew Geffken of Charm City Meadworks in Baltimore, MD. James got hooked on bees in college, and has been a honey nut ever since. He and Jeff met after college, and their honey madness turned from a thing, into an annual Viking Fest, and then into a business. Charm City makes some pretty awesome meads, and has rapidly grown up and out. They make some really interesting flavors for their meads, and we're going to see what they...

5-2-17 Tonight on Gotmead Live we're talking to Alex Gonzalez, owner of Honeypot Meadery in Orange County, CA. Honeypot isn't open yet (they plan to open by the end of 2017), but they're doing custom brews with Frank Golbeck at Golden Coast Mead in San Diego, and just released their first mead. They are one of 5 meaderies in the San Diego area now. Alex is fond of melomels, and we'll be talking about his favorite mead style, what they've got planned, and his preferred mead making techniques. Com...

4-25-17 This is our last week in Australia, and we're tickled to have Joel Robinson, owner of Hunter and the Harp, in Wollongong, New South Wales. Joel started out doing some co-brews with a local brewery, but is striking out independently now, and plans to make drier meads, best served chilled. He's active in the Australian mead awareness scene as well, and very active as a home meadmaker, and posts often on Facebook to say what he's up to, and to offer advice to newer meadmakers. Join us for G...

4-18-17 Welcome to week 3 in Australia! This week we're visiting with Sueann Allworden, owner of Thistle Meadery in Bibaringa, South Australia. Sueann is another home meadmaker who ended up opening her meadery because the meads she was making (all over their living room) were so good, she had to go commercial. They make 16 different meads so far, and use some really interesting honey in their products. All the ones we've had so far are pretty awesome. Join us to find out more about Sueann and he...

4-11-17 Greetings from Down Under! We are on week 2 of our digital tour of Australian meaderies, and this week's guest is Sean Johnson, owner of Erosion Meadery in Perth, Western Australia. In 2016 they hit it out of the park with their first Collaboration with Artisan Brewing - Erosion Bier De Miel which happened to be one of the best sellers at the Fremantle Beer Festival in 2016. They also have paired session meads with Artisan as a Belgian Beer masterclass, a 3.5% hopped Malle honey mead and...

4-4-2017 G'day, mates! Welcome to Mead in Australia Month on Gotmead Live! We have with us tonight (or today for you folks in Oz), Steve Kirby, owner of Stone Dog Meadery in New South Wales, Australia. He runs an artisan meadery and has more than 10 meads (with more on the way) that feature the unique honeys you can only find Down Under. Join us (and Hamish is translating, LOL) to see how they make mead in the Southern Hemisphere! Join us for GotMead Live Chat, on Skype, live during the broadcas...

3-28-17 Weeee'rrrrreeeee BAAAACCCKKK! Sorry for the long hiatus, folks! A.J., Hamish and I headed out to the AMMA Conference and Mazer Cup a week after the last show, and a week later, A.J. headed home to Canada, and Hamish and I headed to Florida for a week where Hamish and his good friend Bruce hung with Manny, and when my hubby John and I got there 3 days later, we did all sorts of fun stuff in the keys with Hamish and Bruce. Come listen, we have some good stories. And, we'll have Bob Slanz, ...

2-28-17 We are hitting the East Coast tonight, and doing a deep dive into Pyments. Pyments are mead made with grapes as the fruit, and they are gaining in popularity as mead continues to grow. Making a great pyment, whether dry or sweet, takes a bit of doing, and choosing the honey and grapes (or juice) can be frustrating, finding the right combination to hit that 'sweet' spot. We have two guests to talk about this, kind of a mini-panel. The first is Jason Phelps, owner of Ancient Fire Meadery i...

2-21-17 Our show tonight moves to Idaho, the home of Mythic Mead. Shauna and William LeFave are the owners, and have their first mead out, Huck Me, a huckleberry melomel. Shauna will be talking with us about their journey to go pro, and their meadmaking experiences. We're also going to dig into filtration, cold-crashing your meads, and stabilizing meads without adding sulfites. As an added bonus tonight, Pete Bakulic, the president of the upcoming (March 9-11) Mazer Cup International Mead Compet...