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

10-7-25 Tonight we're talking meadmaking with Bill Bellair and Rob Barnhart. Both are experienced meadmakers that create excellent meads. And both have taken their share of awards at competitions. Bill Bellair began his mead-making journey in 2008 when his mother expressed interest in trying tej, a traditional Ethiopian honey wine, which was unavailable locally. His early attempts—while not without the occasional "bottle bomb"—yielded surprisingly delicious results. Following this, Bill turned his attention to beer brewing, and it would be several years before he returned to crafting mead. During this time, he joined the Metro Enologist 'n' Zymurgist (MENZ) club, where he expanded his skills in winemaking. This experience gave him valuable insight into the mistakes he had made in his early mead-making efforts, reigniting his passion for the craft. This marked the beginning of a dedicated era of mead production that continues to this day. In 2019, Bill founded the Michigan Mead Coalition, the state's largest mead-exclusive organization. The coalition has fostered a thriving community of skilled brewers, many of whom have earned prestigious awards and even pursued the coveted title of Mead Maker of the Year. Rob Barnhart has been making mead since 2018. He started making mead January of 2018 because he doesn't like beer. He was playing Skyrim a lot and looked it up on YouTube. Down the rabbit hole he went. Soon after he found Gotmead and Modern Mead Makers. He then talked Vicky into meeting him at St Ambrose and Vicky and Kirk told Rob to enter comps. He didn’t do too badly. So far he has 25 medals but still haven’t gotten the coveted best in show. 😥. He also hasn’t had HOD yet. Rob retired early from the military and the Post Office and now he just hangs out in his inner city garden paradise and makes mead. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4PEnAumq Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees. Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows October 21 - Brian Bookmiller - Queen City Meadery November 18 - Blair Houseley - Etowah Meadery December 2 - Blöm Meadworks 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 8 - Kalamazoo Bee Club, Portage, MI - Mead Making Class Oct 10 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Fred & Smed Live music Oct 11 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Craft Class: Create a Cauldron Oct 11 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Euchre Tournament Oct 11 - Michigan Mead Cup, Brighton, MI - Competition Oct 11-12 - St. Louis Renaissance Festival, Wentzville, MO - Mead flights Oct 11 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Oktoberfest Oct 11 - Premier Prairie Gardens, Spring Hill, KS - Mead Making Class Oct 12 - Skäl Beer Hall, Seattle, WA - Fall Mead Festival with 9 meaderies pouring Oct 16 - Nucleus Mead, Linesville, PA - Mead and Read Oct 17 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Stephen King Trivia Nov 18 - WTF What to Ferment Meadery, Milford, DE - Mead and Cookie Pairing Oct 24 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Dags Und Timmah Live Music Oct 25 - Beeserker Meadery, Lexington, KY - Monsters & Mead: A Night of Adventure, Ale, and Mayhem at Chaotic Good Nov 1 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Adult Book Fair Nov 1 - Brown County Historical Society and Hazelwood Historic House, Green Bay, WI - Historic Skills Workshop: Learn to make Wine and Mead Nov 7 - Funktastic Meads and Beer, Midlothian, VA - Mead and Music by Damian Allen Nov 7 - B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, MI - Open Mic Night Comedy Nov 8 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Mead and Cheese Pairing with the Cheese Lady You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

8-26-25 Tonight we're talking with Brian Green, owner of Centeur Imports in New Hampshire. Brian is bringing meads from Europe to the United States, and even has a direct online sales platform for people to get these meads shipped to them. During a long career as a professor of sociology, Brian spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe traveling and doing research. While there, he discovered incredible Polish, Czech and Slovakian meads. In 2013, together with his wife Jana, Brian founded Centeur Imports to import wine and mead from Central Europe. They quickly found that mead was their best selling product. After learning all the ropes about how to handle import logistics and national U.S. distribution, Centeur Imports is thriving as a company and currently selling mead around the USA and online. Their company goal is to be the premiere importer of mead for the U.S. market. After establishing the company in 2013 as a family-owned-and-operated business, Brian and Jana have steadily increased the number of wines and mead imported, distributing both locally in New Hampshire and nationally. Today, they offer wines and mead from across Europe and are working hard to expand our product line to include a wide range of rare and award- winning wines from the best producers. Come and hear what Brian is up to and what meads he's planning to bring into the States! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead JOIN CHAT ON DISCORD: https://discord.gg/4PEnAumq Listen in! This player will show the latest episode: Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees. Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! 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 Aug 28 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Mini X2 - paint minis Aug 29 - Wandering Wind Meadery, Charleston, WV - Karaoke & Mead Aug 30 - MoonJoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfullness Sept 5 - White Winter Mead, Iron River, WI - Mead Mile race Sept 5 - pHunkadelic, Farmville, VA - Let's Talk Mead! Sept 5 - Marlobobo Mead, Leuven, Belgium - Mead Madness Sept 6 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead Learn Thngs - Victorian Potions and Poisons Sept 6 - The Bee Store, Lake Ridge, VA - Mead tasting with meads fro Negus Winery Sept 13 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barn Dance 2025 Sept 13 - The Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Artist Market Sept 13-14 - St. Louis Renaissance Festival, Wentzville, MO - Ticket includes 4 samples of mead, a mead flask and entertainment (festival admission separate) Sept 14 - Furrows to Fences, Fond du Lac, WI - From Hive to Glass: Mead Making Basics Sept 20 - Texas Mead Fest, New Braunfels, TX - enjoy 8 tasting tickets and a keepsake glass. Sept 27 - Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC - Mead Fest 2025 Oct 11 - Michigan Mead Cup, Brighton, MI - Competition Oct 11 - Premier Prairie Gardens, Spring Hill, KS - Mead Making Class You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

7-29-25 Tonight we're talking with Corey Mason, owner and meadmaker at TreeHive Meadery in Brocton, Illinois. Corey was introduced to mead in 2012. IHe started picking up bottles for a friend when he went on trips. He finally found one he liked. It was a Polish mead, and he picked up several other meads. After that he went down the rabbit hole of mead and never looked back. He would get Moonlight Meadery, B. Nektar, Wild Blossom, and Wyldewood Cellars meads there. But that wasn't enough. He found New Day Meadery when he went through Indianapolis. He started ordering from VinoShipper. There were not many to order from back then. Now there are tons of options. Along the way he decided to start making his own mead. His first two batches failed. They tasted good but they didn't ferment. He put everything from the recipe in... he joined all the mead making groups he could find. Started trying out everything that he learned. Basically Lived and Breathed mead all of the time. Obsessed is probably the best way to describe it. Around 2017 Carrie his wife said he needed to stop or make it a business. So Ihesigned up for the Advanced mead making class at UC Davis. While sharing there a wise person told him what he needed to change to make my mead better. He met some truly great individuals there and many of them are award winning mead makers and a lot are professionals now. It still took two more years for things to fall into place. Corey was making mead with the guy who introduced it to him and they entered the Mazer Cup together. They got a gold and a silver. They were trying to get something going together but it fell apart. Around tbis time Corey also decided to try his hand at judging. He stewarded at the Mazer Cup one year then started the process to become a judge. It truly helps you figure out what you're doing. Fast forward and Corey ended up giving the mead meeting for the local homebrew Club in Champaign and while he was there he talked to someone who had a friend with bees and a building. Within a week they decided to start a meadery together. It took over a year to get all of the paperwork right but they did and he started making mead professionally on November 5th, 2020. So almost 5 years but it seems like yesterday. Corey has lots of respect for all that have come before him and all of the knowledge that was shared with him and others along the way. He has over 500 bottles of other meaderies meads in his cellar. To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees. Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows Aug 12 - Matthew Mead Aug 26 - Brian Green - Centeur Imports 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 30 - Hidden Hive, Vista, CA - Cheese and Bees: A Social Cheese & Mead Event July 30 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Improv July 31 - Breedens Orchard, Juliet, TN - Mead and Meditate - Skeptic Meadery Meads Aug 1 - Bumbling Fools Meadery, Minneapolis, MN - Summer Comedy Showcase Aug 2 - White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN - National Mead Day! Aug 2 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - gonesouth live music Aug 2 - Heidleberg Meadworks, Esperance, NY - 2025 Mead Weekend Aug 2 - Funktastic Meads and Beer, Midlothian, VA - Mead Day Aug 2 - Scotzin Brothers, Lemoyne, PA - Mead Day Aug 2 - Brothers Drake Meadery, Columbus, OH - Mead Day Aug 2 - WA Meadworks, Lindenhurst, NY - Mead Day Aug 2 - Alternative Beverage, Belmont, NC - Mead Day Aug 2 - Metsiederei Eckert, Zofingin, Switzerland - Mead Day Aug 2 - Viking Alchemist, Smyrna, GA - Mead Day Aug 2 - Honeygirl Meadery, Durham, NC - Mead Day Aug 3 - Fae Nectar, Lake Lure, NC - Mead & Mischief D&D Night Aug 6 - Kingview Meadery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Aug 6 - Hidden Hive, Vista, CA - Cheese and Bees: A Social Cheese & Mead Event Aug 9 - Four Fires Meadery, Maumee, OH - Make Your Own Mead - Hands On Fermentation Workshop Aug 9 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Discord and Rhyme live music Aug 9 - Four Fires Meadery, Maumee, OH - Make Your First Mead - A Hands On Fermentation Workshop Aug 10 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Alpacapalooza! with Northern Alpacas Aug 13 - Hidden Hive, Vista, CA - Cheese and Bees: A Social Cheese & Mead Event Aug 14 - Breeden's Orchard, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead & Meditate - Skeptic Meadery Meads Aug 16 - Dawg Gone Bees Apiary & Meadery, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class Aug 16 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music Aug 16 - DMen Tap, Chicago, IL - Mead Fest 2025 Sept 13 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barn Dance 2025 You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

June 17, 2025 - Tonight we’re talking with Adrian Beebe, owner of Cloud City Mead in Leadville, Colorado, and is the highest meadery in the country at over 10,000 feet. Adrian is making mainly session meads, and doing it well. Adrian has been homebrewing beer & mead since 2009. Volunteering at various homebrew competitions and beer festivals, he became a certified beer judge in 2015 and got a job brewing at a brewpub in the small mining town of Leadville, Colorado where, in 2022, he opened the world's highest meadery, located dead center of CO at an elevation of over 10,000 feet. Cloud City employs modern methods for production, often borrowed from beer brewing, to create unique and distinctive flavors. Life is sweet at 10,000 feet. Adrian is going to be getting into his use of kveik yeast in commercial mead, as well as sours, hopped meads and more! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees. Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Sponsor: From July 23-August 2, 2025, take a magical meadery tour, and step into the heart of Central Europe on a journey that blends history, culture, and craft in three remarkable capitals — Prague, Bratislava, and Warsaw. Explore vibrant cityscapes and quiet countryside, from medieval old towns and historic abbeys to family-run meaderies and world-renowned breweries. You will visit the Mead Museum in Prague, Strahov Monastery Brewery, Pilsner Urquell Brewery, Apimed Mead, Branislav Novosedlík Mead, Richtár Jakub Brewery, Pasieka Jaros Mead, Corpo Mead, and Apis Mead. This tour is limited to 25 people, reserve your spot now at europeandiscoveriesllc.com/tours/250723cmm If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows TBA 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 June 18 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, VA - Trivia Night June 21 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Mead and Meditation June 21 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Spirit Faerie Jar Workshop June 21 - Dawg Gone Bees Meadery & Apiary, Hanover, PA - Mead Making Class June 21 - Ravenwood Meadery, Huntsville, AL - Meadery tour and tasting flight June 21 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music June 26 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - Disney Trivia Night June 29 - Ironstone Meadery, Erie, PA - Mead and Draft Gaming night July 2 - Kingview Meadery, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night July 6 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Mead, Music and Merchants July 9 - Tree Trust, Centre Wellington, Ontario, CN - Mead and Meander forest walk You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

5-20-25 Tonight we're hanging out with Joe and Tricia Marshall, owner of Lily Belle Meads in Lancaster, NY. This husband and wife team are kicking it outside Buffalo with their meads! Joe and Tricia's journey into mead was gradual but Tricia definitely led the charge on it. In 2004 Tricia got Joe a home brewing beer kit for his 26th birthday and got herself a winemaking kit for his 26th birthday! She made wines, Joe made beers. Tricia's personal goal was to make a delicious blueberry wine. She wasn't happy with the results, so she did some research and found that she could replace the white sugar in the wine must with honey. Well,, that changed everything and she never went back to making wine again. It was all mead from then on. Tricia won an amatuer award for one of her meads, that started all this. Joe was home brewing with a group and they had plans of a brewery but none of them would pull the trigger. Tricia’s meads were great, but they were standard strength or higher…she wanted to start selling them but Joe just couldn’t see how when it took so long for them to make. Then in 2012 or so she started making some 9-10% abv meads and it got Joe thinking…why couldn’t they make meads that were more like beers along with the honey wine style ones? From there on in it was a lot of 1 gallon experimental batches for the next 2-3 years as they developed a business plan. They incorporated in April of 2014. In 2016, Joe and Tricia got their commercial license and started selling at the various farmer's markets. It was at an indoor Farmer’s Market that they met John and Cathy Cimperman from 42N Brewing Company in nearby East Aurora NY and they asked if Joe and Tricia like to be part of the Full Circle Fest. That led to another brew festival and from there it was a whirlwind and they opened their tasting room on W, Main St. in Lancaster NY on Sept 23, 2017. Lancaster is about 20 minutes east of Buffalo NY. Go Bills! (Go Lions! - Vicky) Lilly Belle was the first meadery in Erie County and was embraced by the local craft beer scene where Joe and Tricia found niched out their place and eventually took their 7-8% session meads down to 5% and that has been a game changer for them. They use a variety of yeasts, including wine and beer styles, and they are not shy to play around with flavors. They can turn around session meads in 2-3 weeks and most traditionals and melomels in 2-3 months. They also do some bochet's and those are 2-3 months as well. They have expanded their food menu and kitchen operations, added more space and entertainment options in the taproom, they expanded production capacity by 5x and probably the biggest change was how much Mead we package in bottles and cans. Their initial model was to sell more by the glass in our taproom but that all changed with Covid. Covid was the biggest obstacle they had no way of predicting. The world is "back to normal" in many ways but the 2 years of Covid changed customer habits, wants, needs and expectations and they've been evolving to meet all of these ever since. They've also entered a National Mead Competition the past 2 years and taken 2nd place overall and last year 1st place overall. Tricia started her career at Roswell Park Cancer Institute as a floor nurse, then moved onto Research Nursing, onto Assistant Corporate Compliance Officer then Senior Quality Analyst. She stepped away in 2015 to put time into growing Lilly Belle Meads, but continued to work part-time jobs. During the pandemic, she found herself working a med-surg floor at BGH. Such an eye opening experience to witness how the pandemic rocked the healthcare system. She spent 2 years full time at the meadery but now finds herself back at Roswell, in a job that is 80% remote thanks to the pandemic. Joe's current role is Budget Compliance Specialist in the Clinical Trials Office and he loves it! Joe was a Special Education Preschool Teacher for Gateway-Longview Therapeutic Preschool. While with Gateway-Longview IJoeworked with countless families, school districts and other professionals and also started the first preschool classrooms in Downtown Buffalo for Gateway-Longview. This diverse work environment really set him up for the challenges of starting a business by giving him invaluable experience from interacting with so many different people and entities and learning to be flexible, considerate, and also confident in choosing a direction and re-assessing when necessary to ensure the best outcomes for all involved. Join us as we talk mead and meadery running with Joe and Tricia! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees. Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Sponsor: From July 23-August 2, 2025, take a magical meadery tour, and step into the heart of Central Europe on a journey that blends history, culture, and craft in three remarkable capitals — Prague, Bratislava, and Warsaw. Explore vibrant cityscapes and quiet countryside, from medieval old towns and historic abbeys to family-run meaderies and world-renowned breweries. You will visit the Mead Museum in Prague, Strahov Monastery Brewery, Pilsner Urquell Brewery, Apimed Mead, Branislav Novosedlík Mead, Richtár Jakub Brewery, Pasieka Jaros Mead, Corpo Mead, and Apis Mead. This tour is limited to 25 people, reserve your spot now at europeandiscoveriesllc.com/tours/250723cmm If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via Twitter @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours. To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in! Upcoming Shows May 20 - Joe Marshall - Lily Belle Meads, Buffalo, NY June 3 - Brian Taylor, Nidhoggr Mead Co, UK 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 May 21 - Clear Skies Meadery, Washington, DC - Intro to Mead Seminar May 21 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night May 22 - The Skeptic Meadery, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead Making 101 May 22 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Cover 2 Live music May 23 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Dungeons and Dragons Mead Up May 23 - Scuffleville Brewing Company, Collinsville, VA - Manuka Mead release May 23 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - The Electric Duo live music May 23 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Rebekah Jon live music May 25 - Ironstone Meadery, Erie, PA - Draft & Mead - draft packs from Tarkir DragonStorm and Dungeons & Dragons Baldur's Gate Blocks May 26 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Artisans Market May 29 - Adesanya Meadery, Grandville, MI - Movie Madness Trivia Night May 29 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - LaRose live music May 31 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: The Macabre World of Medieval Medicine June 2 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Artisans Market June 4 - Honey & Hops Brew Works, Front Royale, VA - Mead and Cheese pairing June 4 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, VA - Trivia Night June 6-8 - Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, DE - Party Like its 793 - Mead, Metal and Viking Festival June 7 - Mountain Run Meadery, Culpepper, VA - Age of the Viking - Viking Mead Festival 2025 June 13 - Cupka's Good Bee Meadery, Auburn, IN - Steven Gallagher live music June 18 - Kingview Mead, Mount Lebanon, VA - Trivia Night You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

4-22-25 Tonight we’re talking with Arne Defurne, owner and head meadmaker of Clockwork Bee Mead in Antwerp, Belgium. Arne has a nano-meadery that is growing, and makes some pretty ‘ok’ mead, producing mostly dry and off-dry meads, which is uncommon. We will dig into this and see what Arne is up to over there. Back in 2019, Arne came to the 2 first European meadmakers conferences and at the end of the second one was told to bring his own mead next time. Little did they know he had started making first batch right before leaving for EMMAcon. Arne is one of the people behind European meadmakers Association and worked on the just launched realmead certification program in Europe. It was 2019 and Arne did not have a pico meadery but a shower meadery (see photo to the right). He had a separate spare shower where he installed a rack where all fermentation was done. In 2020 he entered in the Mead Madness Cup home competition in Poland, but due to covid EMMcon was canceled and the Mead Madness Cup was an online medal ceremony and Arne won 2 gold medals. From then on the hobby became too expensive (he made more than 15 different meads in 1 year) and he started as a gypsy meadery at the Blacksmith's Meadery. From a mead enthusiast to home meadmaking spiraling out of control, and two years ago launching the first Belgian gypsy meadery under the guidance of the Blacksmith's Meadery. Driven by a passion for intricate flavor combinations, Arne’s goal is to reintroduce this ancient beverage to modern audiences with a fresh twist. As a mead maker, he focuses on crafting what he loves to drink. He’s deeply intrigued by how different flavors interact and how to blend them effectively. This curiosity leads him to explore methods that allows him to elegantly and fully integrate these flavor profiles into his meads. As a result, his products are uniquely positioned as semi-dry and dry meads, setting them apart from the more typical sweeter options. As a certified Belgian craft producer, Arne uses only the finest local ingredients and honey sourced from controlled European origins, resulting in high-quality meads that have already earned several awards. Join us to chat with Christian and explore meadmaking! To listen live, you can find us on Youtube, Twitch, X (Twitter), and Facebook on the Gotmead Page. On our new platform, chat is part of the podcast! Just comment from wherever you are watching, and we'll see it!! If you'd like to call in, we can get you a link to come on! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/meadwench YouTube: YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/@Gotmead X(Twitter): https://x.com/RealGotMead Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotMead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GotMead Sponsor: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees. Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! Crafting excellent mead requires excellent honey. Luckily The Honey Jar is here to help. Since 2005 The Honey Jar has been supplying delicious pure raw honey in easy to handle 12-pound pails to hobbyist brewers around the United States. Visit us at TheHoneyJarHome.com/gotmead 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 (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows May 6 - Alen RadoŠević - Fool Moon mead, Transylvania May 20 - Joe Marshall - Lily Belle Meads, Buffalo, NY June 3 - Brian Green - Centeur Imports - mead importers 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 April 23 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfullness Mead Up April 24 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - Open Mic night April 25 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Luke Woltanski live music April 26 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Sigurblot: A Spring Viking Festival April 26 - Moonjoy Meadery, Lenoir, NC - Mead and Mindfulness April 26 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - Jesse Jefferson live music April 26 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Tanglefoot Collective Live Music April 26 - The Colony Meadery, Bethlehem, PA - Mead, Mayhem and Myth April 26 - Thistlerock Mead Company, Charlottesville, VA - The Donnybrook at the annual Thistlerock Beltane Festival April 29 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - The R&B Sushi Experience - make 3 sushi rolls, all materials provided April 30 - Cloud City Modern Mead, Leadville, CO - Mindfullness Mead Up May 2 - Patriot Brewery and Homebrew Supplies, Elkhorn, NE - Mead Making Seminar May 3 - Dawg Gone Bees Meadery and Apiary, Hanover, PA - Mead Making class May 3 - Four Brothers Meadery, Festus, MO - Zoe Vox live music May 3 - St. Ambrose Meadery, Beulah, MI - Wing It Weekend - hot sauces from mild to wild May 3 - Kingview Mead, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night May 4 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Double Disc Open frisbee golf - May the Fourth Be With You! May 7 - Kingview Meadery, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night May 8 - Kingview Mead, Mt. Lebanon, PA - Day One acoustic music May 10 - Mr. B’s Meadery, Seattle, WA - Charcuterie Making Workshop at Mr. B’s White Center May 17 - Sugarbelt Mead Festival, Crown Pointe, IN - Many meaderies with their wares at this festival - live music, food trucks and more! May 17 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - JJ playing live music May 18 - Perry Vine, South Bend, IN - Brews and Bites: Five Course, Small Bites and Mead Pairing May 22 - The Skeptic Meadery, Mount Juliet, TN - Mead Making 101 May 26 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Honey Bee Artisans Market You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com

12-3-24 We are headed for the warmer climes down in Mexico today for our last show of the year. We'll be talking with Alberto Leyva, owner of Hidromiel Aliens Kaab in Bacalar, Mexico. Alberto has been a Beekeeper in the Riviera Maya, Bacalar, Quintana Roo since 2013, and founded of Aliens Kaab in 2019. His expertise ranges from hive management to the fermentation of artisanal mead, ensuring a product that embodies the richness of local honey. Alberto is passionate about fermentation processes and wild yeasts, and crafts his mead through cold and wild fermentation, which in his point of view results in unique flavors and aromas while making the mead gentler on the body. His goal is to reflect the natural wealth of our surroundings in every bottle. Alberto has won some medals and recognitions and considers himself an eternal learner. The motto at Aliens Kaab is "let yourself be abducted by new experiences", and they take the term abduct as arousing in someone a powerful attraction and that is what they are looking for, to abduct more people to discover this great world of Mead. Join us to hear more about Alberto and his mead making adventures! 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: Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees. Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online! 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 (United States) Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows On break for the month of December, we're back in January!! 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 4 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Dec 7 - Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, TN - Mead Making Classes Dec 7 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Emma Nobbe Rocks the House live music Dec 7 - Honey & Hops Breworks, Fredricksburg, VA - Winter Wine Festival Dec 8 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Tasting with the Meadmakers Dec 10 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Trivia Night Dec 12 - KingView Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA - Good Brother Earl live music Dec 12 - Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA - Mead and Cheese pairing Dec 13 - Blom Mead + Cider, Ann Arbor, MI - Permanent Jewelry with BOGO deal for multiple chains! Dec 14 - Crafted Artisan Winery, Mogadore, OH - Mead 101 Class Dec 18 - Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA - Trivia Night Dec 20 - Valkyries Horn Mead Competition Entries open! Dec 20 - Midwinter Homebrew Competition Entries open! Dec 20 - Apis Mead and Winery, Carnegie, PA - Springs and Arrows live music Dec 21 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Blight of Many live music Dec 21 - Mjodgard, Haslev, Denmark - Celebrate the Winter Solstice with a 2 course dinner, mead and a solstice ceremony Jan 25 - Crafted Artisan Winery, Mogadore, OH - Mead 101 Class Feb 6 - Mjodgard, Haslev, Denmark - Mead and Food Pairing at Bregnen You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com