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mead tasting

Episode 205 – Buzz Mead – Walt Talunas and Steve Occhiolini

This episode features Walt Talunas and Steve Occhiolini of ⁠⁠Buzz Mead⁠⁠.

Buzz Mead got started on a whim. 3 Bee Keepers Walt, Steve and George came together to sell honey from their apiaries. They make and sell a wide variety of cream and infused honeys. It was George that made the suggestion to start making mead. Walt has been home brewing for thirty years and already had experience making mead. Today it’s all about the creation process. What people want and what they can share and give them to have new experiences. Their perspective on mead is crisp, refreshing and full of flavor. Lots of bold expressions that give a tip of the cap to the styles that beer drinkers love. 

www.RevolutionBees.com – ⁠⁠Instagram⁠

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and more…

Highlights From our Discussion:

⁠Fraktured Sauce⁠

⁠Bowers Chile Pepper Festival⁠

⁠Chester County Bee Keepers Association⁠

⁠Philadelphia Bee Company⁠

⁠Independent Spirits Distillery⁠

⁠West Chester Growers Market⁠

⁠Philly Wine Festival

Episode 114 – Mead Maker Allen Martin

This episode features Mead Maker Allen Martin.

About five years ago Allen went to a beer bottle share with his wife.  He met Carver Wilson who Allen considers to be “The Home Mead Making Extraordinaire”.  Up until that time Allen had never tried mead.  After twenty minutes of enjoying the mead, Alan proclaimed, “that he was going to start making this stuff”.  That began a rabbit hole journey into mead making.  Since then he has honed his craft and has been awarded the coveted title of Mead maker of the Year.

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Highlights from our discussion:

Golden Monkey

Modern Mead Makers

Mazer Cup

Crockett Honey Company

Meadcon 2022

American Mead Makers Association

Obscurity Mead Hall and Cidery

Episode 110 – Obscurity Mead Hall and Cidery – Luke Goucher and Carson Souza

This episode features Luke Goucher and Carson Souza of Obscurity Mead Hall & Cidery.

Obscurity started with friends getting together and having a passion for beer.  Carson had already been in the brewing industry for 10 years as a commercial brewer at a vegan brewery.  Luke and Carson decided to get a little wild and play with mead as well.  A adventure was born in the cornfields of the far west suburbs of Chicago.  Mead was a challenge for Carson so he jumped right in.  Luke and Carson flew around the country to check out some of the best mead makers and learn from their successes.  This episode is a master class on brewing, fermenting and business.  Obscurity is creating many tremendous expressions.  Enjoy as we sample through their story.

21 S Main St, Elburn, IL 60119 – 630-320-2255 – www.drinkobscurity.com – Facebook

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and more…

Highlights from our discussion:

Meadcon 2022

Braggot

Viking Braggot Company

Rabbits Foot Meadery

B. Nektar Meadery

National Honey Board

Charm City Meadworks

MeadCon 2022

MeadCon is more than just another industry convention. It’s a celebration and a gathering of mead practitioners that are on their own journey. MeadCon 2022 was held in Baltimore, MD on August 22nd through the 23rd. The two day event served professionals, as well as, home mead makers. The American Mead Makers Association provided a hive of educational topics, amazing speakers and an insight into where the industry is and where they are going.

Brian Wing, President of the association and co-owner of Green Bench Brewing Company, welcomed the attendees. He addressed skyrocketing costs and supply chain issues. Greg Heller LaBelle spoke to the legislative focus of what the AMMA helps its members navigate. There is a desire to work with the TTB to clarify exactly what the word “Mead” means. Kevin Meintsma shared the status of the mead maker of the year and the Mead Masters Program. He talked about the importance of brand building and spotlighting and highlighting mead.

Even Himes of Dutch Gold spoke about the current state of honey production internationally. Addressing concerns about bees and what is being done to develop honey production in global markets. The largest importers of honey are the United States, Japan and Europe. We learned the very concerning facts about how some countries have been manipulating markets and a controlling the flow of honey to the world. Evan finished by speaking to the Antidumping Lawsuit. He provided a perspective into what is at stake as the litigations moves forward.

Arthur Frank provided amazing insights into the study into terroir that he did with honey. He purchased 6 different wildflower honeys from upstate New York. He chronicled the development of the 6 individual meads that he created. We got to try the meads and were treated to a breakdown of the various floral sources that impacted the flavor and character.

Brian Woerner’s discussion of beekeeping was fascinating. He illustrated his personal experiences with bees. Raising bees and building a hive is actually challenging and time consuming. Constant care and attention is required to make quality honey and have healthy bees.

Charm City Meadworks hosted the evenings festivities with a charity event and bottle share. Meadmakers from all over the country brought their best “nectar of the gods” to open and enjoy. There were Braggots, Cysers, Dry Meads, Sweet Meads, Melomels, Sessions and Pyments. Home mead makers and professionals discussed techniques, stories and laughter. Everyone was treated to some of the most amazing meads ever created.

Day 2 provided more education and an opportunity to meet with the vendors that brought their products for the mead makers to discover. There was no shortage of honey, flavorings and wood barrels to give the attendees new ideas and ways to raise the bar on their craft. The conversations were lively as all reflected on the past evenings merriment. New friendships were made and old ones were solidified even more.

Brad Dahlhofer, co-founder of B. Nektar Meadery, led a fascinating and fact filled discussion on scaling. Taking a small batch from bench trials and expanding it into a large scale production. Exploring adding flavorings and the tools of success that a mead maker should have.

Tom Gosnell, Co-Founder of Gosnells, taught us all about pasteurization. We learned an in-depth history of how this is used in other industries and how it can revolutionize the shelf stability of mead beverages. The Gosnells are passionate about pasteurization. This was a master class of where science meets safety preserving the flavor and quality.

For those that were looking to enter their meads into competition, Jim Price, Allen Martin and Matt Mead, provided proven methods to get your mead judge ready.

Brian Wing brought his experience of the use of centrifuges for filtering. Three samples of the same base raspberry mead were brought to a full house of scrutinizing palates. Each was clarified using different methods. As technology becomes less expensive and more readily available it will provide more avenues for the mead maker to improve their creations.

Brian shared his post Meadcon2022 observations and thoughts with Fermented Adventure. “It was great to finally get everyone back together. We can do Zoom meetings and talk mead, but it’s not the same as raising a glass face to face. I was very happy to see such a strong turn out of professional meaderies at the conference and the quality of mead being shared was really incredible. That’s a great sign for the industry. I was also happy to see how many new meaderies attended the conference. Aside from the incredible growth that shows for mead in the US, it means we have more and more folks who have experience in opening a meadery and can help the next home mead makers who are thinking of going pro. Creating business plans, navigating TTB regulations – all of that is a learning experience. The more meaderies that have gone through that increases the knowledge base for the industry and paves the way for more to come. It was also really nice to see how much energy and ingenuity the home mead makers brought to the conference, with some excellent research that we can all benefit from.”

We are looking forward to what the next year brings us in the world of Mead. The future is looking sweet.

Episode 89 – Mead Drinkr Tysen

This episode features Mead Drinkr Tysen.

We met Tysen at Cidercon 2022.  Tysen and his brother-in-law Alan wanted to do something different.  They decided to make mead instead of brewing beer.  The passion is all about mead making and wanting to do it better.  He loves going on road trips and visiting meaderies and of course, drinking mead.  Tysen made his first mead in November of 2013.  He enjoys learning from other people doing it and the science behind it.  He’s a mead advocator and a fermentation educator.  Enjoy this fascinating episode that discusses all things mead.   

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Highlights From our Discussion:

Joe’s Agent Orange Mead

Tej

Cidercon

Caledonia Spirits

Mazer Cup

American Mead Makers Association

Monks Meadery

Aquafaba

Black Heath Meadery

Southern California Mead Club

Honey & Hops Brew Works

Funktastic Meads

Liquid Alchemy

St. Vrain Cidery

Tiffanie Barriere

Sugarbelt Mead Festival 2022

Manic Meadery

Orchid Cellar Meadery and Winery

Meadmaker.com

Meadcast

Episode 87 – Beach Bee Meadery – Curtis Blodgett

This episode features Curtis Blodgett of Beach Bee Meadery.

Curtis began his journey by considering opening a distillery.  He and his wife Madeleine met with distillers to understand the process and what was needed to get started.  They completed a meeting with a rum distiller and to decided to visit a meadery that was close by.  They never had mead and they were totally blown away.  Curtis was familiar with making wine and brewing beer, but he wasn’t familiar with mead.  He looked at Madeleine and said, “this is what I want to do”.  The whole experience was life changing.  We got to talk mead, cider, yeast, barrels and so much more.  

Brewscuits is the sponsor of the podcast.  Be sure to check them out at www.brewscuits.com.  Type in Fermented Adventure at checkout to get 15% off your first order.

589 Long Branch Ave, Long Branch, NJ 07740 – (732) 403-3558 – www.beachbeemeadery.com –Facebook

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Highlights from our discussion:

Melovino Meadery

Long Branch Distillery

Long Branch, NJ

Green Bench Brewing Co

Cidercon

Black Heath Meadery

Buskey Cider

The Veil Brewing Company

Armageddon Brewing Company

Mermaid Spirits

Caledonia Spirits

Texas Mead Cup

The Mazer Cup

Meadcon

Dutch Gold Honey

Cidercraft Magazine

Episode 78 – Duck Butts Meadery – Carmel and Jonathan Senatz

This episode features Carmel and Jonathan Senatz of Duck Butts Meadery.

It started like many other passions… with a home brew beer kit.  Which remained in the box, in the basement, for over 6 years.  Jonathan observed that the idea of home brewing beer presented as being very complicated.  This didn’t appeal to him.  He and Carmel became inspired by a visit to Savannah Bee Company.  From there they began to dream about making mead.  The equipment in the kit would be perfect for what they needed to get started.  Covid provided an opportunity to begin experimenting.  Forced to stay home, they took the time to make their own mead.  They set off on their “maiden voyage”.  We discuss where they are now with their hobby and passion.  We can’t wait to see what the future has in store for this fledgling meadery.  

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Highlights From our Conversation:

Pickering Valley Feed & Farm Store

Les Brown

Savannah Bee Company

Exton Bee Company

Dressler Estate

Olde Bedford Brewing Company

Caledonia Spirits

BJ’s Wholesale Club

Swarmbustin Honey

Hale & True Cidery

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Keystone Homebrew

Wegman’s

Jersey Spirits Distillery

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