Episode 39 is a special one for us at the Meadcast. It is the first chance we get to try one of our listener’s meads on air (not counting the pro meads here), and it was a great experience. Tune in to hear us go through a tasting of two fruit and spice meads, one with a cherry mead base and the other pomegranate. Mead tastings are a great thing, and we hope there is some valuable information in here for judging and appreciating the next mead you encounter. Thanks Kellie for agreeing to be the guinea pig!
We welcome Michael and Alejandra from Costa Rica Meadery as our first international guests on the Meadcast to discuss their locally inspired meads. Learn about chichemel: what it is and how to make it. We also discuss their hopes to make a true coffee mead experience with all ingredients coffee derived, as well as their future Ark Herb Farm Bee-cotourism dream.
Want to know how Costa Rica Meadery makes their chichemel? Here is the general outline as provided in the episode. We’ll leave it to you to experiment and find the best process. If you get a good one, let us know in the comments below.
Small farmer corn (purple [in their nicoyano] and yellow [in their caribeno])
Soak corn in water
Drain the corn and resoak every 12 hours until the tendril has grown the same length as the corn kernel (germination is sufficient for starch to sugar conversion)
We had a great time hanging with friends and fans of the show at the 2016 HomebrewCon last weekend (#HomebrewCon). If you made it out, we hope we found you to say hello. Although there was only one meadery at the Kickoff Party, we found many many meads during club night (check out our Instagram feed for more).
The Mead Panel, described by at least one attendee as “Mead Rushmore,” lived up to the hype, and presentations from Ricky at Groennfell Meadery and Eric at Meridian Hive Meadery were both enjoyable and informative at the same time. The Brewing with Honey presentation from Hugo Patino and Keith Seiz was also very informative for those braggot brewers out there, and just increased the intrigue for the beer style for us. Couldn’t make it out, presentations should be available shortly for AHA members.
The National Homebrew Competition put up a fight for being larger than the Mazer Cup as well, with 367 total entries in the mead categories! Congratulations to Steve Fletty from the St Paul Homebrew Club for winning MeadMaker of the Year. Check out the list of winners here.
While we may need a few nights to recover from all the festivities, we look forward to being able to hang out with everyone again at a future conference. Look for a full conference recap in the coming weeks.
And if you’re thinking of joining the #SodaMead challenge, there is still time (check out #36 for the details). Rumor has it, if we get enough entrants we’ll have our own category at Texas Mead Fest. So spin up a batch and get entered! We can’t wait to see what our listeners come up with.
Join us in episode 37 of the Meadcast where we interview Philip Lorenz of Nectar Creek about session meads. Nectar Creek swept the session dry category of the Mazer Cup 2015. In this episode you’ll learn the Nectar Creek way of making mead. We’ll also cover some tips on how to carbonate your meads at home as well as the best ways to bring across ginger in your mead. Tune in for tips from the master on how to make your own.
In Episode 36, we challenge you to a mead making competition for the Fall of 2016. To do so, we’ve brought on some accomplished meadmakers in Thomas Eibner (@thomaseibner), Matt Weide (@bluehandmead) and Pavel Anisimov (@cidermead). During the episode, Thomas and Matt will talk through their 8 day hydromel challenge (yes, that is a drinkable mead in 8 days), and Pavel will discuss some of his meadmaking practices and how he developed his #Pavability. Then we’ll get into the competition specifics.
While we’ve challenged you in the past to the #CyserChallenge, we didn’t really make it a huge endeavor for the podcast to bring together the listening community. For this challenge, we want all of you to participate, and we think you’ll like the challenge idea. Listen in and read below for more information!
In episode 35 of the Meadcast we revisit bochets with Matt Falenski from Laurel Highlands Meadery (recall with spoke with David Doucette about bochets in episode 24). Matt has been making bochet commercially for 5 years now, and brings a wealth of experience to making the beverage and understanding how to caramelize the honey appropriately. Tune in to learn his secrets.
In Episode 34 we bring you news that Billy Beltz, recent 2 time medal winner at the Mazer Cup 2016, completed the Great Mead Ale Yeast Experiment. With 12 different yeasts, his experiment was pretty comprehensive from a study perspective and provides another data point considering how and when to use an ale yeast in mead. The full story will come out in the next Zymurgy Magazine, but for now here is a preview of what’s to come.
We had a blast just a few short weeks ago at the 2016 Mazer Cup. In this episode, you’ll hear about the trip, the cool people we met, and the great meads we had. Well, mostly the trip and the competition. There were so many meads to be had, it’s hard at this point to discern one from another.
Tysen and Allen will start off with a “judging” of one the mead from Episode 4. It didn’t win, and from what we can tell got infected. But we wanted the feedback nonetheless. We also submitted the #CyserChallenge mead from the Serious Cyser Symposium. Allen made this one, and due to some difficulties getting it to clear it was doomed from the start. Tasty, just not competition worthy. Dan Daugherty (CiderSage and CiderSchool) however walked away with a golden mazer for his Dab of Liberty collaboration with Matt Williams (Winemaker’s Academy).
We’ll also chat with Pavel, @cidermead on Twitter, who stole the home competition with 6 total awards (2 gold, 4 bronze). Recall we met Pavel during the West Coast Cyser and Session Mead Tasting.
Episode 32 wraps up Tysen’s Merry Meadmust adventure with stops at Schramm’s Meadery and B Nektar Meadery, two must visit locations in Ferndale, MI. Seriously, if you are going to drive cross country to hit a meadery, these have to be on the list.
Every now and again, we like to revisit our tasting chops in an effort to identify what meads we want to make and consider the process that allows the professionals to make such delicious beverages. We were lucky enough to source the three Nectar Creek dry session mead winners from the 2015 Mazer Cup as well as three cysers from Red Branch Cider Company (Mike Faul’s Red Branch Brewing Company swept the 2015 Braggot category) courtesy of our friend Pavel (@cidermead on twitter). In Episode 31, we sit down with a few friends and try these meads. Hope you enjoy!
The 2016 edition of the Mazer Cup starts in 11 days! If you are judging or volunteering as a steward, we hope to catch you on the visit. Look for the two strapping young fellows donned in some awesome MeadMakr gear! Be sure to ask for a sticker if you find us. Don’t know what we look like? Check out Meadology’s latest promo video here.
Episode 30 chronicles part II of Tysen’s travels during the Merry Meadmust Road Trip. Tysen takes us through Madison, Wisconsin and Grand Rapids, Michigan. While he didn’t stop at any meaderies, he did hit up a few cool liquor stores stocked with meads. Be sure to stop by when you are in the area!
We apologize for not getting a “regular” episode up tonight. We’ve spent most of the weekend making mead and hosting mead tastings. As such, we’re a little behind processing the West Coast Cyser and Session Mead tasting and don’t have it ready for tonight.
