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!

Right click here to download the mp3 directly.

Drinks in this Episode

• Allen: JAO (Allen’s homebrew)
• Tysen: BOMM (Shannon’s homebrew)
• Matt Weide: Star Anise (Prairie Rose Meadery)
• Thomas Eibner: Black Currant (homebrew)
• Pavel Anisimov: T’ej (ENAT Winery)

The 2016 #SodaMead #MeadChallenge Specifics

The Competition

Texas Mead Cup, part of the Texas Mead Fest

Important Dates

• June 1, 2016: Registration opens
• June 4, 2016: #MeadChallenge brew day!
• Sept 1, 2016: Deadline to receive drop-off entries
• Sept 4, 2016: Deadline to receive mail-in entries
• Sept 24, 2016: Texas Mead Fest and Competition Judging

The Rules

Make a soda inspired mead to submit to the 2016 Texas Mead Cup. By soda, we mean that it must fit into the metheglin M3B category of the 2015 Mead Style Guidelines and be inspired by a classic soda or soda cocktail. We realize this is a little bit limiting in that you cannot use any fruit for your meads, but wanted to ensure that all entrants will be judged against each other. EDIT: You should now submit into the 99A Soda Mead Challenge Category! Whether that means you can create fruit sodas, we leave that up to you to decide. 

Of the soda inspired meads we’ve considered, there could be a root beer, a cream soda, a ginger beer, or just a general soda pop flavored mead. What can you come up with? Let us know in the comments!

It doesn’t have to be a hydromel or sparkling, but these styles are extremely relevant to the soda challenge and probably where most of the entrants will fall.

Brew days unofficially start June 4, 2016. Look for all of us to be on twitter discussing our specific recipes, what we’re making, how we’re doing it, and then track our progress over the following weeks. We welcome you to join us in the challenge.

When you submit to the competition, be sure to include #SodaMead or #MeadChallenge in the mead name to get recognition if you happen to medal. We hope all of you make something delicious, and would be truly amazed if we can sweep the category.

You’ll have a little under 3 months to wrap the mead up so it makes it to Texas by Sept 4 if mailing it in. That should be plenty of time to make a great mead with staggered nutrient additions and proper temperature control. Good luck!

Links in this Episode

• DOZE Homebrew Club
• St Paul Homebrewers Club
• Minnesota Home Brewers Association
• Matt Weide Podcast Credit

The Mead Challenges Will Continue

We want to bring on an annual challenge for our listeners as a part of the Meadcast. Really, we just want to give all of you every opportunity to show off how much better you are at making mead than Allen. Hey, Dan Daugherty took every opportunity during the #CyserChallenge at the Mazer Cup in 2016, running away with a gold medal for Dab of Liberty. Why not participate and show him how bad he really is at making mead?

To make this meaningful to you, we’d love to hear your ideas concerning what you’d like to make and what competition you’d like to enter it in. We will want to keep these to single year competitions, so young meads that anyone can make. The zanier the idea the better, although there absolutely is a place for traditionals in a future competition. Maybe a buckwheat honey traditional? Hmm, that could be fun…

Anyway, if you have an idea let us know in the comments below or hit us up on social media (@MeadMakr or @MeadDrinkr). And as always, happy meadmaking!