MeadMakr

MeadMakr 011: Bonus Episode Development of the Honey Flavor Wheel

HoneyFlavorWheel It’s time for another bonus episode! In this episode, Amina Harris wraps up our honey discussion with the development of the Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel. We also have some exciting site news! We finally crossed 1000 total downloads, and in the three days since recording the bonus episode you’ve already downloaded another 300+. Keep spreading the word to help us get to 10,000! And if you get a chance, drop us a review on iTunes to let us know what you think!

We also released the BatchBuildr over the weekend. This tool takes your desired batch characteristics, and will provide the original specific gravity and an estimate of the amount of honey you will need for your batch. Give it a try! We hope it helps in your future batching plans.

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MeadMakr 010: Honey Tasting with Amina Harris

In Episode 10, we have Amina Harris, Director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, back to guide us through a honey tasting using the Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel. Follow along as we wet your appetite for honey, tasting four delicious honeys that would make fabulous additions to your mead.

If you are looking for a similar directed tasting, pick up the honeys in our Drinks from this Episode section and a copy of the Honey Wheel and follow along. For an even better experience, sign up for the Introduction to Mead Making Course November 13-14, 2015. It is the best in depth short course for learning about mead and meadmaking. Registration opened June 15, and is sure to sell out.

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Just How Much Honey Is in Mead?

MeadMakr004 (1) Making mead is easy. You mix together honey and water, rehydrate and pitch your yeast, aerate, and add some yeast nutrient at scheduled times during the first few days of fermentation. After a few weeks, you rack to a secondary for aging. Within a year (maybe less), you have a drinkable mead (although age will continue to improve the mead for many months and years). But how much honey exactly do you need to make mead? In this post, we’ll answer just that, and point you to a nifty calculator to anticipate the amount of honey you’ll need to make mead.
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MeadMakr 009: Honey Buzz Words with Amina Harris

HoneyFlavorWheel — The Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel, developed by UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center

In Episode 9, we bring on Amina Harris to talk all things honey. Amina is the Director of the Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science, UC Davis. In addition, Amina is the owner of Z Specialty Food, LLC with her husband and son. Moon Shine Trading Company, a division of Z Specialty, has been offering unique American varietal honeys for over thirty years winning national awards from the Specialty Food Association and the National Honey Board.

If you’ve ever wondered about what the words raw, heated, filtered, organic or non-GMO mean in the case of honey, Amina explains it all to help you source the best honey to make your mead better. We also make mention of the Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel (look out for a bonus episode later on its development), which we’ll be using in our next episode to taste some honey with Amina. Look out for it on July 6, 2015.

The Honey and Pollination Center is hosting their next mead class, The Beginner’s Introduction to Mead Making, on November 13-14, 2015.

And don’t forget, The MeadMakr Podcast is now in iTunes. Drop us a review to let us know how we are doing.

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MeadMakr 008: The American Mead Makers Association with Founding President Chris Webber

In Episode 008, we interview Chris Webber, the founding president of the American Mead Makers Association (AMMA) and the owner and head meadmaker at Dragon’s Lair Meads, a subsidiary of Outlanders Keep. We bring Chris on to talk about the AMMA, its mission, ongoing activities, and its path forward. We also discuss the Cider Act, and how with a few tweaks it could be made to address the concerns of the mead industry. Lastly, Chris provides us with some practical guidance for making better mead by tilting the carboy during primary fermentation (a.k.a. The Dragon Tilt).

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We are also now available in iTunes!

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Plum Crazy: A Melomel Recipe from Dragon’s Lair Meads

In Episode 008 of the MeadMakr Podcast, we had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Webber, the founding president of the American Mead Makers Association and the owner and meadmaker of Dragon’s Lair Meads. During the episode, he drank Plum Crazy, a melomel made with Damson plums. He was generous enough to share the recipe after the recording.

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MeadMakr 007: Judging with Vicky

What’s that!? A bonus episode? Whoa… We had some extra content from our interview with Vicky Rowe, and wanted to make sure you got to listen in!

In Episode 007, Vicky teaches us how to judge mead. Of specific interest are overcoming your personal preferences, how the mead category impacts judges’ scores, identifying faults in your mead, and where to go for more information. Let us know what you think on twitter or in the comments section below. Allen’s at @MeadMakr, Tysen’s at @MeadDrinkr.

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MeadMakr 006: Have You Got Mead?

Episode 005 wrapped up our solo podcast content (for now), and in Episode 006 we finally branch out into the information you really want, interviews with the influencers in the meadmaking community. We embark on this journey with the mead mistress herself, Vicky Rowe. Having been involved with the meadmaking world since the late 1980s, Vicky has been influential in watching the industry grow and develop. From the early 1990s, Vicky has managed GotMead? into one of the premier meadmaking resources available online. Follow along as we discuss Vicky’s passage through mead discovery, the development of GotMead, and her plans for its future.

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MeadMakr 005: The Mazer Cup

In Episode 5, we recap our experience at the 2015 Mazer Cup, the world’s largest mead only competition. With over 320 commercial and 360 home mead entrants, it truly is an experience to behold. This year’s edition included the annual American Mead Makers Association meeting, the commercial and home mead making competitions, the Mead Mixer, and the award ceremony. Take a listen as we recall the events and how much fun we had working as stewards. We made lots of new friends, and can’t wait to see everyone there again next year!

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Mead Yeast Primer

There are many yeasts available to the modern meadmaker. And each yeast will have its own unique characteristics that impact your mead’s flavor.

Generally, you should choose a mead yeast based on the following properties: alcohol tolerance, fermentation temperature, nutrient requirements, flavor profile, and flocculation tendencies.

In this post we explain these properties, and provide a nifty table highlighting some of the most popular mead yeasts used today.

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