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6-9-20 Tonight at 9PM ET, we’re continuing our series, bringing on a group of talented meadmakers to talk shop, and going to Arizona. We’ll be talking with Carvin Wilson, Allen Martin and Warren Earle. These gentlemen are prominent in the southwest brewing scene, and bring some powerful mead making chops to the table.
Carvin Wilson is a mead advocate, admirer of mead, passionate beekeeper, collector of honey, lover of yeast, friend of technology and mead maker. He is proud of being able to support small meadery startups, promoting best practices for creating mead, and serving as the moderator of the Modern Mead Makers group on Facebook. After being badgered out of his Hobbit hole, he has exploded on the mead scene and cleaned up with many medals to include four Mazer Cups. He’s also a very proud husband to Robin Wilson, grandfather, father, a retired Marine.and successful business owner with a portfolio consisting of over fifteen companies. Additionally, he is proud of having over 300 different varieties of honey, accumulating thousands of gallons from all over the world.
Carvin is a huge supporter of the AMMA and the Mazer Cup International. This year he bacame the competition manager for the Mazer Cup Home Competition, as well as management of the AMMA National Meadmaker of the Year competition.
He generously hosts several tables at the MCI Mead Mixer to allow smaller meaderies to showcase their meads at the largest mead tasting in the world.
Allen Martin was born and raised in Massachusetts, but he’s been living in Phoenix, AZ for last 28 years.
Allen served in the military for 11 years, including in the first Gulf War. He’s married to a beer brewing beauty and has a grown son.
His first introduction to mead was at a bottle share where Carvin Wilson was in attendance about 4 years ago. He’s been making it ever since. He’s a huge fan of session traditionals.
Here he’s in the ‘mead room’ at the Mazer Cup, where the meads to be judged are sorted and staged. He calls it ‘Mead Heaven’. We agree!
Warren Earle has been a homebrewer for 8 years and like many, started with the Mr. Beer kits. Warren quickly progressed from then on.
Come on in and have a listen!
Join us on the live chat and don’t be afraid to call in if you want to!
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] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes!
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 @GotmeadNow and we’ll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let’s talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you’re a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow.
New Honey on Sale!
African Bronze Honey in Ontario, CA is offering Zambian Dark Honey 60% off: 3.85/lb in 375g squeeze pks or Tanzanian Amber Gold Honey 60lb overfill pail $3.07/lb Plus 6 lbs FREE! It has a smoky, spicy note, w/ caramel and tobacco flavor. Go get yours: https://www.africanbronzehoney.com/collections/gotmead-collection
Coming up:
- We’ll be on break until July 14 – Vicky has some family things to take care of. We’ll be back then, with another awesome group of meadmakers, this time from California!
Show links and notes
- Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff
- Take part in Kevin Meintsma’s Hydromel Study – email hydromel@wtibiz.com and he’ll send you questions
- Honeyberry information
- The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm
- Apple varietals and where they grow – http://orangepippen.com
- National Honey Board Mead Crafter Compeitition
Upcoming Events
- July 11 – Bos Meadery, Madison, WI – The Aaron Brenton Trio
- July 22-25 Mazer Cup International, Broomfield, CO
- September 26-28 AMMA MeadCon, Broomfield, CO
- Due to the pandemic, most meaderies cannot have events or open their taprooms, and are offering their mead via online and pickup service. You can find an ongoing list at https://gotmead.com/meaderies/support-meaderies-during-coronavirus-where-to-get-mead-online-and-pickup/
- Visit our mead directory at https://gotmead.com/commercial-mead/
- You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com
Got an event you’d like us to mention on GotMead Live? Send us an email at gotmeadlive@gotmead.com and tell us about it!
- 5-19-26 – Bob Slanzi – Beekeeping and Barreling Meads - May 19, 2026
- 5-5-26 Tony Qualls – Manic Meadery – Gnosis Brewing – Sugarbelt Mead Festival - May 5, 2026
- 4-21-26 – Blair Housley – Etowah Meadery – Dalonega GA - April 21, 2026
