11-10-20 Tonight at 9PM ET GotMead Live will be talking with Willie Wrede, owner of Meduseld Meadery in Lancaster, PA. Willie is a meadery owner (and a braggot fan), Marine, talented mead maker and a dad, and is now in process of opening a second location they’re calling Artifice Ales and Meads.

Willie started homebrewing beer in the early 2000’s as the Craft wave was gaining momentum. A big fan of fantasy fiction, Willie saw mead was always solidly rooted in fiction until he had it for the first time in 2012. That first sip wasn’t so good…it was at the PA Renn Faire, and way too sweet and unbalanced. The kindly wench behind the bar saw his face, then took what was left in the mead glass and dumped it into a freshly poured mug of stout, saying “this is a braggot.” He was a fan from then on, and his first attempt at Mead was a Braggot.
Willie’s first batches were horrible. Hot phenolic messes of undrinkable jet fuel. That’s when he stopped winging it and started researching what he was doing wrong. He joined forums and lurked for a couple years, reading everything he could…it turned into an obsession (happens to a lot of us, lol – ED). Willie became a BJCP Mead Judge and set out to learn everything he could about Mead. That path put him on a trajectory to opening Meduseld.
Open since 2017,  Willie has been running a modestly successful Mead and Axe Throwing venue in Lancaster. Pre-Covid they had 16 employees. This year they are opening a second location that will be a Gastropub in their home town of Manheim PA. Artifice Ales & Mead will be a Brewery that focuses on food pairing with alcohol.  We are circling back to our roots by focusing heavily on Braggot and other traditional beer styles that pair well with food, mostly British Isles in origin.

Willie is a Lancaster County Pennsylvania native. He’s a nut for fantasy fiction, exploring the outdoors on foot, and eating and drinking all sorts of interesting things. He’s married 27 years now, with three kids. He became a Marine in 1992 and enjoyed a 25 year career in Military Aviation as a Helicopter Mechanic 15 of those years in uniform and 10 as a contractor. He opened Meduseld Meadery in May of 2017 two weeks after he was laid off from his government contracting gig.

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.

Show links and notes
Upcoming Events

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!

Vicky Rowe
Follow me
Latest posts by Vicky Rowe (see all)

Advertise on Gotmead