4-22-22 - Rachel Lipman, Loew Vineyards - 150 years and 5 Generations of Mead Making – Got Mead? The Largest Mead Resource on the Web

4-26-22 Tonight on Gotmead Live, we’re talking with Rachel Lipman, owner of Loew Vineyards, in Mt. Airy, Maryland, one of the oldest vineyards in Maryland. The mead production in the Loew family dates back to the mid-1800’s in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with a few prominent meaderies and distribution all over Europe. Rachel is one of the youngest winemakers in Maryland (if not the youngest), and she’s pushing the boundaries in a male-dominated industry.

Rachel is the granddaughter of Wolfgang Loew, and he adopted the name William when he came to the US after World War II, having been the only member of the family to survive the Holocaust, and he did so by being in the Underground. William ended up in Maryland after some time in Indianapolis, and when he arrived, he felt compelled to start making wine at home, remembering his childhood and the smell of the barrels in his family’s meadery. He practices and tweaked, and became very well versed in creating a palatable bottle of wine. He kept this up, and when he retired from his ‘day job’, Bill found a great 37 acre piece of land in Frederick County and planted grapevines. At the time there were only a handful of grape growers and wineries in Maryland.

Now the torch has passed to the next generations, and Rachel, the eldest granddaughter, has taken over. Rachel grew up learning about the family history and the winery, and immersed herself in the industry, getting a Bachelor’s of Science in Plant Science and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Communication. She also studied in France, interned at an organic vineyard in the Loire Valley. She also completed the Washington State University Enology Program. Rachel now manages most aspects of the operations for the vineyard, winery and tasting room. Including winemaking.

Rachel makes her families’ mead. They have a dry, semi-dry and semi-sweet mead, and make a cyser and a pyment (which has multiple vintages). She spent quite a bit of time uncovering her families mead-making past. While things were shut down during Covid, she dug through Polish documents, magazines and newspapers to learn more about the family business. She learned that her families’ meadery was in a district that had warehouses, vodka distilleries, several other meaderies, and a beer garden. Her families’ meadery took up an entire city block!

At the time in the 1800’s when the Loew family were meadmaking, they distributed internationally. And of the ten kids that they had, two of them started meaderies of their own. The rest got into winemaking. One son established the first national meadery and beeswax facility in Poland. He and his wife had three sons, one of which was Wolfgang, Rachel’s grandfather.

Rachel is now carrying one the family winemaking, and has updated the winery with all new equipment, and is looking to a future of providing her family’s wine and mead to the customers of the future.

Join us as we talk with Rachel and explore the rich mead (and wine) history she is part of.

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Upcoming Shows

Show links and notes

Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff
The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff

Upcoming Events

April 28 – Burke Mountain Brew, Springdale, AZ – Mead and Wine Tasting
April 28 – ARTifice Ales and Mead, Manheim, PA – Thirsty Thursday – free 4oz taster with a flight!
April 29-May 2 – Bottles and Books, Bristol, UK – Sydney and Eden Bank Holiday Cider and Mead Festival
April 29 – Antelope Ridge Mead, Colorado Springs, CO – Mural Unveiling and Cherry Limeade release
April 29 – Honey & Hops Brew Works, Front Royal, VA – Music and Mead: featuring the Cold North
April 30 – Haley’s Honey Meadery, Fredericksburg, VA – Smithing and Mead – Blacksmith and Bladesmith demos
April 30 – Gulf Coast Mead Fest, Anahuac, TX – Frascone Winery and Vineyard/Bistro – sample meads from 6 commercial meaderies from the Gulf Coast
May 1 – Starrlight Meadery, Pittsboro, NC – First Sunday Sound Bath
May 1 – Evil Horse Brewing Company, Crete, IL – Mead tasting and pairing with Unpossible Mead and Midwest Meadwerks
May 1 – Meadiocrity Mead, San Marcos, CA – Sunday Sessions: Mead and Music
May 1 – Flora de Mel, Rossville, GA – Yoga Mead Up with Meghan Barnard Yoga
May 1 – Batch Mead, Temecula, CA – Temecula Momma’s Market – Sip and Shop FREE Pop Up Market
May 4 – Kingsview Mead, Mount Lebanon, PA – Buzzworthy Trivia Night
May 6-8 – Hierophant Meadery, Green Bluff, WA – Mothers Day Meadmosas
May 7 – Wildflyer Mead, Navasota, TX – Derby Day Crawfish Boil and a Derby inspired mead
May 10 – Battle and Brew, Sandy Springs, GA – Mini’s and Mead – mini painting class and Viking Alchemist mead
May 14 – Syttende Mai Entertainment Tent, Stoughton, WI – mead tastings from Nottingham Nectar
May 14 – Batch Mead, Temecula, CA – FREE Ae Throwing at the Tasting Room (and mead of course)
May 15 – AleCraft Brewery, Bel Air, MD – Mead Making Class
May 15 – American Mead Makers Association – Mead Matters Episode 8: Making Mead with Kveik
May 15 – Sugarbelt Mead Festival – put on by Manic Meadery, 30+ meaderies from all over the US
May 15 – The Build Guild, Fort Wayne, IN – Mead Making Workshop
May 19 – KVLT Mead, Tacoma, WA – Solar Haze and Grim Earth playing
May 20 – Matthews Living History Farm Museum, Galax, VA – Homestead Class: Beginners Mead Making
May 21 – Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR – Drink Up Me Hearties, Yo Ho! – A Pirate Event
May 21 – Cigar City Cider and Mead, Tampa, FL – Cider and Mead Invitational
May 21-22 – Honey and Pollination Center, UC Davis, Davis, CA – Mead: Getting Creative
May 22 – Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN – Sugar Belt Mead Festival
May 25 – Oppegaard Meadery, Tukwila, WA – Mead Tasting at Mariblu Southcenter – Active Adult Living 55+
May 25 – KingsView Mead & Cider, Lebanon, PA – Lebo Fun Run
May 28 – KVLT Mead, Tacoma, WA – Safeword! Kinky Queer Comedy Show
Aug 22-23 – American Mead Makers Association – MeadCon 2022 in Baltimore, MD – tickets on sale now!

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Vicky Rowe

Owner at Gotmead.com and Craft Beverage Marketing

Vicky Rowe has been active as a promoter and supporter of the mead industry since the mid-90's with Gotmead.com, and is totally serious about seeing the mead industry take its rightful place as a popular craft beverage on the world recreational drinking stage.

She is also an experienced marketing coach and consultant who has recently decided to focus her marketing expertise exclusively on the craft beverage market to help meaderies, cideries, breweries and distilleries expand their business and get more customers while doing what they love.

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