8-13-19 Tonight at 9PM EST we’re talking with Kevin Martin, Head of Fermentation, Labs and IT at Goodroads Cider and Mead in Charlotte, NC.

Kevin is a long time home brewer, since 1994. His first kit was a ‘Slobber Porter’, and his second beer was an Imperial stout/Dopple Bock/Barley wine hybrid (he was new). He read about mead in Charlie Papazian’s ‘New Complete Joy of Home Brewing‘, went out and bought a commercial example, and decided he wanted to try it out. His first batch was, in his words, ‘ugh’.

Then it became a challenge.

He ended up making mead for his wedding, and started competing in 2001. He went on to be North Carolina Mead Maker of the Year on the Top Three plaque 13 times, with 4 first places between 2001 and 2015. He has hundreds of medals and ribbons in competition for mead. He has gotten his BJCP National Judge and MJCP judge credentials.

In 2017, he went pro as head of fermentation at Good Roads. Kevin is married and has a daughter and a cat, and a member of the Carolina Brew Masters brew club, which was the winner of the first AHA Radagast Award (Kevin was president that year).

Good Roads opened on St. Patrick’s Day, 2017, and is both a cidery and meadery. The name comes from a play on majority owner Brian Beauchemin’s last name, which means “wonderful path” in French. They are currently serving in their tasting room, and selling to individuals in growlers, but plan to have a bottling line up soon.


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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 Guests:
  • Aug 20 – Kent Waldeck – Crafted Artisan Meadery
  • Aug 27 – Sam Slaughter – Food and Drink Editor at The Manual
  • Sept 3 – Mateusz Blaszczyk and Krzysztof Jarek – EMMA/Mead Madness Cup
  • Sept 10 – Meadcon East and Cornell Mead Intensive (off)
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Vicky Rowe
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