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8-4-20 Tonight at 9PM ET, we are going to talk more about session meads, which are the hottest thing in meadmaking these days. We’ll be chatting with Rob Ratlff, author of “The Big Book of Mead Recipes” and “Let There Be Melomels“, popular books of mead recipes. Rob’s next book will be “Let There be Session Meads”. We’re also bringing in Kevin Meintsma, a very talented session mead maker. The conversation should be really good!

An experienced meadmaker, Rob has been studying mead and its creative aspects since 2006. He has won multiple awards during competition with his meads at the Annual Mazer Cup International Mead Competition over the years and is regularly sought out for his input on recipe ideas. As a certified BJCP Mead Judge, Robert also enjoys offering pointers to entrants in upcoming competitions.His extensive collection of meads, and meadr ecipes, has been gathered from around the world. A retired soldier (and former sailor), he is a veteran of the Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars, has lived in 7 states, and visited most of the rest. Between his civilian and military careers, he has lived in or travelled to approximately 20 countries spanning the globe. Wherever he goes, he looks for local meads to sample and local mead makers with whom to share his knowledge with and to learn and unique local brewing techniques from.

You might remember Kevin Meintsma from from a few months ago, when he was on with the Minnesota gang. In 2017 he came back to mead after blowing through all the beer and cider styles. His 3rd mead was a pyment which took first place at the Minnesota State Fair (to his surprise). His 4th mead was a cyser made in the fall from local apples he got via the Primary Fermenters club. During the Minnesota Homebrewer’s Association annual holiday party in December, Matt Weide tasted the cyser and declared it better than his! So Kevin entered it in the AHA 2018 Nationals where it got a gold in the first round, and a 2nd in the final round, totally shocking Kevin.

So, in 2019, he found the Mazer Cup. He attended and was shocked to take two medals and a should out from Josh Mahoney, one is his local mead heroes. He also got involved with a local group of mead makers and then went on to help found the Valkyries Horn Mead Competition, which was held for the first time in September 2019.

Kevin has focused on process and technique, more than ingredients or yeast. Nearly all his medals and best of shows he’s gotten have used ‘generic’ ingredients and prosaic yeast choices, which he did deliberately, due to a tight budget. He wanted a good grasp of technique so he can do justice to the many honey varietals that are available now.

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.

Coming up:
  • 8-11 Billy Beltz, Harold Gulbransen and Eric Holden – Southern California meadmakers
Show links and notes
Upcoming Events
  • Sept 17-19 – Valkyries Horn Mead Competiton – registration until Aug 22.
    The one and only KEN SCHRAMM will judge the GOLD medal winners from the Valkyries Horn Mead Competition to determine the Best Of Show!
    He’s consented to do a virtual tour of his meadery, film his commentary for the top 5 meads, provide a Q&A session after the awards ceremony, AND do a virtual tasting walkthrough of his Raspberry mead (you might want to order one to follow along)!
    Join them at 7pm on Saturday September 19th for the awards ceremony to see the BOS mead revealed by Ken.
    Submit your questions to info@valkyrieshorn.com and see if Ken will answer your questions.
  • September 26-October 1 – Mazer Cup International Competition
  • October 1 – Valhalla – The Meading of Life Mead Competition – deadline for entries is 9-19, judging starts 10-1
  • 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!

Vicky Rowe
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