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8-7-18 We’re skipping over to Wyoming this week to visit with Sam Clikeman, owner of Big Lost Meadery. Sam started making beer back in the early 2000’s in Logan, UT with a buddy. In a forest service cabin in the middle of the woods. No running water, very little electric, and not much by way of supplies. That takes dedication! It actually worked out better than you might think it would, and a couple years later, Sam discovered mead. Sam didn’t want to waste a year for a five gallon carboy of mead; if it is good, you only have five gallons after a year, if the mead is bad you just wasted valuable carboy space for nothing. So he said he would only make mead if he could do a large barrel, but honey was too expensive to take on the endeavor. So his friend Shane Anderson hooked him up with a honey producer in Montana to obtain 125 pounds of honey to try his first batch. One year later the mead turned out amazing! So the meadmaking began and the idea grew and grew until in 2014 Big Lost Meadery was born!
He was joined after a while by Bob Hewitt-Gaffney, who had started dating Sam’s sister, and ultimate ended up marrying her, and he joined the company as a partner. Both Sam and Bob quit their jobs and are working the meadery full time at Big Lost.
The story of Big Lost is based around the legend of the Big Lost Cabin. Legend has it that there is a cabin in the middle of nowhere in Western Wyoming. A place lost to the tenors of modern society, a warm fire is always burning to welcome the party. A leaky roof, a crusty old bar keep, a door that only pretends to lock, this run down cabin is a mecca for those lost in the wilderness. With the likes of the Wild Man, the Crazy Woman, the Island Gypsy, the Forgotten Philosopher always at the cabin, many legendary folks frequent this place and can tell you tales beyond belief. From ancient Pillagers of the north to tropical maidens lost to time, they all remember our basic natures.
Big Lost takes it’s label, and it’s attitude, from the legend of the Big Lost Cabin.
Join us to talk Wyoming mead with Sam!
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Show links and notes
- DraughtLab – Sensory Guide for Craft Beer
- Danny Acevedo – Modern Mead Making Videos
- BJCP
- The Flavor Bible
- Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff
- The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff
Upcoming Events
- August 9 – Oran Mor Artisan Mead – Open Mic Night
- August 11 – Kaw Point Meadery will be at the Hip Hops Hooray Beer Fest
- August 25 – Bronto Mead – Weed and Mead Party
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!
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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