Tonight at 9PM ET we’re talking with Kent Slaymaker, meadmaker and owner of Slaymaker Cellars in Idaho Springs, Colorado, west of Denver just off I-70.
Kent and Cris opened Slaymaker Cellars in 2019, making a commitment to using local products for their meads as much as they can. They specialize in making dryer meads, and their wildflower traditional took a double gold at the 2022 Colorado Governor’s Cup wine competition, and they are one o the top 12 wines in Colorado. They also make melomels, metheglins and session meads. They are big on educating about pollinators and pollinator health. They work with local apiaries to source their honey.
Earlier this year, Slaymaker converted to a workers’ cooperative, giving all the employees ownership in the company and an equal vote in how the company is run.
Cris Slaymaker traded in her historian hat to co-found Slaymaker with her husband, Kent. She is a veritable fount of historical trivia, and also brought years of experience working in the wine and beer industries. Cris loves playing in her garden, roller skating, figure skating, falling off skateboards and adventuring with their daughter.
Kent is the president and head brewer at Slaymaker. He grew up in the wine industry and has always been interested in non-grape wines, which is what led him to his first home brew batches of wine, mead and cheese over 15 years ago. Kent started as an engineer for a defense contractor, but he preferred making cheese to weapons. He started a cheesemaking company in 2010 and sold it when he moved to Colorado in 2017. Just two years later they opened Slaymaker Cellars.
Join us tonight to talk with Kent and see what they’re up to!
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Sponsor:
Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster! Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors! www.honnibrook.com
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.
Upcoming Shows
- September 12 – Don Miller at Texas Rivers Distilling Company
- September 26 – Ali Fox at Dragon Meadery
- October 10 – Brian Galbreath at Unpossible Meadery
Show links and notes
- Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff
- The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff
- Let There Be Session Meads by Rob Ratliff
Upcoming Events
- Sept 6 – Kingview Meadhouse and Winery, Mount Lebanon, PA – Trivia Night
- Sept 7 – Maniacal Mead Co., Ypsilanti, MI – Thorsdays – Bring your viking horns and drink like a viking or renaissance person or whatever. Costumes optional
- Sept 16 – Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA – Mead and Metal Artisans Alley
- Sept 16 – Black Mountain Cider + Mead, Black Mountain, NC – 10th Anniversary Celebration
- Sept 23 – Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC – MeadFest 2023
- Sept 23 – White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, MN – Yoga and Mead
- Sept 23 – Wyrd Leather and Mead, Portland, OR – Wyr’s Comic-Con After Party
- Sept 29 – Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA – Hurry Up, Say Something Funny – Comedy night
- Sept 29 – Atheling Meadworks, Roanoke, VA – Viriginia Mead Cup
- Sept 20-Oct 1 – American Mead Makers Association – East Coast Mead Conference in Roanoke, VA
- Oct 7 – Batch Mead, Temecula, CA – Meadtoberfest
- Oct 14 – Michigan Mead Cup – Judging
- Oct 21 – The Brimming Horn Meadery, Lewes, DE – Mead O’Ween Party
You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com
If you want to get your event on GotMead Live, let us know at gotmead@Gotmead.com
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.
- 10-21-25 Brian Bookmiller – Queen City Meadery – Buffalo, NY - October 21, 2025
- 10-7-25 Talking Mead with Rob Barnhart and Bill Bellair - October 7, 2025
- 9-9-25 Kris and Karen Pruitt – Kold Prairie Mead - September 9, 2025