One foot in front of the other.
One bite at a time.
One bottle at a time.
We're in for a long and bumpy ride. But it sure beats workin' for a livin'.
You go, Brad!
Where are we going as an industry?
- Thread starter IanB
- Start date
-
Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
-
We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
You go, Brad!
We like the idea of a bigger better Mazer Cup International as well. You can help with that by actually entering next year!
cheers,
Oskaar
You give it to him, Oskaar!
Bring on the mead, Ian!
Can you imagine the traffic they would get with a 'mead cam'? There is something that needs doing every day, and tons of people hungry to learn more about what goes on 'behind closed doors' in a meadery/brewery/winery. There's just something attractive about the creation of alcoholic beverages. So a 'virtual tour' or 'mead cam' is an attraction.
Getting back on track for 'what can we do for the industry' like Ian was asking, we can do the following:
Do we need an association for that? Maybe. But as noted earlier, every time that has been tried, everyone is terribly enthusiastic until money is asked for and time is required. Then everyone becomes very busy and doesn't have time. So we need to determine the correct way to put it together that will encourage participation. The Mazer Cup and Gotmead are considering the problem, but at this point there is neither the interest or the cash available to make it happen right now. Possibly soon.
But in all honesty, this is something that every meadery *should* be doing to grow their business, it is basic marketing. You don't need an association to tell you 'grow your business, make a profit'. If they do that, the problem of making the buying market aware of the mead industry will solve itself. And the association, should it get formed, can tackle the real problems of working with the federal government to create fair interstate shipping regulations and a consistent application of TTB rules with a specific set of regulations that apply to mead, rather than lumping us together with wine or beer, which is what is happening now.
Getting back on track for 'what can we do for the industry' like Ian was asking, we can do the following:
- foster a standard of excellence in presenting the product - if you present online and brick and mortar in a way that puts people off, they'll be put off.
- market, market, market. If we don't *tell* people about mead, they won't know about it.
- tastings - get them trying it. I can't tell you the number of people I found when doing a summer-long market test with a pro meadmaker who thought they wouldn't like it and did. To most people, they want 'red' or 'white' wine, or 'dry' or 'sweet' wine. They don't know what they really want or like, they just know what the big wineries tell them to like. Let them *try* your stuff, and 9 times out of ten, especially if you have multiple meads, you'll have something they like.
- If every meadery does this in their own region, then it won't be very long (like less than a year) and *most* people in this country will know what mead is. Because if this happens, then the media will really pick up on it, and that will make it go even faster.
Do we need an association for that? Maybe. But as noted earlier, every time that has been tried, everyone is terribly enthusiastic until money is asked for and time is required. Then everyone becomes very busy and doesn't have time. So we need to determine the correct way to put it together that will encourage participation. The Mazer Cup and Gotmead are considering the problem, but at this point there is neither the interest or the cash available to make it happen right now. Possibly soon.
But in all honesty, this is something that every meadery *should* be doing to grow their business, it is basic marketing. You don't need an association to tell you 'grow your business, make a profit'. If they do that, the problem of making the buying market aware of the mead industry will solve itself. And the association, should it get formed, can tackle the real problems of working with the federal government to create fair interstate shipping regulations and a consistent application of TTB rules with a specific set of regulations that apply to mead, rather than lumping us together with wine or beer, which is what is happening now.
Well, I can tell you a few things that happened today.
I've been bugging a company that creates signs and stickers to make a new sign for me. Today, the new sign wasn't up, but the old one was missing.
Earlier when trying out my semi-automatic capsuler for vino-lok glass cloures, I had a alot of trouble getting it to work right. But I managed to fix it today, by lowering the airpressure (it's connected to a compressor). It's still going to take fine-tuning to get right...but I'll need to hold that off until I get my big capsule order.
I have a mobile meadery, and it's approaching the time of the year when my vehicle needs to be inspected for the first time (it needs to be done before the end of the month). I am very curious, and a little afraid what the reception of the inspection guys will be like...
Currently it is out making mead, which will have completed fermentation tomorrow morning. After it's back I want to get the inspection going ASAP. But today I discovered a problem. I wanted to have the inspection early next week. But there was no time available at all next week. There was one time on Saturday, and one time on April 29th. I booked the time on Saturday, but that means we have to put it into inspection without fixing a couple of things we had planned on fixing before that (making sure all the lights are functioning, install a new system for windshield washer fluid, and have a truck service guy look at it in general). It also means moving the meads from the primary to secondary need to happen really fast (so I should really have been washing up the secondaries today, but I've put it off for tomorrow morning).
I was delieved 700 Liters of birchsap this morning, that's going to be going into a fermentation next week (after the inspection is all done). But the connection to the tank wasn't complementary to the stuff I got, so a lot of creativity had to go into making a new fitting, and quick. Because I had to transfer it into one of my tanks, so it can be cooled down until we're ready to use it, as to not spoil it. also I had to improvise on washing the tank.
In the same delivery was a sample of about 1 kg of "Filipendula ulmaria" (doesn't seem to have an english common name) that we will be using in another mead. In swedish it's called "mosse-grass" if directly translated, though it also has an older name which is "mead-herb" if directly translated. And we need to try and figure out around how much of it we want to be using.
Oh, and I have been trying to clean up my office (that's a constant).
I failed to contact my honey supplier in this part of the country. (I forgot to mention that we will be making mead for the first time in our own facility next week. So far, we have only been going other places and making it, but now we will have the fermentation vehicle parked in our own facility). Anyway, the honeysupplier, I need to relay to him the date (Sunday) that we need to have the honey delivered (and liquified by).
I also booked a fermentation run in July, where I had a hole in the schedule.
I probably missed a lot of things...but usually there is a great amount of things happening. I don't think they should all be reported either.
the place we make updates most often is on our facebook page. But the more advanced news go on our websites, and is also released to the media through something called MyNewsDesk. All of it in Swedish though, so I'm not sure it'd be worth your while to try and follow it.
I've been bugging a company that creates signs and stickers to make a new sign for me. Today, the new sign wasn't up, but the old one was missing.
Earlier when trying out my semi-automatic capsuler for vino-lok glass cloures, I had a alot of trouble getting it to work right. But I managed to fix it today, by lowering the airpressure (it's connected to a compressor). It's still going to take fine-tuning to get right...but I'll need to hold that off until I get my big capsule order.
I have a mobile meadery, and it's approaching the time of the year when my vehicle needs to be inspected for the first time (it needs to be done before the end of the month). I am very curious, and a little afraid what the reception of the inspection guys will be like...
Currently it is out making mead, which will have completed fermentation tomorrow morning. After it's back I want to get the inspection going ASAP. But today I discovered a problem. I wanted to have the inspection early next week. But there was no time available at all next week. There was one time on Saturday, and one time on April 29th. I booked the time on Saturday, but that means we have to put it into inspection without fixing a couple of things we had planned on fixing before that (making sure all the lights are functioning, install a new system for windshield washer fluid, and have a truck service guy look at it in general). It also means moving the meads from the primary to secondary need to happen really fast (so I should really have been washing up the secondaries today, but I've put it off for tomorrow morning).
I was delieved 700 Liters of birchsap this morning, that's going to be going into a fermentation next week (after the inspection is all done). But the connection to the tank wasn't complementary to the stuff I got, so a lot of creativity had to go into making a new fitting, and quick. Because I had to transfer it into one of my tanks, so it can be cooled down until we're ready to use it, as to not spoil it. also I had to improvise on washing the tank.
In the same delivery was a sample of about 1 kg of "Filipendula ulmaria" (doesn't seem to have an english common name) that we will be using in another mead. In swedish it's called "mosse-grass" if directly translated, though it also has an older name which is "mead-herb" if directly translated. And we need to try and figure out around how much of it we want to be using.
Oh, and I have been trying to clean up my office (that's a constant).
I failed to contact my honey supplier in this part of the country. (I forgot to mention that we will be making mead for the first time in our own facility next week. So far, we have only been going other places and making it, but now we will have the fermentation vehicle parked in our own facility). Anyway, the honeysupplier, I need to relay to him the date (Sunday) that we need to have the honey delivered (and liquified by).
I also booked a fermentation run in July, where I had a hole in the schedule.
I probably missed a lot of things...but usually there is a great amount of things happening. I don't think they should all be reported either.
the place we make updates most often is on our facebook page. But the more advanced news go on our websites, and is also released to the media through something called MyNewsDesk. All of it in Swedish though, so I'm not sure it'd be worth your while to try and follow it.
1.) I love any thread that gets Vicky in the game.
2.) Mead (God save the Queen) and anything that gets people thinking about BEES is the epitome of "sustainable."
3.) I was sorry not to see Greg represented here as I'm quite keen on LOCAL in all its incarnations, and for me Wild Blossom is "local" (plus his chocolate mead is ***mmm***delicious) so, here he is:
http://www.wildblossomwines.com/
4.) I'd much rather have my consumer $ supporting the meadery directly rather than supporting the liquor store (although before long I'll be imbibing my own mead and won't be purchasing much...), and would prefer to buy from Greg directly if it weren't for the geographical Catholic/Protestant divide, and would gladly place my order on line if I was spared shipping costs...
5.) That's enough ranting from me...for the moment...
Last edited:
I like every thing said here.....
Remember it's the Carbon Footprint that counts.
Regards,
TB
Amen, Sister.
I posted elsewhere here a question:
Anybody ever take time lapse photos of the yeasties at work?
I'm not sure how interesting that would be when you're fermenting in stainless steel. Something for Maine Meadworks maybe, since they're fermenting in glass containers?
But on the topic, we actually have a security camera that's hooked up to a screen inside our meadery vehicle. It hasn't worked after we had an electrical problem in the front part of the vehicle though. But if we get it working again (or another one) it would be interesting to get it hooked up to the web. Not really a priority atm though.
I'm calling it Expedition Local Mead, it's a special kind of beeicle known as Autompis Hydromellifera.
I don't know that many people have their finger on the pulse of mead in general much better than Vicky, so I'll more than listen to anything she says!
I really don't want to derail this because I know Ian wants concise conversations (and so do I honestly. I seriously consider opening a meadery in 5 or more years (need to hone my craft first) and this stuff is like solid gold to me), but Smarrikåka - I think you have the makings of a decent reality TV show in your company. The more stuff that goes wrong, the better for TV.
If someone could convince someone in TV show production that documenting several up and coming meaderies trying to change the perceptions of the world (or in our case, a continent), hell, trying just to get noticed, could be a good show, THAT would be HUGE. And, if you spread it out over a few meaderies, there's GOT to be enough drama there to make it a good TV show. Compared to hallf the mundane boring shows on TV right now it could potentially do fairly well - the hard (nearly impossible) part would be getting it made in the first place, so that may be a bit of daydreaming on my part.
I really don't want to derail this because I know Ian wants concise conversations (and so do I honestly. I seriously consider opening a meadery in 5 or more years (need to hone my craft first) and this stuff is like solid gold to me), but Smarrikåka - I think you have the makings of a decent reality TV show in your company. The more stuff that goes wrong, the better for TV.
If someone could convince someone in TV show production that documenting several up and coming meaderies trying to change the perceptions of the world (or in our case, a continent), hell, trying just to get noticed, could be a good show, THAT would be HUGE. And, if you spread it out over a few meaderies, there's GOT to be enough drama there to make it a good TV show. Compared to hallf the mundane boring shows on TV right now it could potentially do fairly well - the hard (nearly impossible) part would be getting it made in the first place, so that may be a bit of daydreaming on my part.
Not happening any time soon! Until I'm a solid mead maker I'm not going near it as a business.
It does have an English common name and that is Meadowsweet. BTW - I love what it does in a high ABV metheglin. The natural floral aroma from those flowers really softens up the nose, and in the flavor profile you are left with a lingering sweetness that really stretches the finish for a very long, pleasant time. Additionally, the leaves and stems contain a high concentration of salicylic acid (variant of the principal analgesic ingredient in aspirin - almost as much as is found in willow bark). So I like to say that any mead made with meadowsweet contains its own built-in hangover remedy! ;D
If it's good with strength, maybe we should use a little extra honey for that batch then. I experimented with it in a small-batch mead a few years back, that turned out awful. But I used way too much of it that time, I also had the flowers in the primary (I believe even some bugs made it in, even though I had tried to wash them out extensively). All of those things were big mistakes, and it showed.
this time we are just going to steam what little we can get our hands on (which is about 3 kg). Since it's pretty powerful, I hope that it will be enough for a significant contribution. Also it's been frozen for about a year, so the risk of bugs should be insignidicant.
There is one other thing that you should know - it takes more than a little while to integrate into the profile. So more aging is required before that smooth sweetness develops. Until then it does taste somewhat acidic, and somewhat "off."
