10-7-25 Tonight we're talking meadmaking with Bill Bellair and Rob Barnhart. Both are experienced meadmakers that create excellent meads. And both have taken their share of awards at competitions.
Bill Bellair began his mead-making journey in 2008 when his mother expressed interest in trying tej, a traditional Ethiopian honey wine, which was unavailable locally. His early attempts—while not without the occasional "bottle bomb"—yielded surprisingly delicious results.
Following this, Bill turned his attention to beer brewing, and it would be several years before he returned to crafting mead. During this time, he joined the Metro Enologist 'n' Zymurgist (MENZ) club, where he expanded his skills in winemaking. This experience gave him valuable insight into the mistakes he had made in his early mead-making efforts, reigniting his passion for the craft.

This marked the beginning of a dedicated era of mead production that continues to this day. In 2019, Bill founded the Michigan Mead Coalition, the state's largest mead-exclusive organization. The coalition has fostered a thriving community of skilled brewers, many of whom have earned prestigious awards and even pursued the coveted title of Mead Maker of the Year.
Rob Barnhart has been making mead since 2018. He started making mead January of 2018 because he doesn't like beer. He was playing Skyrim a lot and looked it up on YouTube. Down the rabbit hole he went. Soon after he found Gotmead and Modern Mead Makers. He then talked Vicky into meeting him at St Ambrose and Vicky and Kirk told Rob to enter comps. He didn’t do too badly. So far he has 25 medals but still haven’t gotten the coveted best in show. . He also hasn’t had HOD yet. Rob retired early from the military and the Post Office and now he just hangs out in his inner city garden paradise and makes mead.


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Look no further than Honnibrook Craft Meadery in Castle Rock, Colorado, for your go-to destination for wonderful, light, and refreshing mead! We have 20 meads on tap and four seasonal mead slushees. 

Go to honnibrook.com for review our tap list, upcoming events and to order online!




If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can send us a question via email, join to ask a question on the show, or via X @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! The show runs from 9PM EDT/6PM PDT (United States) for about 2 hours.


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