1-21-20 Tonight at 9PM ET we're talking with Tony Qualls, owner of Manic Meadery and speaker at the 2020 MeadCon, where he'll be giving a seminar on Maximum Fruit: Big Berry Bombs and Other Melomels.

Tony is not just a meadery owner, he's also a musician. He toured in the band Groovatron for 12 years, doing over 1500 shows in 12 years (makes me tired just thinking about all that travel!).

Tony is a lifelong entrepreneur, having run a vinyl record company, painting company and a bunch of other businesses. Plus he's a skilled tradesman in welding and carpentry (that would help with build out!).

Tony has been married to his lovely wife Vanessa for 12 years, and they have two kids. Not to sit on his laurels, Tony plans to pursue law school and recording backlogs of musical material while running his meadery (getting tired again, lol). He likes to mountain bike and ride his motorcycle in his free time (he has free time?).

Tony co-founded Manic Meadery with Keith Cantwell in 2018 in Crown Point, Indiana. Manic is a small batch meadery, and they also do wine and cider. They've gotten a lot of interest in their sweet dessert meads using whole fruit and often multiple adjuncts. Tony is also a BJCP mead judge, and holder of Mazer Cup awards for both home and commercial mead. The plans for Manic in 2020 include increasing self distribution, expanding their production space, and organizing a mead-only festival, the Sugarbelt Mead Fest.

We're going to talk mead and melomels, and dig into some of the ideas around creating berry bombs.

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Coming up:

January 28 - Laura Angotti (keynote at MeadCon) - Mead and Historical Recipes
February 4 - Keith Seitz - National Honey Board
February 18 - Marina Marchese - Honey Sommelier

Show links and notes

Heat stabilizing white wine
Wine Folly Master Guide
Scott Labs 2019 Yeast Book
Scott Labs searchable yeast selection
Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff
The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff

Upcoming Events

January 22 - Bos Meadery, Madison, WI - Beer and Mead Pairing Event with Giant Jones Brewing
January 25 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Namaste Meadieval - Yoga and Mead
January 25 - Chubby Cheeks Meadery, Temecula, CA - Meaditation and Yoga
January 25 - Threadbare Cider and Mead, Pittsburgh, PA - Adopt a Bunny event
February 1 - Chubby Cheeks Meadery, Temecula, CA - Mead Making Workshop
February 7 - Haley's Honey Meadery, Hopewell, VA - Junior Wilson Live
February 7-9 - Earle Estates Meadery, Seneca Lake area, NY - Chocolate and Wine tour
February 9 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead Learn Things - Open Dungeons and Dragons
February 15 - Meduseld Meadery, Lancaster, PA - Rose and Shamrock Festival
February 15 - Meadery Bus Tour, Detroit, MI - visiting Schramm's Mead, B.Nektar Mead and Kuhnhenn Brewery and Meadery
February 22 - Strad Meadery, Cordoba, CA - Paint and Sip class
February 23 - Threadbare Cider and Mead, Pittsburgh, PA - Koji and Tempeh Master Class
March 17 - MeadCon Meadery Open Houses at Queen Bee Meadery (Denver) and Honnibrook Meadery (Castle Rock)
March 18-19 - MeadCon 2020,