9-26-23 Ali and Shane Fox – Dragon Meadery, Colorado

Tonight at 9PM ET, we're talking with Ali and Shane Fox, owners of Dragon Meadery in Aurora, CO. Dragon Meadery is a craft meadery located in Aurora, CO. and is owned  and operated by Shane & Alexandria Fox, two former chefs who have spent 20 years each in the restaurant & hospitality industry. Having a deep appreciation for food, and respect for the quality of the ingredients, have extended their passion to mead. They create craft meads that span the spectrum style, flavors, and sweetness. They believe that fresh seasonal produce and honey locally sourced, makes the best meads. Back in the early 2000 A friend of Shane’s introduced him to mead, it was one of his new favorite beverages and something lacking in the restaurant industry. Shane met his wife Alexandria in 2004 & introduced her to mead with a trip to a local meadery. After which he explained he had the equipment and honey for two 5 gallon batches. She wanted to know why they weren’t making mead “we’re chefs, playing with recipes is what we do!” They went and picked up his equipment and honey, took it back to her place to start making their first batch, an orange blossom traditional. They learned a lot from that batch, like the importance of racking, bottling it when it is ready and not still fermenting also to use proper corks not tasting corks. They lost half the batch to “bottle bombs” in the first week after bottling and had a huge mess in their dining room. With lessons learned they made their second batch, a  semi-sweet traditional and even entered into the International Mead Festival home competition 2007. To their surprise the mead took silver. Maybe they were on to something. The recession hit them pretty hard as new parents so in 2012 they decided to start the licensing process for a commercial meadery. Fast forword almost a year and several conversations with the city, they became the first meadery in the Denver metro area. They started their first commercial batches in August 2013. With a focus on high quality, full strength aged meads, and a goal to see othemelves on wine menus in upscale restaurants. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! 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 October 10 - Brian Galbreath at Unpossible Meadery October 24 - Beehave Craft Meadery, New Zealand 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 28 - Apis Mead & Winery, Carnegie, PA - Hurry Up, Say Something Funny - Comedy night Sept 29 - Atheling Meadworks, Roanoke, VA - Viriginia Mead Cup Sept 29-Oct 1 - American Mead Makers Association - East Coast Mead Conference in Roanoke, VA Sept 30 - Honey Wines Australia, Broke, New South Wales, Australia - Honey and Mead Tasting Sept 30 - Nutmeg State Mead Cup, Lebanon, CT - 1st Annual Nutmeg State Mead Cup at the Lebanon County Fair Grounds