2-13-24 – Traci Kuhfuss – Mead recipes, flavor profiles, exotic woods

2-13-24 Tonight we're headed to Texas to talk with Traci Kuhfuss, home meadmaker and mead consultant. Traci Kuhfuss comes to us from Texas by way of Arizona. She ís been active as a homebrewer and mead maker for 20 years now, participating in brew clubs and competitions in all the places she has lived and traveled.. Traci is a professional graphic designer who loves making mead. Traci got into brewing once upon a time, she was newly divorced and her friends were all getting married and having kids. She was bored with sitting at home with nothing to do. Her friends got her a home brewing kit that year for Christmas. She made her first beer that New Years Eve. She eventually joined a homebrew club and was introduced to mead. She started making mead then and winning more medals with mead than beer. She has been consistently winning awards since 2005 to include many BOS wins such as Great Arizona Home Brew Competitions, Orpheus Cup, Queen of Beer, and Mead Stampede. After moving to Texas, she briefly dipped a toe in the commercial realm but went back to the homebrew scene. She has even helped with Texas Rivers Distilling in advising how to make good mead to make award winning Honey Creek Honey Spirits. Which took a silver medal in February 2023 at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. She has been involved in many competitions including The Great Arizona Homebrew Competition and The Great Arizona Mead Competition when she lived in Phoenix, Arizona. Upon moving to Texas she became involved in the local Houston homebrew scene with her clubs the Cane Island Alers and Sugarland Imperialists, helping to grow the mead community & assisting in Operation Fermentation. Traci also ran the Texas Mead Cup from 2019 to 2023 and has new plans to grow the mead judging pool and assist other Texas clubs in growing mead entries in their competitions. Join us to talk mead with Traci, and explore making better mead. 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] 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 @realGotMead and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Upcoming Shows Feb 27 - Bob Slanzi - Thinking Outside the Box March 12 - Laura Angotti - Historical Mead March 26 - Bray Denard - Mead Experimenting, One Month Mead 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 Monin liqeuer concentrates Upcoming Events https://emmconference.comThe European Mead Makers Conference is coming up, and registration is open until Feb 18. Feb 14 - Bee Well Mead and Cider, Bellaire, MI - Valentines Day Book Fair for Grown Ups Feb 14 - Odin's Alchemy Brewing, Olympia, WA - I'm the One You Mead - Valentines Day Celebration Feb 16 - Hickory Tree Farm Apiaries, Kent City, MI - Valentines Mead Make and Take Class Feb 17 - Harvest, Holland OH - Mead Day Celebration featuring meads from Schramm's, Four Fires and Meads of Midgard. Feb 17 - Perry Vine Mead and Cider, South Bend, IN - One Year Anniversary Celebration Feb 17 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Oddsoul Duo Live Music Feb 18 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Love and Cheese: A Mead and Cheese Pairing Event with The Cheese Lady Feb 24 - Four Brothers Mead, Festus, MO - Casting Runes live music