2-24-26 Tonight at 9PM ET, we're talking with Ryan Kretchmer, owner of Barbarian Mead, a meadery in planning in the Philadelphia area.

Like many people, Ryan has lived a quiet, normal life growing up in the suburbs of Chicago — quietly wrestling tigers in the Roman Colosseum, serving as a United States Senator, accepting a beauty pageant crown, conducting questionable laboratory experiments, and occasionally floating through low Earth orbit as an astronaut. Unfortunately, a demanding schedule of international diplomacy, space travel, and tiger hand-to-hand combat made it difficult to maintain a work-life balance, so he reluctantly retired from his many prestigious careers. The official story is “career exploration.” The real story is that the tigers unionized and HR got involved.

In reality, Ryan is married to amazing and beautiful woman named Mary, who has given him more patience then he usually deserves...and a house full of dogs.  He spent many years working as a general contractor and carpenter, building and renovating homes. After a serious health scare forced him to reassess life and priorities, he stepped away from the physically demanding side of construction and transitioned into working as a quality inspector, where he now evaluates new homes for several national builders. While he no longer swings a hammer all day, the attention to detail and problem-solving mindset followed him into his next unexpected chapter.

That chapter began one morning slightly hungover when he checked his email and discovered he had apparently purchased a mead-making kit the night before. Instead of canceling the order, he decided to see what would happen — and promptly fell down a very deep rabbit hole. What started as curiosity turned into an obsession. To date he has made more than 180 batches of mead.

He plans to eventually operate **Barbarian Meadery**, where creativity, experimentation, and a refusal to take himself too seriously are part of the process. There are many more batches — and probably a few more questionable late-night purchases — still to come. Cheers.

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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 every other Tuesday starting Jan 13, 2026.

To join live, you can use this link, and here are instructions on how to join in. Once you enter the waiting room, we get a notification and will bring you in!

Upcoming Shows

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

Feb 25 - Silver Hand Meadery, Williamsburg, VA - A Reading by Stephen R. Lawhead (and mead)

Feb 26 - Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Meadery Jam - bring your instrument

Feb 26 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sepulpa, OK - Karaoke Night

Feb 28 - Grimsby Hollow Meadery, Middleville, MI - Drink Mead, Learn Things: Anatomy of a Killer: When Doctors Become Predators

Feb 28 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - Mead and Girl Scout Cookie Paring

Feg 28 - St. Ambrose Cellars, Beulah, MI - Barefoot Music party

Mar 1 - Brothers Drake Meadery, Columbus, OH - Sabor Sundays - Salsa and bachata social

Mar 5 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Paint and Sip

Mar 5 - Valhalla Meadery, Bozeman, MT - Meadery Jam - bring your instrument

Mar 5 - Dancing Skeleton Meadery, Sapulpa, OK - Trivia Night

Mar 8 - Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, MD - Acoustic Jam with Mike Rocke Folk Music

Mar 13 - Manic Meadery, Crown Point, IN - Paint and Drink

Mar 15 - Jane Austen Society of North America, Columbia, MD - March Mead Madness - Mead Making class

Mar 15 - Harvest Ridge Winery, Toughkenamoon, PA - Mead and Cheese Pairing

Mar 15 - Frederick CUUPS, Frederick, MD - Mead Making workshop

Mar 20-21 Valkyrie’s Horn Mead Competition, Minneapolis, MN

Mar 21 - Monks Meadery, Atlanta, GA - Armored Combat Exhibition

Mar 28 - Zymarium Meadery, Orlando, FL - Bonsai and Cheers with L&J Nursery

Mar 28 - Folklore Brewing and Meadery, Dothan, AL - Dothan Songwriters Festival

April 11 - Mershon’s Artisan Cider, Stoughton, WI - Wisconsin Cider and Mead Festival

April 11 - Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago, IL - Wine Run 5k

April 12 - Moon Dog Meadery, Durham, NC - Modern Calligraphy for Beginners

April 19 - Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, OH - Make a Sand Art Terrarium

You can buy mead online at https://shopmeads.com