Drinking Horn Meadcast

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🎙️ Episode Description:

Welcome back, mead enthusiasts and fantasy lovers! Grab your mugs and listen in on an early-morning chat as we delve into the mystical world of mead with a touch of dragon magic. In this special episode, we're lifting the veil on our latest creation, "Smaug" - the third installment in our Dragon Tea Mead series.

Picture this: it's a crisp, dawn-lit morning, and we're not sipping on mead just yet – we're fueling up with coffee and laughter. Our host, Nick, is joined by the head brewer, Charlie, along with the other creative minds behind this legendary elixir, Clint and Perez.

Together, we're pulling back the curtain ever so slightly on the art and science of brewing, as we share the mystical alchemy that transforms red tea, vanilla beans, and miombo honey into the liquid gold that is "Smaug." So, if you've ever wondered what it's like to brew mead with dragons in the mix, you're in for a treat.

Expect a casual, lighthearted discussion, sprinkled with anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories about the making of "Smaug." From sourcing the finest ingredients to perfecting the tea process, you'll gain insights into the passion and craftsmanship that go into crafting every bottle.

Imagine the aroma of vanilla and honey and join us for an enjoyable morning filled with whimsical tales, laughter, and a deeper appreciation for the magic that is mead-making.

Creators & Guests

Host
Nick Irvine
Ambassador of Buzz
Guest
Charlie Felkins
Head Mead Maker at Drinking Horn Meadery
Guest
Clint Birkland
Mead Maker at Drinking Horn Meadery
Guest
Nick Perez
Mead Maker and Sales at Drinking Horn Meadery

What is Drinking Horn Meadcast ?

A light-hearted show featuring talks on Mead History, Meadery Events and all types of honey fun!

Smaug Transcript

00:05
And to you from beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona, this is the Drinking Horn Meadcast. Join us as we take a deeper dive into mead and mead culture.

00:24
Oh man. All right, well, record button's hit, so. One last sip of coffee.

00:34
Charlie's done with his. You're saving it. Yeah. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode number 34 of none other than the Drinking Horn Meadcast. Meadcast, meadcast, meadcast, meadcast. Yes, you guys know what to do. What it sounded like more than just my voice or me and Evan's voice, that was four voices altogether. We're back here with another episode with the Brewers and talking about our third Dragon Tea series mead.

01:03
Smog. So welcome back to the podcast recording studio guys. Thanks for having us back. Hello. I had no choice. I had to do it. So hello. So we've got Charlie, Clint, and Perez again. If you have been listening to the other episodes on our other Dragon Tea Meads, then you've heard these guys talk before. And what we basically do is go over kind of the story behind the Mead.

01:30
the ingredients and I don't know anything else we feel like you might want to hear about the mead that you've been Hopefully enjoying loving and even hoarding in this case and the case of these last two Well all four I guess of the dragon meads because They're gonna be gone very very very very soon. And yeah, you know, you're gonna miss out So alright, so smog smog is a name that is

01:59
Probably well known to almost all of our demographic the people that come to the Mead Hall in Flagstaff Arizona and enjoy mead but possibly not so Charlie could you tell us what what what is this word smog mean? So smog? Gotta get the a o and the u in there. Yes smog comes from Jrr. Tolkien's book the Hobbit the Hobbit. Yes

02:26
Nice, that was a book? It was. I thought it was a movie. And a movie. I'm just kidding. Yeah. Clint's giving me this disgusted look. Yeah, yeah, The Hobbit, way, way back in the day. When, does anyone know when those books were written? 1873? Holy. No. Are you, oh. I was like, I believed you. I was like, whoa. No, but like some early 1900s?

02:55
or like 1940s? I think it was like during World War I, World War II, something like that. Oh man, this is why we researched before we do the Meadcast episode. Wow. Yeah, but The Hobbit, JR Tolkien busted out all these different books in the realm of, what's the overall kind of, is there a name for that like realm or that, that you know. Middle Earth?

03:21
Middle-earth. Okay. Yeah. Yeah that so all the books surrounding the Middle-earth because there's Lord of the Rings There's the Hobbit are they actually anymore is that those are that there's the Silmarillion which is more like a description of things that happened before Okay, like prequel kind of yeah Sweet nice 1937 boom we've got a Perez's like that one on the side room behind the glass that does all the research while we're like it 1937. Okay, cool So I thought 1940 although I said like eight different years

03:51
The Hobbit and I know smog I remember smog as I'm just gonna share one of my memories here I'm old enough that not not quite that old but the original cartoon that was created the Hobbit cartoon holds such

04:09
It has like its own room forever in my memories, in like my memory bank, my heart. Because I remember having that recording it, specifically off of TV, so as I was watching it when the commercials would start, you'd hit pause on the VCR, and then you'd have to make sure you were there to hit pause again, and you know, I remember trying to time it so like I'd get the very end of like a McDonald's commercial.

04:33
just to make sure, you could kind of tell, right? Like, I don't know if you guys remember, you could tell when it was coming back on. You're like kind of counting commercials a little bit. Sometimes you get it wrong. What's a VCR? Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, Perez, he's like 14 years old. A VCR is a, oh wow.

04:54
video cassette recorder? I think, yeah. There we go. Yeah, that would make sense. Video cassette recorder. I would have gotten it eventually. Yeah, so I remember that movie being on TV. And, you know, so you're watching it and watching it and I watched it so much. And VCRs, those cassettes were analog. It was actual tape.

05:16
And so if you watched it enough, it would wear out that tape. And I remember wearing that thing down to where it would be like, brrr

05:29
Yeah tracking. Yeah. Oh, oh the tracking little lever. Yeah, I forgot about that, but sometimes it didn't matter how hard you tracked that thing was done. So that's my memory of Hobbit is the cartoon and like the, who was the, Charlie, you would know who the singer was that did the soundtrack probably. It was like one guy. Oh man. All I know is there are a couple songs from that you cannot repeat. Glenn Yarbrough.

05:57
Yar-bar-ro. That was like the pirate that was in the fraternity. It's a college pirate. Yeah, I just remember very specifically like his sound, like his voice. But Clint, you said you can't repeat some of those? There's some of the songs, yeah.

06:20
Not today. Oh, you don't want me? Okay, I gotcha. You don't want me to sing. And I thought there was some like lore about you're not supposed to sing them or something. Yeah, something about an adventure, like greatest adventure or something. Tomorrow begins your greatest adventure.

06:43
Well, I'm not gonna sing it. I'm not gonna put people through that. By the way, we're recording at, what is it, like 8.15 right now, AM. So, we are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. You can still see the bags under my eyes right now.

06:56
Yeah, yeah, I had to kind of move the microphone so they wouldn't hit the microphone. That is a gross image. Alright, back to the Meadcast. So, do you guys have any memories of Hobbit, of the Hobbit or the dragon Smaug in particular? I just watched the newer movie, Benedict Cumberbatch was that voice. Oh, the Sherlock Holmes guy?

07:21
Yeah. Wait, is that Sherlock Holmes? He did one version of the Sherlock Holmes. The series? Isn't that that guy? Yeah, Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange, yeah, from the Marvel things. Yeah, he did Sherlock. You guys haven't seen Sherlock, the series? I haven't. I might be totally wrong, but it was really good. All right, so Benedict Cumberbatch was the voice of Smaug. Nice, cool, and that was super CGI, right? That was pretty new. What year did that come out? 2013.

07:51
Oh, god, still was 10 years ago. It doesn't seem that long ago. Feels like yesterday. It does, for sure. Cool, so was that worthy of watching? I liked it. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of cool seeing the behind the scenes too, where they show him doing all the voice work and how into it he gets. Oh. You know, you look at his voice versus him and his other roles, it just doesn't match up very well.

08:15
So it's definitely a different voice for him. I would assume, and I haven't seen the new one.

08:21
We're talking about the Hobbit, right? The new Hobbit. Yeah, but I would assume like since he's the voice of Smog It's very intense. Sure. And and normally his other characters are kind of subdued. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah Okay, cool. Nice. Did you guys see the newer one? I played the the Lego Hobbit video game and the what had a complete level dedicated to Smog Whoa, pretty great a Lego video game. Mm-hmm. Oh so like

08:49
Like does it look like 8-bit kind of is that like the thought with a Lego or everything's made of Legos Yeah, so so like your characters running and his little foot gets stuck in one of those little raised pegs So we've got the newer vert 20 well newer 2013 hobbit the Lego hobbit video game And then Clint, what's your hobbit memory?

09:20
Let's see. How many books have I read? Oh, okay. Well, that's good. So you've read The Hobbit, like the actual book? Yeah. Oh, nice, cool. Yeah. Is that one of those? I mean, it's normally- It's more of a kid's story.

09:34
Kid Story? Yeah. Oh, okay, so it's more tailored towards, you know, a younger, kind of fanciful. I think it was literally written for Token's son when he did it. Oh. Yeah, it's like a bedtime story sort of thing. Okay, oh, nice. Yeah, so it kinda makes sense for that. But, what was it? When they finally did Lord of the Rings, it was long afterwards, so it was more tailored to more adult themes, so.

10:00
Gotcha. Cool. Well, I'm happy about that. Like would have been way different if it was a kid's movie for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Um, I then, then I definitely remember, cause there was another Hobbit, not, not 2013, but like earlier, earlier. Wasn't there, wasn't there another live? There's several renditions. Um, one of which was done when Token was still alive that he abhorred completely. Okay. It was.

10:26
I think there was almost like live action, but there was some puppets in there somewhere. Oh, some puppets. And then there was some sort of, I think, what do you call it? When they trace over the actual actor.

10:40
There's a it's a style of making things that hasn't been big things since the 80s. Oh, I remember the cars had that you ever watch video where the girl goes into the Into the black and white kind of drawing thing where they drew over, you know that music video do do do do do do do Yeah, yeah. Yeah take on me take on me. Yeah, it's the same. Oh, it's not the cars it's the same style of

11:08
They're the way they make things like have you ever seen the heavy metal movie? Oh man long long time ago Yeah, there's like that Valkyrie girl kind of thing on top of the dragon on the cover Oh, yeah, and they start off with oh got you now I can see what you're talking about like kind of like drawing over the But I know that has a specific scope Nice Thank You internet

11:38
rotoscoped I think to some degree. Got you, I'll have to check that out but okay you guys ready to talk about the mead? Yes. Yeah let's talk about the mead. So we've been doing a series of dragon tea meads and by that we mean all the meads have tea as an ingredient and then depending on the color of the tea that we use we matched it, not we, you guys, matched it with a dragon and so

12:04
For those who do not know Smog or can't remember what color he is, yeah, so Perez, can you kind of explain the Tea Dragon connection there? Sure. I mean, when we were looking at all four of them, we were trying to figure out as far as the colors of Tea and the varieties that we could use, and then trying to match them up with some dragons. I think we had kind of narrowed it down to two of the red dragons.

12:31
Tried to find you know some variations of smog that were out there obviously the cartoon one from the 70s is he's got that red and brown color, but you look at the The newer version from the Hobbit movie with Cumberbatch as the voice. He's you know pretty dark other than That spot on his scale you know when they ended up killing him So yeah, we gave it away spoiler yeah, but yeah, I mean a little more cartoonish on the label, but

12:59
and still kind of matches the theme of all the others. The artist that we used does a good job of keeping with the theme, but still making it his own. Yeah. Yeah, and so you said you were looking at a couple other.

13:14
possible red dragons, Charlie, there was another red dragon out there I can't think of. I think it was the Dungeons and Dragons dragon. That's right. Fyrkog. What is it? Fyrkog. You guys didn't like that right? If I RRKD'd you'd do something like that. Man that look on Clint's, it sounds like you've had a run in or two with maybe that one. Yeah the one on the original, I don't know if it's the original but like the classic yeah manual for Dungeons and Dragons. Now I remember that, that we were looking at that one.

13:43
But man, I mean, you got to go with smog. Like that's just, that's I think the one you got to do for sure. More classic. Yeah, more classic, more known, you know, more relatable. So relatable. A giant red dragon is very relatable to me. Hey. Yeah. Oh, you got your, oh nice. Clint has his coffee mug. Again, it's about 830 in the morning with a red dragon. Kind of red. Well, that's a really cool mug, man. That's awesome.

14:12
We'll put a photo in the show notes. No, I won't. So all right, so we looked at, we had a red Tea.

14:20
And so we're looking for red dragon pick smog. Um, what tea was, was used? Uh, I mean, is it, is it just red tea? Is that there's something specific, some type of red tea? Yeah, it's called Roybus R O O I B O S and it's a African herbal tea. It's caffeine free. Oh, caffeine free. No, it's just kidding. Sometimes you want to buzz from the honey, not the, not the caffeine. Cool. Okay. So Roybus, Roybus.

14:47
Not Roo. R-O-O? Correct. No I in there? There is an I. Oh, there is. O-O-I. All right. Is it Robus Rebels? Oh gosh, pronunciation. It's eight o'clock in the morning. It's a different language, I don't know. Yeah, cool. So an African herbal tea, caffeine free. And we, is that the first, that's the first time we used red tea in a mead, before, I'm sure, I would think, right? Yeah. The only other tea we've really used,

15:17
besides Metheglion that has used a tea before? And then Ellie, I think that's it. Well yeah, besides it. True, all the dragon tea series. Cool, so tell me about that. How did the process go with picking out which tea? Was there a couple different red teas that you tried, Charlie, before picking this one out?

15:40
Well, it was the easiest to get a hold of, that's for sure. So and I think one or two of us had had it before, but a lot of us were new to it. So we just got some and all tried it. And it was very tasty, kind of earthy tasting. And you're like, hey, we can work with this. Let's stop our search here and continue.

16:05
Nice, sweet. And Clint, you're kind of a tea guy, I consider you for sure. What is there multiple, like how many, is red tea have a lot of varieties or very few? Anything made from rooibos would probably be considered the red tea. Everything else is gonna be made from the actual tea plant. Or otherwise it's called an herbal infusion.

16:26
Okay, I totally understand what you're saying, but can you explain that a little further what that means? You said the tea plant. So is rooibos using a different part of the tea? Nope, it's a completely different plant. So it is also considered an herbal infusion, but yeah. Oh, okay. I think I understand. So like white tea and green tea are different like parts of the tea leaf's life cycle. Yes, it's plugged at certain points in the growth cycle per year. Okay, and then rooibos... I'm gonna pronounce that like five different ways.

16:56
Red tea, roeibos, is a different species, like would have a different scientific name to it. Yes. Oh, okay, cool. Awesome. And so, taking that red tea, we'll talk about the other special ingredient.

17:14
that we ended up with. But were there any, what was the thought process of what you're gonna match with that red tea? Yeah, I mean, this was a home brew that I had worked on that I wanted to make a Tej in that category of historical mead. I just spent months trying to find a commercial example, needed to try to find one for the home brew club. That way we could try to have a sample to compare to.

17:43
was able to find that you use gesho, either the leaves or the stems. So we had submitted a recipe to our good friends at TTB and we said, hey, we want to use this and make a traditional style. And after a couple of weeks, they finally came back and said, nope, can't use it. Not enough research on it. Not considered USDA accepted ingredient.

18:09
but at least try to keep with the style. The version that I made had some of that red tea, I had some vanilla beans in it, some African honey that we'll talk about in a second and where we got that from, and then some gesso. When I originally made mine, I only used a little bit, boiled it for a couple minutes, and it's pretty awful. It's very bitter, especially when you boil

18:39
did it for a couple days and figured okay that's that's plenty but yeah grassy dirty kind of flavor overall definitely needed to be masked by a lot of honey but i mean traditionally they would use that to start the fermentation because there'd be a lot of bacteria and yeast on it throw that in with the honey water and it would you know spontaneously spontaneously ferment you know low alcohol give it some bitterness give it some sourness

19:07
and had to be consumed fresh, but obviously we didn't want to be doing some wild fermentations and needed to have a bit more control on it. So eliminated the gesso, kind of substituted it with some other things to keep with the style, keep with the African theme, I guess, with the special type of honey and the tea.

19:33
style example not able to be created commercially. Right. And I know that there is even a metery down in the valley now that is in Tucson. Or Tucson, sorry, in Tucson.

19:50
in the old pueblo that is creating Ethiopian inspired meads, but yet still not able to use that root. So maybe that'll change once mead grows a little bit. But sounds like you're like, I don't really care if it does or not, it tastes weird. I mean, I'm sure it can be done well. Yeah, that guy's using hops as his substitute, you know, fairly close, gives it the bitterness. I think we'd have to rely on someone like our Brewers Guild.

20:18
to try to be working on those laws, but...

20:21
you know, if you get it at the state level, you still have to be able to go above that at the federal level and convince them, hey, here's the research, here's whatever they need to change all those laws. And it's like, who's going to go through the effort to do that just to say, we want this one ingredient to be used. Yeah, yeah, maybe them down in Tucson will do that for everybody. So we've got the red tea, we've got this honey variety that we'll talk about here in a second.

20:51
But we also have another ingredient. What I what did I forget Clint vanilla beans vanilla beans. Yes Yes, that is actually a huge ingredient in this for sure And so you have vanilla beans were in it and that was in your original recipe as well Cool. So I mean just a cheap, you know addition vanilla beans. Yeah $400 a pound or something Yay cool, so let's let's talk about that third ingredient the honey because it is not only

21:20
It not only plays a big part in the flavor of our mead, but it's also, I think, probably, Charlie, you could tell us, is this the only time we've not used an Arizona honey in our, in our mead? I believe so. We've, uh, we usually do the orange blossom honey and a few times we've done mesquite honey, both of which come from Arizona. But this was, uh, the only one that I can think of where we've reached, not only outside of the state, but-

21:49
Outside of the country. How far outside of the country do we go? Miles and miles and miles. I wanted an exact number and in kilometers. Yeah, so this is the Miambo. Is that right? Miombo blossom honey, which is kind of a cool story with how not only how we eat.

22:12
you know chose this this honey but also a connection that we were able to make actually Perez was able to shake the hand of the person who brought who brings this this special honey over and imports that not only this honey but but a lot of different varieties so Miomboblossom honey do you want to speak a little bit to to that that ingredient any of you

22:42
their fair sourcing, ethical trading, that sort of stuff. I got a hold of this guy, Brian Warner. He's the president of the World Honey Exchange. And he has places all over the world that he's got partnerships with, kind of working directly with the beekeepers, making sure that they're paid and treated fairly, making sure that they're bringing quality stuff. You know, he's basically acting as a broker.

23:08
which is kind of weird that he's a honey broker in a sense. When I talked to him a couple months ago, he was saying that he was working on trying to save some honey from Ukraine that was kind of up in limbo from the war that was going on. He's got a bunch of projects all over Africa. He's got a bunch of stuff in South America.

23:29
So he sent me his list and he says, hey, we have all these different varietals, at least based on price point. We figured, hey, this one's a good introduction. We don't want to spend $100 a pound and find out that this honey is not going to be what we anticipated. So.

23:44
found one that worked, found it within that region, found something that was out of Africa that we could get our hands on. We just kind of went for it. It's not like we got small samples and figured, hey, let's try this, let's try that, let's try this other one. That's kind of, this might work, let's give it a shot. I think it worked pretty well. Yeah, jumped right in, right off the bat. Cannonball! Yeah, and I think it's really cool to, you know, we're.

24:11
We love our orange blossom honey, obviously, and we're not ones to really like, like we'll use different ingredients and come up with different varieties, but we don't go crazy like some others with, you know, make a traditional out of 18 different honey varieties, which is cool, that's awesome, but we're more of a mead to the masses. So this was a cool little, I wouldn't say experiment, but you know, adventure. Like Frodo would say, it is Frodo in The Hobbit, right?

24:39
no no bilbo bilbo oh knew it whatever i can edit whatever i want let's see 26 minutes so just like bilbo wanted to go on a great adventure we went on an adventure with this african honey this Miomboblossom honey and yeah i do think it's cool that that what this guy's doing he's trying to almost kind of um

25:02
protect the honey and the beekeepers and also in a way the ecosystems or the the land that this is coming from because I looked into a little bit into the miombo and miombo is kind of a description of an ecosystem so it's not like an actual plant it's like a terroir of plants so like we would say like the pinyon juniper forest or

25:26
grasslands, you know, there's lots of different plants. So, MiomboBlossom is this area, Miombois this forest land that instead of going in and bulldozing and turning it into something else like agricultural land, farmland, or development, he's trying to say, hey, we can keep it intact, or the beekeepers are, we can keep this land intact as is and still get, you know, make it economically viable.

25:56
fight but it seems like is that the understanding that you kind of got? Yeah a lot of regions in that area are figuring you know this this area is not economical not viable when they're like oh we could plant corn wheat whatever else you know might be bringing those communities money but you know partnering with them and saying hey we'll buy this from you we'll pay you know top dollar because it's worth it and it kind of

26:22
I guess preservation is probably the best word. It's not like he's reforesting it, but it's definitely keeping that region intact, making sure that it doesn't get bulldozed or turned into something else. And for the region, it's pretty much the only place in the world that that's available. So if that was to go away, then bye bye, mayombo blossom. Yeah, yeah, and it would take a lot, as Charlie just said, this is the first time we've ever used non-mountain top Arizona honey.

26:52
do something like that and I think that story and and the flavor helped a lot too. I love the flavor of that honey but that story really helped us decide that it was okay to reach beyond beyond Arizona and grab that honey. So speaking of do you guys have tasting notes like what do you guys think because I got a cool tidbit on how they kind of process the honey but you know flavor wise were there certain notes that you guys picked up on from the mead itself? Seemed like

27:21
sugary kind of taste. Like molasses, burnt sugar. I heard molasses a lot and that's how I kind of ended up describing it and then to add on to that I would say and this could be just my brain working this way but like a smokiness but like molasses is almost like a toasted or burnt kind of sugary kind of thing so I don't know I maybe I'm the only one anyone else feel like a smokiness to it. Yeah I got a lot of smoke I know Charlie initially when we were working with the the tea

27:51
he was using leather, you know, kind of earthiness. I think... Oh, as a tasting note, he wasn't actually using leather, were you? Dipping your belt in there? Yeah, oh sorry, yeah, yeah, I'll take that out of there. I was wondering why you're bringing your belt in every day. Yeah, a lot of earthiness overall.

28:11
one of the things that Brian was talking to me about with the process of, especially this one, the beekeepers have to hike two hours from where they are to get to their hives, and they basically will make a campfire next to it and use that to smoke the bees away from the hives. So I guess as far as harvesting practices compared to a little handheld smoker, where they're just doing that at the base of the hive, they have to basically build a fire.

28:40
to get the bees off and then they're kind of processing all of that on spot. So he was saying that that smoke kind of imparts itself into the honey.

28:50
rather than just doing it by hand. So yeah, a lot of natural smoky characters from the fire that they have to build. And then they gotta hike it two hours back to their village. So it's a crazy process that these guys are having to deal with. Not only the hike there, plus the weight of all the honey, but I mean, a lot of dangerous wildlife that's in the area too. Yeah. Oh man, well, it's a good thing that honey is so lightweight. Yeah.

29:17
Oh, Charlie's laughing the biggest over there. He's lifting those pales up. Oh man Yeah, that's cool. Good. I'm glad I got that smokiness and that makes sense You want to do as much processing while you're out there. You don't you don't go out there Take the trays all the way back

29:33
you know, your two hour hike and then bring them back. You wanna try to get everything done right there. So you do need that billowing smoke and it will get on the product more. So, oh, that's cool. That's interesting. Yeah, Clint, any other notes that you get from this one, whether it's the Mimombo honey or the tea or the vanilla bean? Nothing really that hasn't already been said. Yeah.

29:55
I think the vanilla to me also, when I think about it, it comes out and it kind of enhances that molasses brown sugar that we were talking about, and almost gives it a little bit, not a whole lot, but a little bit of a barrel-aged kind of sense to it.

30:13
you know with those vanillans and that kind of smokiness and woody maybe-ness from there. But yeah, I think it's great. I think if you're a scotch drinker, this one is a pretty good choice. Would you guys?

30:26
agree or just feel free to disagree. Yeah, especially since you know, Trec Jempe is gone. Oh yes, yes, it is now gone. No more Trec Jempe, our barrel aged deliciousness. So yeah, so that would be more of a scotch kind of drinkers I mean. I would say it's more like a bourbon. Bourbon, okay, well yeah, because you got that honey, you got that sweetness. So cool, nice. So red tea worked really well. The MiomboBlossom Honey is a great little story to add

30:56
way. Anything in the process of making this that stands out when you guys were making this with this new honey was there anything you guys ran into with that or the red tea? Just trying not to eat all the honey before we used it. Yeah I only got like a little dab off of a toothpick I think that one day off of the taste so I missed out on that but it was good just as as is that honey. Yeah

31:26
Cool, but everything went well back there. Pretty standard procedure. You'd already, at that point, Charlie used two teas in Meads prior, this was the third one, so by that point you had kind of any kinks worked out. We had to refine our method a little bit more each time and everything went super smooth on it.

31:53
Nice, sweet. Well, I think this episode went pretty damn smooth as well. If you're out there listening, good luck finding a bottle of smog. It is probably gone by the time you get this, but there might be some places in bottle shops where you could find it. And if you do, awesome, buy two bottles, put one aside and drink one now, because I feel like this one would age beautifully. I feel like it's got that strong character that would meld good.

32:23
Cool. Any other final words on Smaug? I'd say it was one that the ingredients that went into it, uh, no, nevermind. I was going to say it kind of ended up being more of.

32:42
there was lots of flavors that were coming through that were not ingredients that were put in. It was the sum of it was more than what was put in. So cool. If that makes sense at all, like, you know, I was tasting all kinds of things in it that I know weren't put in there, but I was still leather. Right. Right. Yeah. You're throwing that leather. No, that's a great, great point. Um, because yeah, when we're tasting the strawberry, mead, we taste strawberry and honey. When we're tasting the, even some of the other dragon meads, maybe, you know, like the, the, um,

33:12
matcha green tea and jalapeno you know it's not like all of a sudden there was some citrusy flavor to it or something like that but you're saying other flavors molasses brown sugar leather that kind of stuff right you could swear that there is like at least some brown sugar molasses in there yeah we put none in and it was the fact that it was you know greater than the sum of its ingredients was pretty interesting to me nice that's cool I like that that's a great great point a great way to to kind of wrap it all up I actually let me look

33:42
it up by this smog out of the four put it in your you know out of the four where would it fit in your top ones number one being your favorite dragon number four being your least favorite put you on the spot number one or two okay right on nice one or two for that Clint for you let's say this one's three

34:02
Three, okay, all right. Yeah, good number one. Number one, all right. So kind of all over the board, but no one had it as their least favorite. So I'd say, oh gosh, that's a tough one. I wanna give a strict answer, but I would say one or two. I'd say it's tied with another one.

34:18
It's kind of hard because I haven't had Falcors in so long. Mm-hmm It's hard to compare it to that one But yeah, it's up there for sure except for Clint Clint's number three. No No, hey, that's awesome Better to be a non non conformist to the table Anyway, thanks guys for joining me on joining me and us all of us out there on this episode number 34 of the drinking horn mean cast And yeah, let's do it again with our final fourth dragon

34:48
now and you haven't listened to the other episodes you can find them all anywhere that you get your podcast whether that be Apple podcast or pod bean or you can't do it on Stitcher anymore do you guys know Stitcher's gone? Stitcher's gone. Stitcher. Stitcher. Stitcher.

35:06
So anyway, go out and find us, but if you're listening to this, you already know where to find us. That's kind of silly. But let people know if they're fans of mead or drinking horn or of delicious, great, amazing beverages. Share this Meadcast with them. Get the word out. We have a lot of fun here. We hope you did too. And we will see you guys next time. Thanks guys. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye.