The International Mead Festival

HMMC 2008 SPONSORS

White Labs

Ildanach Studios

Got Mead?

Five Star Chemical Co.

Spruce Mountain Meadery

Ivičević-Bakulić d.o.o.

Syndicate

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2008 Commercial Competition Results

2008 Commercial Competition

(CLICK READ MORE BELOW FOR ALL WINNER DETAILS)

The 2008 Competition was a rousing success, with nearly 130 entries from the United States, Canada, Poland, and Slovakia. Even though we were not able to hold the Festival this year, many commercial meadmakers attended to hobnob and visit, and a number of them helped to judge in both the home and commercial competitions. Of course, they didn't judge where they had entered.

As usual, we had some great judges. Diversity was great, with judges from all over the United States, Canada and Slovakia. Of course, we also had luminaries such as Ken Schramm and Paul Gatza. Many were BJCP certified.

Several meaderies made their debut at the competition this year:

Ring of Fire Meadery, Homer, AK
Vcelco s.r.o, Trnava, Slovakia
Trapper Creek Winery, Hamilton, MT
Celestial Meads, Anchorage, AK
Buck Shoals Vineyard & Winery, Hamptonville, NC

Congratulations to all who medaled, and thanks for your great meads! We truly enjoyed judging them. See you next year!

(CLICK READ MORE BELOW FOR ALL WINNER DETAILS)

The 3rd Annual International Home Mead Makers Competition (IHMMC) was a resounding success, with 188 entries in 2008. We had an amazing array of meads ranging from dry traditionals to a fantastic smoked pepper metheglin, and everything in between.

All 188 meads were presented to the judging panels on Saturday. Many of the judges that also judged in the commercial competition were there, including Ken Schramm (The Compleat Meadmaker), Curt Stock (Meadmaker of the Year two years running), Julia Herz (Honeywine.com), Vicky Rowe (Gotmead.com), Pete Bakulic (Chairman, IHMMC or the Mead Buddha), Michael Fairbrother (Meadmaker of the Year), Andre Abi Raad (Winemaker, Intermiel, Inc.), John & Chris Munro (Munro Meadery), Michael Kiker (Celestial Meads), Lawrence Livingston (Ring of Fire Meadery), Mark Beran (Medovina Meadery), Gretchen & Harrison Bliss (Spruce Mountain Meadery), Trevor Shaben (Thunderhead Brewing), Suzanne Trudell (Les Ruchers Promiel inc.), Xavier Rennote (Belgium - new meadery opening soon), Radoslav Opalek and his partners Pavol and Edouard (Včelco s.r.o.) and others to numerous to mention. We are exceedingly gratified to have such a varied and experienced judging pool. We know they had a great time judging the home meads.

This years' entries were of even higher quality than we are used to seeing (and we get some pretty darn great meads in this competition!!!). It was difficult to decide who to send forward to the medal round, and in many cases, the scores were very close. Congratulations to all of you for your fine meads, and thanks for entering the IHMMC, we're tickled to have the opportunity to judge them.

See you next year!!!