UnCapped

Funktastic Meads in Virginia

In this episode of the UnCapped podcast, host Chris Sands talks with founder and head mead maker Matt Carroll and assistant mead maker Ray Moreno at Funktastic Meads about their unique creations and the growing mead market. Here is an excerpt of their talk.

UnCapped: Is Funktastic Meads within Richmond?

Matt Carroll: No, we’re in Midlothian, Virginia, so we’re about 15 minutes south of Richmond proper.

UnCapped: Richmond adjacent.

Carroll: If we say Midlothian, nobody knows where the hell that is. Richmond is just easier to say. Or we say we’re about 15 minutes south of The Answer [Brewpub], and people are like, “Oh, OK!”

UnCapped: I think most people would know where Richmond is in general, but for a real beer nerd, you could definitely use The Answer as a landmark, which is where I was visiting, which brought me to come down and meet you guys. When did Funktastic Meads open?

Carroll: We opened Jan. 6, 2022, so we’re approaching our one-year mark.

UnCapped: You’ve gotten a lot of attention in a short amount of time then.

Carroll: So technically speaking, we were commercially available in 2020. We had originally partnered with Lazy Days Winery in Amherst, which is about two hours west of here, making mead.

UnCapped: How far from The Answer?

Carroll: About two hours, 15 minutes from The Answer. But we had started making in January 2020 and did that all the way till August 2020. We were releasing two bottles a month, about 150, 200 bottles, and we were selling those using Eventgroove ticketing. We would release them one Saturday a month. We did that for eight months and did quite well, so we decided to do the official location in 2022. We took a break in 2020 to build out the current location.

UnCapped: What were you doing before Funktastic Meads?

Carroll: I graduated from Penn State in 2005 with a degree in, essentially, chemistry. I worked in the printing inks field as a formulation chemist, then moved into speciality sales. I actually formed UV printing inks, cured by UV light. Ultimately spent twenty-ish years in the industry and I suppose regarded as a printing inks expert — that’s a weird thing to be an expert in. UnCapped: I don’t know if it’s been mentioned to you, but this podcast is put out through a newspaper, so we’ve definitely had to talk to printing ink experts. We have humungous — I don’t even remember how many gallons — storage tanks of ink in our facility.

Carroll: I did that all the way up until September of this year. The mead stuff was a hobby for a very long time and then made the decision to hop into it officially.

UnCapped: When did you start getting into making mead?

Carroll: About seven years ago. The first place I had mead was at Black Heath Meadery in Richmond. They make meads, obviously, in a different style than we do. I’d say more traditional in style. But I was introduced to meads there. We were brewing here at home. Basically brewed beer with every kid cereal you can think of.

UnCapped: So you started out as a home brewer of beer.

Carroll: Yeah. And then I got introduced to meads and kind of said to myself, well, there’s no reason you can’t

Funktastic Meads

Funktastic Meads 1212 Alverser Plaza, Midlothian, Va. 804-472-6920 funktasticmeads. com have as much fun with meads as you can with beer — unique flavors, unique adjuncts — and that’s kind of what we focus on now.

UnCapped: So when you started making mead at home, you were already cramming all kinds of ingredients into it from the start?

Carroll: One hundred percent.

UnCapped: You never even tip-toed

Courtesy illustration

with the traditional styles?

Carroll: One of the first ones we made was a mead called Trixie, and it was a Trix mead. It was Brazilian wildflower honey, and we aged it on Trix cereal.

This excerpt has been edited for space and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at fnppodcasts.com/uncapped. Got UnCapped news? Email csands @newspost.com.

Mela Kitchen at Jack's Cider House

Home of Jack's Hard Cider

Nestled behind the Outlet Shoppes at Gettysburg