3-26-19 Tonight we're getting together with Jon Oppegaard, owner of Oppegaard Meadery in Tukwila, WA. Jon makes excellent mead, I've tried many of his products. He's even done savoury meads, like his taco mead (yes, I said taco) that he released recently, and which was a huge hit, and sold out pretty quick.
Jon has been making mead for over 10 years, and loves it. He made his own because there wasn't much available for him to get in his area when he discovered mead, and what he could find strained his bank account to support his mead habit, so, he decided to handle it himself.
He's been making mead ever since. After a while, he figured, 'if I am going to make it and drink it anyway, and others like my stuff, why not go pro?'. And so he did. He rented a small space to keep costs down, and it didn't take long for his meads to become so popular that he had to expand.
He really only expected his friends and family to show up, but that was not to be. In fairly short order, the place was packed all the time. This is what happens when you make great mead! He resisted the idea of mead-making as his 'real job' for a while, but the meadery growth and popularity of his mead convinced him otherwise.
Oppegaard Meadery is a casual place, lots of board games and story telling. There are cool hand-painted shields hanging on the wall, and often mead-infused cheesecakes show up from a local bakery (I've had some, they're very tasty!).
Jon himself is a tall dude, with a Viking-worthy beard, and many cool weapons (which show up on his social media feeds from time to time). He's a great guy, and very dedicated to his mead. The thing he takes most seriously is the quality of his mead.