Since The Compleat Meadmaker was first published, mead has
continued to grow in popularity as crafted beverages have become an
established part of the beverage market in America. In 2003 there
were roughly 60 commercial meaderies in the US, but by 2020 this
number stood at 450. Naturally, many hobbyists are also discovering
the delights of making this "nectar of the gods" themselves. Thanks
to the global distribution of bees and, therefore, honey, you will
find mead-like drinks in virtually every corner of the world. No
wonder historians recognize it as one of humankind's oldest
fermented beverages. Mead production never really ceased in Europe
and Africa, but its star was eclipsed with the increasing
production and distribution of wine, beer, and distilled spirits
from the 1600s onward. With the rebirth of brewing and the
establishment of world-class wine producing regions in the US, it
is time for mead in the twenty-first century to be brought back
into the limelight. Mead needs to establish a vocabulary of its own
and find a place in the hearts of homebrewers and home winemakers.
In The Compleat Meadmaker, veteran meadmaker Ken Schramm-one of the
founders of the Mazer Cup Mead Competition, North America's oldest
mead-only competition-introduces the novice to the wonders of mead.
With easy-to-follow procedures and simple recipes, he shows how you
can quickly and painlessly make your own mead at home. In later
chapters, Schramm introduces flavorful variations on the basic
theme that lead to meads flavored with spice, fruits, grapes, and
malt. The author covers the many aspects of meadmaking in a
comprehensive but easy-to-read fashion, with something for novices
and experienced brewers and vintners alike from basic equipment for
meadmaking, creating your first must, and on through the basics of
fermentation, racking, and bottling. Once the first steps have been
taken Schramm goes into more detail, involving balancing for taste
using acid, priming for sparkling mead, corking practices, and
strategies for clarifying. He also covers aspects of fermentation,
such as selecting the right yeast strain, aerating and managing the
pH of your must during the critical early phase of fermentation,
and adjusting nutrient levels to suit mead fermentation. The author
also troubleshoots common problems and processes, such as stuck
fermentations, fermentations that will not start, slow or prolonged
fermentations, measuring total acidity via acid titrations, and on
balancing residual sugars through sweetening, malo-lactic
fermentation, increasing acidity, and drying out the mead further.
The fine-tuning process does not stop after fermentation is
finished. Perhaps the finest characteristic of mead is that it
seems to improve with age almost indefinitely. As well as advice on
how long to store it, Schramm also offers up his experience with
the many different approaches to conditioning and maturing mead,
focusing on the use of oak chips, blocks, and barrels to age mead
on wood. As one of the oldest fermented drinks and using the oldest
sweetener known to humankind, mead and honey are inextricable.
Schramm delves into a brief natural history of honey production and
the bees that make it possible, with fascinating insights into the
profession of beekeepers. He explores sources of nectar and pollen
and the benefits of honey varietals explored, with a section
devoted entirely to varietal honey based on floral variety. Along
the way Schramm delves into the concept of honey "vintage", grades
of honey, sugar, moisture, organic acids, mineral content, color
terminology, and how you should not judge a honey's flavor by its
color. There is also a discussion of aroma compounds, absolutely
essential if wishing to understand the organoleptic qualities of
honey. While mead can be a charmingly simple drink to make, home
meadmakers can easily indulge in a host of different flavors to
make unique and delicious meads. The author provides you with an
understanding of the role quality ingredients play in creating a
really pleasing mead. There are several ingredients-focused
chapters that look at making sack mead, melomel, cyser, pyment,
hippocras, metheglin, and braggot. At the end, Schramm puts it all
together in a section devoted entirely to recipes. As one of the
most ancient of human beverages, mead arose in part because it was
easy to make. Despite this, mead is a surprisingly complex,
diverse, and romantic drink that can range from bone dry to
profoundly sweet, and can be crafted to complement any type of
food. With The Compleat Meadmaker, you can see just how simple,
fun, and rewarding meadmaking is.
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