Understanding Fruit and Mead

Fruit is the foundation of the majority of the most sought after meads in the U.S. today. And yet most mead makers have not embraced the incredible potential presented by growing their own fruit. Growing and understanding your own fruit can take your melomel to unimaginable heights. It is the only option for those who are committed to exploring the boundaries of fruit mead quality.

Learning Objectives

• Gain a deeper understanding of the controllable parameters of fruit character and quality
• Walk away with the ability to make genuinely incredible melomel
• Understand the commitment required to obtain peak quality in any fermented fruit beverage

About the Speaker

Ken Schramm is the owner and head meadmaker at Schramm’s Mead in Ferndale, Michigan, and author of The Compleat Meadmaker. He has been a beer brewer, mead maker, and student of beer, wine, mead, whiskey, honey, fruit, and spice since 1988. He co-founded the world’s oldest and largest mead-only competition, the Mazer Cup Mead Competition, in 1992. Ken is also the owner of Schramm’s Orchards, a 6.1-acre orchard in Rochester Hills, Michigan, where the team is cultivating dozens of varieties of cherries, apples, peaches, plums, currants, and other berries. He has presented at brewing, meadmaking, and winemaking conferences from Delaware to Alaska over the past 25+ years, starting in 1994 with the first “Mead Matrix” with Dr. Dan McConnell—a flight of twelve meads made with the same recipe, six from the same honey and different yeast strains, and six with the same yeast strain and different varietal honeys. Ken lives in Troy, Michigan.