About Us and the Mead...
Mead (honey wine), is one of the oldest of all fermented beverages, it is easier to make than beer. You can make mead with just honey and yeast or you can add a variety of fruit and spices.There are different types of meads, depending on what is added to the honey. Different honeys will produce different flavors, just as different grapes produce different flavors of wine.

The mead mamas expanded our interest in mead after a trip to B. Nektar meadery in Ferndale. All members of the mead mamas have spouses that brew in the CRAFT homebrew club. We initiated a yearly mead making event at our homes and decided to expand and share our knowledge. This led us to the “Teach a friend to homebrew day” event at Cap-N-Cork in Macomb, Michigan. One of our goals was to experiment with different techniques of mead making. Mead making can be as simple as using bread yeast (without rehydrating) and no racking, to as complicated as a pasteurization process with mead yeast that requires racking.

Our first recipe was Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead from www.homebrewtalk.com Most meads require a year of aging however this recipe will be ready to drink as soon as the fruit drops. It is based of ancient techniques “remember a time before home brew stores or internet” and is as simple as putting yeast, warm water and fruit together and waiting. This recipe does best when left alone and requires no racking. We modified the recipe a little by using tangerines to decrease the bitter pith that you can get initially with oranges (note: this will decrease with aging if using oranges).Our second mead was a vanilla bean cinnamon stick recipe from www.realbeer.com. This recipe blended alfalfa and wildflower honey, required pasteurization, mead yeast and yeast energizers. This mead does best when aged one to two years.

To promote mead making we had a tent set up at the TAFHB day with educational materials on different techniques and styles of mead. We were able to offer samples of B. Nektar products as well as home brewed mead. We had very positive feedback and a large interest in mead making. We found out most brewers have made some type of mead before (after all, the equipment is all there). We started out small (currently have at least 8 meads brewing), however future goals include opening a mead mamas meadery!



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