Ken Schramm joins me this week to discuss mead, our relationship with alcohol and the future of home brewing and mead making.
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Topics in This Week’s Episode (55:06)
- This week I welcome back Ken Schramm from Schramm’s Meadery. Ken “wrote the book” on mead making called The Compleat Meadmaker (Amazon affiliate link). Ken was also a founding member of the Mazer cup and has won numerous national awards including a lifetime achievement award from the American Homebrewers Association. His meadery makes some of the highest rated meads in the world from fresh fruit, spices and honey.
- We discuss the progress Ken has made with his farm, which targets growing individual varieties of “noble fruits” for use in meads. Ken has actually been able to find several varieties of various fruits that work very well in big fruit meads.
- Ken explains the “noble fruits” for mead making and defines which fruits work best in a mead based on their flavor, acidity and high tannin levels.
- We discuss the modern push towards “temperance” and prohibition with new social trends like “dry January. Ken also talks about why craft beverages across the board have been in a slump the last few years.
- Ken explores the complex relationship between people, alcohol and our social web.
- We discuss how mead is almost certainly the oldest fermented beverage, and also how it has played a central role in many cultures in terms of religious and as a drink of kings.
- Ken talks about how mead has fallen out of favor in most modern societies and some of the reasons behind this.
- We talk about how humans, bees and plants have a very symbiotic relationship, and how mead is an expression of all three.
- Ken also talks about yeast and how it has played a central role in our lives including both food and drink.
- We switch to discussing the future for home brewing and mead making as well as the craft industry.
- Ken tells us where to find his meads and how you can still schedule a tasting at his meadery.
- He provides his closing thoughts.
Sponsors
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
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