National Homebrewers Conference - Mead Stands Tall

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sdrilling

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 29, 2013
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Midwest USA
We attended the National Homebrewers Conference in Grand Rapids this week. Awesome event. -- Lots of closet mead makers. My badge identified me as a member of the Missouri Mead Makers Society (the first approved chapter of the American Mead Makers Association) -- several brewers came up and offered samples of their meads. At club night there must have been 30+ meads. There was a Merlot Pymt from a member in Wyoming which was outstanding.

Moonlight Meadery was an event sponsor and exhibitor. Except for the cider and the mead tap takeovers, the line at Moonlight Meadery was the longest throughout the event.

There were several mead related seminars during the event. I was able to attend Ken Schramm's Honey Seminar - with tasting on Saturday morning. Unfortunately I had to leave shortly thereafter.

For me one of the highlights of the event was Ken Schramm's (and club) mead yeast experiment. They poured a single ,mead made with twelve different yeasts. I believe the results will be printed in the Zmurgy Mag later this year.
 
one honey split 12 ways, with each using a different yeast. I helped to mix the must and suggest one of the yeasts.

Fun time, Ken's seminar was great.

Wish I had brought more bottles with me to share, the cranberry orange blossom served at the AABG social well on Wed? was almost 2/3 empty when I took it back to my room... :)
 
If people go to something like this they should wear something like a sign which reads, "I have mead, and am willing to sample yours for some of mine... :)"

Met a lot people walking around with bottles, sort of like a local homebrew club meeting, just didn't know who was willing to share with whom...

Mr Fairbrother said I make a fair mead, which was nice of him since I was bugging him in his booth.

Sdrilling: did you get to the wooden club house where Ken was serving some mead on club night?
 
I'd have to say that was Chris Frey's experiment. It may have been similar to Dan's and mine from the past, but Chris gets the credit for this one.