Schramm's Mead

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I went into Schramm's tonight and got my own personal AMA with James. I would recommend Schramm's to anyone. Both the meads and the staff are unbeatable. What a night!

Exact same thing happened to me. Showed up at midnight, had both available mead flights, and spent the hour talking with James and Allison. At "closing" they basically made it "last call", so I got a glass of Heart of Darkness and James showed me the meadmaking area and explained all kinds of stuff to me about the process while they were clearing up. Left around 2am. Great people, great space, great mead.
 
i would also like some schramm's. do they have anything that is consistently available or is it all batch to batch?
 
Paging Naegerbomb. I'm sure we all want to bombard you with questions.

First question:
  1. What is mead?

Mead is quite possibly the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man. Unlike grapes or barley (which need to be cultivated), honey can be 'hunted' or found ready-to-eat. Contamination of a hive with water and wild inoculate can result in ready-to-drink alcoholic beverage, making that lucky early man (or woman) a very popular person in the tribe. In modern times, it is generally agreed that mead is an alcoholic beverage with at least 51% of the fermentables coming from honey. Other than this cardinal rule, there are few rules that define mead. Mead can be whatever we want it to be.
 
Mead is quite possibly the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man. Unlike grapes or barley (which need to be cultivated), honey can be 'hunted' or found ready-to-eat. Contamination of a hive with water and wild inoculate can result in ready-to-drink alcoholic beverage, making that lucky early man (or woman) a very popular person in the tribe. In modern times, it is generally agreed that mead is an alcoholic beverage with at least 51% of the fermentables coming from honey. Other than this cardinal rule, there are few rules that define mead. Mead can be whatever we want it to be.
Soooo..... You don't make mead?
JiiJcrN.png




Next question:

What mead would you like to make but can't?
 
Soooo..... You don't make mead?
JiiJcrN.png


Next question:

What mead would you like to make but can't?

The answer to this label awkwardness is simple: the federal government doesn't know what mead is. The word "mead" doesn't appear in any CFR and so the word is sometimes not even allowed on labels (even though it's in the name of our business!! It's kind of like my last name getting banned from Xbox Live. Doesn't make sense.) Honey wine is an "other than standard" agricultural wine. From Ken's petition: "The Formulas tab of the TTB Online “Formulas Online” submission tool requires that all fermentable ingredients be listed as percentages by volume. For every beverage except some distilled products, water is, in fact, the largest volumetric ingredient. For meads made with fruit, however, the largest contributor of extract (honey), and the largest contributor of volume (fruit or fruit juice) are going to be different. Throughout the mead world, if the majority contributor of extract to a fermented beverage is honey, the beverage is mead."

And a link to Ken's petition, which I encourage everyone to get behind. Mead is the fastest growing segment of the craft beverage alcohol industry, and our labels are way too confusing for the consumer.


Commercially, I'd like to make a braggot. I've had some amazing braggots but to do this at Schramm's would require that we get a brewing license. Why can't we have "One License to Rule Them All"??? A small winery cannot have malt on premise. Lobbying and money are the only things that can explain these regulations, which inhibit creativity IMHO.

Personally and commercially, I'd like to make a traditional with Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey, but the largest quantity that we can find is these little cans (and they are SUPER expensive). If anyone can find us someone willing to sell us a 60# pail of it for a reasonable price, you'd be a hero. The honey is gd amazing. We have some cans at the meadery for honey tastings and educational purposes, so if you ever stop by Schramm's and want to try these, just ask.
 
Also, I'd love to hear more about your approach to growing and using fruit.
 
Just got back from the Meadery.

Heart of Darkness = 100/100
Statement Reserve = 97/100
Black Agnes = 95-96/100
Nutmeg = 94/100
Small Batch Ginger = 92/100

Using the Robert Parker 100 point system (not that ******** BA/RB 100pt systems)
96-100:
An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase, and consume.

90 - 95:
An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.

80 - 89:
A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.

70 - 79:
An average wine with little distinction except that it is a soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.

60 - 69:
A below average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor, or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.

50 - 59:
A wine deemed to be unacceptable.
 
I never got a honey tasting. :-(

Just ask next time you're in and I'm around or Ken is around. We have Florida and California Orange Blossom, tupelo, blackberry blossom, raspberry blossom, heather, honeydew, Mexican coffee blossom, meadowfoam, Tasmanian leatherwood, black locust, blueberry blossom, and an awesome basswood honey (all for educational purposes).
 
Naegerbomb how long can your mead hold up after opening? i've heard that they can last up to 3 months post open with a recork without any noticeable change if stored in the fridge.



what temperature do you serve your meads at? ;)


how can an out of towner try the meads you don't bottle?


edit - and thanks for doing this!!!
 
Naegerbomb Schramm's mead has a thick mouth feel and rich/deep honey base to it that no other mead I've had can replicate. How is that accomplished?

I think it has a lot to do with our relative lack of intervention with the fermentations. We don't heat our honey must, we don't pasteurize, we don't add preservatives like sulfite, etc. we only use the most quality ingredients possible. Ken's recipes have been under development for 25+ years. The yeast strains we use have a specific alcohol tolerance, and the recipe design is such that we don't have to sulfite and back-sweeten. The yeast just stop when they teach their tolerance, and the residual sweetness is in balance with what Ken predicts the acidity from the fruit to be. But this isn't magic, it's pure experience. It's years of study like no other person on the planet has done but Ken Schramm. It's study of fruit growing, harvesting, and fermentation. The coolest thing about it is that he wrote a book, and literally gave away some of his best recipes. Recipes that many other meadmakers cut their teeth on before they went in their own directions. Ken is still committed to education like none other - just come in and talk to him. He's very candid about recipe formulation. If you're getting into making mead yourself, just be true to the ingredients. Get the best ingredients possible, use a lot of them, and get out of the way.
 
Last edited:
Also, I'd love to hear more about your approach to growing and using fruit.

Ken's approach to fruit is to get the best. He tasted cherries for years, read books, traveled to agricultural extension centers, etc -- finally finding his favorite, the Schaeerbeek. His approach is to find the best. Mediocre ingredients cannot be assembled to form great mead. Only great ingredients can make great mead. We use real, whole fruit, without processing, and ferment on it for about a month using many of the same techniques as red wine makers do. Then, our mead ages and sediments naturally for another two months or so before bottling.
 
Tell us about your masters thesis!

My thesis is titled "RATES AND MODES OF SEQUENCE EVOLUTION IN VARIOUS LINEAGES WITHIN CHENOPODIACEAE".

From the abstract: "Sexual dimorphism in domesticated spinach, Spinacia oleracea, is thought to be determined by differential expression of floral organ identity genes. We examined the floral organ morphologies of seven species in the Chenopodiaceae, including two wild species of spinach, in order to gain insight into the evolution of floral reproductive strategy in this clade. The species within the Anserineae demonstrate extensive evolution in floral morphology and reproductive strategy, and Spinacia is unique for having been domesticated rather recently and for being dioecious. We found C. album to be hermaphroditic, C. foliosum and M. nuttalliana to be gynomonoecious, while C. bonus-henricus exhibits protogyny. For each species and cultivar examined, we isolated sequences for the genesUNUSUAL FLORAL ORGANS (UFO), AGAMOUS (AG),APETALA3 (AP3), PISTILLATA (PI) and for the gene coding for the small subunit of the RuBisCO complex (RBCS), which is involved in carbon fixation during photosynthesis. We also analyzed published sequences for the chloroplast genes RBCLand MATK. The RBCS, MATK, UFO, AG, AP3, and PI genes reveal a consistent phylogeny that most likely represents the true organismal phylogeny for these species, providing key insights into the evolution of reproductive strategy in this tribe. Phylogenetic analysis of the RBCL gene shows Spinacia as sister to M. nuttalliana, and placing C. album within a cluster with C. bonus-henricus and C. foliosum. This tree topology deviates from those generated from TRNL-F/ITS data as well as all others generated in this study. All of these other gene analyses consistently give Spinacia as sister to a clade that includes C. bonus-henricus, C. foliosum, and M. nuttalliana, recently recognized as the genus Blitum. We demonstrate evidence for increased rates of nucleotide substitutions in Spinacia, though there is no molecular evidence for domestication or positive selection. Our findings indicate that sequence evolution in this tribe is being driven mostly by insertion/deletion mutations for the genes sampled, and show that Spinacia has a unique combination of mutations in the coding regions of the floral identity genes AP3 and PI. We also describe unique polymorphisms in a hypervariable region of the UFO gene that are unique to Spinacia."

tl;dr: Spinach has males and females like hops & cannabis, without sex chromosomes like humans. I sequenced some genes and found stuff out.
 
Naegerbomb do you ever draw inspiration from beers? If so, any particular breweries?

I'm really impressed with a lot of sour beers that don't have any fruit in them but are so intensely fruity. Russian River and Brouwerij Rodenbach come to mind. In the clean beer world, big barrel aged stouts and old ales are my favorites, and I'd love to be legally able to make a braggots based off these styles one day. My favorites here are Kuhnhenn's BB4D and of course the solera old ales from The Bruery. I've really been grooving on Sucre lately, and if the stars align we'll do a collaboration with them. I really really respect their products and their style. Unfiltered is the way to go.
 
My thesis is titled "RATES AND MODES OF SEQUENCE EVOLUTION IN VARIOUS LINEAGES WITHIN CHENOPODIACEAE".

From the abstract: "Sexual dimorphism in domesticated spinach, Spinacia oleracea, is thought to be determined by differential expression of floral organ identity genes. We examined the floral organ morphologies of seven species in the Chenopodiaceae, including two wild species of spinach, in order to gain insight into the evolution of floral reproductive strategy in this clade. The species within the Anserineae demonstrate extensive evolution in floral morphology and reproductive strategy, and Spinacia is unique for having been domesticated rather recently and for being dioecious. We found C. album to be hermaphroditic, C. foliosum and M. nuttalliana to be gynomonoecious, while C. bonus-henricus exhibits protogyny. For each species and cultivar examined, we isolated sequences for the genesUNUSUAL FLORAL ORGANS (UFO), AGAMOUS (AG),APETALA3 (AP3), PISTILLATA (PI) and for the gene coding for the small subunit of the RuBisCO complex (RBCS), which is involved in carbon fixation during photosynthesis. We also analyzed published sequences for the chloroplast genes RBCLand MATK. The RBCS, MATK, UFO, AG, AP3, and PI genes reveal a consistent phylogeny that most likely represents the true organismal phylogeny for these species, providing key insights into the evolution of reproductive strategy in this tribe. Phylogenetic analysis of the RBCL gene shows Spinacia as sister to M. nuttalliana, and placing C. album within a cluster with C. bonus-henricus and C. foliosum. This tree topology deviates from those generated from TRNL-F/ITS data as well as all others generated in this study. All of these other gene analyses consistently give Spinacia as sister to a clade that includes C. bonus-henricus, C. foliosum, and M. nuttalliana, recently recognized as the genus Blitum. We demonstrate evidence for increased rates of nucleotide substitutions in Spinacia, though there is no molecular evidence for domestication or positive selection. Our findings indicate that sequence evolution in this tribe is being driven mostly by insertion/deletion mutations for the genes sampled, and show that Spinacia has a unique combination of mutations in the coding regions of the floral identity genes AP3 and PI. We also describe unique polymorphisms in a hypervariable region of the UFO gene that are unique to Spinacia."

tl;dr: Spinach has males and females like hops & cannabis, without sex chromosomes like humans. I sequenced some genes and found stuff out.
76x7Noz.gif
 
Naegerbomb how long can your mead hold up after opening? i've heard that they can last up to 3 months post open with a recork without any noticeable change if stored in the fridge.

what temperature do you serve your meads at? ;)

how can an out of towner try the meads you don't bottle?

edit - and thanks for doing this!!!

Our meads hold up really well against oxidation, and several months corked is not unheard of. I wouldn't go more than a week or two, personally, but it's only because it wouldn't survive long. We don't hear our honey must, pasteurize, or filter anything we make, so all of those enzymes and antioxidant compounds from the honey and the fruit are still in the mead. This is our running theory as to how our meads resist oxidation. Usually winemakers add sulfite to preserve their products (usually for back sweetening) and this can also give you some protection against oxidation, but we don't add any chemical preservatives. Instead we rely on the alcohol to act as a preservative, like natural winemakers.
 
Naegerbomb how long can your mead hold up after opening? i've heard that they can last up to 3 months post open with a recork without any noticeable change if stored in the fridge.



what temperature do you serve your meads at? ;)


how can an out of towner try the meads you don't bottle?


edit - and thanks for doing this!!!

I was typing a long edit to my first reply and talkbeer timed me out. tl;cr: We don't heat our must, enzymes still in there, resists oxidation for months not unheard of. Mine only survive weeks at most cuz alcohol.

Bill Schwab at the Wine Guy.
 
The Bruery has a weird reputation among beer nerds. They've had a ton of infection issues lately.

True. I'm ok with a relatively new brewery ironing out the kinks, with unfiltered brews I can understand that. The best breweries in the world have had issues. Sour beers going 'sick' in the bottle come to mind, but those brewers actually get excited for that stuff. Because it only means the product is going to get better. The Bruery having a couple infected bottles or batches just means their process is more natural than others, and as I understand it they're moving sour beers to an entirely new facility, using an amazing new centrifuge instead of switching to sterile filtration, etc. Stuff I can really respect. Most breweries or wineries faced with infection will start overusing sulfites or sorbates.
 
True. I'm ok with a relatively new brewery ironing out the kinks, with unfiltered brews I can understand that. The best breweries in the world have had issues. Sour beers going 'sick' in the bottle come to mind, but those brewers actually get excited for that stuff. Because it only means the product is going to get better. The Bruery having a couple infected bottles or batches just means their process is more natural than others, and as I understand it they're moving sour beers to an entirely new facility, using an amazing new centrifuge instead of switching to sterile filtration, etc. Stuff I can really respect. Most breweries or wineries faced with infection will start overusing sulfites or sorbates.

Speaking of the Bruery, did you and Debbie dome that Chocolate Rain yet?
 
I'm really impressed with a lot of sour beers that don't have any fruit in them but are so intensely fruity. Russian River and Brouwerij Rodenbach come to mind. In the clean beer world, big barrel aged stouts and old ales are my favorites, and I'd love to be legally able to make a braggots based off these styles one day. My favorites here are Kuhnhenn's BB4D and of course the solera old ales from The Bruery. I've really been grooving on Sucre lately, and if the stars align we'll do a collaboration with them. I really really respect their products and their style. Unfiltered is the way to go.
Braggot brewed at the Bruery? I'm on board.
 
Back
Top