The Compleat Meadmaker : Home Production of Honey Wine From Your First Batch to Award-winning Fruit and Herb Variations

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When I saw the title, my first thought was, "he spelled `complete' wrong." Then I thought about it. Mead is an ancient brew - arguably the first fermented beverage - so why not use an ancient spelling of the word? It fits.

Ken Schramm has done for meadmaking what Jon Iverson, Terry Garey and Daniel Pambianchi have done for winemaking - written a book that will serve the home craft with authority for years to come. Indeed, it was a joy to read. From the historical asides to the award-winning recipes, this book was meant to educate and use. The hardest part was resisting the temptation to put it down and run out to buy some honey.

"Mead, once considered far superior to both wine and beer, fell into obscurity as honey became scarce and expensive, and was never reclaimed from the nobility's vault in which it was laid. Through the work of many people and by virtue of the quality of the beverage itself, mead is making a comeback. This book endeavors to push that comeback along." Thus, quite succinctly, Ken Schramm lays out the gauntlet he chose to run. In my judgement, he succeeded admirably.

The book is divided into four parts. These are Background, Process, Ingredients, and Recipes, followed by appendices, glossary, bibliography, and a very useful index.

Background: I am an historian by education. As such, I am drawn to historical accounts that support my hobbies. So it was with great delight that I read in the opening chapter a fairly good argument for mead claiming the title of oldest fermentable beverage. Indeed, the whole first chapter is about the history of mead, from accidental discovery by paleolithic or neolithic man to the great mead traditions of ancient Egypt, Europe, and wherever sailors sailed. While some would choose to skip this discussion, I hope the number would not be too large. There is serious food for thought here. A very short second chapter defines the styles of mead. I found this chapter to be too short, but I am a fan of nomenclature.

Process: Four chapters compose this portion. "Changing Honey into Wine" goes beyond tradition, of which mead is literally soaked, to bring the craft into the scientific era and improve it generally. The author uses a medium-sweet, orange-blossom mead recipe to walk the reader through the equipment, additives and processes of making mead generally. "Beyond the Basics" looks at the heat and non-heat methods of integrating honey, but also looks at sparkling mead, more equipment, and more additives. "Yeast and Fermentation" covers many subjects -- from yeast choices to residual sugar -- and is, in my opinion, the heart and soul of the meadmaking process. "Conditioning, Aging, and Using Oak" covers these subjects sufficiently for the beginner. While I desired more, I am perhaps atypical.

Ingredients: "All About Honey" is perhaps the author's finest chapter. As a bee-keeper, he is here in his own element and it seeps through loud and clear. I think he restrained himself by only discussing 21 types of honey, but I could be guessing. "Fruit and Melomel" is another meat and potatoes chapter, delving far beyond the superficial to discuss the subject adequately. "Grapes and Pyment" is less meaty but still adequate, confined to the more commonly available Vitis vinifera wine grape varieties. My disappointment at seeing no discussion of North American native grapes may not be widespread, but leaves room for a second edition expansion. "Spices and Metheglin" opens a door wide enough for an 18-wheeler, and he shows tremendous restraint by only discussing 51 suitable spices (of which 15 are chile pepper varieties). "Grains and Braggot" concentrates exclusively on braggots -- malted barley meads -- with only passing mention that there are other grains available. But one can forgive him for this. He does, after all, cover the malts adequately enough to open another huge realm of possible variation.

Recipes: "Putting the Process and Ingredients Together" is a collection of only 11 recipes (12 counting the orange-blossom mead mentioned earlier), but they are carefully chosen to reveal an almost endless number of possibilities across several styles. I doubt anyone will be disappointed, for Ken Schramm's purpose here is to offer the models for countless variations. "Appreciating Your Mead" is a short, seemingly unnecessary chapter - until you read it. Skip it at your own peril.

Indeed, if you are going to make mead at all, skip this book at your own peril. My copy is well-tabbed, and I'm not a beginner....

What a great book! This book will help you with your first batch and still be an important reference work for your 100th batch. He covers all the basics of making a good mead, followed by enough honey and yeast reference information to do your own recipe formulation. He has answered so many of the questions that I could not find answers for online. Buy this book before you open your first jar(or bucket) of honey.

"...90% of this book deals with ingredients and only 10% with specific recipes." states Ken Schramm in Part Four of his book "The Compleat Meadmaker". This is true. If you're looking for a pure recipe book, this is probably not it. However, if you're interested in the history of mead, why it declined, good technique for making you first batch, good technique for making your Nth batch, a good bit of down to Earth biochemistry, and the care and feeding of yeasts (what the heck IS the difference between Epernay and Primier Cuvee?), then this IS the book for you.

The book is divided into four parts: Background, Process, Ingredients and Recipes. "Background" discusses the history of mead, why it was probably the first fermented beverage, why beer, wine and distilled spirits have usurped its place, and the future of mead making. "Process" walks the reader, step by step through making their first batch of mead, from selecting brewing gear and honey, to bottling. "Process" also discusses more advanced mead making techniques. "Ingredients" goes into details about honeys, fruits for melomels, spices and herbs for metheglins, and grains for braggots. What are melomels, metheglins and braggots, you ask? Read the book and find out. "Recipes" contains, of course, recipes. The recipes offer samplings from the different styles of mead. Ken Schramm seems to be a proponent of experimentation, and these recipes offer excellent starting points.

Ken Schramm's writing style is relaxed, humorous, and informative. He comes across as knowing his subject material well, and can explain it to the most novice reader.

All in all, a great book for anyone interested in the topic of making mead. Skal!

I have been been making homemade fruit wines for several years. I have read many books on wine making, and beer brewing. Yet in this mead book, I learned new things about wine making and the process I had not come across before. The book is holistic in its approach to understanding the brewing process, specifically with mead.

What is especially helpful is the author's command of the scientific understandings, that he relates in layman's terms. Portions read like an episode of "Good Eats" on the Food Network. This is a good thing.

As to the specifics of mead, I cannot imagine a more thorough book. To the qualities of varietal honies, to the methods for determining balance in adding fruits, spices, or grains, no stone is left unturned. Yet the book does not read like a textbook, I enjoyed it as a read, not just a reference.

I've gotten several beer brewing books from Amazon and decided to get this book on Mead because I like honey and wanted to learn something about making mead with it. I'd always heard about mead and was curious about it but if you're expecting a lot of recipes this book probably isn't for you.
Mr. Schramm puts out a lot of information on the history, styles of meads, the science and ingredients. I'm not sure if it has enough information to go out and brew the stuff (I'm still reading the book and have never tried to brew anything)if you're a complete novice but it might do it. When Mr. Schramm titled the book complete he meant just that, only 2 or 3 recipes in the first 158 pages- the rest of it covering anything else you'd need or want to know (there is a 9 page recipe section late in the book).
I liked the section on honey and other suppliers, 13 pages long and 9 of them cover mail order honey suppliers, the rest are for spices and other equipment.
I may never get around to making Mead but if I do I'll be glad I've got this book.

This book is an excellent source for those interested in mead making. It takes a comprehensive look at the ingredients necessary and takes a straight forward approach to technique. This book is further enhanced by a very useful index, charts, and illustrations. The author also takes a lighter approach by including some self deprecating humor.
A book like this on mead making is long overdue!

Ken's book was the first printed source for meadmaking that I read. It is very informative about many things including details on varietal honey and specifics about the harvesting process. The technical information about honey vareities is also very useful.

The recipes are few but good. I gained enough knowledge about the use of honey, fruits and spices to formulate many of my own recipes. This book helps to partner good information and techniques with your own creativity and imagination to make excellent mead right from the start.

My wife and I bought this book in June 2003 at the AHA conference in Chicago. We started making mead in August 2003. In 2004 we won a gold medal at the AHA National Homebrew Competition and in 2005 we won Gold and Bronze medals and were crowned the AHA Meadmakers of the Year for a Muscat Pyment.

We do believe that Ken's book had a lot to do with that. The book quickly takes you past the beginner steps many of us stumble on when starting a new hobby.

Buy the book and good luck.

Curt and Kathy Stock
St. Paul Homebrewers Club

Great resource for the beginner and the master. You want to get started quick? Read the basics and get to it. Then, while your first batch is fermenting, go more in-depth and learn about fining, oak chips, adjuncts, etc. Well-written, yet not chatty. Your copy will be as marked-up and dog-eared as mine as you note important facts to aid you in your quest for liquid gold. Mr. Schramm's book is, without a doubt, the absolute must-have resource for this topic.

WOW! This IS a great book! If you want to make mead, then this is the book for you. With the exception of some post fermentation details, this book covers all aspects of the mead making process and the equipment and supplies that you'll need to make award winning mead. I know, my first batch of mead is now gone, and after winning first place against wines in the local county fair, I get nothing but rave reviews. Thanks for the great book Ken.

PS: In the next edition, expand the chapter about post fermentation to focus more on the clarification process.

Was hoping for more recipes but gave plenty of information to formulate my own. It did explain all the basic information plus some extra

Great book , full of everything to get you started making mead, and more. I am so happy that I bought this book, can't wait for the results.

This is THE book to have if you want make the magical elixer of Mead. Ken Shramm deftly show you how easy and wonderfull this amazingly complex beverage is to make and enjoy.

There are as many approaches to mead as there are mead makers, so it's nice to read a book that runs the gamut of instruction from "as long as your equipment is sanitized and your ingredients quality you'll probably be fine" to "these are the most common ways to tweak the ph/gravity/sugar content/anything you can think of to tweak in a mead recipe". Sometimes you want precision, sometimes you want happy accidents and it's nice to see a text that allows for that kind of flexibility.

It was very straight forward; leaning a bit heavier towards technique, but with enough recipes/examples to illustrate and inspire (a balance I've definitely come to appreciate in any instructional text).It had just enough of the hard science of brewing to further my understanding of the subject without making me bemoan my lack of an Organic Chem course during college.

In the end I think the best judge of an instructional book is if reading it makes me start a mental wish-list of what to buy the nest time I play with that specific hobby, and I've already started working out the contents of my next brewstore order.

I've been brewing beer off and on for over 10 years now, and was interested in making mead. While on my quest for knowledge I kept hearing about this book by Schramm??, on all of the brewing forums. I finally got The Compleat Mead Maker and was thoroughly suprised and happy at how much information was packed into this wonderful book. It gives a history of mead, some basic recipes and alot of other valuable information for someone looking to brew up mead.

Highly informative. Packed with useful information and definitely worth every single penny spent even if just as a reference. The charts are very useful and although the ingredient detail of the book is a bit overwhelming its useful. The majority of the book does focus on ingredients vs. mead and in some ways seems to lack cohesion in bringing the subjects together.

Some people have complained about lack of recipes which makes absolutely no sense to me because if you have read the book cover to cover he has given you every bit of knowledge needed to make any combination of mead you can think of! Some of the information is a bit more opinion than fact, but the vast majority is very well researched and very well developed into text. His 20+ years of experience does show. Its very very useful to have on hand and truly inspiring!

For extensive recipes "making wild wines & meads" is a useful book to have on hand, with both books you could truly gain all the knowledge you need to make top notch meads.

Although this book is excellent on instructions and all the things you need to know about mead making, it is very short on the recipe side. I was disappointed with this part. Still a good book, but definitely not for someone looking for recipes.

No book can tell you *EVERYTHING* about making mead. There are new ideas and opinions brewing all the time. That being said, this book is a true blessing for anyone interested in making mead.

I wish Ken Schramm spoke more on fermentation temperature and methods of controling it. Not everyone has the luxury of air conditioning (or even indoor brewing). Here's a bit that may help fill in this gap:

For most wine yeasts, ideal fermentation temperatures should be as follows:

Start fermentation - 78F/26C
Main fermentation - 65F/18C
Near end fermentation - 80F/27C

Commercial grape wineries ferment with wines at 60F/15C - 70F/20C. I've even heard 55 F to 70 F.

For practical purposes, 70F/21C - 75F/24C will do just fine for most meads, depending on the tolerance of the yeast used. The lower end of this range ensures a robust fermentation while minimize harsh fusel alcohols that affect the taste of the finished product.

The best way to ensure proper fermentation temperatures is to take a somewhat high tech approach from the beer home-brewers and use a chest freezer or refrigerator equipped with a plug-in temperature controller (Ranco makes a good one) - Simple and efficient. It'll get you through the icey days of winter and the dog days of Summer.

The Complete Mead maker Book was a great investment for me. I have never made Mead before and I got everything I needed in one book. All the Equipment one needs to get, all ingredients and very simple step by step instructions. I made my very first batch using the starter recipe and everything is going according to what the book says. Anyone interested in making their own Honey wine or beer at home this book is a must have. It is also very informative in finding equipment and ingredients on the internet at decent prices. I look forward to making more Mead batches using this book in the future.

I recently purchased this book and another one called Making Mead Honey Wine and both of these books are great for learning how to make mead. I tried mead for the 1st time at a Renassance Festival; it was very good and had a nice kick to it. I would definately recommend this book to someone wanting to make mead for the 1st time. Contains a lot of useful information.

I found this book to be very good. It covers the making of meads including: sack, metheglin, melomel, pyment, and braggot. Includes in bottle carbonating technique. It covers selecting ingredients and equipment and discusses all aspects of the fermentation process. It also includes a history of mead making. Has some technical information on the chemical composition of honey.

Best resource for mead making that I have found so far.

I was impressed with the book from the get-go. A good history of honey and mead to start with, and an excellent guide to producing your first batch. That is just in the first, say, 30 pages. The rest continues with valuable advanced recipes and techniques. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in making their own mead.

Fascinating book, covering the history, how-to and recipes of mead making. If your library space or budget only allows for one book on mead, this is it.

The yeast and honey tables in this book make it worth the price. It gives a good history and theory of mead, as well as a good few great recipes. Definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in making or drinking mead.

Ken's book was the first printed source for meadmaking that I read. It is very informative about many things including details on varietal honey and specifics about the harvesting process. The technical information about honey vareities is also very useful.

The recipes are few but good. I gained enough knowledge about the use of honey, fruits and spices to formulate many of my own recipes. This book helps to partner good information and techniques with your own creativity and imagination to make excellent mead right from the start.

My wife and I bought this book in June 2003 at the AHA conference in Chicago. We started making mead in August 2003. In 2004 we won a gold medal at the AHA National Homebrew Competition and in 2005 we won Gold and Bronze medals and were crowned the AHA Meadmakers of the Year for a Muscat Pyment.

We do believe that Ken's book had a lot to do with that. The book quickly takes you past the beginner steps many of us stumble on when starting a new hobby.

Buy the book and good luck.

Curt and Kathy Stock
St. Paul Homebrewers Club