Starting a Mead Club

Having friends to help with the work of the brewing process and drinking the fruits of your labor can be rewarding for everyone as you all experiment and learn to brew better together. Of course, if you have friends like mine, you may find that some show an initial interest in the brewing process, but that interest wanes and is soon replaced with excuses of not having time or that it's too expensive.

Don't take these occurrences to heart, some people are all hype and no action. As with any hobby group, you've got to filter out the posers and the people who actually share a general interest. This sounds very gloom and doom, but I only mention it because it can be an initial dampener to your excitement as people who promised to participate let you down. Just don't let it get to you!

The key to a successful brewing adventure is to enjoy the process, to learn from each brew, and to strive to do better with each progressive batch. Over time you'll find the true enthusiasts will come out of the woodwork and share the experience and their knowledge with you. In the meantime, there's a growing community of online mead-making forums and groups you can engage in. I've personally found the people on reddit.com/r/mead to be a very enjoyable and experienced sort.

The video below is one I came across while looking at homebrewing videos on YouTube. I chose to show it here to demonstrate how fun it can be discussing your latest brew projects and making new batches with friends. These guys and gals are all gathering together to make beer, but the same can be done with mead and other wines as well.

Mead is a wine that comes from a base of honey and water. Many types of mead can be derived from this basic definition, but we'll cover a few here, more details to come in a future mead-fanatic HubPage:

• Metheglin -- A spiced mead.
• Cyser -- A mead made with apple juice rather than water.
• Melomel -- A mead made with fruit juices (or fruit) with possible inclusion of spices.
• Pyment -- A mead made with added grape juice.

There are more varieties that have emerged over time, but we'll leave that for a more advanced article. For now, we'll stick with the basics.

Some might be interested to know that the Alcohol content of mead generally ranges from 7-22%; however, my latest visit to the Union Station Fermentation shop in Ogden, Utah revealed that they were able to coax a particularly fine brew to an astounding 29% -- or so the rumor has it.

Getting started with homebrewed mead is incredibly easy. Since Mead is, by definition, a wine made from honey, one doesn't need to smash or juice fruit prior to fermentation for the simplest batch with stellar results. A couple pounds of honey, some fresh spring or tap water, yeast, and a container with make-shift air lock are all you need to make the simplest of batches. And since making fruit or spiced Mead is so easy, you might just find yourself jumping right in to something a bit more "complex" in flavor, if not in effort. If a quick and easy project sounds like something you've been looking for, you might be interested in this Hub about Making Milk Jug Mead on the cheap and easy! It's super fun and well worth the minimal effort.

Utah homebrewing law strictly forbids the sale of homebrewed alcohol. Still, there's nothing wrong with giving away samples of your finest brews. My Blackberry Bliss mead was a fine gift for many of my wine-loving friends and family this year. The feedback alone was enough encouragement to keep me thinking of future batch possibilities.

Be careful, though, I've already got grundles of requests for more of my delectable berry mead.

In that regard, it's best to start forming your brewing club from those who appreciate your brews and express an interest in getting started on their own. What better way to fulfill those refill requests than to get your friends started on duplicating your recipe?