A Report from Planet Buzz

<editor's note>
from a post to the Mead Lovers Digest
</editor's note>

Subject: Planet Buzz and the new Buzz: Ask for Mead
From: Ken Schramm 
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 20:47:45 -0500

Well, if you didn't go, you missed the mead bash of this (and probably
the last) century.  It was a complete scream.  

I met many impressive folks, including David Myers from Redstone, Ron
Fischer, Charles McGonegal from Aeppeltreow, Denice Ingalls from Sky
River, Robert Capshew; I know I'll forget folks, but I have yet to meet
a meadmaker I didn't like.  And Dan McFeeley and Chuck Wettergreen
(again).  Nice pepper meads, guys. And a host of folks with great mead
in the meadmakers' lounge. And Ron Lunder, finally! 

I had too many good meads to detail, but a few that stick in my mind are
T&A Vintners hibiscus metheglin, David's "Meadmosa" with Black Raspberry
mead and OJ, and both Dan and Chuck's chipotle/jalapeno methegins.  I
tasted great honeys (watermelon!  Yow!) and ate great food, including
great apples brought in by Aeppeltreow, and a terrificly complex and
aromatic perry.  

The biggest take-home message: what we need is (for lack of a better
word) Buzz. We need to create a regular and consistent commentary and
demand for mead among the public, retailers and restaurant/bar owners. 
I am bummed that I didn't think of it when the question was posed during
the panel discussion, but my new motto/battle cry: :"Ask For Mead."  Ask
at the restaurant.  Ask at the bar. Every time you go to have a drink,
ask if they have any meads.  Ask at the grocery store, the liquor store,
the beer store.  Ask for mead.    "Do you have any mead?"  And when the
answer is "yes," BUY IT.  If you want to go a step further: ask for your
favorite mead by name.  

Sure, there is a lot to be done to get the good word about mead to the
public, through every media outlet we can get to (and trust me, several
of us will be working our butts off on that) but the grassroots
development will work wonders if we stick to it.  

Hobbyists may question the payback, but the answer is simple and
undeniable.  The more the commecial meadmakers can learn, the more
infomation they will have to help us improve our meads.  Commercial QC
has led to almost every substantive quality-raising development in beer
and winemaking, and hobbyists reap the rewards right alongside the
commercial folk.  

Ask For Mead.    

New discussion thread:  If there was a New American Mead Asociation,
what would you want it to be and do? 

Ask for Mead.

Ken Schramm
Troy, MI

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