Schramm's Mead

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Naegerbomb Is there a reason some of your meads are in straight bottles and some in tapered? My understanding in the wine world is that the Bordeaux vs Burgundy shape difference arose because the Bordeaux grape varieties tend to throw more sediment than Pinot Noir. Does something similar happen with different fruits, or is there another explanation behind your bottle shapes?
 
kscaldef said:
Naegerbomb Is there a reason some of your meads are in straight bottles and some in tapered? My understanding in the wine world is that the Bordeaux vs Burgundy shape difference arose because the Bordeaux grape varieties tend to throw more sediment than Pinot Noir. Does something similar happen with different fruits, or is there another explanation behind your bottle shapes?
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There is no rhyme or reason to it. The straight bottles (skinny 375 mL) are just cool - and we tend to put our more premium meads in those bottles. This started with the "Schramm Series" HoD release in 2009 and we've kept up with it. They are mostly a pain in the ass, though; it's the tallest & skinniest bottle that will fit in our bottling line, and they are very tippy and problematic. I'm hoping to bottle more in 750s in 2017 - even the premium stuff - which will most likely be in a straight sided 750 mL bottle like we've used before.
 
Naegerbomb said:
There is no rhyme or reason to it. The straight bottles (skinny 375 mL) are just cool - and we tend to put our more premium meads in those bottles. This started with the "Schramm Series" HoD release in 2009 and we've kept up with it. They are mostly a pain in the ass, though; it's the tallest & skinniest bottle that will fit in our bottling line, and they are very tippy and problematic. I'm hoping to bottle more in 750s in 2017 - even the premium stuff - which will most likely be in a straight sided 750 mL bottle like we've used before.
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What would a 750 of a premium mead cost? If you're talking Black Agnes that's not ridiculous, I suppose, but HoD/Statement Reserve? Yikes.
 
stupac2 said:
What would a 750 of a premium mead cost? If you're talking Black Agnes that's not ridiculous, I suppose, but HoD/Statement Reserve? Yikes.
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Yes, I'm hoping for Black Agnes 750s this year - and more 750s of 'The Statement', 'Raspberry', 'Blackberry', etc.

thebandit1 said:
I think it was $200 last time they did 750s of HoD.
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We have filled 750s of tHoD before, but not for sale - just to make life easier for the tasting room staff when we had it available by the ounce and the glass. When we can increase our production of the estate-grown fruit (plans are in the works), we may likely do 750s of our ultra-premium stuff for sale to the Mazer Club and to the public.
 
Naegerbomb said:
Yes, I'm hoping for Black Agnes 750s this year - and more 750s of 'The Statement', 'Raspberry', 'Blackberry', etc.



We have filled 750s of tHoD before, but not for sale - just to make life easier for the tasting room staff when we had it available by the ounce and the glass. When we can increase our production of the estate-grown fruit (plans are in the works), we may likely do 750s of our ultra-premium stuff for sale to the Mazer Club and to the public.
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I'll likely be in shortly after Christmas. Any sense of what the tap list and to-go list will look like then?
 
steimie said:
Why?
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Do I need a reason besides that being a lot of money? Even if it were cheaper per ounce (which Naegerbomb didn't confirm it would be) it's not clear to me that paying ~80% more is worth getting 100% more mead, the 375 is a good amount of most of these! I think the 375 size is pretty spot on, so hope this is just an option. People who want them, great! People who don't, also great!
 
stupac2 said:
Do I need a reason besides that being a lot of money? Even if it were cheaper per ounce (which Naegerbomb didn't confirm it would be) it's not clear to me that paying ~80% more is worth getting 100% more mead, the 375 is a good amount of most of these! I think the 375 size is pretty spot on, so hope this is just an option. People who want them, great! People who don't, also great!
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stupac2, please.
 
15589912_1544538635558090_8897843151980178365_n.jpg


Ended up grabbing the above bottles from the Schramms Holiday Gala Charity Auction to benefit the Royal Oak Beaumont NICU, and loved listening to Naegerbomb and Ken talk about the meads they had produced. Was less thrilled to hear that there won't be an Apple Reserve release in 2017 as the apples harvest wasn't quite as robust as they were hoping.

Offer to come hand harvest apples still stands by the way.

Don't think I'm speaking out of school, but listening to James talk about his passion for good whiskey and how well Lord Jim turned out had me hopeful for a larger release in the future. Also the people are clamoring for a larger release of The Response as it was tasting great this past weekend.
 
chickenwing said:
Is there a good place to get info on visiting Schramm's? What available in-house, to go, etc. I plan on visiting next Wednesday! Thanks
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steimie said:
Just send a note to Naegerbomb
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Word up.

You can just call ahead that day and speak to someone in the tasting room (when they're open at 4 pm - otherwise the call will get routed to Alyson's cell phone, lol!) That's probably the easiest way to find out what they have in stock and on tap over there (our tasting room building & production facility / offices are unfortunately a few blocks away from each other). If you email me, that's what I'm going to do. Cut the middle man out, I say!

Now, if you're looking to find out what *will* be available and on tap, that's a different story. That's a bit more complicated. We have 'Raspberry' back on tap and in bottles now (we bottled last week and did some deliveries this week). That much I do know - because I've been doing that the past few works.
 
Naegerbomb said:
Word up.

You can just call ahead that day and speak to someone in the tasting room (when they're open at 4 pm - otherwise the call will get routed to Alyson's cell phone, lol!) That's probably the easiest way to find out what they have in stock and on tap over there (our tasting room building & production facility / offices are unfortunately a few blocks away from each other). If you email me, that's what I'm going to do. Cut the middle man out, I say!

Now, if you're looking to find out what *will* be available and on tap, that's a different story. That's a bit more complicated. We have 'Raspberry' back on tap and in bottles now (we bottled last week and did some deliveries this week). That much I do know - because I've been doing that the past few works.
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Thanks for the info! I'm coming to see you guys either way, so I guess it doesn't really matter exactly what you have. I have a feeling that I'm going to enjoy whatever you have to offer. Cheers
 
buzzword said:
looks amazing! wish i was able to go :)

info on The Response? apologies if I missed this elsewhere.


also, will elderberry ever be bottled?
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'The Response' is a new mead I'm developing - basically 'The Statement' aged on Mindo cocoa nibs and Madagascar vanilla beans. This is the third time I've done it as a small pilot, so I decided to switch things up and do the nibs/beans in a 15-gallon Journeyman Distillery Featherbone bourbon barrel - and FFS is it on fire, man. So delicious. Anyway, if we ever bottle 'The Response' it may end up being this version with bourbon-barrel aging, or I may call this one something else.

Elderberry will be bottled, sure. Most of our recipes have a relatively long development timeline, though - so it may be a year or more. We just tasted some recent development batches, including Elderberry and Aronia Berry -- and they are tasting really great.
 
Naegerbomb said:
'The Response' is a new mead I'm developing - basically 'The Statement' aged on Mindo cocoa nibs and Madagascar vanilla beans. This is the third time I've done it as a small pilot, so I decided to switch things up and do the nibs/beans in a 15-gallon Journeyman Distillery Featherbone bourbon barrel - and FFS is it on fire, man. So delicious. Anyway, if we ever bottle 'The Response' it may end up being this version with bourbon-barrel aging, or I may call this one something else.

Elderberry will be bottled, sure. Most of our recipes have a relatively long development timeline, though - so it may be a year or more. We just tasted some recent development batches, including Elderberry and Aronia Berry -- and they are tasting really great.
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Fantastic! Thanks for satisfying my curiousity!
 
Naegerbomb said:
'The Response' is a new mead I'm developing - basically 'The Statement' aged on Mindo cocoa nibs and Madagascar vanilla beans. This is the third time I've done it as a small pilot, so I decided to switch things up and do the nibs/beans in a 15-gallon Journeyman Distillery Featherbone bourbon barrel - and FFS is it on fire, man. So delicious. Anyway, if we ever bottle 'The Response' it may end up being this version with bourbon-barrel aging, or I may call this one something else.

Elderberry will be bottled, sure. Most of our recipes have a relatively long development timeline, though - so it may be a year or more. We just tasted some recent development batches, including Elderberry and Aronia Berry -- and they are tasting really great.
Click to expand...
Don't burn it!
 
Naegerbomb said:
'The Response' is a new mead I'm developing - basically 'The Statement' aged on Mindo cocoa nibs and Madagascar vanilla beans. This is the third time I've done it as a small pilot, so I decided to switch things up and do the nibs/beans in a 15-gallon Journeyman Distillery Featherbone bourbon barrel - and FFS is it on fire, man. So delicious. Anyway, if we ever bottle 'The Response' it may end up being this version with bourbon-barrel aging, or I may call this one something else.

Elderberry will be bottled, sure. Most of our recipes have a relatively long development timeline, though - so it may be a year or more. We just tasted some recent development batches, including Elderberry and Aronia Berry -- and they are tasting really great.
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Is this another project with Holiday or your own thing?
 
lurchingbeast said:
Is this another project with Holiday or your own thing?
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This is a 15-gallon test batch using a Journeyman Distillery barrel. If it's successful, we may scale up to a 53-gallon barrel next -- perhaps with a barrel from Holiday, perhaps with multiple 15 gallon barrels (because I really like that bourbon). I think the guys at Journeyman are making the best scratch-made bourbon in Michigan right now (that I've tasted so far) and I want to support them as much as I can. However, I really do like the bourbon picks coming from Ashley and the team at Holiday -- the bourbons are just so smooth and flavorful. I bought a bottle of their latest single barrel Eagle Rare 10 year bourbon today - and gotdamn it is good and the price is a ****ing steal.
 
Naegerbomb said:
This is a 15-gallon test batch using a Journeyman Distillery barrel. If it's successful, we may scale up to a 53-gallon barrel next -- perhaps with a barrel from Holiday, perhaps with multiple 15 gallon barrels (because I really like that bourbon). I think the guys at Journeyman are making the best scratch-made bourbon in Michigan right now (that I've tasted so far) and I want to support them as much as I can. However, I really do like the bourbon picks coming from Ashley and the team at Holiday -- the bourbons are just so smooth and flavorful. I bought a bottle of their latest single barrel Eagle Rare 10 year bourbon today - and gotdamn it is good and the price is a ****ing steal.
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I like their rye a lot. Better than popular Chicago distilleries. And their apple shots are fire. In.
 
Jas45678 said:
Apple shots?!?!
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They sell a spiced cider and whiskey in growlers that is amazeballs. I have found it on shelves as far away as Maryland. In fact I got pretty schwasty one Christmas eve wrapping my nephews' Santa gifts while the boys were at school when I was down visiting family a couple years ago because I spotted it on the shelves there. It's simple enough to make at home. Just Journeyman Rye and mulled cider, but the stuff is lit.
 
Jb123 said:
oh.cool.
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Realistically they probably just don't have time. Demand is as high as ever and they are likely working around the clock to get as much high quality product onto shelves as they can. Any experimental batches (ie. the Response) are sold in house as tap-only or are part of special events like their V-day brunches. I'm sure someone from Schramm's could elaborate more, but this was my take on why they have stopped entering competitions for the time being
 

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