Did you know that we here at Groennfell Meadery are a proud open-source company? This means that all of these open source mead recipes are available for free for anyone!
Note: Major Update to Article 6/23/23
Whether you're a homebrewer or a professional meadmaker, we invite you to use our recipes, tweak them, and try to improve on them. Not only that, but we try to share as much as we can about our brewing process as we possibly can.
You can check out How We Brew Everything We Brew or follow along with Ricky through his Mead Brew Journal.
So, the obvious question is...
Why Are We an Open-Source Company?
There are a number of reasons that we chose to be an open-source meadery.
First, we're really inspired by the collaborative nature of the Open Source Software movement. It has opened doors for so many people. We have a few programmers on our team, and it's one small way we can give back to the community that's helped us so much. You can learn more about Open-Source Software right here.
In addition to our programmers, we also have a number of farmers on our team. While there's been a movement over the last century to patent seeds, obscure the chemical composition of field treatments, and so much more, at its heart, farming has always been a collaborative process where people share what they've learned, what's worked, what's failed, and everything in between.
This even includes things like, "Don't buy 10,000 boxes in your first year of business..."
This spirit is also very strong in the homebrew community, of which we are all proud members.
The last reason, however, may be the most important: We've had a lot of really lousy meads over the years. Back when we were just homebrewers, we also made some pretty lousy meads. Having someone's first experience of mead be... let us say... off putting definitely does do us any good.
We want folks to make great mead, not only because great mead is great, but also because lousy mead is lousy.
Where Do I Find Your Recipes?
You can find them right here! If there's something from us that you've tried and you don't find a recipe for us, go ahead and drop us a line! We probably just haven't gotten around to converting it to a homebrew size.
What Equipment Will I Need to Brew Your Mead?
Honestly, you just need a good fermentation bucket and the way to get your mead into bottles or a keg. We wrote an article a decade ago about Essential Meadmaking Equipment and reading it ten years later, not much has really changed.
Heck you could even get away with just mixing it up in a pot then drinking it when the foam has settled down! That would be an Open Source Mead in an Open Fermentation!
So get out there and get brewing! And please remember to share the love; if you've got an amazing mead you've made based on one of our recipes, please share it with others!
