Gray Feather Mead
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William Miller, maker of fine meads.
The Mead Maker
William A. Miller, MD, FACP
It all started about 1981 when William was in college at the University of Arizona. He and some friends were in a group reenacting medieval knights and pageantry. He found a recipe for a medieval drink called "spciedmead" and brewed it in the dormitory kitchen. It wasn't half bad. They drank it at a feast celebrating the New Year. After he graduated, he got into brewing beer, but eventually his interests moved back to mead. William starting seriously making mead around 1996.
He has experimented with different honeys and recipes. His favorite honeys are desert mesquite, eucalyptus and blackberry. All have strong characters as honey that produce interesting complexities and many subtile flavors in the mead. He has also been very successful in brewing cherry and raspberry melomels that have a wonderful bright red color and gush with flavor and aroma. He is also taken advantage of living close to the wine producing capital of the United States to branch out into making pyments, which are made by fermenting grapes and honey together. Recently he bottled pyments made from cabernet and merlot that were aged in French oak.
He has converted the kitchen of the downstairs "mother-in-law" apartment in the garage of his San Francisco home to his "meadery". He is currently exploring making "vintage" batches of mead from local honeys produce within the Bay Area. While this is still a hobby, his friends think he should get a license and start producing the stuff commercially.
William works as an internal medicine hospitalist physician. When he is not brewing fine ales and making exquisite meads, he is flying his airplane or gazing at the stars through his telescope. He lives with his companion, Anchi, who is a photographer and their two African Gray parrots, Koko and Kiki.
It all started about 1981 when William was in college at the University of Arizona. He and some friends were in a group reenacting medieval knights and pageantry. He found a recipe for a medieval drink called "spciedmead" and brewed it in the dormitory kitchen. It wasn't half bad. They drank it at a feast celebrating the New Year. After he graduated, he got into brewing beer, but eventually his interests moved back to mead. William starting seriously making mead around 1996.
He has experimented with different honeys and recipes. His favorite honeys are desert mesquite, eucalyptus and blackberry. All have strong characters as honey that produce interesting complexities and many subtile flavors in the mead. He has also been very successful in brewing cherry and raspberry melomels that have a wonderful bright red color and gush with flavor and aroma. He is also taken advantage of living close to the wine producing capital of the United States to branch out into making pyments, which are made by fermenting grapes and honey together. Recently he bottled pyments made from cabernet and merlot that were aged in French oak.
He has converted the kitchen of the downstairs "mother-in-law" apartment in the garage of his San Francisco home to his "meadery". He is currently exploring making "vintage" batches of mead from local honeys produce within the Bay Area. While this is still a hobby, his friends think he should get a license and start producing the stuff commercially.
William works as an internal medicine hospitalist physician. When he is not brewing fine ales and making exquisite meads, he is flying his airplane or gazing at the stars through his telescope. He lives with his companion, Anchi, who is a photographer and their two African Gray parrots, Koko and Kiki.
The Mead Maker
