ABOUT
“I’m really excited about opening a meadery! The timing is right and Hyattsville is a fantastic place to make it happen!”
— Ken Carter, MMW Founder & Owner
Ken Carter, owner and head mead maker of Maryland Meadworks, brings both passion and experience to the job. Ken learned how to brew his own beer way back in the 1980s when his then-girlfriend-now-wife Rumi bought him a home-brewing kit for Christmas. Right away, he was hooked on the craft of brewing. Throughout the coming decades, Ken could often be found brewing beer on weekends, experimenting with new recipes and offering samples of ales, lagers, pilsners and IPAs to his eager neighbors. Opening a brew pub crossed his mind. To test the waters, he even worked as a host and assistant brewer at John Harvard’s Brewpub in downtown DC. Such a momentous project, however, wasn’t feasible at the time: Ken and Rumi were just beginning their family, and the timing wasn’t right. Instead, Ken stuck to his day job in professional and continuing education, bought more sophisticated brewing equipment and kept his home-brew skills evolving, always learning more techniques and experimenting with new ingredients.
Then, about 12 years ago, Ken began to apply all his beer-brewing knowledge to mead as well, after his friend Dave Bol, a biologist and cancer researcher, introduced him to the craft. Ken found the wide range of possibilities for flavor and technique exhilarating. As new processes for fermentation were developed, markedly reducing the length of time it takes to produce mead, Ken discovered artisanal mead production was taking off. To prefect his mead-making skills, Ken participated in two advanced mead makers’ workshops at UC Davis in Davis, California. Subsequently, he visited Moonlight Meadery in Londonderry, New Hampshire, the second-largest meadery in the United States, where owner Michael Fairbrother generously shared insights into best practices.
As the market continues to grow, Ken looks forward to producing the best traditional meads as well as conjuring up new varieties that use fresh local fruits, herbs, and spices.
Ken has been a member of DC’s largest homebrew club, BURP, since 1990.
Maryland Meadworks LLC is a member of the Brewers Association of Maryland as well as the American Mead Makers Association.