Ken Schramm
Co-Founder & Head Meadmaker
Ken Schramm grew up around Detroit. He developed a strong love of good beer in his early alcohol consuming years, and was a dyed-in-the-wool “beer snob” by the time he graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1981. He got interested in homebrewing when his brother, Mike, gave him a brewing kit for Christmas in 1987. In less than a year, he had joined the AHA, befriended meadmaking and brewing savant Bill Pfeiffer, and joined the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild. Things snowballed. In 1992, he co-founded the Mazer Cup Mead Competition, the world’s oldest and largest mead-only competition, with Dr. Dan McConnell and “Brewguyver” Mike O’Brien. In 1993, they co-founded the Michigan State Fair Homebrewing competition. He has presented at brewing, meadmaking and winemaking conferences from Delaware to Alaska over the past 20+ years, kicked off in 1994 with the first “Mead Matrix” with McConnell: twelve meads from one recipe: six from the same honey using different yeast strains, and six with the same yeast strain using different varietal honeys. Ken loves to grow great varieties of cherries and apples in his orchard. He ended up writing “The Compleat Meadmaker,” which was published by Brewers Publications in 2003. It has been an important part of the mead revolution that is sweeping across the country. If you want to meet and drink with Ken, your best bet is to take him flyfishing on some really good trout water. Ken lives in Troy, Michigan.
Jean Schramm
Queen Mother
Jean recently completed her career as a Licensed Practical Nurse and Certified Operating Room Technician after working at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn and Troy Beaumont Hospital. Jean’s family hails from the Stirling area of Scotland. Jean married Ken in 1986. Jean loves gardening, raises a spectacular array of beautiful annual and perennial flowers, and picks virtually all of the raspberries used in The Heart of Darkness. Jean is a voracious reader, but she gave that up because of Facebook.
Alyson Schramm Naeger
Co-Founder, Certified Sommelier, Certified CiceroneⓇ, BJCP Mead Judge, Certified Specialist of Wine, Certified Specialist of Spirits, WSET Level 3
A University of Michigan graduate, Alyson is best known as mother of the meads Madeline, Amelia, and Lily. When she isn’t overseeing the meadery’s ordering, shipping, receiving, human resources, social media, special events, website, Mazer Club, scheduling, branding, and accounting departments, she relaxes by studying for various industry examinations and accreditations.
James Naeger, M.Sc.
Director of Sales and Special Projects, BJCP Mead Judge
James grew up in Sylvan Lake and graduated from University of Detroit Jesuit High School. After completing his undergraduate degree in Biology at John Carroll University, James went on to Wayne State University to complete his Masters of Science in Biology. A beautiful complement to Schramm’s classic style of meadmaking, James likes to experiment with barrel-aging and sourcing exciting, new high-quality ingredients. James resides in Troy, Michigan with his wife, Alyson, and two daughters, Madeline and Amelia.
Kristen Deluge 
General Manager
Kristen has worked full time as a licensed cosmetologist for over ten years. She has worked part time for meadery for many years, and is now full time at the meadery, part time doing hair. She is known at the meadery by the nickname “Kittens,” which Madeline and Amelia began calling her when they were too young to correctly pronounce her name. It stuck. Kittens does shipping and fulfillment, customer service and emails, order delivery, planning and setup for events, and manages the mead library. For fun she makes stained glass, goes on camping and outdoor adventures, attends concerts and festivals, changes her hair and nails (always fun colors), and does floral design.
Sarah Schramm
Director of Fruit Harvest and Cat Management
An Albion College graduate, Sarah is ‘Auntie Schwes’ to Madeline and Amelia. Her interest in mead started when she was a kid. She did grafting with Ken, picked fruit, pitted cherries, and brewed many basement batches of The Heart of Darkness and Statement Reserve in the basement with him from the time she was 9 years old. These days she’s something of a ’do it all’ person for the meadery. She is the primary orchardist, and greenhouse manager. She also works production, events, manages formula and label submission and approval, handles retail sales, and pitches in packaging orders, waxing bottles, and making deliveries. She has also painted the label art for 5 meads. Sarah resides at the orchard with her 3 cats, which is honestly one cat too many. But when a tiny kitten shows up crying at your door with bleeding coyote bites, you take it in. When she isn’t picking mass quantities of fruit, sweating in the greenhouse, or rescuing kittens, she reads novels, learns about outer space, fly fishes, dances tango, and plays Bach on her violin.
Shawn Richardson
Customer Service and Chain Sales Manager
A former Ferndale native, Shawn came to Schramm’s Mead in 2019 by way of Whole Foods Market, where he assisted in leading the team responsible for craft beer, wine, and specialty cheeses. A firefighter by training, Shawn’s love of artisanal products was enriched after having the opportunity to train with the Master Sommeliers at Tenzing Wine & Spirits in Chicago, and a number of American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Specialists at Whole Foods. As a member of the Schramm’s team, his primary duties include all aspects of customer service outside the social media realm, direct to consumer shipping, and building relationships with our large format retail partners. Outside of work, Shawn can be found spending time with his daughter, and reading entirely too many books about foreign policy and national security.