“Mead can be carbonated like beer or distilled like wine,” she says. Her mead is made in a beer style because brewing is her background.

Bob and Deb Hyndman, who live just south of Valparaiso, have been members of Duneland Homebrewers Association since it was founded.

“We were just a group that got together and started brewing,” says Deb, now president of the association which has 90 members, 45 of whom are active. The group gets together once a year to spend a day (usually from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) to mash grains and make the beginnings of a home brew that members can then take home and personalize.

“We’ve never made a mead but we did do a braggot,” says Deb, talking about a combination of mead and beer often flavored with spices and herbs. According to the Beer Advocate, braggots have ancient roots with early references dating back to 12th century Ireland and a mention as well in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the late 1300s. An example would be Samuel Adams Honey Queen.