Hyattsville’s Maryland Meadworks Adds Drink Made With Local Figs

Maryland Meadworks is offering another seasonal mead made with local fruit.

The Hyattsville meadery now has on tap mead made with figs grown in College Park, as part of its ongoing experimentation with different ingredients.

Owner Ken Carter told the Hyattsville Wire that he first tried to make fig mead a few years ago when a friend gave him several pounds of figs as a gift. Last year also produced a bumper crop of figs thanks to a mild winter and a warmer but less humid summer.

Fig mead, which originated in ancient Egypt, was considered a luxury drink in the Middle Ages in Europe.

The current batch at Maryland Meadworks is a cyser-style mead, a cross between mead and hard cider, made with apple cider and wildflower honey from Pennsylvania and smoked local figs.

“The smoked figs add another layer of complexity not unlike a nice smokey scotch,” he told the Wire.

Carter said he likes to experiment with different fruits, herbs, spices and styles of making mead. Up next is a braggot, a combination of mead and beer, made with Trippel IPA from Franklins.

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