Mead
Mead, also called honey wine, and hydromel, is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 20%. Possibly the most ancient alcoholic drink, the defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey. It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling, and despite a common misconception that mead is exclusively sweet, it can also be dry or semi-sweet.
Mead that also contains spices is called ', and mead that contains fruit is called melomel. The term honey wine' is sometimes used as a synonym for mead, although wine is typically defined to be the product of fermented grapes or certain other fruits, and some cultures have honey wines that are distinct from mead. The honey wine of Hungary, for example, is the fermentation of honey-sweetened pomace of grapes or other fruits.
History
Mead was possibly discovered among the first humans 20,000–40,000 years ago prior to the advent of both agriculture and ceramic pottery in the Neolithic, due to the prevalence of naturally occurring fermentation and the distribution of eusocial honey-producing insects worldwide; as a result, it is hard to pinpoint the exact historical origin of mead given the possibility of multiple discovery or potential knowledge transfer between early humans prior to recorded history. With the eventual rise of ceramic pottery and increasing use of fermentation in food processing to preserve surplus agricultural crops, evidence of mead begins to show up in the archaeological record more clearly, with pottery vessels from northern China dating from at least 7000 BCE discovered containing chemical signatures consistent with the presence of honey, rice, and organic compounds associated with fermentation.The earliest surviving written record of mead is possibly the soma mentioned in the hymns of the Rigveda, one of the sacred books of the historical Vedic religion and Hinduism dated around 1700–1100 BCE. The Rigveda predates the Indo-Iranian separation, dated to roughly 2000 BCE, so this mention may originate from the Western Steppe or Eastern Europe. The Abri, a northern Illyrian subgroup of the Taulantii, were known to the ancient Greek writers for their technique of preparing mead from honey. During the Golden Age of ancient Greece, mead was said to be the preferred drink. Aristotle discussed mead made in Illiria in his Meteorologica and elsewhere, while Pliny the Elder used the name melitites in his Naturalis Historia for a grape and honey wine. The Hispanic-Roman naturalist Lucius Columella gave a recipe for mead in De re rustica, about 60 CE.
Ancient Greek writer Pytheas described a grain and honey drink similar to mead that he encountered while travelling in Thule. According to James Henry Ramsay this was an earlier version of Welsh metheglin. When 12-year-old Prince Charles II visited Wales in 1642 Welsh metheglin was served at the feast as a symbol of Welsh presence in the emerging British identity in the years between the Union of the Crowns in 1603 and the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.
There is a poem attributed to the Welsh bard Taliesin, who lived around 550 CE, called the Kanu y med or "Song of Mead". The legendary drinking, feasting, and boasting of warriors in the mead hall is echoed in the mead hall Din Eidyn as depicted in the poem Y Gododdin, attributed to the poet Aneirin who would have been a contemporary of Taliesin. In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, the Danish warriors drank mead. In both Insular Celtic and Germanic poetry, mead was the primary drink associated with heroes and deities, see for example the Mead of poetry.
Mead was a popular drink in medieval Ireland. Beekeeping was brought around the 5th century, traditionally attributed to Modomnoc, and mead came with it. A banquet hall on the Hill of Tara was known as Tech Mid Chuarda. Mead was often infused with hazelnuts. Many other legends of saints mention mead, as does that of the Children of Lir.
Later, mead was increasingly displaced by other alcoholic beverages for which the fermentable sugars required were less expensive and more readily available, which combined with taxation and regulations governing the ingredients of alcoholic beverages led to commercial mead becoming a relatively obscure beverage until recently. Some monasteries kept up the traditions of mead-making as a by-product of beekeeping, especially in areas where grapes could not be grown.
Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a renaissance in mead production around the world. According to MeadWorld, there are at least 850 commercial mead producers in the world, as of 2025.
Etymology
The English mead - "fermented honey drink" - derives from the Old English meodu or medu, and Proto-Indo-European language, *médʰu. Its cognates include Old Norse mjǫðr, Proto-Slavic medъ, Middle Dutch mede, and Old High German metu, Sanskrit madhu and the ancient Irish queen Medb, among others. The Chinese word for honey, mì is from the word mit, which was borrowed from the extinct Indo-European Tocharian B - and is also cognate with the English word mead.Fermentation process
Meads often ferment at the same temperatures as wine, and the yeast used in mead making is often identical to that used in wine making.By measuring the specific gravity of the mead before and throughout the fermentation process using a hydrometer or refractometer, mead makers can determine the proportion of alcohol by volume in the final product.
With many different styles of mead, various processes are employed, although most producers use techniques recognizable from wine-making, including racking into another container for a secondary fermentation. Some larger commercial producers allow primary and secondary fermentation in the same vessel. Racking is done for two reasons: it lets the mead sit away from the remains of the yeast cells that have died during the fermentation process and have time to clear. Cloudiness can be caused by yeast, or suspended protein molecules. The pectin from any fruit that is used can also give the mead a cloudy look. The cloudiness can be cleared up by either "cold breaking", leaving the mead in a cold environment overnight, or by using a fining material such as sparkolloid, bentonite, egg white, or isinglass. If the mead-maker wishes to backsweeten the product or prevent it from oxidizing, potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate are added. After the mead clears, it is bottled and distributed.
Primary fermentation usually takes 28 to 56 days, after which the must is placed in a secondary fermentation vessel for 6 to 9 months of aging. Length of primary and secondary fermentation can vary considerably due to numerous factors, such as floral origin of the honey and its natural sugar and microorganism contents, must water percentage, pH, additives used, and strain of yeast, among others. Although supplementation of the must with non-nitrogen based salts, or vitamins has been tested to improve mead qualities, no evidence found thus far suggests that adding micronutrients reduced fermentation time or improved quality. Cell immobilization methods, however, proved effective for enhancing mead quality.
Varieties
Mead can have a wide range of flavors depending on the source of the honey, additives including fruit and spices, the yeast employed during fermentation, and the aging procedure. Some producers have erroneously marketed white wine sweetened and flavored with honey after fermentation as mead, sometimes spelling it "meade." Some producers ferment a blend of honey and other sugars, such as white refined sugar, again, mislabeling the product as mead. This is closer in style to a hypocras. Blended varieties of mead may be known by the style represented; for instance, a mead made with cinnamon and apples may be referred to as either a cinnamon metheglin or an apple cyser.A mead that also contains spices, or herbs, is called a metheglin.
A mead that contains fruit is called a melomel, which was also used as a means of food preservation, keeping summer produce for the winter. A mead that is fermented with grape juice is called a pyment.
Mulled mead is a popular drink at Christmas time, where mead is flavored with spices and warmed, traditionally by having a hot poker plunged into it.
Some meads retain some measure of the sweetness of the original honey, and some may even be considered as dessert wines. Drier meads are also available, and some producers offer sparkling meads.
Historically, meads were fermented with wild yeasts and bacteria residing on the skins of the fruit or within the honey itself. Wild yeasts can produce inconsistent results. Yeast companies have isolated strains of yeast that produce consistently appealing products. Brewers, winemakers, and mead makers commonly use them for fermentation, including yeast strains identified specifically for mead fermentation. These are strains that have been selected because of their characteristic of preserving delicate honey flavors and aromas.
Mead can also be distilled to a brandy or liqueur strength, in which case it is sometimes referred to as a whiskey. A version called "honey jack" can be made by partly freezing a quantity of mead and straining the ice out of the liquid, in the same way that applejack is made from cider.