How is Mead Made?

By Jereme Zimmerman
Updated on July 18, 2024
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by Adobestock/isavira
Unlike beer, wine, or cider, mead is an alcoholic drink brewed with honey.

How is mead made? Enjoy an in-depth look at the components and creation of this versatile, honey-based beverage — a hearty addition to any homebrewing arsenal.

How is Mead Made?

When people ask me what mead is, I usually respond with something along the lines of, “Well, it’s not beer, it’s not wine, and it’s not cider. It’s mead!” Admittedly, that’s not a very helpful answer. But as mead earns recognition as a new contender in the craft beverage market, it’s important that it be accepted as its own entity. Mead can have similarities to all of the above beverages, depending on how it’s made, but the thing that sets it apart is its honey base.

To produce alcohol, brewers follow a simple equation: sugar plus water plus yeast plus time. Making mead involves many more subtleties, but it all comes down to blending a sugar source with water, adding yeast, and allowing time for fermentation. Beer gets its sugar and flavor profile primarily from malted grains; cider from apples; wine from grapes and other fruits and vegetables (usually with sugar added); and mead from honey. Historically, the lines were much more blurred than this; ancient peoples would often combine whatever kinds of sugars and botanicals they could find to make “grog.” In modern times, commercial alcohol producers must follow strict rules about the primary fermentable sugar and flavoring ingredients, and are required to name the resulting products appropriately.

Homebrewers can flavor mead with a wide range of ingredients. Each ingredient added will give the finished product a different name per homebrewing competitions, commercial sales, and mead nerds. The list is rather long, but these are the main contenders:

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