The seasonal mead, or honey wine, is as close as possible to a drink from Viking tales. It is a soft drink with a sweet taste and a strong honey flavor.
All mead is made from honey. However, many varieties of mead exist. These varieties exist because numerous types of spices are added to mead. At the same time, fruit juice is often fermented alongside the honey and adds a unique flavor. Furthermore, the flavor of honey can change depending on the flowers bees used to make it.
But, as a rule, it contains more alcohol than beer, and is more in line with grape wine – usually from eight to 20 percent ABV. Also, like wine, mead comes in a range of sweetness, from dry on the bone to deliciously sweet, and can be quiet or sparkling. The thought of honey wine can evoke an idea of sweetness, but mead can be prepared in a variety of styles, from dry to semi-sweet to sparkling.
Many Styles of Mead Exist
While the thought of honey wine can evoke the idea of sweetness, mead can be prepared in a variety of styles such as dry, semi-sweet, and sparkling. Although mead is similar to beer, wine, or cider, it is categorized as a beverage by itself, as its main fermentable sugar is honey. Mead made with honey, water, and yeast rather than fruit falls into its own alcoholic beverage category. Mead flavored with various fruits is also not considered a wine.
Historically, mead was fermented with wild yeast and bacteria (as indicated in the recipe above) that were found on the peel of the fruit or in the honey itself. Mead often ferments well at the same temperatures as wine, and the yeast used to make mead is often identical to the yeast used to make wine (especially those used to make white wines). But instead of using the strains of brewer’s yeast commonly used in brewing, mead complements many of the same yeasts used to make champagne and wine. And like wine, mead is left to age relatively longer than beer, on average 2 to 3 years.
The strength of mead varies from 6 to 20%, depending on the fermentation; while wine and beer are usually much lower in strength. The hallmark of mead is that most of the fermentable sugars in beverages come from honey. Mead is considered one of the oldest alcoholic beverages, and evidence of the use of a fermented beverage made from honey, rice and fruits dates back to the 7th millennium BC. in China.
Mead Has an Ancient History
Thanks to a simple recipe made from fermented honey and water, mead was one of the very first alcoholic drinks ever produced before beer and wine, as far back as 3000 BC. Sometimes referred to as the “drink of the gods,” mead has been grown and consumed around the world for thousands of years. Most people know that beer is a centuries-old beverage made from fermented grains and wine is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting fruits, but few have ever heard of mead, often called the “nectar of the gods,” made from fermented honey.
Mead is one of the oldest fermented drinks known to man, before beer and wine. Mead production predates the production of beer and wine and dates back to 8000 years ago. Mead appeared before beer and wine not by hundreds, but by thousands of years.
Mead is not beer, wine, or spirits in the usual sense of the word; it is its alcohol class and it is considered the oldest alcoholic beverage. Mead is often considered more cider-like due to its sweetness, but has elements of beer (due to the addition of grains and hops) as well as wine (due to its higher alcohol content). Nowadays, mead is produced as a sweet or dry wine with a low alcohol content.
Understanding the Unique Position of Mead
Mead is a fermented beverage, also known as delicacy and mead. Mead, also known as mead, is a fermented beverage made mainly of honey, water and yeast. Mead is also called mead in some countries. It is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey, water and various spices, grains, hops and fruits.
Like traditional wines, mead (mead) also comes in many styles and types. The term mead is sometimes used synonymously with mead, although wine is usually defined as the product of fermented berries or other fruits, and mead is different from mead in some cultures.
Rather than strictly using grapes, the mead is mixed with water and honey, and spices added if desired. The honey used determines the overall flavor of the mead and can vary depending on the particular honeybee diet of nectar and pollen. Traditional meads often use soft honey such as orange blossom, clover, or acacia honey, but wildflower, blackberry, and buckwheat honey gives excellent results with a stronger, more spicy honey.
However, some meads can be very sour due to the addition of herbs, spices or fruits. You can find a carbonated mead that is very dry and tastes similar to dry white wine. Some meads retain some of the sweetness of the original honey, and some can even be regarded as dessert wines. Most mead tastes very sweet, with a distinct honey flavor, hence the name mead.
Many Fruits and Spices Are Often Added to Mead
If they want to make mead with fruits or spices, they usually add these ingredients after the honey has been diluted, before fermentation begins. According to Mike Reiss’ Mead Guide for Serious Snacks, mead makers start by diluting the honey with water so it isn’t too thick to ferment with sugar. The mead makers then add yeast for fermentation, as well as mixtures of oxygen and nutrients, because honey and water alone do not contain all the nutrients the yeast needs to convert sugar into alcohol.
Honey and water on their own do not contain all the nutrients the yeast needs to make a good mead, so mead makers add oxygen and powdered nutritional mixes to the liquid to help the yeast multiply and stay happy while it makes its own. What’s this?
Mead is usually gluten-free, depending on what is added during the fermentation process. Depending on the source of the honey, additives including fruits and spices (also called “adjuvants” or “cereals”), and the yeast used in the fermentation and aging process, mead can have a variety of flavors.
You can understand that mead is the most commonly used term for most foods, mainly because it helps distinguish beer (fermented from grains), mead (fermented from honey), and ordinary wine (fermented from fruits). We have even heard terms such as honey, wine, and honey drink, but they are all mead. When people hear that mead is made from honey, they usually think that it is too sweet, but this is not always the case.
Mead is an alcoholic beverage, and most of the sugar used for alcohol fermentation comes from honey. Mead, also known as meteglin, is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of honey and water; sometimes yeast is added to speed up the fermentation. So, to put it simply, mead is an alcoholic beverage formed during the fermentation of honey.
