What Is Mead, and Is It Good for You?

From healthline.com

Mead is a fermented beverage traditionally made from honey, water and a yeast or bacterial culture.

Sometimes called “the drink of the gods,” mead has been cultivated and consumed across the world for thousands of years.

This article explores mead and its possible benefits and pitfalls.

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What Is Mead?

Mead, or “honey wine,” is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey.

It’s one of the oldest alcoholic beverages ever made, as it was consumed as far back as 4,000 years. Interestingly, mead was common across ancient cultures around the world including those in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Though similar to beer, wine or cider, mead occupies a beverage category on its own since its primary fermentable sugar is honey. 

All you need to make basic mead is honey, water and a yeast or bacterial culture. However, ingredients such as fruits, herbs, spices, grains, roots and flowers are often included as well.

Mead’s alcohol content varies but is typically around 5–20%. Its flavour profile ranges from very sweet to very dry, and it’s available in both sparkling and still versions.

SUMMARY

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey. Its historical significance dates back thousands of years, and it’s available in many styles.

Does Science Support Suggested Health Benefits?

In ancient cultures, mead was associated with good health and vitality. In Greek mythology, it was often referred to as “the drink of the gods” and allegedly given to warriors after a fight to enhance healing of their battle injuries.

Today, many still believe that drinking mead benefits your health and that the drink has healing properties. However, there is limited evidence supporting these claims.

Most modern health claims related to drinking mead are centred around the honey from which the drink is made and the probiotic content it’s presumed to have as a result of the fermentation process.

Therapeutic Benefits of Honey

Honey has been used for its culinary and therapeutic applications for centuries.

Research indicates that honey has strong antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, both of which have driven its use in ancient and modern medicine to treat a variety of physical ailmentsTrusted Source.

Today it’s frequently used as a topical treatment for skin wounds and infections, or consumed orally to soothe a cough or sore throat.

Some claim that because mead is made from honey, it possesses the same medicinal properties. Yet, there is no significant evidence to support this notion.

As of now, it remains unclear if fermented honey has the same therapeutic properties as unfermented honey.

Probiotics and Gut Health

Mead is often heeded as a health-tonic due to its potential probiotic content.

Probiotics are living microorganisms that, when consumed in adequate quantities, can have a positive impact on your immunity and gut health.

Although the understanding of how probiotics support human health is still at an early stage, some research indicates they could help prevent and treat chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, allergies and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.

Unfortunately, there is no research specifically evaluating mead as a source of probiotics or how the drink may affect your health.

Additionally, the probiotic content of different types of mead could vary significantly. The fermentation process plus the other ingredients included in the beverage could affect the concentration of beneficial bacteria in the final drink.

What’s more, the alcohol content of mead may counteract any possible benefits, as excessive alcohol consumption is associated with negative changes in your gut bacteria.

Until more research is available, it cannot be confirmed that drinking mead offers any health benefits by way of its probiotic content.

SUMMARY

Mead is often touted for promoting health because of the honey it’s made from and its potential probiotic content. Currently, no research supports these notions.

Potential Downsides of Drinking Too Much

Though frequently praised for its health benefits, drinking mead could have negative health consequences that may be worth considering before you start filling your glass.

Alcohol Content

The alcohol content of mead ranges from about 5% to 20%. For comparison, regular grape wine has a typical alcohol content of about 12–14%.

Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to serious health risks including liver disease, systemic inflammation and impaired digestive and immune system function.

The American Dietary Guidelines recommend limiting your alcohol intake to one serving per day for women and two for men. One serving equals about five fluid ounces (148 ml) of mead with 12% alcohol by volume (ABV).

Given the relatively high alcohol content of mead, it could be easy to go overboard, especially if you’re drinking it under the assumption that it’s good for your health.

Mead should be treated like any other alcoholic beverage. It’s good to exercise moderation and limit your intake if you plan to drink it.

Allergic Reactions

For most people, mead is generally well tolerated in moderation.

Mead is typically gluten-free, depending on what is added during the fermentation process. Thus, if you have a gluten allergy, double check the mead you plan to drink to ensure no gluten-containing ingredients were included in the brew.

Mead may potentially cause serious allergic reactions in some people, especially those with honey and alcohol allergies or intolerances.

Though rare, there have been reports of honey leading to anaphylactic reactions. If you’ve ever had a serious allergic reaction to honey or bee pollen, it may be a good idea to avoid drinking mead.

Additionally, if you’ve ever been diagnosed with an alcohol intolerance or allergy, you should not drink mead as its alcohol content could trigger symptoms.

Calorie Content

Mead is a high-calorie beverage, thus, overconsumption could negatively impact your health.

Drinking too much of any alcoholic beverage, including mead, can increase your blood triglycerides, blood pressure and your risk of obesity and diabetes.

While there isn’t much information available on the precise nutritional content of mead, pure alcohol alone provides 7 calories per gram.

One serving of any alcoholic beverage contains about 14 grams of alcohol, equalling at least 100 calories. This doesn’t take into account any of the calories from, for example, the sugar in the mead.

SUMMARY

Excessive consumption of alcohol and calories from mead could lead to serious health problems. For sensitive individuals, there’s also a risk of allergic reactions from the honey or alcohol in the drink.

The Bottom Line

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey.

Due to its honey and potential probiotic content, it’s touted as offering various health benefits, but scientific evidence to back up these claims is lacking.

Additionally, its alcohol content may negate benefits and, in fact, cause health issues.

As with any other alcoholic beverage, practice moderation and enjoy it responsibly.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mead

Sip on Christmas Apple Pie in a bottle with Moonshine Meadery's special addition for the holiday season

From indulgexpress.com

This mead is made by aging their flagship Apple Mead and typical Christmas spices - cinnamon, nutmeg and clove

The month of December brings with it the perfect mix of great chilly weather, good vibes and Yuletide cheer. And with Christmas right around the corner, Pune-based Moonshine Meadery is bringing back its much-loved seasonal MeadLAB - the Christmas Apple Pie mead. It embodies your favourite Christmas apple pie - in a bottle!

Moonshine Meadery first released the Christmas Apple Pie mead back when it was established in 2018 as part of its MeadLab series, which are small batch seasonal meads. This mead is made by aging their flagship Apple Mead (made using multi-floral honey and Kashmiri apples) and typical Christmas spices - cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.

Sharing their thoughts behind the creation of the Christmas Apple Pie mead, Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas, Co-founders of Moonshine Meadery, said, “Christmas calls for a merry celebration with family and friends. However, it is incomplete without cinnamon-laden desserts, rum cake and apple pie. Taking this a step further, we envisioned creating a mead that tastes like a traditional apple pie but poured into a glass! And thus, the Christmas Apple Pie mead was born.” They added, “At Moonshine, we are constantly experimenting with ingredients to make meads that cater to everyone's palates and push the envelope to how this versatile drink is consumed. The Christmas Apple Pie mead was a result of this.”

Interesting enough, each label is designed by a different artist, and continuing in this tradition the label for the Christmas Apple Pie Mead is designed by Ajay Shah Design Studio (ASDS). With signature Christmas colours of red and green dominating the label, Moonshine’s circular white logo has been incorporated as the head of a snowman, perfectly embodying the Christmas spirit. 

https://www.indulgexpress.com/food/food-bengaluru/2022/dec/09/sip-on-christmas-apple-pie-in-a-bottle-with-moonshine-meaderys-special-additionfor-the-holiday-sea-46022.html

Craft meadery hits the spot for New Zealand man who bet the farm on the venture

From stuff.co.nz

Mead-maker Jay Bennett literally sold the farm to pursue his passion for mead, but the Taupō-based brewer has hit the sweet spot with multiple awards rolling in for his work.

While a relationship breakup may have forced his hand and Covid-19 lockdowns put the brakes on commercial success, Bennett’s Beehave! Craft Meadery has finally opened its doors to the public.

Owner, operator, bee-keeper and brewer, Bennett, a former rafting guide, moved into town two years ago after selling the small farm he lived on at the southern end of Lake Taupō since the mid-1980s.

Since then, he's been brewing mead commercially from his bee-hive base on Spa Rd and has a small team of two part-timers and one full-timer to help carry the load.

He said while the mead scene in New Zealand was still in its infancy, he felt like he was at the leading edge.

"You'll find a lot of people have tried mead, but not got a lot out of it. A lot of them are really sweet.

"But wherever we go now we get great feedback, we have about an 85% hit rate from tasting to buying.

"I think people are quite surprised by how good it tastes."

Mead is the oldest fermented alcohol product on Earth, with its origins going back 12,000 years when pre-agricultural people used to intentionally flood wild beehives and drink the sweet honey-flavoured water.

SUPPLIED/WAIKATO TIMES

Beehave! Meadery owner Jay Bennett, right, and his front of house star Ngahuia Tahau

Bennett said just like his mead-making, he fell into beekeeping by accident after discovering and removing a beehive on his property.

Years later, after running up to 200 hives, he decided beekeeping was a lot of hard work for little return and turned to mead as another way to use the end product.

"The bees led me to drink,” he said.

"I'm not beekeeping any more, but I'm still using my own honey, and how long that will last will depend on how busy we get, but come April next year I'll be looking for other supplies.

"We want to use the best ingredients we can find, because it really makes a difference.

"Everything has to be fresh, otherwise it effects the end product.”

Bennett has sourced many of his ingredients – including limes, lemons, berries, hops and chillis – from friends, and blends them with specific honeys to make his range of meads.

                                                                    SUPPLIED/WAIKATO TIMES

Bennett Bennett uses his skills as a beekeeper to create his award-winning meads.

“My whole task is looking at the flavour I want to create and working back from there to the honey and the yeast – and different honeys make all the difference in flavour.”

He said his hopped mead was designed to attract beer drinkers and had been hugely successful.

At the 2022 New Zealand Fruit Wine & Cider Awards, Bennett’s entries all won gold or silver awards and his Fever Dream chocolate and chilli mead won the best overall mead award.

“I’m all self-taught, and it’s trial and error, my first mead was a feijoa mead, but I had no idea about yeast control and it came out at 18%.”

A brew can take anywhere from weeks to months, depending on what strength and carbonation was required – from non-alcoholic to around 12% ABV.

Everything, from warming the honey, fermenting, filtering, pressing, carbonating, bottling and the packaging is done in-house.

After going into commercial production right on lock down in March 2020, Bennett is keen to get out to promote his products – he said getting in front of people at events was key to his success.

“It’s one of those things, you don’t know how good it is until you’ve tried it.”

Bennett said, like in the craft beer industry, there were a lot of mead brewers keen to help out.

“It seems mead making is not as easy at it looks, but the more good mead that’s out there makes it easier for all of us.

“Now all we need is for people to get on board and start consuming the product.

“Come in and try what you have been missing out on, most people are pleasantly surprised – I sold the farm to do what I’m doing – literally.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-drink/300741291/craft-meadery-hits-the-spot-for-taup-man-who-bet-the-farm-on-the-venture 

All You Need To Know About Mead: The World's Oldest Alcoholic Beverage

From food.ndtv.com

By Priyaja Bakshi

This special beverage is made from just three ingredients and it is the magic of these simple ingredients that make it. 

Have you ever heard of mead? If your answer is no then you and I are in the same boat! Only recently did I discover that an alcoholic beverage with this name existed as I was invited for a mead tasting at Perch Wine & Coffee Bar. Little did I know that this exciting beverage has a lot to offer. Mead may just be as old as ancient history! This special beverage is made from just three ingredients, and it is the magic of these simple ingredients that make it.

Honey and water are fermented carefully to gain this light and bubbly drink. Mead is often difficult to categorise as an alcoholic beverage. Also known as honey wine, it is produced in wineries but many bars and pubs choose to put it under the craft beer category. People confuse it with beer and wine, but it is considered neither and is an alcoholic beverage of its own standing!

As someone who has never tried mead, I was particularly excited to try it out for the first time! The only time I had heard of mead before this was in association with Vikings and how they drank this special drink. No Label invited me to try out mead and when I was served the chilled bottle, I couldn't help but see the resemblance with beer. However, when I had a sip of this bubbly drink I was reminded of the light and fruity flavour of white wine. It didn't have the strong malty flavour of the beer and was easy on the throat. I enjoyed drinking it and was surprised by how well it went with cheeses.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed trying mead and would think of making it my go-to beverage for chilling with friends.

https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/all-you-need-to-know-about-mead-the-worlds-oldest-alcoholic-beverage-3517442

What Is Mead? A Guide to the World’s Oldest Alcoholic Beverage

From winemag.com

When Austin Corrigan was in a severe car accident seven years ago, he started making alcohol.

“I had a lot of downtime and started experimenting with fermentation,” he says. Corrigan went on to start High Seas Mead in 2020 in Santa Barbara, California.

Although mead may seem like a newcomer to the alcohol scene, it has ancient roots and even predates wine. In ancient times, it was said to provide immortality. Sure, these days we know that drinking mead won’t help you live forever, but the longevity of the beverage’s popularity is undeniable.

A Short History of Mead

“Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man and has been around as long as honeybees have been making honey,” says Jeri Carter, owner of Queen’s Reward Meadery in Tupelo, Mississippi. 

Carter suggests that mead was making itself before people got involved: In nature, it doesn’t need humans to ferment. When bees abandon a hive, the sun’s heat slowly melts the wax, sealing the ingredients inside. Rainwater and yeast complete the necessary trifecta to produce mead.

“Scientists have found traces of mead in archaeological digs on every inhabited continent on the globe,” adds Carter.

The oldest known evidence of mead was discovered in the Henan Province of Northern China and is estimated to be around 9000 years old. Mead also appears in Norse mythology and was a staple in Scandinavia during the Viking Age (775 A.D.E.–1050). Referred to as the “nectar of the gods” by the ancient Greeks, it also gained popularity during the Middle Ages (476 A.D.E.–1300) when it was abundantly produced throughout Europe.

“It seemed a lot of households were making their own mead at home,” says Roo Kline, who has been making small-batch mead since 2018 and founded Ravenwood Meadery in 2021 in Huntsville, Alabama. She also notes that people in the Middle Ages incorporated ingredients in their mead ranging from buttered toast to raw eggs.

These days, people associate mead with Renaissance fairs and Vikings. However, Kline—who wrote Wellcome Mead, which features over 100 mead recipes from the 17th and 18th centuries—also attributes mead’s rise in popularity to HBO’s Game of Thrones, which featured the drink prominently.

What Is Mead?

“Sunlight shines, plants and trees create nectar in flowers, bees collect that nectar and transform it into honey,” says Eric Bossick, the founder and mead maker at Wicked Way Mead in Tokyo. From there, three ingredients are needed.

“Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of honey, water and yeast,” adds John Talkington, owner of Brimming Horn Meadery in Milton, Delaware. You’ll notice, too, what’s not in mead: Any grains.

“Mead is an amazing alternative alcoholic beverage choice that is gluten-free,” says Corrigan.

Concerning the alcohol content, there’s also a range to suit your tastes. Kline says that the alcohol by volume (ABV) can range from 6% up to 20%, but on average, mead’s ABV is 12% to 16%.

How Is Mead Made?

Beyond sometimes naturally occurring in nature—and good luck on stumbling upon some accidental mead! —humans have refined conventional methods of producing it.

A traditional mead is made simply with honey and water. While unfiltered, raw honey contains natural yeasts and can therefore start fermentation on their own, this isn’t most producers’ preferred route.

“Although this can be both interesting and fun, it can give unpredictable results,” says Kline. Uniformity is vital when selling mead, he notes. Instead, today’s makers add commercial yeast to the honey.

What Does Mead Taste Like?

The addition of honey doesn’t always equal an overly sweet drink. Talkington stresses that mead, which can be sparkling or still, ranges in flavour from extremely dry to dessert sweet. “Mead has many variations in recipe and styles,” notes Bossick.

Makers can also include additional ingredients—spices, flowers, bark, roots, fruits or vegetables—to enhance the colour and flavour of their brews. These extras are usually added before the batch starts to ferment and are typically removed after steeping for two weeks.

These additives can also increase production time, which means it’ll take much longer before the mead is ready for consumption.

“Think of it as a stew that tastes so much better after sitting for a few days to let the flavours meld and develop,” explains Kline. She lets these meads age for about a year before they are ready for bottling.

Great Meads to Look For

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAXWELL WINES

Maxwell Wines (McLaren Vale, South Australia)

If there’s one person who knows mead well, it’s Mark Maxwell, owner of Maxwell Wines in South Australia. He’s been making mead since 1966. Ken Maxwell, his father, had a passion for reading about history and first introduced the younger Maxwell to the beverage.

“My father started experimenting with different honeys and yeasts until he perfected the recipe,” says Maxwell, who opened his business in 1979. Although he also makes wine, Maxwell is delighted to see that mead is experiencing a resurgence in popularity, particularly in Australia.

Maxwell Wines offers an original Honey Mead, a Spiced Mead and Liqueur Mead.

PHOTO COURTESY OF QUEENS REWARD

Queen’s Reward Meadery (Tupelo, Mississippi)

Before Carter’s meadery career, the owner of Queen’s Reward Meadery was a teacher. “I was teaching kindergarten and first grade, so I started making alcohol at home,” she recalls.

Carter first experimented with wine kits and switched to mead in 2012 when she stumbled on a recipe. “Mississippi may not have great wine grapes, but we have fabulous honey, and that is where our journey into mead-making began,” says Carter, who sources all her honey from within the state of Mississippi.

Queen’s Reward Meadery opened in 2018. It crafts traditional meads and options like Chocolate Covered Cherry and Honey Habanero.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WICKED WAY MEAD

Wicked Way Mead (Tokyo, Japan)

Eric Bossick’s love for mead began when he helped his grandfather keep bees. He later stumbled upon the drink when he travelled to the Czech Republic, but the beverage wasn’t available in Japan, where he lived.

“I returned to Japan and longed for the romance of mead,” says Bossick. He started experimenting with mead production in 2010 and opened Wicked Way Mead in 2018.

Bossick also relies on local suppliers and purchases his honey directly from the beekeepers. Wicked Way currently only ships in Japan, but we recommend dropping in if you’re in the neighbourhood.

                                                                                              PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIMMING HORN MEADERY

Brimming Horn Meadery (Milton, Delaware)

Talkington began experimenting with producing alcohol at home in 1996—when he was underage and still in high school. Legality aside, Talkington saw mead as a window into world history. “I became interested in making mead from reading books about ancient cultures,” he says.

In addition to enjoying the drink’s deep history and lore, he also appreciates the beverage for its flavor, complexity and versatility. “It can be anything you want it to be,” says Talkington. He continued experimenting with making mead and opened Brimming Horn Meadery in 2017.

Today, Brimming Horn Meadery sells over 15 varieties of mead, including Golden Tears, which won a gold medal in the 2020 Mazer Cup International Mead Competition.

Inspired to dive into the world of mead? With selections like these, you’ll never be bored.

https://www.winemag.com/2022/10/24/what-is-mead/ 

Gosnells opens mead bar in Bermondsey, London

From beertoday.co.uk

Gosnells, London’s only meadery, has opened a mead bar in a railway arch in Bermondsey, with capacity for more than 100 drinkers and outdoor space, too.

The bar’s draught selection is led by its new dry Wildflower Mead (4% ABV), which is drawn from the nectar of 45 species of flowers, bushes, and trees. It is gluten free and sparkling, with no added sulphites, made from a brew using 100% honey and with no added sugar.

“So many people are popping by to see what it’s all about, and we are excited to be able to offer them such a wide range of flavours, from 0% to 12% ABV,” said Tom Gosnell.

“The bar will provide a thought-provoking showcase and hopefully encourage guests to sample one of head brewer Will Grubelnik’s iterations of the world’s oldest alcoholic drink, mead. Our meads are based on just honey and water, fermented to show the brilliance of the honeybee and its flowers.”

He added: “The new bar has opened just in time for the London Marathon on Sunday, 2nd October. The race passes through Bermondsey, so what better way for guests to re-invigorate all the senses than by visiting the Bermondsey Mead Mile, surrounded by a cornucopia of amazing brewers.”

The mead bar will serve seven other meads on tap, including Raspberry Wildflower (5.4% ABV), Sweet Cherry (8% ABV) and a cloudy Mojito Mead at 5.5% ABV. There be 75cl bottles of Gosnells 5.5% ABV Classic and of Gosnells 12% ABV vintages, dating back to 2019. A range of 4% ABV canned meads, including Sour, Pink Hibiscus, and Hopped, will also be available.

Gosnells Wildflower Mead is already available in Portobello pubs in London, Laines pubs, Brewdog pubs, and independents.  It is also in 440ml cans.

https://beertoday.co.uk/2022/09/30/gosnells-mead-bar-0922/

 

A surprising Cork-made tipple is Ireland’s new ‘Drink of the Year’

From yaycork.ie

It’s the world’s oldest alcoholic drink.

And if you haven’t tried it, now is a good time to give mead, a tasty little honey-based tipple, a chance.

The couple behind Kinsale Mead Co. are celebrating this week after their world-class mead scooped Drink of the Year at the Irish Made Awards.

Kate and Denis Dempsey of Kinsale Mead Co. said they are “thrilled and humbled” to have won the prestigious gong, after honing their mead-making craft for the past five years.

Working from authentic recipes and using pure raw honey and carefully selected berries, the pair produce a selection of tasty varieties of mead, which are delicious solo or blended into cocktails.

“There’s a certain pressure being Ireland’s first meadery in 200 years to re-create and re-imagine this wonderful honey drink from our Celtic past,” says Kate Dempsey who was in Dublin to pick up the coveted award.

“It’s been a roller coaster ride so it’s a lovely boost to get this kind of recognition for the care and hard work we put in to make world-class Meads in our family-run meadery in Kinsale.”

Brid O’Connell, CEO of Guaranteed Irish said the win “is a celebration of our Irish heritage and craft.”

https://www.yaycork.ie/a-surprising-cork-made-tipple-is-irelands-new-drink-of-the-year/ 

First meadery in Dallas-Fort Worth brews a crisp gluten-free drink

From dallas.culturemap.com

Mead is an ancient drink, but there's a brand-new maker in north Texas: Breaking Brew Meadery recently opened in Farmers Branch, at 14438 Midway Rd., where it reigns as the first and only meadery in North Texas.

Most of Texas' other mead-makers are in Central Texas and other areas, but Breaking Brew is here in the DFW, in the Midway Center in northeast Farmers Branch, where it sells mead as a tipsy alternative to beer, cider, and wine.

Mead is fermented from honey, and this makes it gluten-free, which draws in the gluten-free crowd. It's a drink with a smooth, clean taste, and comes in several different styles, similar to beer and cider.

For now, Breaking Brew Meadery is selling session meads, which are lightly carbonated and served cold, by the glass.

In the near future, they'll expand their product offering to serve traditional meads and offer take-home options by growler, can, and bottle. Their meads are currently available in their taproom only, but they have plans to start supplying kegs outside the taproom in 2019.

Breaking Brew VP Gary Gordon says that mead definitely merits an upswing as a drink for everyone, and not just Vikings and lasses who wear dresses with tight-fitting bodices.

"Our meads are easy to drink, they have no GMO, and are gluten-free," Gordon says.

He also says they believe that promoting the use of honey will increase the number of apiaries, which in turn will help increase the bee population. The only problem is that the bees are working for you and you're taking their honey, so it's not such a great proposition for the bees.

But let's not dwell on the bees. There's mead to drink, and the good news is that Breaking Brew Meadery is open weekends: 4-9 pm Friday, 1-9 pm Saturday, and 1-6 pm Sunday.

https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/12-07-18-farmers-branch-breaking-brew-meadery/