Mead, or the “nectar of the gods,” because the Historic Greeks used to name it, has seen an enormous rise in reputation over the previous couple of years. Simply check out the beer and wine aisles of your native hypermarket and also you’ll discover the ever-growing mead part. However is it a beer or a wine?
Properly, neither, actually. Mead is a sort of drink that stands all by itself. As the marketplace for craft beers has grown, so too has the artisanal mead sector. Latest experiences from the American Mead Makers Affiliation (AMMA) counsel, on common, a brand new meadery opens within the U.S. each 3 days.
How is mead completely different from beer? What precisely is mead, and the way is it produced? Is it simply the fermentation course of that’s completely different from beer and wine?
A Temporary Historical past of Mead
To grasp what mead is and the complexity of its many flavors, we have to shortly have a look at how this heavenly, some would say, drink originated.
Acknowledged to be the oldest alcoholic beverage in historical past, mead predates each beer and wine by a number of thousand years. Mead is commonly referenced within the historic cultures of China, Egypt, India, and Greece; there’s even documentary proof of fermented honey alcoholic drinks being drunk in India some 4,000 years in the past.
Going again even additional, pottery vessels present in Northern China containing traces of early mead compounds had been dated from round 7000 to 6500 BC. Literature, and extra just lately, interval motion pictures and dramas are affected by references to mead, with the hit HBO sequence “Sport of Thrones” partially credited with the resurgence of mead’s reputation.
However that’s sufficient of the historical past lesson! We’re right here to find what mead tastes like and the primary variations from beer.
In case you are nonetheless curious to know extra about this historic drink, the Encyclopedia Brittanica is an efficient place to begin.
What’s Mead?
Typically referred to as “honey wine”, whenever you first encounter mead, it could really feel loads like wine, but it surely additionally has many flavors attribute of craft beer. Style a very good mead and it actually gained’t be your final encounter with this heavenly drink.
At its most simple, mead is a mix of honey with water and yeast. Diluted honey is commonly added to the brewing vessel earlier than yeast is launched together with oxygen to feed the yeast. Different aromatics like hops, grains, fruits, or spices can be added to create extra complicated flavors.
The including of hops or fruit nonetheless doesn’t make mead a wine or a beer; the variations go a lot deeper.
What Are The Key Variations Between Mead vs Beer?
For an ale, a brewer will historically use a top-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, which gives a fruity and fragrant taste. India Pale Ales, stouts, goses, and wheat beers all function good examples of fragrant beers usually brewed at hotter temperatures.
By comparability, lagers have a crisp taste and cleaner style whereas brewed at decrease temperatures with apastorianus yeast, which settles on the backside of the brewing vessel when fermenting.
The principle distinction within the manufacturing of meads is the elements used. Whereas a session mead will use simply honey and water with yeast for the fermentation, there are additionally meads that throw in some fruit and are referred to as “melomels.” Meads may also use extra of a wine kind of yeast, somewhat than ale yeast.
Mead makers have been recognized to toss in all types of fruits, together with apples, berries, pineapples, cherries, and lots of extra, to offer an array of flavors. Including hops and spices may give extra complicated flavors to a easy mead.
Mead vs Beer — How are They Brewed?
The principle distinction between mead and beer manufacturing is the brewing course of.
Beer brewing typically includes 4 phases: malting the cereal grains, mashing, boiling, and at last fermenting. Mead makes use of a a lot much less complicated brewing course of with simply two phases, the thinning, or diluting, of the honey with water, then ending with fermentation. Most mead brewers are inclined to skip this stage as they imagine boiling the uncooked honey could have an effect on the batch’s efficiency.
Though each beer and mead are created from the ultimate fermentation of sugars, that’s about the place the similarities finish. Whereas mead simply wants a easy combination of yeast, water, and honey, beer requires a fancy balancing act of starch, hops, and grains to get that good beer style.
As a rule of thumb, the supply of the fermentable sugars will decide whether or not a drink is a mead or one other class of alcoholic beverage. Despite the fact that some wines or beers could use honey as an ingredient, the first supply of fermentable sugars will come from fruit or grain, respectively.
To be categorized as a mead, the fermentable sugar profile has to come back primarily from the honey.
Mead vs Beer — How Lengthy Ought to They Be Left to Age?
Like all high-quality issues in life, the most effective mead involves those that can wait. Beers are supposed to be drunk in shorter intervals, because the fermentation course of is way faster in comparison with mead.
Specialists suggest storing mead in a darkish, cool cellar the place you may management the humidity. Go away it so long as attainable when you may — ideally for a number of months (although, it by no means lasts fairly that lengthy in my family!) — because the flavors of the fundamental honey will intensify over a time frame. It is best to all the time attempt to management some other unusual odors within the room as it could spoil the flavour profile of the mead.
Historically, beers are greatest saved in a fridge, which will increase the style and in addition creates a client demand for extra, particularly these ice-cold lagers on a midsummer day.
Mead vs Beer — The Style
In the event you’ve by no means tried mead earlier than, you’re in for a deal with. Usually referred to as the “Drink of Monarchs,” mead can style like an opulent wine with as many numerous flavors as specialty beer.
Mead Flavors
Fruit juices and spices are added to many meads for a extra fruity taste, with one in all my favorites being an apple and cinnamon mixture for a ensuing mead with the style of a crisp cider. I’m unsure in regards to the horseradish mead, which many individuals declare was fashionable prior to now.
I’m simply not that courageous but. Are you?
Three of the extra widespread varieties of meads you’ll come throughout on the native bar menu or in a retailer are:
- Melomel: A fruity mead utilizing elements similar to strawberries, blueberries, or melon, to call however a number of.
- Pyment: A extra conventional, wine-tasting mead utilizing honey and grape juice or unfermented wine.
- Cyser: An apple juice or cider mixed with fermented honey mead.
In case you are new to the world of mead, it’s all the time a good suggestion to begin with spice or fruit taste mixtures, which you could be extra accustomed to (neglect the horseradish for now).
Beer Flavors
The place do you even begin? It typically looks as if there are extra beer types than there are stars within the sky. Typically they fall into one in all two classes: lagers and ales, however you may then additional cut up these into roughly one other 80 distinctive types of beer.
The magical combination of malt, hops, and yeast employed by beer breweries is accountable for a beer’s attribute flavors. Frequent beer varieties embody:
- Pilsner, Wheat Ales, and Blonde or Amber Lagers: Crisp and made with mild malt and hops, these will often have a fruity or spicy taste.
- Indian pale Ale, Pale ales, Summer season Ales, Saison beers: Intense, hoppy taste derived from the big quantity of hops added throughout the brewing course of.
- Scottish ales, Darkish lagers, and Barleywine: Extraordinarily malty beers depending on the grain used within the mash. Acquainted flavors embody a nutty style or a touch of toffee/caramel.
- Porters, Stouts or Brown ales: These darker beers are a results of the grains being roasted at larger temperatures, giving an virtually burnt style.
To chop to the lengthy and wanting it, whereas mead will style extra like a fruity wine, beer could have a extra malty style.
Mead vs Beer — The Alcohol By Quantity
The ultimate, and by far greatest, distinction between mead and beer is the alcohol content material of every drink.
Most beers within the US will settle across the 5 – 6% alcohol by quantity (ABV) vary, though some New York artisanal beers can typically go as excessive as 10 -12 % ABV.
Mead has a a lot wider ABV vary with completely different varieties starting from as little as 3% and infrequently rising to twenty% ABV. The alcoholic energy may additional categorize mead:
- Hydromel mead: The next dilution of water to honey ends in the bottom alcohol content material. Usually referred to as a “session” mead, these will generally be within the vary of three – 8% ABV and is usually a excellent spot to begin in case you are new to the world of mead.
- Conventional mead: In any other case referred to as commonplace mead, this may usually fall into the 7 – 14% ABV vary. A conventional mixture of honey and water with wine or Champagne yeast ends in an easy-to-drink, however potent, wine-style drink.
- Sack mead: These stronger meads could have a extra pronounced honey taste with larger ranges of fermentable sugars leading to a better ABV, typically as excessive as 20%. Including additional fruits may also add to the sugars which breakdown into alcohol.
Mead vs Beer — The Takeaway
Have you ever dipped into the world of mead? With such a various vary of flavors, there’s certain to be one you want. From the carbonated Champagne-like “honey wines” (it’s not a wine, bear in mind) to the nonetheless apple-flavored cider-style meads, why not crack open a bottle at your subsequent gathering?
And tell us if in case you have a favourite mead! Considered one of my favourite craft meaderies is the Heiderun Meadery, particularly their California Orange Blossom. It’s principally springtime in a bottle.
Even higher nonetheless is making an attempt your hand at dwelling brewing some mead. It solely wants good honey, water, and wine yeast — what might be easier?
If you wish to give it a shot, we have now a easy information to creating mead right here.
