It can be sweet or dry with less alcohol than a beer or enough alcohol that Odin himself would get the ol’ knee-wobbles. Mead can taste like a barley wine, cider, pinot grigio, or an entire honey-comb in your face. It is both ancient and timeless and only as fancy as you want it to be. But, what the hell is it, exactly?
Mead is honey, water, yeast, and a healthy dose of patience. That’s it. Grapes make wine, grain makes beer, apples make cider, and honey makes mead. Now you know. Sure, there’s other stuff you can throw in like yeast nutrient or some raspberries or a stabilizing agent. But, at the end of the day: Honey + Yeast + Water = Mead.
So, you can now be the pompous ass correcting everyone who calls their beverage “Mead Wine,” “Honey Beer,” “Honey Wine,” or whatever else people can come up with. (Also, while you’re at it, could you do our friends over at the Vermont Hard Cider Company a favor and correct everyone who calls their fine beverages “Cider Beer.” Don’t know if it’s getting on their nerves, but it’s sure getting on ours.)