Each day, we get questions from customers standing at our tasting bar asking about our process, products, or mead in general. Often, it’s the same question someone else has asked. So, we decided to gather some of them together and answer them here.
Topic: General Mead Questions
Question #1 – What’s the difference between mead and wine? What about cider? Is it all wine?
Yes! It’s all wine according to the federal government – same license.
Most people consider wine to be made from grapes. Mead is made from honey and cider is made from apple juice. So, the answer to this question is what are we fermenting? Primarily honey, so it’s mead.
Question #2 – Is it a “red” or a “white”?
The terms red or white usually come from the color of the wine which is produced by the color of the grapes (and whether the skin was in contact with the juice when it was fermented). Because we are using honey, most meads are amber in color just like honey. We do have a few that are purple or pink, but that is usually from the addition of fruit juice.
Question #3 – I thought it was more like beer!
This one isn’t usually a question, but more of an exclamation. Generally, guests expect mead to be more like beer because they’ve seen a movie where someone was drinking mead from a beer mug, stein, or horn where you can’t see into the container. Many session meads (see question 5 below) are carbonated and could look more like a beer (or cider) in a glass. We started making wine-style meads, so most of ours don’t resemble beer.
Question #4 – Is it all sweet? Are they all dessert wines?
Nope! Often people expect all meads to be sweet 1.) because it is made from honey, which is sweet, or 2.) because they had a mead at another time that was sweet. If you ever get a chance to taste a wine grape, say a Chardonay or Cabernet Sauvignon, you will probably be surprised to find out that they are sweet grapes. During fermentation, the yeast converts the sugar from the grape into alcohol. It’s the same with mead. The sugar from the honey turns into alcohol. The mead is dry (without sugar) when it’s finished. To make a sweet mead, we add back raw honey, or fruit juice, to sweeten it up.
Question #5 – What’s the difference between a mead and a session mead?
Generally, what is referred to as a session mead is a lower alcohol, carbonated mead on tap. The base is still made from honey, just with a lower honey to water ratio. We love this lighter style in the summertime, especially when you want something lighter and refreshing.
Next time: Mead Making Process Questions
If you have questions, we are always happy to answer them. Not everyone knows about or understands the difference when we are talking about mead!