Why Isn't Mead More Commercial?
Here in Oregon we seem to find a lot of honeywine. Mead should be a sparkling beverage and for some reason is taxed differently here than wine so the meaderies make mostly honeywine to sty in check with wine tax.
btcanon wrote:
Here in Oregon we seem to find a lot of honeywine. Mead should be a sparkling beverage and for some reason is taxed differently here than wine so the meaderies make mostly honeywine to sty in check with wine tax.
Mead may be still, petillant, or sparkling. Still meads do not have to be totally flat; they can have some very light bubbles. Petillant meads are "lightly sparkling" and can have a moderate, noticeable amount of carbonation. Sparkling meads are not gushing, but may have a character ranging from mouth-filling to an impression akin to Champagne or soda pop.
Wild
I just want to reply to geraghty19. I'm Irish and living in Ireland and can say there is only one mead in production in Ireland today and that's Bunratty mead which is not widely available. I've tried without success to find it in off licenses. I've only seen it in Bunratty castle which is beside where it's made.
Apart from that one mead you can't get any commercial mead in Ireland at all. And believe me I've tried. Even in very good well stocked off licences they usually don't even know what mead is. Just in case any people reading this are thinking great I'll go to Ireland as they have loads of mead there, I just wanted to let you know that isn't the case.
bog_myrtle wrote:
I just want to reply to geraghty19. I'm Irish and living in Ireland and can say there is only one mead in production in Ireland today and that's Bunratty mead which is not widely available. I've tried without success to find it in off licenses. I've only seen it in Bunratty castle which is beside where it's made.
Apart from that one mead you can't get any commercial mead in Ireland at all. And believe me I've tried. Even in very good well stocked off licences they usually don't even know what mead is. Just in case any people reading this are thinking great I'll go to Ireland as they have loads of mead there, I just wanted to let you know that isn't the case.
I've bought Bunratty mead at the liquor store in the next town over (I live in Massachusetts, USA). I only recognized the bottle because I've done the medieval banquet at Bunratty Castle and bought a bottle in the shop. There's only one other mead I can get at local stores and its from California. I think it was Chaucer's. It was horrible - way to sweet and undrinkable. I was at a huge liquor store a couple of weeks ago and meant to look to see if they stocked more kinds of mead but forgot to look.
Ok, first of all most of your production mead's are not very good. I am talking about the large producers that you usually find in the liquor stores.
check out this site
http://www.meadfest.com
Check under the competition winners tab and you can find many names of meaderies that competed this past April 2009. Some sell over the internet and can ship to you depending on local laws.
My experience is with Celestial Meads in Anchorage Alaska which makes tremendous meads but has stopped shipping do to the fact he couldn't keep up. Has a day job as well.
Your best bet is to find a local meadery and purchase there.
Best of luck
I would guess that the main reason Meads aren't more common commercially is because it's more expensive to make. Honey is not cheap. It would probably take someone raising their own bees on a scale larges enough to produce enough honey to make enough quality honey to sell commercially. With all the wines and liquors and beers on the market today Mead would be passed up by most people because of cost. The commercial meads I did try I did not like at all. I've made mead in the past and it is very very good but it took 15 pounds of honey to priduce 5 gallons of mead and it was not cheap and I would imagine it would be the same situation to try to produce it on a large scale.
That said I bought a book off of ebay that is exclusivly for making mead and I will be making small batches to start and when I get one I really really like i will be making a 5 gallon batch.
DC
Geraghty 19, eeeeeek!!! get your historical facts right. The High Kings of Ireland were Irish, not British. Ireland has four provinces, Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht. Once upon a time each of these had a King with numerous lesser kings beneath them. The High King was King of the whole of Ireland with supremacy over all the other kings. And you with an Irish surname......tut, tut!
As most have stated the cost of Honey and that alot of commercial meads do not taste all so good mainly because they use a low honey to water ratio with a yeast with a high ABV making for a very Dry mead...which they use chemicals with that will stop a meads complex flavors from matureing once added.....A mead made with no chemicals and no dried fruits with Sulfur added to them to keep there color, will have a ever changing taste to it as it ages...this taste could keep changing for decades....Also keep in mind the yeast used in commercial meads is normally what they used with there wine at hand...Each yeast can change the flavor of your mead as can every type of honey used or mixed types of honey....To date I have made Wormwood Mead with Absinth Adgredients added to it and herbs from the queens mead from 1600's to soften the bitter taste of it...to Chipotle Mead that first burned like hot sauce then mellowed to the most interesting mead I have tasted with a distinctive two flavors to it...To sweet meads and dry meads and Sack meads....with varies types of honeys. I normally stick to one type of yeast which tops out at 17 to 20% ABV because of its variations in tempeture that it handles....I live in a desert so needed a yeast that would not die of if it got to be 95 F inside during the day or drop to a 60 f or lower at night and stop from being to cold then.....anothe factor in making mead Temp of area making it in....Also any mead over 14% ABV is taxed by Feds here is US Twice as high as one under 14%...as most table wines can have the biggest varations in ABV compared to what bottle says as long as not over 14% most commercial places will try for that or they must be with in 1.5% ABv of bottle if not and under 14% Over 14% it must be with in .5% ABV marked on the bottle...
Am seriously lookin into starting a Nano Brewery for mead so have had to look up all these laws in my area...Each State will vary if you are even allowed to Home brew.....Put all this into consideration and that most states are also a 3 tier States so you have to sell to a Distribution outlet who in turn sells to retail Store and prices can climb high.....After pricing many Meads on average a 750 ML bottle will sell for 20$ make but have saw half bottles (375ml) sell for 40$...
As much as honey prices being a big factor the more you buy the cheaper it gets Have priced it at 1.49$ but had to buy it in 55gal Steal drums 1gal honey is about 12 3/4lbs to 13lbs most mead recipes call for min 3lbs pure gallon of honey to 5 lbs per gallon with sweets going as high as 7lbs....and Sack mead being even larger as ratio becomes more honey then water with just enough honey and air to allow the Yeast to work....
Raw materials cost per 750 bottle on average recipe 4 to 6 $ plus Labor
Commercial company using chemicals can lower this to 2$ to 3$ a bottle plus labor
then Distribution charges
Federal taxes under 14% ABV about 39 cents over 14% about 75 cents a bottle....State taxes for each state it has to be transpoted through if by Distribution company.....Mailing is more cost effective but have to have Special permit for that also and last checked can only mail to 14 to 16 different states rest it is Illegal to mail or ship to.....
Also keep in mind most states do not know what to clasify mead as....Some say wine others say beer...
Some say if it has malt added then is a beer...but if is only hops added then is a wine...and if neither then is a wine.....
by way Mead with hops and Malt added is called a Braggot
Some more trivia at last look there are 60 commercial companies so far in the US that do make Mead, serveral of them in California and New Mexico that make non chemical Organic Mead....( no you can not tell a be to not go to a flower with chemicals) Contriversy on how one can call there Honey Organic because of this......
So odds are if you are in a lucky state one of the 14 to 16 that can be mailed to..then odds are you could find mead in local wine or beers store if not complian to your local Governing Body to make the changes so you can buy mead also...
Not sure what you would call it but other types of sweetners can replace honey in recipes to also make exotic wines....( Pure Maple Syrup)...some of these other sweeteners have been found in mead recipes through out History....Mead generally applies to drink where 50%+ of the drinks Sugars are supplied by a Honey....