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Mead

Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with added fruit, spices, grapes or malt; one of the oldest known fermented beverages, it is sometimes called honey wine.

Why it matters

Ours is a contemporary, dry-to-off-dry Australian style, made for the table. No medieval nonsense, no horn, no honey syrup poured into wine. Mead here is a fermented drink judged the way any fermented drink is judged: balance, length, and what it does next to food.

What it does not mean

Mead is not honey-flavoured wine, not beer, and not a spirit. Honey must be the fermentable base.

Structural model

How the category is structured

Mead sits above the style names — melomel, metheglin, pyment, cyser, braggot and barrel-aged — each defined by what ferments with the honey.

How it is made, and how to tell

Honey is diluted with water, pitched with yeast, fermented, then aged and bottled. Alcohol comes from the honey sugars alone unless the style names another fermentable.

Related terms

Provenance

Written by Australian Bee Products, beekeepers and meadmakers at 400 Mount Stirling Road, Thorndale QLD. Definitions describe production and flavour only — we make no health, medicinal or therapeutic claims.

Version 1.0 · reviewed August 2026