15 Oct What Is The Difference Between Beer And Mead?
More and more often, breweries are diversifying their tap lists to include high quality coffee, sodas, root beer or ginger beer. For some breweries, mead comes running out of left field onto their tap lists, despite that mead and beer are very different.
Until I tried to make a batch of mead for my wedding eight months ago, I assumed it was an antiquated drink from Medieval times. I only encountered any references to mead over the course of my boyhood fascination with medieval culture.
But as it turns out, mead has a much longer history–and wasn’t limited to medieval European society as I had originally expected. Trace compounds associated with the fermentation of honey were found in Asian pottery dated between 6500 and 7000 B.C., and mead had been made throughout ancient African, Asian and European history.
Nevertheless, modern breweries are trying their hands at making mead, while craft meaderies are popping up around the country in a similar way to the rise of craft distilleries and cideries. But to understand what mead is, it’s important to understand fermentation, which helps identify the difference among alcohols.
When I began working at a homebrew supply shop in Elkhart, IN, I learned a great deal about fermentation. Simply put, if the right type of yeast is introduced to a suitable food source, the yeast will eat that food and create alcohol as a byproduct. Almost all across the board, sugars and starches are the main diet for yeast cells.
For example: beer is fermented from the starches extracted from barley and sometimes wheat. Wine is fermented from the sugars extracted from grapes. During an unusually warm spring three years ago, people came to the homebrew shop asking all sorts of questions about how to ferment anything from maple syrup, pears, blueberries, dandelions, strawberries and even carrots.
But where does all of this put mead?
Mead is made simply by the fermentation of honey–but should not be confused with wine that has been sweetened with honey, which is called honey wine. But while it is easy to reduce mead to the fermentation of honey alone, there are quite a few aspects that add to its immense complexity.
For my wedding eight months ago, I made all of the wine and beer for the reception. I also knew that I wanted to have mead, but for a much different reason: mead is meant to be aged, and I wanted to have something special to drink for each anniversary.
To make the mead, I needed pure, raw honey–a lot of it. I used 16 lbs. of raw honey for a five gallon batch of mead, and the only place that would sell me that amount of honey was an Amish beekeeper.
But ultimately, while mead can be made from any honey, raw honey is where the drink really shines. The natural enzymes, compounds, and even wild yeasts play vital roles to the flavor profile of the finished mead. But while the “raw-ness” of the honey determines its complexity, time might play an even bigger role.
Despite a few exceptions, most beer is meant to be served in a relatively short amount of time (usually between two to three months, but I’ve seen anywhere from five days to three years). Mead is, however, much more like wine in its aging demands.
Once yeast is introduced and begins fermenting, mead takes at least a solid year to age into a palatable drink. Ideally, like wine, mead should age for roughly two to three years before drinking (if you can be patient). Mead simply evolves with age, and grows in complexity year by year.
Mead can, however, be treated with more versatility and have great results. It can be made sweet, dry, balanced or carbonated, and there’s no limit to the number of possible ingredients. At a homebrew meeting, I sampled a few different varieties of meads including clove, vanilla and horseradish mead.
Mead, like beer, has such a long history as an ancient drink of choice. But more like wine, it takes much more time to fully mature. It is unique, complex, and ever changing.
But as I like to describe it, mead has a strong honey flavor profile that gives a nod and a wink to white wines, but only gets better with age and patience
Travis Sutten
Posted at 23:54h, 15 OctoberBest explanation I’ve ever read. Thank you.