Types of Mead

Within the UK alone, meads can vary from a dark, caramel style to a lighter style. There are also a lot of varieties with specific names:

• Acerglyn: Meads with maple syrup.

• Bochet: Mead where the honey is caramelised or burnt first.

• Braggot: Originally bragawd in Welsh, a mead traditionally made with hops but these days that has generally become malted grain.

• Capsicumel: Mead with chillies.

• Cyser: Mead made with apples or apple juice, making a drink similar to cider.

• Great mead: Mead aged for a long time.

• Melomel: A mead flavoured with any fruits.

• Metheglin: A mead made with spices such as ginger, tea, orange peel, nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, cloves or vanilla.

• Pyment: A mead with grape added or a grape (white) wine that has had honey added. This is the style used by Lindisfarne mead and a lot of pyments are actually sold as just meads without distinction.

• Rhodomel: A mead made from honey, rose hips, rose petals or rose attar.

• Sack mead: A mead made with more honey than usual. This ends up being denser, strong in alcohol (closer to a fortified wine).

• Short mead or quick mead: A mead made quickly. It is designed to age much more quickly and be closer to a cider or ale in strength and character.

• Show mead: This is a term that as emerged for “plain” mead, i.e. simply fermented honey and water with nothing else added. We have many following a classic mead style in the UK including Lyme Bay Traditional Mead and Moniack Mead.