There is some debate whether mead is considered beer or wine. It is a basic alcoholic beverage consisting of three ingredients:  water, honey and yeast. It is the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man, outdating both beer and vinifera wine. Mead is actually closer to wine, but is in its own category, honey wine. Why am I writing about it you ask? Well it just so happens to be carried by beer distributors in my area. Meaderies add ingredients found in beer like hops and grains to give their meads a beer-like taste. Meads are good for the holidays and can be heated and mulled with spices for a sweet and soothing quaff by the fire. Chaucer’s offers a pack of aromatic mulling spices with each bottle for the perfect package. B. Nektar adds quality fruit juices and hops to their different meads with humorous names like Zombie Killer, Kill All the Golfers (a nod to Caddy Shack) and Necromangocon. 

A few days ago, a representative for a local beer distributor gave me the opportunity to sample an assortment of meads from the highly rated Moonlight Meadery of Londonderry, New Hampshire. First up was Sensual, their traditional mead made with the three main ingredients. It has wildflower honey giving it a delicate, sweet taste with an elegant grape must like finish. Next was Kurt’s Apple Pie, according to the website, made with local apple cider, Madagascar-bourbon vanilla and Vietnamese cinnamon. This one was very tasty with complex flavors of apple cider and velvety vanilla. Next was Fling with strawberries and rhubarb offering a fresh, sweet strawberry taste cut by the bitter, almost hop-like rhubarb. Last was Desire. This one was my favorite with a blend of blueberries, black cherries and black currants. Desire is actually Moonlight’s flagship mead and has a beautiful dark fruit taste that is not cloying.

I like to think of mead in the more beer end of spectrum in the non-literal sense with its beer-like packaging and different beercentric flavors. Blue Dog Meadery offers Green Color, a sparkling mead in four pack cans.  I have noticed a lot of fruit varieties similar to lambics.

So if you want to try something a little different for the holidays other than eggnog and apple cider, pick up a bottle of your favorite mead and mull yourself into spice heaven.

Adam Shugan, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits beer consultant - Gainesville

Follow me on Twitter @abcbeeradams