How is mead made?

Mead is made by fermenting honey with water and yeast. The honey provides sugar, yeast converts that sugar into alcohol, and the resulting drink is matured and finished before bottling.

Fruit, herbs, spices and other botanicals can also be added, giving mead an exceptionally broad range of possible flavours.

1. Honey is mixed with water

Honey contains a very high concentration of sugar. To make mead, it is mixed with water to create a fermentable liquid known as ’must’.

The amount of honey used affects the potential alcohol level, sweetness, body and flavour of the finished mead.

The choice of honey matters too. Clover, wildflower, mānuka, kānuka and other honeys have different flavour and aroma characteristics, and some of those differences remain evident after fermentation.

This is why honey is the principal ingredient in mead, rather than simply a source of sugar.

2. Yeast is added

Yeast is responsible for fermentation.

Once introduced to the must, yeast consumes fermentable sugars and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. This is the same fundamental biological process used to produce wine, beer and cider.

The University of California, Davis describes alcoholic fermentation as the conversion of sugars primarily into ethanol and carbon dioxide by yeast. In mead, the principal source of those sugars is honey rather than grapes.

Different yeast strains behave differently. The choice of yeast can affect fermentation speed, alcohol tolerance, aroma and flavour.

3. The mead ferments

During fermentation, yeast progressively consumes the sugars in the must. Meadmakers monitor fermentation to understand how quickly sugar is being consumed and how the fermentation is progressing. Temperature and yeast nutrition can also be managed during this period.

Honey is relatively low in some of the nutrients yeast needs for a healthy fermentation, so nutrient management can be an important part of meadmaking.Fermentation may continue until most of the available sugar has been consumed, producing a dry mead.

4. Fruit, herbs and spices can be added

Honey doesn't have to be the only source of flavour. Fruit can be fermented with the mead or added at another stage of production. Herbs, spices, flowers and other botanicals can also be used. These can be added before, during, or after fermentation.

This creates a very broad range of styles.

A fruit mead is traditionally known as a melomel, while a mead made with herbs or spices is known as a metheglin. Modern meadmakers don't necessarily use these historical names on the bottle, but the techniques remain common.

The timing matters. Fermenting fruit can produce a different result from adding fruit after fermentation because yeast changes both its sugars and its aromatic compounds.

At Undisturbed, our Rhubarb Mead is an example of using another ingredient alongside honey to build the finished flavour.

5. The mead is allowed to mature and age

When fermentation finishes, the young mead usually isn't ready for the bottle.

Yeast and other suspended material need time to settle or be removed. Flavours can also change significantly after active fermentation has ended.

Depending on the style, a mead may mature for weeks, months or considerably longer. Aging mead over months and years can improve the drinking experience. Many hobby mead makers like to age their mead for a year or more before drinking.

In my experience making mead in New Zealand, some varieties can be ready in a few weeks, while others benefit from a a few months of aging. Experimenting with long-aging mead is also fun - so long as one is patient.

6. Sweetness can be adjusted

Not all of the sweetness in a finished mead necessarily comes from sugar left behind during fermentation. A mead can be fermented dry and then backsweetened by adding honey or another source of sweetness afterwards.

This gives the meadmaker more control over the final balance between sweetness, acidity, alcohol and flavour. If fermentable sugar is added after fermentation, the mead needs to be appropriately stabilised or otherwise managed to prevent fermentation starting again in the bottle.

Backsweetening with honey can also restore some fresh honey character that fermentation has changed or removed.

7. The mead is clarified and stabilised

A finished mead is normally clarified so that suspended yeast and other particles don't remain in the bottle. This can happen naturally through settling, or producers can use techniques such as chilling, fining or filtration.

Mead must also be stabilised before bottling, particularly when residual or added fermentable sugar remains. The objective is straightforward: fermentation needs to stay finished once the mead is packaged.

8. The mead is bottled

Once the mead is stable and ready to drink, it can be bottled, and of course enjoyed.

The finished product can take many forms. Mead can be dry or sweet, still or sparkling, light and refreshing or rich and wine-strength. But the process at the centre of all of them remains the same:

Honey + water + yeast → fermentation → mead.

Everything around that basic process — the honey, yeast, fruit, botanicals, fermentation, ageing and final balance — determines what that mead becomes.

How we make mead at Undisturbed

At Undisturbed, we make mead in Christchurch using New Zealand honey.

We work with different honeys and ingredients depending on the character we want in the finished drink. Our meads include expressions built around mānuka and kānuka honey, alongside fruit and botanical ingredients.

Fermentation transforms honey. Sugar is consumed, alcohol is produced, and flavours that can be difficult to distinguish in intensely sweet honey emerge differently in the finished drink.

That transformation from New Zealand honey into mead is the basis of what we make.