Editing Mead (section)

{{Short description|Alcoholic beverage made from honey}}
{{About|the alcoholic beverage}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox drink
| name        = Mead
| image       = Swedish_Mead.JPG
| caption     = Swedish [[elderflower]]-flavored mead.
| type        = [[fermented beverage]]
| abv         = 3.5–20.5%
| proof       = 7°–41°
| ingredients = [[honey]], water, fruit, herbs, spices
| color       = pale yellow
| flavor      = dry, sweet or semi-sweet
| variants    = metheglyn, [[chouchen]], [[bochet]]
| related     = [[tej]], [[midus]], [[medovukha]], [[Bais (wine)|bais]], [[balché]]
| website     =
}}

'''Mead''' ({{IPAc-en|m|iː|d}}), also called '''honey wine''', and '''hydromel''' (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an [[alcoholic beverage]] made by [[fermenting]] [[honey]] mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as [[fruit]]s, [[spice]]s, [[grain]]s, or [[hops]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mead dictionary definition &#124; mead defined |url=https://www.yourdictionary.com/mead |website=www.yourdictionary.com}}</ref><ref>Beer is produced by the fermentation of grain, but the grain can be used in mead provided it is strained off immediately. As long as the primary substance fermented is still honey, the drink is still mead.{{Cite book|last=Fitch|first=Ed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kg8nObaAZMEC|title=The Rites of Odin|date=1990|publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide|edition=1st|isbn=978-0-87542-224-4|page=290}}</ref><ref>Hops are better known as the bitter ingredient of [[beer]]. However, they have also been used in mead both ancient and in modern times. The ''Legend of Frithiof'' mentions hops: {{Cite journal |last1=Mohnike |first1=G.C.F. |date=September 1828 – January 1829 |title=Tegner's Legend of Frithiof |journal=The Foreign Quarterly Review |location=London |publisher=Treuttel and Würtz, Treuttel, Jun and Richter |volume=III |quote=He next ... bids ... Halfdan recollect ... that to produce mead hops must be mingled with the honey;}} That this formula is still in use is shown by the recipe for "Real Monastery Mead" in {{Cite book|last=Molokhovets|first=Elena|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttlCGJxfLRUC|title=Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets' A Gift to Young Housewives|date=1998|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-21210-8 | translator = Joyce Stetson |page=474}}</ref> The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% [[ABV]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lichine |first1=Alexis |title=Alexis Lichine's new encyclopedia of wines & spirits |date=1987 |publisher=Knopf |oclc=1244230688}}</ref> to more than 20%. Possibly the most ancient alcoholic drink, the defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey.<ref name="Gayre">{{Cite book |last1=Gayre |first1=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vyFHAAAAYAAJ |title=Brewing Mead |publisher=Brewers Publications |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-937381-00-7 |page=158 |quote=...Therefore to our synopsis: Mead is the general name for all drinks made of honey.}}</ref> It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling, and despite a common misconception that mead is exclusively sweet, it can also be dry or semi-sweet.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rose |first1=Anthony H. |title=Alcoholic Beverages |publisher=Academic Press |year=1977 |location=Michigan |page=413}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Fitzsimons |first=Tim |date=1 May 2011 |title=Medieval No More: Mead Enjoys A Renaissance |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/05/01/135818740/medieval-no-more-mead-enjoys-a-renaissance |access-date=24 June 2024 |work=[[NPR]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=3 January 2011 |title=Mead leaves the dark ages behind |url=https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/mead-leaves-the-dark-ages-behind-20110103-19dmr.html |access-date=24 June 2024 |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]}}</ref>

Mead that also contains [[spices]] is called '''{{Wikt-lang|en|metheglin}}''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ɪ|ˈ|θ|ɛ|ɡ|l|ɪ|n}}), and mead that contains fruit is called '''melomel'''. The term '''honey wine''' is sometimes used as a synonym for mead,<ref name="Morse">{{Cite book |last1=Morse |first1=Roger |title=Making Mead (Honey Wine) |publisher=Wicwas Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-1-878075-04-8}}</ref><ref name="Schramm">{{Cite book |last1=Schramm |first1=Ken |title=The Compleat Meadmaker: Home Production of Honey Wine From Your First Batch to Award-winning Fruit and Herb Variations |publisher=Brewers Publications |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-937381-80-9}}</ref> although wine is typically defined to be the product of fermented [[grape]]s or certain other fruits,<ref name="Oxford-wine-775">{{Cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=Jancis |title=The Oxford Companion to Wine |date=1999 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |edition=2nd |page=775 |author-link=Jancis Robinson}}</ref> and some cultures have honey wines that are distinct from mead. The honey wine of [[Hungary]], for example, is the fermentation of honey-sweetened [[pomace]] of grapes or other fruits.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of beer in Hungary |url=http://pepin.blogter.hu/89805/a_sor_es_a_magyar_mult |archive-url=https://archive.today/20100928002015/http://pepin.blogter.hu/89805/a_sor_es_a_magyar_mult |archive-date=28 September 2010}}</ref>

<onlyinclude>Mead was produced in ancient times throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Toussaint-Samat |first1=Maguelonne |title=A history of food |date=2009 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-8119-8 |oclc=1020512534}}</ref><ref name="Hornsey">{{Cite book |last1=Hornsey |first1=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqnvNsgas20C |title=A History of Beer and Brewing |publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-85404-630-0 |page=7 |quote=...mead was known in Europe long before wine, although archaeological evidence of it is rather ambiguous. This is principally because the confirmed presence of beeswax or certain types of pollen ... is only indicative of the presence of honey (which could have been used for sweetening some other drink) – not necessarily of the production of mead.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Funerary Feast of King Midas @ the Penn Museum &#124; Remains of a Feast |url=http://www.penn.museum/sites/Midas/feastremains.shtml}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lévi-Strauss |first1=Claude |title=From honey to ashes |date=1983 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-47489-5 |oclc=664396551}}</ref> and has played an important role in the mythology of some peoples, which sometimes ascribed [[Magic (supernatural)|magical]] or [[supernatural]] powers to it. In [[Norse mythology]], for example, the [[Mead of Poetry]], crafted from the blood of [[Kvasir]], would turn anyone who drank it into a poet or scholar.</onlyinclude>