Why do you think Mead isn't more popular, compared to wine?

Sorry, if this is the wrong board, but I figured Mead enthusiasts would make for better discussion than the general board.

I found a great place 20 minutes away that sells all sorts of imported beers, wines, mead, and ciders. It's a home brewers dream for research! But it got me thinking. Why, out of the rows and rows of wine selections in your basic grocery store, can't there be even one little shelf for Mead. Mead seems to be extremely popular among home brewers probably because its the only way to get it, and because its damn good!

Or is it just my area? I live just South of Seattle, WA. Is Mead available in stores near you?

It's the same over here, go to any super market and you will find rows of wine, and good amount of beer, and these days a slowly growing range of ciders. I can even grab a choice of two sakes. But not a single mead. I can get mead at a farm shop 20 mins away but they only have 2 varieties from the same company and both are very sweet. Both nice, but I would love to see some variety!

Mead has a lot of problems commercially.

First, vintage meads and straight honey meads are very strange/funky/austere and it is neither a flavor that the general public can commit to or a particularly attractive flavor to wine drinkers. About the only category of people who really like mead are fans of weird tasting stuff or those who love the historical aspect of the beverage. It is distinct and great for those into it, but the niche is tiny.

Second, fruity meads only attract those who like country style wines. How many of those do you see on your shelves? Almost none. Fruity, flavored wines have a bad stigma as being cheap and overly sweet/cloying.

Third, it is not cheap to produce, so the final product is compared to wines that are actually good. If good mead was the price of beer, it might have a better chance, but there is no way to make that price point and stay in business.

Forth, it is seen as a gimmick, not a real product. People instantly think of a Renaissance fair, Beowulf, or some other gimmicky scenario when they think of mead. In other words, it has a major image problem.

The list goes on, but I wouldn't expect mead to hit the mainstream anytime soon.

I'm not sure taste is the issue, a nice sweet mead that isn't overly cloying tastes much less weird than wine does imo... though you may have a point, I took a bottle of mead to a mates house a few months back and two girls I had never met before tried some. Neither had ever tried mead at all. One really liked it and her glass dissapeared in seconds, the other pulled a face and said "It tastes like honey" and passed it on.
I guess to some i't something you might eat on toast but not something you would drink...

But certainly the rest of Boerderij's points about image are probably true, as are those about it's cost. I do tihnk however that it's image is improving, all be it slowely. I actually discovered mead at a pub who was serving it warm over winter a few years back.

Schramm brings up some very good points/thoughts in his book.

Mainly, wine has a lot of study/science/marketing/money behind it, and mead does not. Also, because mead is similar to wine, it has struggled to create/maintain its own identity.

The only place I have ever seen Mead for sale is at a local brewery in the Apple Hill area in Camino, CA. They also have Mead tastings there. I have made my own and the stuff I have tasted there is not as tasty. It seems they were focusing on ABV as opposed to taste. But I have never seen it on the shelves.

There's a few meaderies out there, but like others have said, it just hasn't caught on commercially/economically.

I'm also wondering if honey varies crop to crop a lot more than certain grape varieties, thus kaking large scale replication more difficult?

Regardless, I like the fact I can make a kick add oaked cherry melomel and i can't buy it at the store.

I believe most of the issues are that the right audience simply isn't targeted with mead. Usually its targeted to the Norse mythology Mead lovers. Not a bad crowd but a rather small one. The all organic market is huge and growing. I come from a technical/business background and am going back to school for my viticulture degree. I have a plan to market the right meads to the right crowds as much more mainstream. Maybe you'll see meads in the not too distant future in your supermarket.

A lot has to do with marketing, Hit the right market/demographic and do it creatively and enthusiastically you can make JUST ABOUT anything take off.

AZ_IPA said:

Schramm brings up some very good points/thoughts in his book.

Mainly, wine has a lot of study/science/marketing/money behind it, and mead does not. Also, because mead is similar to wine, it has struggled to create/maintain its own identity.

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AZ_IPA has got pretty close with the above.

Wines not necessarily as big as you might think, it depends on whether the country grows grape, or borders one.

In truth, as many of us have found out, it's not easy to make a mead that has a quick turnaround. So you have to have quite deep pockets to stomach the expense until you've got product, then some whizzo marketing and a few high profile patrons doesn't go amiss. The closest we've been in the last few years or so, has been the mentions in the Harry Potter series of books.

Most of what's available here, is made by vineyards that happen to have the facilities. They seem to be like sheep, and not very adventurous sheep at that. Making almost entirely, dessert type, very sweet meads of about 14% ABV, but they seem to sell almost entirely in licensed farm shops (liquor licensed that is) or snobby food shops

I mean, hell, if I walk south for 10 minutes and then swim about 50 miles I'd be in Normandy, yet it's hard to get a decent Calvados locally, so why would I be able to get a decent choice of meads.......

There's a few meads from a meadery in my area (B. Nektar) who has a few different meads, and many of the wineries also have their own. One of wineries I go to is a bit more adventurous in this area, as they have paired honey with different fruits (Asian pears, apples, mead on its own, different grape varieties). B. Nektar has done quite a bit with mead, including their latest release of the Zombie Killer (hopped cherry mead).

Yes, they're all still on the sweet side, but not all of them are dessert sweet at least. One from the winery is a semi-sweet, close to a riesling. And B. Nektar has a few dry meads.

Agreed on marketing. many people don't even know what mead is, other than some relation to vikings. most others who do know, are usually in either select drinking groups, or in the geek, pagan, homemade area.

I think mead does have an image problem, as well as a cost problem. Also, unless we stop killing the bees mead will continue to increase in price.

If some "nano-winery" laws get passed it will make it a lot easier to get us mead-makers a wider audience, perhaps making a dent in the image-problem.

cheers,

robin850

Well starting next year look for a local Meadery opening in Lakewood, WA just south of where your at in Seattle. Operated by yours truly!

Too many bad examples of commercial mead around, at exorbitant prices.

A non-local friend told me that their homemade mead tastes great. I was curious, but the best wine & beer shop around here only carried one brand, by a local meadery. I tried three different fruit meads by them and they all tasted like nail polish remover. Undrinkable! And each bottle cost as much as a very good wine.

Fortunately for me, I tried brewing my own mead, since my strong honey porters always taste good. And sure enough, it turned out that making mead is as easy as making beer and it does indeed taste great.

I'm guessing that most people would try the funky stuff once and assume that's just what mead is supposed to taste like, and they would never try it again. I sure have a high resistance to buying commercial mead again...

Goblet said:

Too many bad examples of commercial mead around, at exorbitant prices.

A non-local friend told me that their homemade mead tastes great. I was curious, but the best wine & beer shop around here only carried one brand, by a local meadery. I tried three different fruit meads by them and they all tasted like nail polish remover. Undrinkable! And each bottle cost as much as a very good wine.

Fortunately for me, I tried brewing my own mead, since my strong honey porters always taste good. And sure enough, it turned out that making mead is as easy as making beer and it does indeed taste great.

I'm guessing that most people would try the funky stuff once and assume that's just what mead is supposed to taste like, and they would never try it again. I sure have a high resistance to buying commercial mead again...

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Very good point! It's kinda like people basing their opinions about beer solely on the macro light American lager...

The only mead I'm aware of that's sold in the area is Chaucer, which is extremely sweet. It's like drinking honey cut with water (for thinness) and vodka (for alcohol).

I don't think a lot of people know what mead is and those that do think of it as a sweet desert-style beverage. As others have said, it definitely suffers from an image/marketing deficiency.

I'm half-surprised by the bad products some of you are finding from local meaderies. On one hand I'm surprised they wouldn't know better than to produce a garbage product but on the other hand I'm not surprised because I could see them making the business decision to sell whatever they produce because they have to sell it or close shop.

It's kinda like people basing their opinions about beer solely on the macro light American lager...

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Exactly!

AZ_IPA said:

Very good point! It's kinda like people basing their opinions about beer solely on the macro light American lager...

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I try not to drink any beer I can see through!

cheers,

robin850

Goblet said:

Too many bad examples of commercial mead around, at exorbitant prices.

A non-local friend told me that their homemade mead tastes great. I was curious, but the best wine & beer shop around here only carried one brand, by a local meadery. I tried three different fruit meads by them and they all tasted like nail polish remover. Undrinkable! And each bottle cost as much as a very good wine.


I'm guessing that most people would try the funky stuff once and assume that's just what mead is supposed to taste like, and they would never try it again.

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thats just it.

i've had the same. theres tons of CRAP on the market. the ones i've tasted taste like they have never been aged. more than likely they are bottle aging them on the stores shelves.

but on the other hand, i've people recommend recipes that they say taste great, yet its horrible. especially when the recipe calls for just about every mistake you could possible do.
if the mead drinkers don't know what good mead is how do you expect commercial guys to know.

If/when I visit NZ, let's chat!

AZ_IPA said:

If/when I visit NZ, let's chat!

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anytime

just thinking about it, there is one meadery thats meant to be the best and sadly i havn't tried it, mainly because i have not seen it on the shelves.

as my local wine guys tell me, marketing and distribution is more important. eg a lot of good vineyards fail because they can't get shops to stock their brand etc.

there are some seriously novel (or is that gimmicky) products like the mead liqueur with gold leaf.