Mead in the United States
Mead in the U.S. grew from obscurity to a craft industry after the 1980s.
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Mead, an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey, played a very small role in the U.S. alcohol market until the late 1900s, when a craft mead industry started to emerge. Beginning around the 1980s, the number of small meaderies gradually increased, with a clear surge in interest by the 2010s. Before that decade, mead was rarely produced commercially in the United States.
Most people either had never heard of it or considered it a medieval relic, and there was little recipe variety to attract drinkers. A handful of specialty producers existed as early as the 1960s. For instance, Bargetto Winery in California began making Chaucer's Mead in the 1960s, and Lingamore Winecellars in Maryland started mead production in 1978; both initially supplied Renaissance festivals.
Interest in mead grew alongside the homebrewing movement, especially after Charlie Papazian’s The Complete Joy of Home Brewing came out in 1984. Mead makers also borrowed techniques from craft brewers, such as dry-hopping, selling mead in growlers and on draft, and aging it in barrels that previously held wine, bourbon, or imperial stouts. The rise of wine culture and the local foods movement also helped boost mead’s profile. Between 2008 and 2011, participation in the Mazer Cup more than doubled, from 100 to 218 entrants.
The number of commercial meaderies in the U.S. grew from about 60 in 2003 to 200 in 2012. That same year, the American Mead Makers Association was founded as a trade group. By 2020, roughly 500 small-scale meaderies were operating nationwide.
Regions
Today, mead-making operations exist in most states. Michigan is a particularly notable producer; Esquire has called it “mead’s mecca” in the U.S. Arizona is also a major mead state, thanks to its low water requirements for production and wildflower blooms in its central valleys. It is home to Drinking Horn Meadery in Flagstaff and Superstition Meadery.
California, where Rabbits Foot Meadery is located, hosts many mead businesses, especially in the Bay Area. Colorado annually hosts the Mazer Cup, an international mead competition. Some U.S. meaderies have explored cross-cultural recipes, partnering with meaderies in Ireland, South Africa, and Brazil.
Regulation poses significant challenges.
Quick Facts
- Early manufacturers
- Bargetto Winery (California, Chaucer's Mead from the 1960s) and Lingamore Winecellars (Maryland, began 1978)
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
A small number of special-interest manufacturers made mead starting in the 1960s. One early manufacturer was Bargetto Winery in California, whose Chaucer's Mead was manufactured from the 1960s, and another was Lingamore Winecellars, a Maryland-based winery that began making mead in 1978; initially, both were manufacturing primarily to supply Renaissance festivals.
Interest in mead began to increase alongside the growth of the home brewing market, especially after the publication of Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Home Brewing in 1984. Some of the strategies employed by craft brewers to add distinctive flavors and aromas to their recipes were adopted by mead makers as well; many meaderies are taking cues from craft brewing and dry-hopping meads, selling them in growlers and on draft, and aging them in oak barrels that once contained wine, bourbon or imperial stouts. The boom in wine enthusiasm and the local foods movement also coincided with, and may have helped fuel, mead's rise in visibility.
Reader's Guide
Mead-making operations are now present in most American states. Michigan is one of the most prominent mead-producing states; it has been remarked that the state could very well be mead's mecca in the US. Due to the minimal amount of water necessary for mead making, Arizona is also a prominent mead-making state; the state's central valleys play host to wildflower blooms that have attracted mead makers, and it is the home state of Drinking Horn Meadery in Flagstaff and Superstition Meadery.
California, the home state of Rabbits Foot Meadery, also has many mead-making businesses, especially in the greater Bay Area. Colorado plays host annually to the Mazer Cup, an international awards competition for mead. Some meaderies in the United States have explored cross-cultural mead recipes, pairing with meaderies in other countries, such as Ireland, South Africa, and Brazil. Because of the patchwork of state laws regulating the production and sale of alcoholic beverages (an outgrowth of the 21st Amendment, which ended the Prohibition Era and returned liquor regulation to the control of each U.S. state), there are often substantial difficulties in obtaining the necessary licenses and permissions to start a commercial meadery and ship the product in certain states.
Meaderies must also obtain a license from the federal government to operate. Federal food and beverage regulations classify mead in the same category as wine, which has made some manufacturing and labeling decisions difficult for meadmakers. The federal regulations also make no differentiation between different styles or varieties of mead.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Mead in the United States (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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