Dry Mead

[philt]

Hi guys,

I've been brewing beer for several years but fancied trying mead as the mother in law keeps bees. Have just bottled my first two 1 gallon batches, one being my take on JAOM but using Safale US-05 and the other being a tart cherry melomel fermented with an original Kveik strain (Ebbegarden).
I'm extremely happy with how they've turned out, I've done nothing to backsweeten, I like things dry and tart (big fan of Lambic beer) and the cherry one reminds me of a dry tannic red wine but slightly tarter.
Question is, why is so much commercial mead so aggressively sweet? Can't stand most of the stuff I've tried. Anyone know of any UK producers that make a dryer mead? Do I have weird taste? I would quite happily sip a chilled dry mead on a hot day in place of a white wine. I plan to make my next batch along these lines but will it be too bland without the orange and spices in the JAOM recipe?

Cheers!

 

[MightyMosin]

Apparently, Sweet sells. I agree that most commercial meads are too sweet.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Yeah, as well-constructed as some of the meaderies in North America can make a dry mead, sweet still seems to sell better. But dry is starting to catch on, you'd probably do better to search out whichever meaderies are near you and see if they have any dry offerings. Session (beer-strength) meads are becoming a thing here too. Maybe it's the opposite of ciders, North American hard ciders are notoriously sweet whereas I understand the UK and other European ones tend to be nice and tart and dry.

 

[jorgemoares]

Hi guys,

I've been brewing beer for several years but fancied trying mead as the mother in law keeps bees. Have just bottled my first two 1 gallon batches, one being my take on JAOM but using Safale US-05 and the other being a tart cherry melomel fermented with an original Kveik strain (Ebbegarden).
I'm extremely happy with how they've turned out, I've done nothing to backsweeten, I like things dry and tart (big fan of Lambic beer) and the cherry one reminds me of a dry tannic red wine but slightly tarter.
Question is, why is so much commercial mead so aggressively sweet? Can't stand most of the stuff I've tried. Anyone know of any UK producers that make a dryer mead? Do I have weird taste? I would quite happily sip a chilled dry mead on a hot day in place of a white wine. I plan to make my next batch along these lines but will it be too bland without the orange and spices in the JAOM recipe?

Cheers!

Hy philt !! . Something similar happens in Argentina, although there are very few people here who have ever tried mead in their lives. To make matters worse, in Spanish mead they say "hidromiel" which would be something like "Hydrohoney" which in itself suggests that the drink you will taste will be sweet and when you do it you will get a surprise. If you expect to taste something sweet and it turns out to be something dry, it can be unpleasant.

I think that if dry mead is good, it is really good since the sweetness can hide some unpleasant characteristics. On the other hand, some characteristics such as flavors such as fruit flavors can be enhanced thanks to some sugar content.