When you read the words “mead” or “honey wine,” your mind most likely envisions the taste of honey, and you might automatically assume that what you are about to drink will be similarly sweet. Grab a glass of mead or honey wine, and you may be pleasantly surprised—it may not be as sweet as honey but could be lightly sweet or dry, with multiple floral aromas. Once you have tasted a few honey wines or meads, you will realize that this drink made with honey can vary greatly in sweetness. Learn about the different styles of honey wines, ranging from dry to sweet or semisweet, which are entirely dependent on how they are made and what external fruits, spices, or sugars are added during the manufacturing process.
What is a dry mead?
What is a dry mead? Dry meads have zero residual sugars left after fermentation. They are made with a lower honey-to-water ratio to ensure complete utilization of all sugars. At Clear Skies Meadery, we specialize in crafting modern meads that are dry and have zero residual sugars.
Dry meads are often compared to unoaked Chardonnay. They exhibit aromas of citrus, pear, and melon. They are crisp, light, and refreshing. Friending Fenrir is one of Clear Skies’ flagship award-winning traditional dry meads made with orange blossom honey. It’s dry and light and has notes of citrus and melons.
We also produce a barrel-aged version of traditional dry mead called Fenrir’s Reserve, which is quite similar to an oaked Chardonnay. It has a hint of oaky taste and a smoother finish.
Clear Skies offers a blackberry mead called Twisted Oliver. It is very dry and full-bodied, similar to a Malbec or Zinfandel but without the high tannins. Twisted Oliver is earthy, with notes of blackberry and chocolate.
What is a sweet mead?
Sweet meads can range from products akin to dessert wines to slightly sweet honey wines with a touch of residual sweetness. The proportion of honey is much higher in sweet honey wines. In other production methods, producers will add honey, sugars, or sweetened fruit concentrates to their wines after fermentation is complete. This method known as back sweetening creates sweeter tasting honey wines.
At Clear Skies, we usually adjust the ratio of water to honey to ensure that residual sugars are present after fermentation. Our process is to create sweetness in our product using honey and natural fruit sugars derived from whole fruits, fruit concentrates, or fruit purees.
We do backsweeten a few selected products, such as our favorite summer drink called Meadarita, which has added agave sugars post-fermentation to create a margarita-style drink. We also add brown sugar to our pumpkin mead, made during the fall season, called Headless Norseman. Our Blueberry Brunch mead, made with added maple syrup, is a delicious sweet honey wine with intense notes of blueberries that remind you of pancakes.
We have a selected range of honey wines which are on the sweeter side.
What is Semi-Sweet Mead?
Semi-sweet meads have a smaller amount of residual sweetness, and that sweetness can vary depending on the fruits used to create them. Semi-sweet mead encompasses a broader range of meads. Many meads made with whole fruit purees or fruit concentrates fall into this category and are known as Melomels. Semi-sweet also has an additional depth of perceived sweetness because of the mingling of fruit and honey aromatics.
Semi-sweet honey wines have a sweetness comparable to Grencahe, which is known for its intense fruit-forward flavors like cherries, raspberries, ripe plums, and figs. Semi-sweet honey wines at Clear Skies are among our seasonal bestsellers. We offer cherry mead Twisted Cherry and blueberry lemon mead Violets Outburst which are definitely crowd pleasers and we have many more suited to every palette.
These three distinct styles of meads encompass many different meads made by various producers. It makes honey wine a uniquely versatile product for every person’s palette.
At Clear Skies Meadery, we have 36 different types of mead and they range from sweet to dry and somewhere in between. Our tasting flights offer a preview into the world of meads most suitable for you! Stop by the tasting room and introduce yourself to the world of meads.
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