Making Meads & Melomels

If you have access to lots of honey, and want to learn a bit about mead making, you've come to the right place!

In addition to having years of experience making home wines including from various grape juice (both kit form and fresh pressed) wines and fruit/berry wines, I've also enjoyed making my own meads, melomels, and metheglins.

Perhaps you've heard of or even tasted mead in the past and you may be wondering, "what the heck is a melomel and metheglin?"

Both are in the family of meads.

A melomel is a mead that is fermented with both honey and fruit. The fruit gives melomel its distinctive flavor and can range from berries, apples, and pears to more exotic fruits like peaches or tropical varieties.

The honey provides the base sweetness, while the fruit adds layers of complexity, making melomel a versatile drink with a broad range of flavors depending on the combination of ingredients used.

A metheglin is a mead that is fermented with both honey and the addition of herbs or spices. The base is still mead, made by fermenting honey with water, but in the case of metheglin, ingredients such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, or even herbs like rosemary or chamomile are added during the fermentation process. These additions give metheglin a spiced or aromatic flavor, making it distinct from traditional meads.

The name "metheglin" is derived from the Welsh word "meddyglyn," meaning medicinal liquor, as these spiced meads were originally believed to have medicinal properties. Today, metheglin is enjoyed for its unique flavors, which can range from warm and spicy to soothing and herbal, depending on the choice of spices and herbs used.