Mead is absolutely still made today, and the industry is growing faster than most people realize. The global mead market hit $540 million in 2023 and is projected to reach $1.28 billion by 2032. Far from being a forgotten relic of Viking feasts, honey wine is experiencing a genuine revival driven by craft producers, homebrewers, and consumers looking for something beyond beer and grape wine.
How Big the Modern Mead Industry Is
Global mead consumption reached an estimated 190 million liters in 2025, up from 162 million liters just three years earlier. The market is expanding at roughly 10% per year, a growth rate that outpaces most other alcoholic beverage categories.
North America leads production, accounting for about 38.5% of global volume. The United States alone is the fastest-growing mead market in the world, capturing over 34% of global market share. In the U.S., the number of commercial meaderies grew from around 500 in 2019 to over 700 by 2024. Many of these are small, taproom-style operations similar to craft breweries, where you can visit, sample flights, and buy bottles directly.
Europe holds about 33% of global production, with Poland, the U.K., and Germany at the forefront. Poland is a particularly notable producer, contributing over 11% of total global volume on its own. Polish mead has centuries of unbroken tradition behind it and is categorized by law into grades based on the ratio of honey to water.
Where Mead Never Went Away
In some parts of the world, mead production never stopped. Ethiopia has a thriving honey wine culture centered on tej, a naturally fermented drink made from raw honey and a shrub called gesho that acts as a bittering agent. Tej is ubiquitous in Ethiopian restaurants and households, produced both commercially and at home through spontaneous fermentation, meaning wild yeasts and bacteria do the work rather than added cultures. It remains one of the most widely consumed alcoholic beverages in the country.
Poland similarly maintained continuous mead production through centuries when the drink faded elsewhere in Europe. Polish meads are classified by how much honey goes into each batch: “półtorak” uses two parts honey to one part water, while lighter varieties use progressively less. These categories are legally defined and appear on labels, much like wine appellations.
Modern Mead Styles
Today’s mead comes in far more variety than the simple honey-water-yeast drink most people picture. The core styles break down into a few main categories:
- Traditional (or show) mead: Honey, water, and yeast with minimal additions. The flavor profile comes entirely from the honey variety, which can range from wildflower to orange blossom to buckwheat.
- Melomel: Any mead fermented with fruit. Berries, stone fruits, and tropical fruits are all common. This is one of the most popular styles at meaderies because the fruit makes it approachable for newcomers.
- Metheglin: Mead made with spices or herbs. Think cinnamon, vanilla, clove, or lavender.
- Braggot: A hybrid that blends honey with malted grain, landing somewhere between mead and beer.
- Session mead: A lower-alcohol version, typically fermented with bread or beer yeast instead of wine yeast. These come in at beer-like alcohol levels rather than the 12 to 18% range of traditional mead, making them easier to drink casually.
Session meads in particular have helped drive the craft boom. They’re carbonated, lighter in body, and can be flavored with hops or fruit, making them a bridge product for people who already drink craft beer.
Competitions and Community
The mead world has its own competitive circuit. The Mazer Cup International is the largest mead-only competition, drawing hundreds of entries across 26 categories in its most recent year. The American Mead Makers Association serves as a trade organization for commercial producers and a resource for homebrewers. Mead also has dedicated categories within broader homebrew competitions, and many craft beverage festivals now include mead alongside beer, cider, and wine.
Homebrewing has played a significant role in the industry’s growth. Mead is one of the simplest fermented beverages to make at a basic level (honey, water, and yeast are the only requirements), which has drawn a large DIY community. Many of today’s commercial meaderies started as home operations that scaled up.
How Modern Mead Is Made
The fundamental process hasn’t changed much in thousands of years: dissolve honey in water, add yeast, and let it ferment. What has changed is the level of control. Modern meadmakers use specific yeast strains selected for flavor and alcohol tolerance, carefully manage nutrient additions to keep fermentation healthy, and control temperature throughout the process.
Traditional meads ferment for weeks to months and often age for additional months or even years, similar to wine. Session meads can be ready in a matter of weeks. For fruit and spice meads, the added ingredients typically provide enough natural nutrients that the yeast needs less supplementation, which simplifies the process and can shorten timelines.
The honey itself is the biggest variable. Different floral sources produce dramatically different flavors, and meadmakers often source specific varietals the way winemakers select grape varieties. A mead made with light acacia honey tastes nothing like one made with dark buckwheat honey, even if the process is identical.