If you’re one of the many people interested in exploring the world of mead — the fermented honey beverage with an ancient past — but are more used to beer, be warned: While the typical alcohol by volume for beer hovers around 5% to 6% (with some craft beers as high as 15%), you may soon discover that mead packs a more powerful punch of 7% to 20% ABV. Even the Vikings, not known for restraint, typically drank low-alcohol ale and reserved the stronger and more valuable mead for special occasions and ceremonies.
Mead is one of the oldest — if not the oldest — alcoholic beverages in the world, with roots going back at least 9,000 years. While we often associate the drink with Celtic and Viking cultures, it had a global distribution stretching from the Mayan culture in Mesoamerica to the ancient Chinese. Its simplicity may play into this fact. In its basic form, mead is made from only three ingredients: Honey, water, and yeast. It can even be made at home. Mead’s wide-ranging ABV comes from factors such as how much honey is used in its production and how it’s fermented. So, while mead is stronger than beer on average, there are some caveats.
Session meads and high-ABV beers
Mead has distinct differences with wine, although mead is sometimes referred to as honey wine. It uses the sugars in honey for fermentation as opposed to fruit for wine or malted grains for beer. Mead’s wide-ranging ABV includes sack mead, which has the highest alcohol content (14% to 18% on average, or even higher) thanks to its larger honey-to-water ratio. On the lower end there’s hydromel, also known as session mead, which ranges from around 3.5% to 7.5% ABV (closer to or even lower than some beers).
Likewise, beer can have a fairly wide range in alcohol content. Some of the stronger beer styles include double and triple IPAs, with the former coming in at around 7.5% ABV and the latter at 10.5% ABV or higher. There are also some lesser-known higher-alcohol beers such as barleywine (around 12% ABV), eisbock (up to 15%), and American strong ale (up to 20%). Then there’s Snake Venom, which has been billed as the strongest beer in the world, with a whopping 67.5% ABV. Still, you’re more likely to find that your average mead is stronger than your average beer; if you’re starting to explore honey wine, proceed with a bit of caution.
