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Is mead easier or harder to make than wine?

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Medsen Fey

Fuselier since 2007
Premium Patron
A sweet mead is much easier to produce than a sweet late harvest wine. To get a sweet wine, you have to have grapes that get to the level of sweetness you need, typically through some drying process while hoping the grapes don't rot.

To make a sweet mead, you just need to add enough honey (either at the beginning or at the end).

Of course producing a good, balanced sweet mead that tastes really good, may take a lot more work. ;D
 

keepitlow

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 27, 2009
119
0
0
NE US
Of course producing a good, balanced sweet mead that tastes really good, may take a lot more work."



So, leaving out the certain ripeness of the grapes for LH wines, would you generally say that mead (good mead) is harder to make?
 

storm1969

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 13, 2005
600
1
0
54
Columbia, MD
Of course producing a good, balanced sweet mead that tastes really good, may take a lot more work."



So, leaving out the certain ripeness of the grapes for LH wines, would you generally say that mead (good mead) is harder to make?

I wouldn't. Just different. Having tasted as many badly made wines as badly made meads, they are both easy to screw up! Now sweetness in a homebrew can cover up problems, so maybe meads are easier to make than dry wines....
 

akueck

Certified Mead Mentor
Certified Mead Mentor
Jun 26, 2006
4,958
11
0
Ithaca, NY
If you count growing the grapes, I would say wine is harder. Though if you count keeping bees, then maybe it is a tie again. ;D

Both have their individual issues, such as juice extraction/cap management for grape wines and nutrient control for meads. People ask about making beer vs. wine or mead too, and again it's just different. Each one has its own set of parameters which you need to play off each other to produce a balanced, delicious product (or an intentionally unbalanced, yet still delicious product).
 
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