Mead --- is it supposed to age well?

Over the past couple years I’ve had occasion to try three meads of various ages:

a 3 yo raspberry mead, which was delicious.
a regular mead of unknown age (but I think it was 4 or 5)
and another raspberry mead that was 5 yo, which was also delicious.

The regular mead, if served to me blind — I swear — I would have called whiskey. It was not what I was expecting when I took my first sip. Not bad, for a whiskey, but not pleasant for what I was anticipating / looking for.

Truth be told: I think these are the only meads I’ve ever had.

So. Question: Is mead supposed to be able to age well? Does it depend on a bunch of factors, just as it does with wine (and, to a lesser extent, beer)?

I had an acquaintance who brewed beer at home and made mead for an annual Renaissance Festival in the neighboring state. He said it took 5 gallons of mead to make a gallon(?) of mead.

I was gifted a bottle of apricot mead made from Tupelo honey once. I accidentally forgot it at my folks’ place in Houston. I finally opened it five years later. It tasted significantly drier than my initial sip from a bottle from the same batch, but it remained a delightful experience.

Thanks, Drew. Looks like you’re the only here with any aged mead experience.

I still have a few bottles of the mead my late brother made 18 years ago. Most of those I have left are fruited mead and they are still holding up.

In my limited experience mead can age but it’s questionable as to if they improve. When I was making mead, I read a lot that says they need age and will improve. My experience was that they didn’t get worse but they also didn’t get noticeably better. Could easily be attributed to my skill level.

I’ve had a few accidentally aged ones. I agree that they can age, but there’s no point, at least in my limited experience.

Thanks, Doug. Did any of them age into something remotely resembling whiskey?

I somehow missed this until now. No, I wouldn’t say they did that. I don’t think they changed a whole lot. One fruited one smelled like rotten fruit and I didn’t even taste it. One or two others showed the alcohol a bit more, but not in a complex or whiskey-like way.

Cool. Thanks. I’m still not convinced it wasn’t whiskey in my bottle, although the maker insists it was mead, although he was not around to taste it with me. Besides tasting exactly like whiskey, smelling like whiskey, and looking like whiskey, it bears noting this facility also makes some of their own spirits (don’t know if whiskey is one of them, but I’m thinking it might be). I just wonder if whiskey ended-up in my (unlabeled) bottle. Guess I’ll never know. It’s still sitting in my fridge; really, I should just toss it.

After a year you might not notice much improvement, but between 6 months and 12 months will be noticeable improvement.

It probably depends on the Mead.

Thanks, Martin. [cheers.gif]