How Much Does a Bottle of Mead Cost and Why?

You’ll notice that the price of alcohol can really vary from vodka to beer, and that’s a great thing! It means there’s a wide selection out there for everyone, making it fun to find your favorites that fit your budget. Some of this is just because the brand is worth a lot or because of the time it takes the age, or the ingredients.

Let’s break down the whys for the answer to “how much does a bottle of mead cost?” You’ll walk away having more appreciation for every penny spent. 

Key Takeaways

• Price Range: A bottle of mead typically costs between $20 to $40, with the price reflecting the quality of ingredients like fermented honey, fruits, and spices.
• Quality of Ingredients: The honey used in mead is a key factor in its cost. High-quality, organic honey and local ingredients contribute to the flavor and the overall price.
• Aging Process: Like wine, mead takes time to ferment and age, which can influence its cost. Traditional meads, for example, can take six to eight months to brew.
• Affordable Enjoyment: Despite the time and care required to produce mead, it remains an affordable luxury with a price comparable to fine beer or mid-range wines.
• Variety and Availability: You can easily buy mead online from Hidden Legend Winery, which offers a wide range of mead styles, including unique blends like braggot, with discounts available for online purchases.

The Honey

Mead is somewhere between wine and beer. Its trademark is what makes it stand out; it’s made from fermented honey. That is, perhaps, the reason for the cost of mead. The kind of honey used can impact the price a great deal. Honey isn’t made easily. The bees make it in small quantities, and mead uses a great deal of honey per bottle. The flavor of meads is also more consistent than wine since many more conditions affect grapes than they do honey, but that’s not to say that environmental conditions don’t affect the way bees make honey, of course.

If you only eat and drink organic things, that can affect the price of the mead as well. It may seem counterintuitive, but using greener methods to produce anything organic is a more expensive process. Any good mead company or good mead for that matter, is going to invest in quality ingredients. The most important of which is the honey. Sure, there are plenty of spices, yeast, water, and other ingredients to give a particular mead its flavor and they all contribute to the price. The honey is the most important part of brewing mead, though.

So, how much does mead cost? It depends on the quality of the honey used. 

The Time

Again like beer or wine, mead takes time to produce because it’s a fermented drink. Aged wine tends to be more expensive the longer it’s in the cellar, and mead sometimes follows that same line. A traditional mead, for example, can take six to eight months to brew, assuming you want a higher alcohol content. See, the longer it conditions, the more the yeast eats the sugar, and the more alcohol is produced. Mead is closer to beer in that respect. Like it was said earlier, honey is more consistent with flavor than grapes. If there is a bad harvest, it can take more time to produce wine than usual. This happened around the time Absinthe was popular and became that way because so many vineyards had an awful harvest; thus, the price of wine skyrocketed. If there is a bad batch of honey, this could also affect the time it takes to produce enough mead to stock shelves. Which, in turn, may affect the cost.

So, how much does mead cost? How long has it been aged, and how long did it take to make it?

The Enjoyment

Mead’s comeback as a popular drink has been a boom for the mouths of many. It’s a spectacular concoction with a long history and doesn’t usually cost more than a fine beer. The average price of a solid bottle of mead is $20-30 bucks. For all the time it takes to create it, the months of conditioning, fermenting the honey, even harvesting the honey and other ingredients, it’s well worth every nickel and the wait.

So, how much does mead cost? Who cares! It’s amazing and affordable!