What’s the Difference Between Mead, Cyser, Braggot & Melomel?
In the trade, and sometimes on the menu, you’ll see different names given to different drinks. Some things you know… Cider, beer, mead. But sometimes drinks pop up on our menu that are more unusual. If you just want to drink something and enjoy it, ignore the names! Everything is good. But if you want to become discerning and know what each designation means, read on. We’ll clear some things up.
Beer
You know what beer is.
Mead
Less understood. Mead is simply honey, yeast and water. It is one of mankind’s oldest alcoholic beverages. Every society, worldwide, developed some sort of mead. Mostly likely, because it was readily available, all-natural and bee populations span the globe. Thinning down a honey with water and letting it sit may have surprised early humans as wild yeasts turned the sugar into alcohol. Little to no science was needed for the reaction to occur.
Mead was also fairly quick and doesn’t require the systems that beer and ale required.. Just ferment three ingredients for about a month, and pow! You have mead. It wasn’t until the advent of agriculture that mead was replaced by ales, beer and wines.
Today’s mead is a rich culture of variety. Because honey is vastly different by season and location, every mead can be a unique experience. A classic show mead drinks similar to a sweeter white wine. Dry, with a signature, musky taste of honey. It can also be back-sweetened after fermentation to create a slightly sweeter mead. But all meads share the same basic recipe: Honey, yeast and water.
Melomel
Put simply, mead with fruit. Almost all our meads, except Solifaction, would be considered a melomel. The term, however, has become so broad that it no longer carries much of a distinction and it’s, frankly, just a complicated word. Take a mead (honey, yeast & water) put fruit in it, whether before or after fermentation, and it’s a melomel.
Some melomels have earned their own distinction. Pyments, for instance, are meads fermented with grapes, typically fermented with the mead. Both red and white grapes can be used. White grapes, particularly, create an interesting desert type of mead. Sweeter with a bit of a custard taste.
Cyser
Cider, a blend of cider and mead, is still technically a melomel. We distinguish it because it shows up so often on tap menus around Georgia. A cyser is a mead which has been fermented with apple juices rather than water, created a unique drink that is both sweeter and tarter.
It’s common to add other ingredients to flavor the cyser like autumn fruits or spices. If you like a cider, but find it’s too “apple-y” you might really enjoy a cyser. It is milder, smoother and takes the tart bite out of the drink.
Braggot
A blend of beer and mead. These are less common to find, locally, in any quantity. Some bars will create them on the fly by mixing mead and beer, but it’s not the same nor as intended. A proper braggot is the perfect balance of sweet honey, malty flavor and body, and a bit of hop bitterness.
Baggot’s, like cysers and ciders, can often be flavored with spices and other flavors creating a rich experience. A braggot keeps the best qualities of both beer and mead in perfect balance. If you see a braggot on a tap menu, definitely try it. They are fairly rare and worth it, almost every time.
We hope you found this helpful and, as always, ask our bartenders about the different styles. It’s worth knowing what you really enjoy so you can seek it out on your travels!