Anyone who’s checked the rankings of top breweries on Untappd or Ratebeer lately might have noticed something unusual: Many of top-ranked are not breweries at all. They’re meaderies. As of this writing, meadmakers are four of the five top-rated “breweries” on Untappd. Checking the current top U.S. “beers” over at Ratebeer, 14 of the top 50 are currently meads. (Interestingly, every one of those 14 is a melomel—that is, a fruited mead.)
So, what’s this all about?
First, let’s give due credit to the creative new wave of meadmakers—more about them below—who have found a foothold and have been able to grab some well-deserved attention amid the cacophony of 8,000-plus breweries in the age of mad variety. Meanwhile, the number of commercial meaderies has grown, too: from just 30 in 2003 to more than 500 today, according to the American Mead Makers Association.