Mead in the United States
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Mead, a fermented honey beverage, was a minimally significant contributor to the United States alcohol industry until the late 20th century, at which time a craft industry for mead began to grow. From approximately the 1980s onward, small-scale meaderies began to increase in number, with a marked jump in interest evident by the 2010s.
Mead was not a commonly manufactured alcoholic beverage in the United States before the 1980s. It was mostly unknown to the general public or was thought of as a historical curiosity associated with the medieval era, and there was little variety in recipe to drive consumer interest.[1] A small number of special-interest manufacturers made mead starting in the 1960s.[2] One early manufacturer was Bargetto Winery in California, whose Chaucer's Mead was manufactured from the 1960s,[2] and another was Lingamore Winecellars, a Maryland-based winery that began making mead in 1978; initially, both were manufacturing primarily to supply Renaissance festivals.[3] Interest in mead began to increase alongside the growth of the home brewing market, especially after the publication of Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Home Brewing in 1984.[1] Some of the strategies employed by craft brewers to add distinctive flavors and aromas to their recipes were adopted by mead makers as well; as Imbibe magazine notes, "many meaderies are taking cues from craft brewing and dry-hopping meads, selling them in growlers and on draft, and aging them in oak barrels that once contained wine, bourbon or, fittingly, imperial stouts."[4] The boom in wine enthusiasm and the local foods movement also coincided with, and may have helped fuel, mead's rise in visibility.[5] Between 2008 and 2011 the number of participants in the Mazer Cup more than doubled, from 100 to 218, an indicator of the rising economic footprint of the drink.[6] There were about 60 commercial meaderies in the United States in 2003, and 200 in 2012.[7] 2012 marked the establishment of the American Mead Makers Association, a trade and industry group for mead manufacturers.[8] By 2020, approximately 500 small-scale mead manufacturers were operating in the United States.[9]
Regions
Mead-making operations are now present in most American states.[10][6] Michigan is one of the most prominent mead-producing states; Esquire remarks that the state "could very well be mead's mecca [in the US]."[11] Due to the minimal amount of water necessary for mead making, Arizona is also a prominent mead-making state; the state's central valleys play host to wildflower blooms that have attracted mead makers, and it is the home state of Drinking Horn Meadery in Flagstaff and Superstition Meadery.[1] California, the home state of Rabbits Foot Meadery, also has many mead-making businesses, especially in the greater Bay Area.[12] Colorado plays host annually to the Mazer Cup, an international awards competition for mead.[4] Some meaderies in the United States have explored cross-cultural mead recipes, pairing with meaderies in other countries, such as Ireland, South Africa, and Brazil.[1]