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Untappd’s All-Time Top-Rated Traditional Mead
Un-bee-lievable.
Photography courtesy of Daniel Sweemer | Untappd (top left), Eric | Untappd (right), and Dylan Cui | Untappd (bottom left)
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A fermented alcoholic beverage also called honey wine (a bit of a misnomer, really) or “nectar of the gods,” mead is the world’s oldest fermented beverage. Wine is made from grapes, beer from hops and barley, cider from apples, and mead is made from honey.
Archaeological proof, courtesy of shards of Northern Chinese pottery, dates mead back to 7000-6500 B.C. “What’s really cool is that no matter who you are and no matter what your background is,” says Superstition Meadery Co-Founder Jeff Herbert, “your ancestors were drinking mead.”
You’ll find mead’s roots stretching all across the world from indigenous cultures in Ethiopia to Celtic traditions to now here in the States and everywhere in between.
Today, meaderies have taken this historically famous honey ferment and given it contemporary twists.
On Untappd’s list of all-time top-rated traditional meads, you’ll find a Four Roses bourbon barrel-aged one, one with blackberries and Meadowfoam honey, and another with orange blossom that spends eighteen months in oak barrels.
Editor’s Note: Looking to learn more about mead? Check out our entire primer on What Is Mead? here.
Untappd’s All-Time Top-Rated Traditional Meads
Editor’s Note: These are not Hop Culture’s personal ratings. This list is based on Untappd’s ratings for the All-Time Top-Rated Traditional Meads. The list shows the top meads based on Untappd’s weighted average formula, which effectively rates all meads against each other. A mead must have 150 ratings or more to qualify for this list. For more information on our rating system, please view the Untappd ratings explainer.
Prestige – Wildflower (ASP4R) – Pips Meadery
Gurnee, IL
Photography courtesy of Brittany B | Untappd
Get used to this name because you’re going to see it a lot on this list. Pips Meadery has become the gold standard of meaderies in the States, owning the spot as the top-rated beverage producer in all of Illinois. A family-owned institution, Pips sticks to its guns with bold, sometimes bordering-on-crazy flavors.
Known for their dessert-like meads, Pips makes meads that stretch what’s possible with this fermented honey beverage. Prestige – Wildflower (ASP4R) ages in Four Roses barrels for a depth and complexity that impresses, making its astronomically high 4.67 rating on the app make a little more sense.
Sunflowers – Schramm’s Mead
Ferndale MI
Photography courtesy of Jorge | Untappd
Founded by Ken Schramm, a prolific meadmaker who helped start the nation’s mead-specific competition, Mazer Cup, Schramm’s Mead isn’t just one of the best meaderies in Michigan; it’s one of the top in the country.
Schramm literally wrote the book on mead, so his decades of expertise and experience translate brilliantly into his own spot (which, for the record, he resisted opening for many years).
Schramm produces meads that focus heavily on local produce and ingredients. For instance, Sunflowers, whose curated blend of honeys creates a mead that’s “complex with alluring and beguiling aromatics,” according to the meadery.
With 447 ratings, Sunflowers hits a stratospheric 4.67 rating on Untappd.
Prestige – Meadowfoam (ASPHBB) – Pips Meadery
Gurnee, IL
Photography courtesy of Omar Arnaout | Untappd
Pips shows up on this list again with a barrel-aged version of its Meadowfoam Blossom Mead. Aged in Hudson Baby Bourbon barrels, Prestige – Meadowfoam (ASPHBB) nabs an impressive 4.66 rating.
Delicious was a word that a few Untappd fans brought up again and again in their ratings, with one simply writing, “I’m now a mead fan.”
46+2 (R&D) – Pips Meadery
Gurnee, IL
Photography courtesy of Eric | Untappd
A very special mead specially bottled to support a Down Syndrome awareness facility in Illinois, 46+2 (R&D) ages in rye whiskey barrels that previously held a vanilla imperial stout.
We can only imagine the complexity of layers in this Meadowfoam honey-based mead.
But based on the 4.66 rating and its place in the top five on this list, 46+2 (R&D) certainly hit some high notes.
“Sweet & boozy. Delicious,” wrote one Untappd fan.
Prestige Meadowfoam (ASPER) – Pips Meadery
Gurnee, IL
Photography courtesy of Brandon Matty | Untappd
For Pips’ fourth addition to the list, Prestige Meadowfoam (ASPER) hits a 4.6 rating. This Meadowfoam honey-based mead ages in Eagle Rare barrels.
Triple Barrel Prestige – Pips Meadery
Gurnee, IL
Photography courtesy of Dylan Cui | Untappd
This mead marks Pips Meadery’s fifth addition to this all-time top-rated list. By far and away, the meadery that shows up most here once again proves its mettle in meads.
Triple Barrel Prestige is what the Illinois-based meadery calls “unquestionably a bourbon drinker’s mead.” A blend of orange blossom and Meadowfoam honey, this mead spends three years in three different barrels—hand-selected Knob Creek, Elijah Craig, and a rum barrel.
The sweet mead proves an excellent base for soaking up the barrel character. Pips found notes of vanilla, wood spice, toffee, tobacco, cherry, and plantain.
Barrel-Aged Traditions: Meadowfoam Blackberry Blossom – Standard Meadery
Villa Park, IL
Photography courtesy of Johnny | Untappd
Honestly, we think Standard Meadery’s name is a bit of a misnomer. Because their meads are anything but standard. The second-highest-rated beverage producer in all of Illinois, Standard Meadery shines with this barrel-aged mead.
With a 4.47 rating, Barrel-Aged Traditions: Meadowfoam Blackberry Blossom takes a traditional mead, adds blackberries, and ages in bourbon barrels. At 12% ABV, this boozy, fruity behemoth showcases exactly what Standard Meadery can do.
Meadowfoam Mead – Boiler Brewing Co.
Lincoln, NE
Photography courtesy of Mitchell Smetana | Untappd
A complex exploration of Meadowfoam honey, Meadowfoam Mead illustrates the complex marshmallow and vanilla qualities of this Pacific Northwest honey.
The resulting mead from Boiler Brewing Co. “is sweet and decadent with vanilla and marshmallow character,” writes the brewery in the mead’s Untappd description, “perfect for your inner marshmallow character!”
Heather – Schramm’s Mead
Ferndale, MI
Photography courtesy of Alex Small | Untappd
Honey is an ingredient as complex (if not more) than hops in beer, grapes in wine, or apples in cider. The varieties of honey are vast, differing from state to state and country to country.
Heather honors this agricultural product by showcasing Scottish Heather honey. “It is among the dearest of honeys, fetching high prices for its mesmerizingly fruity, woody, and complex nature,” writes Schramm’s in this mead’s Untappd description. “The honey and the mead can both be accurately described as boldly perfumed, uninhibited, and resplendent.”
This is a mead for those who want to taste a story of this fermented beverage’s most crucial ingredient.
Miel de Garde – B. Nektar Meadery
Ferndale, MI
Photography courtesy of Daniel Sweemer | Untappd
Another top-notch meadery, B. Nektar, brings mead to a whole new level. Nothing is off the experimental table at this Michigan-based fermentorium, whether it’s a mead with honey and cherries or one with black tea and lemon juice.
This traditional mead made with orange blossom honey gets a glow up by spending eighteen months in oak barrels.
“Gloriously simple, but velvety smooth,” wrote one Untappd fan.
With 470 rankings, Miel de Garde notches a 4.35 rating on Untappd.
