Review Hidromiel

Vol 8(4) July-August 2009 345

Review PaperNatural Product Radiance, Vol. 8(4), 2009, pp.345-355

IntroductionMead is an alcoholic beverage

made from honey. It is the oldest andeasily made fermented drink in the world.It is nutritious, containing many elementsrequired by an organism and has anexcellent effect on digestion andmetabolism1. It has also been found goodfor those suffering from anaemia andchronic diseases of gastro-intestinal tract.Honey the raw material for preparationof mead is converted enzymatically toreducing sugars and removing excessmoisture. Honey contains about 80different substances but 95 to 99% of thetotal solids are sugars. The colour, flavourand aroma are important qualitycharacteristics of honey from consumerspoint of view. Moreover, the quality ofhoney varies with the source of nectar. The

found in northern China. First knowndescription of mead is found in theRigveda dating back to 1700-1100 BC3.In Celtic mythology, mead was considereda drink of nobles and gods providingimmortality, knowledge and gift ofpoetry4.

Though mead is the oldestfermented product being used by man yetit is difficult to find it commercially.Considerable information is available onmethods of producing mead1, 3, 5-12 andattempt has been made to give an overviewof the same.

Technology of meadpreparation

Preparation of an alcoholicbeverage is dependent on several factorssuch as raw materials, microorganisms,additives, vinification practices,maturation procedure, etc. The alcoholic

content of mead can varybetween 7-22 per cent. Byvarying proportion of honeyand water and point wherefermentation is stopped,different types of meads canbe prepared. The meadcan be dry and light similarto traditional wine fromgrape or sweet and heavy-bodied desert wine andif fermentation is left to

Production technology and quality characteristics of mead andfruit-honey wines : A review

J K Gupta* and Rajesh SharmaDepartment of Entomology and Apiculture

Dr. Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and ForestryNauni, Solan 173 230, Himachal Pradesh, India

*Correspondent author, E-mail: [email protected] 14 April 2009; Accepted 18 June 2009

AbstractMead is perhaps the oldest fermented drink in the world, yet it is difficult to find it

commercially. A brief review of the history of mead, its value as a health tonic and technology ofmead production has been given in the present paper. Fermentation of honey can be used toproduce different varieties of mead, sherry, sparkling wine and fruit-honey wines and it may havedifferent flavours depending upon floral source of honey, additives and type of yeast used in thefermentation. Honey which is the raw material to produce mead shows lot of variations in colourand composition which are likely to affect the end product (mead) produced. Composition ofhoney from different floral sources has also been described. One of the unique characters of honeyis that it contains many minor constituents which are responsible for antioxidant activity of mead.Information on physical, chemical, microbiological and sensory evaluation of mead and honeywines prepared by using fruit juices has also been summarised.

Keywords: Mead, Honey fermentation, Fruit-honey wine, Sensory evaluation, Yeasts, Additives

IPC code; Int. cl.8C12G 1/00

composition of honey even from the samefloral source varies from year to year andregion to region due to climatic andgeographical factors2.

Available archaeological evidencefor production of mead dates back to 7000BC. Pottery vessels containing mixture ofmead, rice and other fruits with organiccompounds of fermentation have been

Plate 1: Different types of honey (a. Completely granulatedhoney; b-c. Liquid honey of different colours;

d. Partly granulated and liquid honey)

a b c d

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continue while bottled, sparkling meadresembling sparkling white wine can alsobe produced7.

Raw materials used in preparationof meadHoney: Depending on the floral source,honey can be mono-floral i.e. honeyproduced from nectar of one predominantplant species or multi- floral (made fromnectar of different plant species). Thehoney quality is judged from its colour,aroma and flavour. Colour is one of themost important characteristics thatcontribute to appearance of honey. It hasbeen classified under seven colours whichcan be determined by colorimetricmethod13. These colours are, water white,extra white, white, extra light amber, lightamber, amber and dark amber (opticaldensity at 560nm varying between 0.0945to over 3.008).

On the basis of colour, lighthoney of creamy fawn colour is generallypreferred to make mead as dark honeyhaving strong flavour yields unpleasantmead6. Colour and some othercharacteristics of honey are also affectedby the heat treatments given to it and itsstorage conditions14-18. Honey consistsmainly of sugars and second majorcomponent is moisture (17.2 %). Thirdmain component of honey whichinfluences its properties is protein but itsconcentration is very low19, 20. Compositionof honey from different floral sources21, 22

is summarized in Table 1. Honey is asupersaturated solution with respect todextrose and returns to stable conditionby crystallizing excessive glucose at lowtemperature resulting in honeygranulation or crystallization (Plate1).Granulation can be complete (Plate 1a)

or partial (Plate 1d). Granulated honeyneeds to be liquefied by heating at 60oC,before making must for mead.

Differences have also beenobserved when honeys from differentsources were used in preparation ofmead. Mixed floral honey produced meadof higher final alcohol content than fromEucalyptus ochrophloia F. Muell.particularly when fermented by meadyeast23. Light honey from clover was,however, more difficult to ferment andrequired more additives in the form ofvitamins, minerals and nitrogen ascompared to dark honey from buckwheator goldenrod. It was interesting to notethat even all batches of clover honey didnot react in a similar way. Some batchespermitted very slow fermentation whereasin others there was almost nofermentation without addition ofsupplementary growth factors.Nevertheless, it was possible to fermentall types of honey tested by adding growthfactors24. Honey produced even from

buckwheat in two different years from twodifferent places produced mead withdifferent characteristics due to climaticand geographical factors on sourcematerial2, 25.

Addition of honey to fresh applejuice helped in juice clarification and thisproperty is related to protein-phenoliccompound interactions and thecompounds which are responsible forclarifying of apple juice havecharacteristics similar to gelatine. Gelatinewhen added to hazy juice entraps theparticles and coagulates them26-29. Keepingin view the property of clarifying juice andsugars as major constituent, honey hasbeen used in apple wine making30. Thelightly flavoured fruity honeys produceapple wines as clear as those made byusing sugar. But the overall sensory qualityof honey-treated apple wine is higher thanthat of conventionally prepared applewines with sugar. The protein in honey isresponsible for clarifying apple juice hasbeen reported to originate from honey

Table 1 : Composition of major uni-floral honeys in India22

Moisture Total dissolved Total reducing Non-reducing Acidity(%) solids (%) sugars (%) sugars (%) (%

Litchi 19.25 80.75 76.37 0.02 0Jamun 18.25 81.75 74.69 3.14 0.162Mustard 21.5 78.5 74.70 1.44 0.070Eucalyptus 21.75 78.25 72.06 2.04 0.102Rubber 24.75 75.25 70.84 1.84 0.085Neem 27 73 68.68 3.02 0.106Coriander 20.75 79.25 73.80 2.09 0.094Tamarind 21.5 78.5 75.44 2.02 0.08Soapnut 19.25 80.75 75.20 2.42 0.14Cardamom 21.5 78.50 76 0.14 0.12Sunflower 18 81.40 80 0.60 0.09Clover 17 83 78.14 2.34 0.07Khesari 17.5 82.5 78.80 1.42 0.18

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and 0.025% calcium chloride resulted infermentation producing 12-13% alcoholin about 25 days39. Honey althoughcontains fermentable sugars, but it isdeficient in nitrogen, minerals and growthfactors that stimulate yeast growth andfermentation. These problems can beovercome by adding 250 mg diammoniumphosphate and potassium bitartarate250mg/l. For adjusting acidity, 1.875g oftartaric acid or 1.750g/l of citric acid areadded40. Citric acid has been reported toprovide better flavour but tartaric acid hasbeen recommended as it is less easilymetabolized by undesirable lactic acidbacteria. To prevent growth of lacticbacteria, 25 to 50 mg sulphurousanhydride or potassium metabisulphite50 to 100mg/l can be added.

Two groups of additives in meadpreparation have been tested24. Formula Icontained inorganic salts and citric acidwhereas formula II contained a widespectrum of vitamins and small amountsof both organic and inorganic nitrogenstimulatory to yeast growth (Table 3). Itwas observed that fermentability levelvaried with floral source and additives.The addition of both I and II formulaeresulted in rapid fermentation of cloverhoney base using yeast 618. This indicatesthe significance of additives in qualitymead production.

Microbiology of meadfermentation

Selection of yeast type forfermentation process is an importantaspect as it affects flavour and other qualityparameters of the mead. There are severalstrains, some of the best yeasts for thispurpose are Maury and Vierke yeasts7.Immobilized whole cells of

Table 2: Water content (%) and antioxidantcontent of different unifloral honey35

Honey % water Antioxidant content( 10-5 g)

Sage 14.2 21.3

Mesquite 15.0 28.9

Fireweed 16.0 31.2

Soyabean 18.6 45.2

Clover 14.2 50.7

Sweet clover 14.2 52.7

Christmas berry 17.2 147.0

Sunflower 16.6 169.7

Buckwheat 18.4 432.0

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bees and not from plant nectaries fromwhere the bees collect nectar31.

Honey also contains many minorconstituents which are responsible forantioxidant property. It also has alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene,catalase and peroxidase which act asantioxidant under some conditions1, 32-34.Polyphenolic compounds, peptides,organic acids, enzymes, vitamins andMaillards reaction products responsiblefor antioxidant property of honey have alsobeen listed. Phenolic profile of honey alsovaries with floral source25. Antioxidantcapacity of honey from 14 different floralsources has been determined byspectrophotometric assay35 and it has beenreported that highest concentration ofantioxidants was 20.3 times that of thelowest indicating the extent of variationsin honey from different sources (Table 2).The antioxidant content was foundpositively correlated with both moisturecontents and colour of honey. Honey isalso known to have anti-inflammatory andantibacterial properties and has been usedas natural food preservative36-37. Due to

all these special properties of honey it hasbeen hypothesized that mead will alsohave this antioxidant quality. Studiesconducted on heat treatment in meadproduction have revealed that drastic heattreatment have potential to alter theantioxidant capacity of mead by changingphenolic profiles25. Antioxidant levels inhoney is quite low as compared totraditional dietary sources like fruits,vegetables and tea and may not serve as amajor source of dietary antioxidants yetit has the potential for honey to play animportant role in providing antioxidantin highly palatable form35. Mead can beone such product incorporating thisproperty and antioxidant capacity of honeymay be extended through fermentationinto mead25.Other additives: Fruit juices, salts andacids have been used as additives tostimulate fermentation and improveflavour38. In general, honey drinks lackbody and are too sweet. Fruit juices canbe added to contribute acid and growthfactors for yeast fermentation. Additionof potassium tartrate and ammonium

phosphate (0.04%) to dilutedhoney produced a blandalcoholic drink in about 6weeks. In another experiment,addition of ammoniumchloride, potassiumbicarbonate and sodiumphosphate in concentrations of0.04 to 0.08% could producemead in about 4 weeks. Rateof fermentation varies withdifferent nutritive salts used.Addition of 0.2% cream oftartar, 0.1% ammoniumphosphate, 0.5% citric acid,0.025% magnesium chloride


Saccharomyces cerevisiae for meadproduction have also been tried. For thispurpose, a strain with high sugar andalcohol tolerance and quick fermentationability was grown and then the cells wereimmobilized by mixing with sodiumalginate and activated charcoal to produceslurry and extruded in 0.15M CaCl

2.

Diluted honey mashes were then used incontinuous reactor and stationary culturesunder different fermentation conditions.The continuous alcohol production wasstable at pH 2.5-6 and 18-30oCtemperature. This process reducedproblems of contamination and secondaryfermentation associated with traditionalmead production41. There is variation inthe mead prepared using wine yeast ormead yeast. Fermentation with wine yeastproceeded faster and gave higher alcoholand lower residual sugar concentrationsthan fermentation with mead yeast at 20or 30oC. Time of fermentation was sameat both temperatures but at 30oC thechemical reaction proceeded more

rapidly in the earlier stages offermentation23.

Samples of naturally fermentinghoney from different floral sources havebeen analysed for different strains ofyeast42. Physical properties and chemicalcomposition of fermented honey did notdiffer from those of non-fermenting honeyexcept for high water content in theformer. Twenty strains of yeast wereisolated from honey and all were identifiedas Zygosaccharomyces rouxii (or itsimperfect form). Morphological andphysiological properties of the strains weresimilar, as were some of their fermentationproperties.

Strains of Zymomonas mobilishave been used in Brazil to produce ethanolfrom sugarcane-derived materials43.Contamination can be minimized byadding Bactol Q. Cells of Z. mobilis aresmaller than S. cerevisiae andcentrifugation of the former is more difficultand, therefore, it has been advised to useflocculent strains. Z. mobilis competes

advantageously with yeast on glucosesubstrate. In comparison to Z. mobilisAg11 and 3 yeast strains, Z. mobilis T2was judged to promote better mead fromdark honey originating from sugarcaneexudates. Characteristics of fermentationyeast isolated from traditional Ethiopianhoney wine, locally known as ogol havealso been studied44. A strain of fermentationyeast designated as ET99 with globose orsub-globose cells was isolated from ogol.This strain was identified as belonging tothe genus Saccharomyces and closelyresembled S. cerevisiae. Another yeaststrain was also isolated from ogol andidentified as Pichia membranifaciens,but this yeast strain did not show anyfermentation ability. P. membranifaciensis well known as pellicle-forming yeast andis often isolated from various alcoholicbeverages and spoiled foods. Mead madeby using S. cerevisiae ET99 contained16.5 % ethanol. Higher amount ofpropan-1-ol (43mg/l) was found in honeywine than in those made with wine yeastW4 and sake yeast K7. The aromacharacteristics of mead from yeast ET99were acceptable as determined by sensoryevaluation44.

Yeasts vary in their ability toferment honey. Among the different strainstested, strain Steinberg 618 gave rapidfermentation and the mead had higheralcohol content with fine flavour and gavebetter than average stability on storage.Some of the yeast though produced rapidfermentation but there was problem ofhaze and the resulting mead was difficultto clarify and stabilize. Yeast 605 was closeto strain 618 but yeast 223 which isexcellent for grape juice fermentation andchampagnes did not yield as high alcoholcontent as 618 in honey fermentation24.

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Table 3 : Composition of growth stimulants informula 1 and 2 used for mead preparation24

Formula 1 Formula 2

Constituents Quantity* Constituents Quantity**(g) (g)

Ammonium sulphate 1.0 Biotin 0.05Potassium phosphate 0.5 Pyridoxine 1.0Magnesium chloride 0.2 Meso-inositol 7.5Sodium hydrogen sulphate 0.05 Calcium pentothenate 10.0Citric acid 5.0 Thiamine 20.0

Peptone ( Roche) 100.0Ammonium sulphate 861.45

Total 6.75 Total 1000.00

*To be added in each litre of dilute honey base;**To be added in 0.25g/l of dilute honey base


Preparation of meadBasic method

For preparation of mead, honeyis diluted with water to make aconcentration of 22 oBrix6. To each litreof this diluted honey solution additivesare incorporated. These includes; 5g citricacid, 1.5g diammonium monohydrogen,1g potassium bitartarate, 0.25gmagnesium chloride and calcium chloridealong with 100 ppm SO

2. For starting

fermentation process, 3 to 5% active yeastculture is added. The fermentationprocess is continued till TSS getsstabilized. The mead is then siphoned,matured and bottled (Fig. 1).

Variations in methodDifferent types of honey with

different ingredients have been used toprepare meads1. For preparing must orwort either comb honey (honey sealed inthe combs by bees) or extracted honeycan be used. To make mead from combhoney, the combs are immersed insimmering water. Wax on heating will floatand it is skimmed-off. If extracted honeyis used then, the scum formed duringboiling is skimmed. For preparing must,honey is diluted with six parts of waterand required spices are added. Honeywithout any heat treatment producedmore aromatic and tasty mead but suchmead has tendency to sour quickly ascompared to that prepared from boiledhoney. The must for heated honey meadis boiled for 2 to 4h, is strained andallowed to ferment. White foam appearson the surface with initiation offermentation process but it disappearswhen fermentation process is complete.Mead should be matured at a temperaturebelow 12oC and final stage of fermentation

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Fig. 1 : Flow sheet of different unit operations in production of mead

Honey

Diluted honey

Must

Fermentation

Siphoning/racking

Bottling

Pasteurization(62.5C for 15 min)

Bottle Maturation

Mead

(2-3 times)

(With 2.5 cm head space)

SO2 100 ppm

Saccharomycescerevisiae (3-5% activeyeast culture)

Water5g citric acid, 1.5g diammoniummonohydrogen phosphate, 1g potassiumbitartrate, 0.25g magnesium chloride andcalcium chloride

Must

XX

XX

XX

XX

X

X

X

X

X

X

X


should be done at 2-4oC. On completionof fermentation, the mead is strainedthrough muslin cloth. Mature mead isbottled and is allowed to stand for twomore weeks before drinking. Based on thecomposition and additives followingdifferent types of meads have beenlabelled1:

Latvian mead: 5 l water, 800g honey,25g yeast and juice of two lemons.

Lemon mead: 2kg honey, 100g hops,juice of 6-8 lemons, 100g yeast, 3gisinglass, 12 l water.

Red mead: 4kg honey, 25 l water, 100ghops, 6g Orris root, 1 tablespoon burntsugar, 2-3 grains of cardamom and forpreparing white mead, burnt sugar is notadded.

Russian mead: 4kg honey, 15 l water,200g yeast, 200g hops.

Tatar mead: 2.5kg honey, 8 l boiledwater, 100g yeast.

Varieties of meadMeads can have a lot of flavours

depending on the source of honey andadditives (adjuncts or gruit), type of yeastused in fermentation and ageingprocedure. Different terminology has beenused3, 7-12 for the mead prepared by usinghoney with fruit juices, spices, herbs,etc. Metheglin (mead which containsspices or herbs); Melomel (meadcontaining fruit juices); Cyser (mead withapple juice); Pyment (mead with grapejuice); Hippocras (pyment with herbs andspices); Meade (it is not mead but whitewine with added honey). Other varietiesof meads are: Sack mead (mead made withmore copious amount of honey than usual.The finished product retains elevated level

of sweetness), Rhodomel (made fromhoney and rose petals).

Pilot-plant procedure forproduction of clover honey mead

Based on laboratory studies, apilot-plant procedure has also beendeveloped for production of clover honeymead24 and is described here.

Procedure for preparing dry mead:Liquid clover honey is diluted with waterto 21% solids. In case of granulatedhoney, it is first heated at 60-65oC toliquefy and then diluted. Differentnutrients are added in each gallon (about4.5 l) of diluted honey, viz. citric acid(18.9g), ammonium sulphate (4.65g),potassium phosphate (1.9g), magnesiumchloride (0.7g), peptone (0.1g), sodiumhydrogen sulphate (0.2g), thiamine(20mg), calcium pantothenate (10mg),inositol (7.5mg), pyridoxine (1mg) andbiotin (0.05 mg).

The pH of the solution is adjustedto 3.7-4.0 with sodium hydroxide orhydrochloric acid. On cooling the contentsto 27oC, 40 gallons (about 180 l) ofsolution is placed in 55 gallon (about247 l) barrel and inoculated with0.5 % (v/v) of actively growing culture ofyeast 618 and the container is sealed witha bubbler. The fermentation is carried at18oC and mead is allowed to age for 6months. After ageing it is decanted andfiltered through Celite 503 and acidityadjusted to 0.6% with citric or tartaricacid. The mead is then pasteurized at 63oCfor 5 min and bottled while hot. Thisprocess yielded dry mead with alcoholiccontent of 12 % (v/v).

Procedure for preparing meadchampagne: For this purpose, clover

honey is diluted to 18-19% solids.Formulae I and II (Table 3) are added tothe diluted honey. This yielded mead(cuvee) with alcoholic content of 10%.Sucrose (2% by weight) was added tocuvee with yeast nutrients per gallon(about 4.5 l), viz. peptone 0.1g, thiamine20 mg, calcium pantothenate 10 mg,inositol 7.5 mg, ammonium sulphate0.86 mg, pyridoxine 1.0 mg and biotin0.5 mg.

The cuvee was inoculated with7 % yeast made of equal quantities of yeast223 which is champagne yeast and yeast618 which is adapted to honeyfermentation. It is bottled in champagnebottles sealed with metal caps andincubated at 18oC. In 20 days, the alcoholcontents increased to 11.9 % and carbondioxide pressure to 4.6 atmospheres (atroom temperature). This mead had apleasant flavour and retained itscarbonation very well. There was moretendencies to form a head than found ingrape champagnes.

Sherry production from mead:Clover honey mead can be made into alight sherry by re-fermenting it with florsherry yeast, S. oviformis (strain 31).The acetaldehyde content was raised bypassing the mead through glass columnfilled with ceramic tile pieces inoculatedwith yeast from 48 to 190mg/l in 48h.Sherry produced from mead was preferredby many tasters to the original mead. Dueto low acidity, mead offers good base forproduction of sherry.

Production of honey-fruit wineFruit pulps/juices of apple,

apricot, peach, plum, grapes, black berry,raspberry, black cherries, red currants,black currants and gooseberries have been

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used and added to must for preparationof mead. For preparing fruit-honey wine,a constant blending ratio of 8:5:3 for pulp/juice, water and honey has been tried45.Procedure involved is given in Fig. 2.

Quality characteristics ofmead

Quality of mead depends on thesource of honey, yeast and additives used.Heating of honey during must preparationhas influenced the aroma and taste of themead. Preheated and unheated diluteexperimental honey solution fermentedwith inoculated yeast for 21 days at 25-26oC produced mead acceptable to sensoryassessor. But the product made from thepreheated honey preserved better thanunheated one after storage for two monthsat ambient temperatures (24-32oC).However, for extended shelf-life of productsubsequent secondary decantation orfiltration and proper airtight bottling ofmead prepared from cassava honey46 isneeded. The adverse effect of heating thediluted honey is the production ofundesirable flavour that develops in theresulting mead47. Long heating induced adarkening of the honey and was darkerthan those receiving short time or noheating. After fermentation, all threemeads were lighter in colour than thosebefore fermentation due to sedimentationbut the mead made from long heatedmethod was still much darker than theothers. The pH, acidity and residual sugarcontents of these types of mead were,however, almost the same. Sensory testsindicated that mead with no heat waslighter than others but the panel membersnoticed an acidic taste with a veggie andhay-like flavour and highest score wasawarded to mead samples that received

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Fig. 2: Flow sheet of different unit operations in production of fruit-honey wine

Pasteurization(62.5C for 15 min)

Bottle Maturation

Fruit honey wine

Bottling

Siphoning

Fermentation

Must

Diluted honey pulp

Pulp or Juice (8 part)

Water (5 part)

Honey (3 part)

Pectinol 0.05%and SO2 100 ppm

(2-3 times)

(With 2.5 cm head space)

MustX

X

X

X

X

X

XX

XX

XX

XX

X

Saccharomycescerevisiae (5% activeyeast culture)


short heat treatment in the form of flashheating. There was no undesirable flavourdue to heat treatment except for a slightharshness which can be eliminated byageing. Mead made by conventionalmethod with long heat time was darkerin colour, showing strong harshness andoff taste which has been described asrubbery and resin like taste.

Heating of honey is required forpasteurization and to precipitate proteinsand other compounds causing haze but itproduced undesirable flavours and,therefore, attempts have been made todevelop technique that does not requireheating of honey solution. For this purposeultra-filter, using a 10K molecular weightcut-off has been used to remove highmolecular compounds. After filteringmead produced from the filtered honeysolution was smooth, clean and good inflavour with no undesirable after tastetypical of heated method. Comparison hasbeen made between the meads preparedfrom clover honey using conventionalmethod, flash heating method and ultrafiltration with molecular cut-off of 50K48.Ultra-filtered (UF) mead was clearimmediately after fermentation requiringno long clarification and stabilizationperiod as required by conventional mead.Sensory tests (Table 4) showed UF-treatedmead to be superior to mead made byconventional method. Moreover, UF-treated mead does not require a longstorage. Analysis of volatile aromacomponents of mead prepared from honeyof different floral sources (buckwheat andsoyabean) is also available25 (Table 5).

Fermenting behaviour of honeysolution varies to a great extent dependingon the floral source from where bees havecollected nectar. On the basis of sensory

evaluation panel members described applewine made with clover-locust and orangeblossom honeys as pleasant and desirablefruity wines with regards to flavour andaroma as compared to that made usingsugar. However, no honey flavour wasnoticed in the wines prepared. The wine

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Table 4 : Effect of heat treatment on characteristics of clover mead48

Treatment pH Total acidity Alcohol Flavour Good(%) (%) description rating

Conventional mead 2.9 0.48 11.9 Harsh, resin-like taste 10%

Flash heated mead 2.9 0.51 11.4 Slightly harsh 50%

50K-UF-mead 2.9 0.49 12.3 Clean, smooth 90%

Table 5 : Volatile aroma components in buckwheat and soya mead25

Compound Odour property Buckwheat mead Soya mead(g/l) (g/l)

Ethyl-butanoate Fruity, bubble gum 978.6 619.8

Ethyl 2-methyl-butanoate Fruity, berry 264.2 69.87

Ethyl 3-methyl-butanoate Fruity, blueberry 84.48 Not detected

Isoamyl acetate Fruity, banana 532.7 277.4

Ethyl hexanoate Fruity, apple 306.5 373.2

Ethyl octanoate Fruity 350.4 360.5

Ethyl decanoate Sweet, nutty 121.2 114.0

Isoamyl alcohol Malty, sour 104312 95680

2-Phenyllethanol Rosy 10279 56691

4-Methylphenol Phenolic Not detected 526.5

Table 6a : Physico-chemical characteristics of apple winesmade with sugar and honey from different floral sources30

Treatment pH Acidity Alcohol Residual(%) (v/v %) sugar

Sucrose 3.86 0.56 10.5 0.1

Clover honey 3.57 0.59 9.8 0.4

Buckwheat honey 3.59 0.62 9.8 0.4

made from buckwheat honey had a strongand distinctive odour and flavour ofbuckwheat and wine made from this sourcewas ranked poorly30 (Table 6a & 6b).Thus, it is important to select honey fromappropriate floral source to make qualitymead.


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In addition to floral source ofhoney, mead prepared by using differenttypes of yeasts has also been analysed forits final ethanol contents and aromaticcomponents44. Yeast ET99 (Isolated fromogol) when used produced mead havinghigher level of propan-1-ol andacetaldehyde (Table 7) as compared towine yeast (W4) or Sakeyeast (K7).

Q u a l i t yparameters of differenttypes of mead have alsobeen compared25. Theethanol contents can varyfrom 4.6 to 11.8% inhome brewed andcommercial meadsmade from soya honey(Table 8).

Legal limits fortable wines have also

Table 6b : Sensory characteristics of apple wines madewith sugar and honey30

Treatment Colour Rank Description

Sucrose Light Yellow 3.3 Clean and neutral flavour

Clover honey Light Yellow 2.3 Clear, fruity and desirable

Buckwheat honey Dark brown 4.2 Strong and distinctive undesirablebuckwheat odour

been prescribed which are in terms of totalSO

2, volatile acidity and % ethanol (for red

wine respective limits are 350, 1.4 and14 whereas for white wine these are350, 1.2 and 14). Antioxidant activity ofthese different types of mead is given inTable 9.

Fermentation behaviour, physico-chemical characteristics and qualities ofvarious fruit honey wines have beenstudied and compared to those withmead45. Juices and pulps from apple, plumand pear have been used with honey toprepare musts. Variations were found evenin physico-chemical characteristics ofwines and musts prepared from fruitjuices and honey (Table 10). The desirablelevel of various attributes like colour, esterand aldehyde contents were found in thismead as compared to that prepared onlyfrom honey. Sensory evaluation revealedapple honey wine to be the best where asplum-honey wine was found unacceptabledue to poor TSS-acid ratio.

Table 7 : Effect of type of yeast used inpreparation of mead44

Yeast Ethanol (final) Aromatictype v/v (%) components

ET99 16.5 Higher level of propan-1-ol andacetaldehyde

W4 17.5 Higher level of 2-methyl propanol,ethyl acetate and iso-amyl-acetate

K7 17.5 Higher level of 3-methyl-butanol

Table 9 : Antioxidant activity of different types of mead25

Type of mead Total phenolic Oxygen radical(mg/l gallic acid absorbance capacity

equivalents) (mmol Troloxequivalents/l)

Commercial mead 3102.93 16.06

Home-brewed mead from soya honey 163.63 7.12

Buckwheat experimental mead 300.6 3.79

Soy experimental mead 167.16 3.47

Table 8 : General quality characteristics of different meads25

Type of mead Free Bound Titratable Volatile % oBrix pH ResidualSO

2 SO

2acidity acidity Ethanol sugars

(ppm) (ppm) (g/l (g/l (%)tartaric) acetic)

Commercial mead from 43.2 56.8 5.9 0.6 11.8 8.2 3.64 1.0soya honey

Home-brewed mead 3.2 16.0 2.1 1.3 4.6 13.0 3.3 20.0from soya honey

Buckwheat experimental 9.5 14.1 2.97 0.48 11.5 7.9 3.23 18.0 mead

Soy experimental mead 7.4 20.0 3.89 0.91 6.4 14.0 2.74 20.6


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ConclusionThe research efforts made

towards preparation of mead are sporadicwithout systematic investigation. Therecent survey of literature has given someencouraging trends for the meadproduction and evaluation. Preparation offruit honey wine is another step in thisdirection. Inspite of a lot of research onmead, the product is not available in themarket commercially. It is documentedthat mead has been prepared from thetime immemorial, but barring a fewinvestigations other appear to be that ofhome scale wine.

References1. Ioyrish N, Bees and People, MIR publishers,

Moscow, 1974, p. 213.

2. White JW, Honey: Advances in food research,eds CO Chichester, Academic press, New York,1978, pp. 287-375.

3. Mead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mead.

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Table 10 : Physico-chemical characteristics of juices/pulps/honey, their musts and the fermentation rates45

Characteristics Apple Plum Pear Honey

Juice Must Juice Must Juice Must Honey Must

Total soluble solids (oB) 12.0 28.0 10.5 20.0 9.5 20.0 80.0 20.0

Acidity (% M A) 0.44 0.40 2.14 1.76 0.38 0.30 0.06 0.28

pH 3.68 3.72 3.12 3.18 3.99 3.84 4.52 3.94Colour (Units)

Red 2.0 3.4 21.0 12.4 2.4 2.0 3.4 2.3

Yellow 10.0 13.0 4.0 5.0 9.0 7.4 50.0 7.5

Blue 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.2

Fermentation rates (oB/24h) - 1.4 - 1.28 - 1.20 - 1.10

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