Mead statistics show a beverage category with clearly defined style ranges and a small but expanding U.S. production base. BJCP guidelines divide mead by sweetness, carbonation, and strength, while AMMA reports document producer counts, sales, and gallons made during the early 2010s. The figures below keep each measurement period and geography explicit.
Contents
- How mead styles are measured
- Strength and alcohol ranges
- The U.S. producer landscape
- Sales and survey results
- Production volume and growth
- Mead alongside wineries and breweries
- Regulatory and labeling context
How mead styles are measured
The BJCP 2015 Mead Guidelines describe mead as being made primarily from three core ingredients: honey, water, and yeast. That three-part foundation supports a broad range of finished beverages, but the guidelines organize the category with several measurable dimensions.
For sweetness, the BJCP lists three levels: dry, semi-sweet, and sweet. For carbonation, it lists three levels as well: still, petillant, and sparkling. For strength, the categories are hydromel, standard, and sack. These are style classifications rather than a count of commercial products, and they give readers a consistent vocabulary for comparing meads.
The same guidelines use original gravity and final gravity ranges to describe the style boundaries. Original gravity measures the liquid before fermentation, while final gravity describes the finished beverage. Together, those measurements show how a mead’s starting concentration and remaining density differ across strength and sweetness categories.
Strength and alcohol ranges
The BJCP 2015 Mead Guidelines place hydromel at the lightest end of the strength scale. Hydromel has an original gravity range of 1.035 to 1.080 and an alcohol-by-volume range of 3.5% to 7.5%. Standard-strength mead starts at a higher original gravity range of 1.080 to 1.120 and spans 7.5% to 14.0% ABV.
Sack-strength mead occupies the highest BJCP strength band. Its original gravity range is 1.120 to 1.170, and its ABV range is 14.0% to 18.0%. The ranges meet at the category boundaries, so 7.5% and 14.0% appear at the edges of adjacent strength descriptions.
| BJCP strength category | Original gravity | ABV |
|---|---|---|
| Hydromel | 1.035–1.080 | 3.5%–7.5% |
| Standard | 1.080–1.120 | 7.5%–14.0% |
| Sack | 1.120–1.170 | 14.0%–18.0% |
Sweetness has its own final-gravity ranges in the BJCP guidelines. Dry mead is listed at 0.990 to 1.010, semi-sweet mead at 1.010 to 1.025, and sweet mead at 1.025 to 1.050. These final-gravity bands are separate from the strength categories: a mead can be discussed in terms of both how sweet it finishes and how strong it is.
The U.S. producer landscape
The AMMA First Annual Mead Industry Report provides historical U.S. counts from the early 2010s. In 2014, AMMA identified 194 total mead producers. It classified 150 of them as meaderies and counted 25 member meaderies. These figures describe the report’s 2014 industry snapshot, not a current census.
The same report records an earlier estimate from Jeff Herbert, who identified 60 U.S. meaderies in 2011 while building a business plan. Because this figure and the AMMA 2014 count come from different years and contexts, they should not be treated as a single continuous series. They do, however, illustrate how the number of identified U.S. meaderies varied across the report’s historical reference points.
AMMA’s 2015 Mead Industry Report surveyed 52 meaderies. The age profile in that survey was weighted toward relatively young businesses: 29% of the mead makers had been open for one year or less. The oldest meadery represented had been open for 25 years, while only seven meaderies in the survey had been open for more than 10 years.
The survey also recorded adjacent business activities. One surveyed mead maker operated a distillery, and zero surveyed mead makers operated a brewery. Those results describe the 52-meadery sample and should not be generalized to every U.S. producer.
Sales and survey results
The AMMA 2015 report measured average mead sales among the surveyed producers in cases and dollars. Average sales were 404 cases in 2012 and 823 cases in 2013. The report characterizes that change as a 103% increase in case sales from 2012 to 2013.
Average sales per meadery also rose across those two years. The reported average was $48,624 in 2012 and $112,000 in 2013. These are averages for the report’s surveyed meaderies, so they should not be read as the revenue of every producer or as a nationwide total.
| Measure | 2012 | 2013 |
|---|---|---|
| Average mead sales | 404 cases | 823 cases |
| Average sales per meadery | $48,624 | $112,000 |
The report also gives total reported mead sales for 2014: $6.5 million. It states that reported sales grew 32% from 2012 to 2013, 42% from 2013 to 2014, and 84% from 2012 to 2014. These percentages are reported changes in the AMMA industry figures; they are not a forecast of later market performance.
The sales data is useful alongside the producer-age data. A survey in which 29% of mead makers had been open for one year or less is measuring a relatively young business population, while the sales figures summarize reported performance for specific years. That combination gives context for the category’s early commercial development without establishing a present-day market size.
Production volume and growth
AMMA’s 2015 Mead Industry Report reported 62,293 gallons of mead production in 2012 and 63,555 gallons in 2013. It reported a much larger 144,987 gallons in 2014. The report characterizes production as rising 128% from 2013 to 2014.
For 2014, the report gives average production per meadery of 3,372 gallons. That average belongs to the report’s calculation and period; it is not a universal production level for all meaderies. The total and average figures also refer to reported industry data, so they should be kept distinct from estimates, forecasts, or an independently verified census.
| Production measure | Reported figure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Total mead production | 62,293 gallons | 2012 |
| Total mead production | 63,555 gallons | 2013 |
| Total mead production | 144,987 gallons | 2014 |
| Average production per meadery | 3,372 gallons | 2014 |
The production sequence shows modest movement from 2012 to 2013 in the reported totals, followed by a larger reported increase in 2014. The 2014 figure is the highest of the three listed years, and the report’s 128% growth statement specifically compares 2013 with 2014. No additional years are supplied here, so the figures do not establish a long-term trend beyond that period.
Mead alongside wineries and breweries
The AMMA First Annual Mead Industry Report places the meadery count in the context of other U.S. beverage producers. It reports 7,498 U.S. wineries in 2012, including 6,439 bonded wineries and 1,059 virtual wineries. The same report says total U.S. wineries increased by 1,141, from 6,357 in 2009 to 7,498 in 2012.
AMMA reported that meaderies accounted for 2% of all U.S. wineries in 2014. That comparison uses different dates for the meadery and winery figures, so it is best read as the report’s stated industry-share statistic rather than as a same-year reconstruction of every producer category.
Brewing figures in the same AMMA report, citing the Brewers Association, show 2,538 breweries operating in the United States as of June 30, 2013. That total was up by 446 from June 2012. The Brewers Association also listed 1,605 breweries in planning at mid-2013, compared with 1,252 in the prior year.
AMMA reported that 98% of U.S. brewers were craft brewers in 2013, again citing the Brewers Association. This figure concerns brewers, not meaderies, wineries, or the composition of the mead market. Keeping those categories separate matters because the surrounding industries differ in definition, scale, and measurement date.
Regulatory and labeling context
The AMMA 2015 Mead Industry Report, citing federal wine tax rules, states that the federal small-producer winery tax credit applies to the first 100,000 gallons. The same source describes the small-producer threshold in those rules as 250,000 gallons. These are regulatory figures associated with the cited rules and report period; they are not production totals.
The TTB Mead/Honey Wine Resources states that standard honey wine may not exceed 14% alcohol by volume. That 14% figure is a regulatory or labeling reference from TTB, while the BJCP’s standard-strength mead range runs from 7.5% to 14.0% ABV. The two figures can be compared because both use ABV, but they come from different sources and serve different purposes.
For readers comparing a bottle or a style description, the distinction is practical. BJCP ranges classify style strength, sweetness, and carbonation. TTB material describes a standard honey-wine alcohol limit. AMMA reports describe historical producer, sales, production, and tax-rule context. None of those sources alone provides a current global market total, and the historical AMMA figures should remain tied to their stated years.