Is there a particular reason why mead is so rare these days, compared to beer and wine? Or is it just that folk’s personal tastes went to beer and wine, and no particular reason?
It’s probably because nobody knows what mead is. Why would you order something that you don’t even know about?
I can’t back this up, but I suspect a twofold cause. First, honey is and has been more expensive than fruit or malt sugar sources so mead fell into decline long ago (when beer was the main drink of the masses). Second, the crap that has been sold as mead is terrible stuff. The past few years have seen some quality mead become available, but you have to be looking for it to find it. The first “mead” I tasted was cheap wine flavored with honey, so not mead at all. The second was almost a syrup.
The point is that at one time, mead was a popular form of alchohol, at least in England. Since we are English by derivation (mostly), one would expect mead to still be around.
I might note that the alchohol of choice in America for decades was cider. Almost no one drinks that now, either.
This isn’t really an answer. Why do so few people know what mead is, compared to the number who recognize beer and wine?
Here’s an interesting History of Mead, I have no idea how accurate it is though it seems credible enough.
Just in case someone is reading this and wondering why mead should be popular, it’s freakin’ good if done right. Redstone makes a mead that’s almost as good as mine 
I don’t like wine, but a good mead has characteristics of wine without the stuff I don’t like (tannins, I think). The variety of honey used adds subtle flavors to the finished drink (which doesn’t generally have much honey flavor)
What is a distilled liquor made from honey called?
Gotmead.com claims it has no name, allaboutbeer.com tells of a person distilling mead, calling it “mead brandy” in passing but also stating that they’re “still trying to get a classification from the ATF”
A couple of other places I checked out agree that “mead brandy” is probably about as good as it gets.
Trust the Welsh
“Reaullt Hir is said to have distilled ‘chwisgi’ from braggot brewed by the monks of Bardsey Island in 356 AD.” from http://www.celticmalts.com/journal-a8.htm
I’m going to demand chwisgi next time I go a-drinkin’. “Bartender, chwisgi for everyone!”
I have only had mead once: this last fall at the ren faire. It was very sweet and I didn’t care for it. Perhaps other types might be better.
In the UK, cider has been making a very strong comeback - some clever marketing and decent brews have been instrumental in increasing sales, and the expense of beer sales.
Gotta get me some Magners this week. 
Si
If something is cheap, easy to buy and you like it why go looking for something different? It would never be popular unless it met all three critirera mentioned fist. I doubt it could be cheep in large quantities, because honey production is never going to match grain and other sugar production. Nowhere near enough capital will ever be available to make it in mass quantity in todays world on the gamble they can get people to buy it. Somebody like Oprah might be able to swing it if she somehow became obcessed enough with to invest in it and convince other’s to invest on her show. I don’t think anybody else has the money and carisma to do it, and she uses her money on better things.
In the future during an isolating event, I could see people with only extra honey making mead for the whole community.
I always thought “derivation” was for words; I’m as much Austrian, French, Scot and Mexican as I’m English, by blood. But even if I were John Bull, the last thing I’d order in a pub would be mead. I sounds like some kind of children’s glue.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but I know why I don’t buy it-- it’s too expensive and not very versatile. It’s extremely sweet and doesn’t go with a lot of foods, whereas you can find a beer or wine for just about anything. I’ve liked it alright the couple of times I’ve tried it, but a small bottle of it costs more than I like to pay for a nice bottle of wine, so I’m not inclined to purchase it on a regular basis.
I once found a recipe for “mead ale”, basically a thin, low strength mead which was hopped and carbonated.
So I brewed it.
It was pretty forgettable. The hops did a good job of killing the sweetness, but it was bland and thin. Possibly a good hot weather thirst quencher.
…so I’ll order a Zima instead.
AAARRGGGHH! This is exactly what I’m on about! Khadaji and nevermore got served total crap - mead is only as sweet as you make it. The sugar should ferment out, leaving a wine-like drink as dry or sweet as any other wine. That junk they peddle at RenFairs and theme restaurants is an embarrassment and probably cheap grape-wine with honey mixed in.
Braggot (honey based beer) should also not be overly sweet nor at all honey flavored. I’ve made a couple of batches and it tastes pretty much like regular beer.
I’ve made dry sparkling meads that were as good as or better than 99% of the sparkling wines out there. Crisp, dry, with a hint of ginger to fill out the flavor. I’ve also made heavy, heavy, heavy raisin meads that needed to age for 10 years and be sipped out of sherry glasses. The stuff available to consumers is crap. Make your own.
Absolutely do not make mead out of buckwheat honey. :eek: