Disclosure: we earn a commission if you buy through links to our partner wine shops, at no extra cost to you. Links to Bee d'Vine are ordinary links at the moment and earn us nothing. How this works.
Mead alcohol content (ABV)
Most mead, or honey wine, is between 11% and 14% alcohol by volume, the same as grape wine and two to three times as strong as most beer. The full range for mead runs from about 3.5% for light session styles to 18% or more for strong sack meads.
| Drink | Typical ABV |
|---|---|
| Session mead (hydromel) | 3.5% to 7.5% |
| Ethiopian tej | 7% to 11% |
| Standard honey wine | 7.5% to 14% |
| Bee d'Vine sparkling / still | 11.5% / 12.5% |
| Sack (strong) mead | 14% to 18%+ |
| For comparison: beer | 4% to 7% |
| For comparison: grape wine | 11% to 15% |
Strength is set by how much honey goes in and how much alcohol the yeast can tolerate. As a rule of thumb, each pound of honey per gallon adds about 4.5% potential alcohol. Homebrewers can play with the numbers in our honey calculator, or work out the alcohol percentage of a finished batch with the mead ABV calculator. For how mead differs from wine and beer beyond strength, see mead vs wine vs beer.
Calories and carbs in mead
Calories in any wine come from two places: alcohol, at 7 calories per gram, and leftover sugar, at 4. Because most of the honey's sugar has been converted to alcohol, a dry honey wine lands in the same place as a dry grape wine.
| Per serving | Calories | Carbs |
|---|---|---|
| Bee d'Vine Brut (dry), 5 oz | about 125 | 5.3 g |
| Bee d'Vine Demi Sec (semi-sweet), 5 oz | about 140 | 9.4 g |
| Dry white wine, 5 oz | about 120 | about 4 g |
| Red wine, 5 oz | about 125 | about 4 g |
| Sweet dessert wine, 3.5 oz | about 165 | about 14 g |
| Regular beer, 12 oz | about 150 | about 13 g |
| Sweet or sack mead, 5 oz (estimate) | 160 to 210 | 12 to 20 g |
The last row is our own arithmetic, based on a 14% to 16% mead with 80 to 120 grams of residual sugar per liter. Producers of sweet mead rarely publish nutrition data.
Sugar, keto and low-carb
A dry honey wine has a few grams of carbohydrate per glass, a little more than a dry white wine. Whether that fits your diet depends on how strict you are. A semi-sweet is roughly double. Sweet and sack meads are dessert and should be counted as such. If sugar matters to you, the words to look for are dry and brut. More in sweet vs dry honey wine.
Gluten
Honey, water and yeast contain no gluten, so traditional honey wine is naturally gluten-free, and Bee d'Vine states that its wines are. Three exceptions are worth knowing:
- Braggot is made with malted barley or wheat and is not gluten-free.
- Some craft meads are aged in used beer or whiskey barrels. Distilled spirits are generally considered gluten-free, but beer barrels are a gray area.
- Meaderies that also brew beer may share equipment. If you have celiac disease, ask.
Vegan and vegetarian
Honey wine is vegetarian. Whether it is vegan depends on your view of honey, and most vegan organizations say honey is not. One point in mead's favor: grape wines are sometimes clarified with animal-derived agents such as isinglass, gelatin or casein, whereas a simple honey-and-water wine has no need of them.
Sulfites
Sulfites are used in almost all winemaking to prevent oxidation and spoilage. Mead can be made with very little. Bee d'Vine says its wines have no naturally occurring sulfites of the kind grape wines develop, and that the small amounts it adds during aging and before bottling leave less than 15 parts per million of free sulfur, which is low by wine standards. In the United States any wine with 10 ppm or more total sulfites must say "contains sulfites" on the label, so you will still see those words.
Is honey wine good for you?
You will find articles claiming mead is rich in antioxidants, good for digestion or a natural antibiotic. We are not going to repeat them. Honey has interesting properties, but fermentation changes it, the quantities involved are tiny, and the dominant active ingredient in a glass of mead is ethanol. Public health guidance is consistent that less alcohol is better.
Frequently asked questions
What is the alcohol content of mead?
Most mead, or honey wine, is 11% to 14% ABV, the same range as grape wine. Session meads are 3.5% to 7.5%, and strong sack meads run from 14% to 18% or more.
How strong is mead compared with beer and wine?
About as strong as wine and two to three times as strong as beer. A typical mead is 11% to 14% ABV, against 11% to 15% for grape wine and 4% to 7% for most beer. Session meads are the exception, made at beer strength.
What proof is mead?
In the United States proof is twice the ABV, so a typical 12.5% honey wine is 25 proof. Proof is rarely printed on wine or mead labels.
How many calories are in a glass of mead?
About 120 to 140 for a 5 oz glass of dry to semi-sweet honey wine at 12.5% ABV, going by Bee d'Vine's published figures. Sweet, strong meads can reach 200 or more.
How many calories are in a bottle of mead?
A 750 ml bottle holds five 5 oz glasses, so a dry to semi-sweet honey wine at 12.5% ABV comes to roughly 600 to 700 calories a bottle. A sweet, strong mead can pass 1,000.
Is honey mead gluten-free?
Traditional mead made from honey, water and yeast is naturally gluten-free. The exceptions are braggot, which contains malted grain, and meads aged in used beer barrels.
Is honey wine vegan?
Most vegans do not consider honey vegan, so strictly speaking no. It is vegetarian, and well-made honey wine needs none of the animal-derived fining agents sometimes used in grape wine.
Is homemade mead stronger than store-bought?
It can be, because homebrewers often use a lot of honey and high-tolerance yeast. Three pounds of honey per gallon fermented dry gives about 13.5% to 14% ABV.
Is honey mead good for you?
No alcoholic drink is a health product. Traditional honey wine is gluten-free, which matters if you have to avoid gluten, but the alcohol is what counts for your health. Drink it because you enjoy it, in moderation.