What makes mead different from honey wine or honey beer?
Hmmm an interesting philosophical question. My initial answer would be nothing, but thats not entirely true. What most people call honey wine is in fact a traditional hydromel, or thin, light-bodied mead with no additional flavorings. There are other types of honey wine that dont fit that description though. Also, while wines require a certain amount of acid balancing, that practice is almost anathema in mething (mead brewing.) There is also a difference between a honey beer and a braggot (malt mead) that is a thin line to tread. If I had to make a blanket statement, I would say this: Its a mead if the primary fermentable ingredient is honey, and the fruits and/or malts are added for flavor. Its a honey wine or honey beer if the fruits and/or malts are the primary fermentable ingredients, and the honey is added for flavor. In either case, the flavoring agent will still have some fermentability. Its just not the primary fermentable in the batch.
