When you’re dealing with alcoholic beverages, the subject of refrigeration gets brought up a lot. Whether or not you need to refrigerate your beverages is very important because you don’t want to waste your hard work by spoiling it. In this post we’ll be looking at the different scenarios for refrigeration for your mead.
Mead does not have to be refrigerated. You can store mead in room temperature, drink mead in room temperature, or keep an opened bottle of mead in room temperature as long as you reseal it. This is a general rule with mead.
There are of course variables that could change the stock answer and might make you want to refrigerate your mead. Whether you decide to or not usually comes down to personal preference.
Below I’ll cover different scenarios where you might want to refrigerate mead or not.
What temperature to drink mead at?
When it comes to drinking mead you could go in a number of directions. When you’re drinking mead, it’s typically a drink to really savor the flavors. In order to do this you would need to drink your mead at around 52-70 degrees fahrenheit. This would mean that it’s generally discouraged to drink mead that has come right out of any cold storage like a refrigerator or wine cellar.
In order to enjoy mead at the right temperature, it’s recommended to take your mead out of the refrigerator and let it sit for a few minutes or serve at room temperature. The cold temperature will not allow all the gas to escape which would limit your ability to taste the drink properly.
Mead is best treated as a red wine when serving it, and thus should be served at the same temperature. If you have a lighter mead it could be served slightly more chilled and treat it like a white wine.
You may also have a low alcoholic mead you are drinking for refreshment in the hot weather. In this case it may be a good idea to serve chilled if that’s your intention.
As in all things, everyone will have their preferences and that’s ok.
Best temperature for mead storage?
The best temperature for mead storage is room temperature around 70 degrees fahrenheit. Mead doesn’t do well with large fluctuations of temperature changes so it’s best if you can find a place in your house that is relatively stable like a basement.
You want to find a place that is dry, dark, and has a consistent temperature. Your mead can go bad if it’s exposed to light and temperature changes. If you don’t have this in your house, consider getting some type of temperature controlled storage such as a wine refrigerator.
Finding a place to store your mead can get tough when you’re in a small area. This is especially true when you get into homebrewing and find your space filled with new batches brewing. Maybe you have a small house with no basement or in an apartment like me. In that case, I find that a closet is your best bet for storing mead.
Should I refrigerate mead after opening?
It’s not necessary to refrigerate your mead after opening a bottle. Mead can range in alcohol content quite a bit. Most classic meads are around 15 percent and up. Other lighter meads are anywhere from 4-12 percent. This will make a big difference when considering how to store your mead.
With your classic meads of higher alcohol percentages, you can simply reseal the bottle tightly and put it back in your pantry. They will store once opened for a month or two. In the event that you would like to store your opened mead longer, you could then put it in the refrigerator.
For lighter meads it’s recommended that you refrigerate them in the event you want to store them longer than a few days.
What temperature should mead be brewed at?
When it comes to brewing mead, there’s a few things to consider. First off, you need to decide whether you boil or not. While that is a case by case choice, the main thing is that if you decide to boil, you’re gonna have to bring the temperature of your must down.
There’s a few ways to do this like just letting it sit for a while, putting your must vessel in the sink surrounded by ice and water, or even just putting your vessel in the refrigerator. A lot of the time we’re talking about 1 gallon batches I’m doing for convenience so it’s not a very big vessel. In this case, it becomes a viable option to refrigerate your must in order to bring the temperature down to safe levels to pitch the yeast.
As for the actual fermentation temperature, it’s not advised to do any kind of refrigeration whatsoever. You should keep your fermentation at a controlled, non fluctuating temperature, but depending on the yeast you’re using you should typically keep it around room temperature.
Should I drink mead with ice?
Drinking your mead should be a personal experience and you shouldn’t regard any way to enjoy your drink as right or wrong. Drinking my mead with ice isn’t really something that I suggest, but I have done it before and it was perfectly fine. I feel like mead is so flexible that you could enjoy it in a number of different ways including having it over ice as a nice refresher. Think about drinking a nice light mead on hot day, in this scenario it might make sense to drink it over ice. However, I usually drink mead just like I drink wine. It’s not necessary at all to drink your mead with ice.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that it’s not required in any scenario to refrigerate your mead. Sometimes it helps for long term storage once you open your bottle. Sometimes you might just be feeling a cooler glass off mead. These are personal preferences and aren’t necessary.