Mead, also known as honey wine, is an ancient alcoholic beverage that ferments honey with water and sometimes various fruits, spices, or grains.
If you’re a mead enthusiast or a budding mead maker, selecting suitable bottles is crucial to ensure your mead’s quality and presentation.
Choosing the wrong container could ruin the precious work, and not preserve your mead for long aging times.
In this article, we’ll explore the best bottles for mead, considering factors like material, capacity, and design, to help you make an informed choice.
Before choosing a bottle for your mead, make sure you understand the bottle pressure limits.
This is crucial as some bottles will explode if the pressure is too high!
The Top 5 Mead Bottles for Your Brew
1. The Classic Glass Bottle
The classic glass bottle is a timeless choice for mead makers. Its transparency showcases the mead’s rich color and clarity, adding to the overall appeal. These bottles often come with a cork or screw cap, providing an airtight seal.
You can choose classic glass wine bottles as they are most commonly used for mead, but in case your mead is carbonated, sparking wine and champagne bottles are necessary.
I found excellent-looking 500ml glass bottles on Amazon that come with a dash of fancy vibes.
If you prefer more of a round, short 375ml bottle look that’s ideal for gifts, then the following bottles might be a better choice.
And finally, if you aren’t looking for anything fancy but need plenty of bottles on a budget, the following bottles will be an excellent choice.
2. Elegant Ceramic Bottles
Ceramic bottles exude elegance and sophistication, making them a popular choice for premium mead products.
Their excellent insulation properties protect the mead from temperature fluctuations, which is beneficial for aging.
After all, ceramic containers had been known for their high-quality properties in storing high-value drinks and olive oils in ancient times for a reason.
Ceramic bottles aren’t usually seen in home mead makers’ arsenal, as they are hard to find and expensive.
However, if you are really looking to step up the game and create sophisticated mead, putting that extra effort and bottling in ceramic bottles will fascinate everyone, that’s a guarantee.
Although I couldn’t find a ceramic bottle anywhere to recommend, you can buy some premium mead in a store that comes in a ceramic bottle and reuse it.
Perhaps, try to replicate the premium mead of your choice and then bottle and see if anyone can tell a difference? It could be fun.
3. Beer bottles
Beer bottles are a great choice for bottling mead, as they are cheap, handy, and can be used for months of age due to a good cap seal.
While beer bottles aren’t adding a sophisticated touch to the mead, they look fine and do the job.
Most homebrewers that started brewing beers and then turned into home mead makers simply use longneck beer bottles.
I’d personally avoid long conditioning of heavy meads (18% ABV) in beer bottles, especially the sparky heavy mead because I never tested such long conditioning times for mead in a beer bottle.
Furthermore, I heard stories of people claiming that beer bottles tend to lose carbonation and let oxygen in such long conditioning times.
After all, most beers don’t need more than a couple of months to peak and some meads need over a year which is likely too much for a beer bottle.
4. Swing-Top Bottles
Swing-top bottles, also known as flip-top bottles, have a unique closure system that uses a silicone cap stopper secured by a wire.
These bottles are easy to open and reseal, making them ideal for mead homemakers and those who enjoy frequent tastings.
What I personally love about the Swing-top bottles is that they are reusable, so whenever I use them it’s easy to collect them back.
People see these bottles as a must-return due to their design, so the odds of friends and family not returning them back to you are low.
5. Plastic PET Bottles
For those seeking a lightweight and portable option, plastic PET bottles are a practical choice. While they may not have the elegance of glass or ceramic, they are convenient for outdoor activities and picnics and plastic PET bottles can be used for quickly consumed low-ABV meads.
Plastic PET bottles aren’t good for long conditioning times as they don’t have the seal quality of glass and ceramic bottles, and while it’s optional, nobody will be impressed by mead served from a plastic PET bottle.
TIP: PET bottles also allow you to check the level of Co2 as the plastic expands as the Co2 builds up. This is useful when you make sparky mead and need to check the correct Co2 levels. If the bottle starts to deform at the bottom, it means the mead is seriously over-carbonated.
6. Stainless Steel Keg for Sparky Mead
If you are making a carbonated, sparky mead you’ll love the stainless steel kegs with a Co2 cartridge and a tap!
There’s nothing as lovely as a cold, refreshing, sparky mead you can bring wherever you go due to excellent insulation.
While this isn’t something you’ll buy in bulk or use as a gift, this special keg allows for an enhanced experience no traditional bottle can offer.
Just seeing that there’s a tap that perfectly pours any drink into a glass was enough for me to love it.
Furthermore, you can adjust how much Co2 you need, and you can use it for flat drinks as well.
Understanding the Importance of Bottle Selection
Before delving into the best bottles for mead, it’s essential to understand why bottle selection is crucial. Mead, like any other wine, is sensitive to its storage environment. The right bottle not only preserves the flavor and aroma but also enhances the visual appeal of the drink. Several factors should be considered when choosing the perfect mead bottle.
1. Material Matters
Choosing the right material for your mead bottle can significantly impact the taste and aging process. The two most common materials used in mead bottles are glass and ceramic.
Glass is preferred for its transparency, allowing you to showcase the beautiful color of your mead. Ceramic, on the other hand, offers excellent insulation, protecting the mead from light exposure.
Moreover, glass bottles are easier to find and are less expensive.
Plastic bottles are safe and won’t impact the flavors as long as you choose reusable plastic bottles, any one-use-only plastic bottles shouldn’t be used for bottling mead as they can leak chemicals.
2. Capacity Considerations
Mead makers must decide on the bottle capacity that suits their needs best. Smaller bottles are ideal for single servings or gifts, while larger ones are suitable for bulk storage or aging.
Bear in mind that opening a big bottle of sparky mead isn’t worth it unless it will be finished within a couple of hours as otherwise, the Co2 will evaporate.
Moreover, every time a bottle is opened some oxygen will enter which will later ruin the flavors, so it’s ideal to finish any bottle within a day or two.
Consider your production volume and intentions before settling on a particular capacity.
3. Design and Seal
Aesthetics play a significant role in mead bottle selection, especially if you plan to give your mead as a gift or sell it commercially.
They say nothing sells a bad product like a great design, but combining a great design with a great product makes miracles.
You can print your own labels at home and designing your own brand logo can be super fun.
Additionally, the seal of the bottle should be tight to prevent any leakage during storage or transportation.
That said, you should always use quality caps and cork to ensure the seal is strong as otherwise, you can ruin your mead during long conditioning times.
4. Clear or non-transparent bottle
Clear glass bottles are the favorites of home mead makers, as they showcase the glory of this heavenly liquid and seduce mead lovers like nothing else.
Yet, a non-transparent bottle provides mead with mystery and plays with the imagination of mead lovers!
In either case, a non-transparent bottle offers additional protection against the light which can ruin the mead.
If you bottle mead in a clear bottle, don’t store it in direct light, and especially be careful to avoid any UV light from the sun.
Final take
Choosing the right bottle for your mead is essential and while there are strong guidelines one should follow, ultimately everyone’s choice is optional.
For instance, you might not need to age mead for a year but rather a couple of months, or you might produce only flat mead, so the seal strength won’t be as important.
Similarly, you might not care about the sophisticated design of the bottle nor even care about labels, in which case going with the cheapest option in bulk could be the smartest option.
I always cared about the appearance and presentation factor along the long conditioning as that’s when the mead truly peaks!