These items are especially popular in Christmas and holiday beers. Special brewing adjuncts that add a characteristic note are popular in this category. Such fermentables include honey, as well as molasses, brewer's caramel, chocolate, etc. Mead styles include sparkling, dry, medium and sweet. Mead requires the use of nutrients and additives to accelerate production.
Mead takes from several weeks to one year to produce, and derives benefits from aging.
Traditional meads are available on a limited basis in the United States and can be found in specialty stores. Mead is gaining popularity, as several meaderies are scheduled to open in the near future. Many homebrewers have reported a high incidence of bacterial and wild yeast contamination when introducing honey to their beers. These enzymes are present in malted barley and are activated and manipulated by the brewer with specific temperature regimes during the mashing process. Diastatic enzymes are responsible for the conversion of the complex carbohydrates of the malt starch into a balance of fermentable sugars and unfermentable dextrins.