FAQs Top

We interact with a lot of customers at our store and at farmers markets. We also get emails or Facebook queries about us and our product. Recently when a customer asked us whether he should drink our mead at room temperature or chilled and said he had trouble finding the information out we realized we meaded this page.

FAQs on Meads

I am new to Mead, is it like a Beer?

Mead can be produced in many different ways, in fact the Wikipedia page on mead lists a whole bunch Click here for Wiki/Mead. Prairie Bee Meadery produces our mead in a wine style with fruit. This is called a melomel (this could be latin* and translates to English as “Super awesome alcohol beverage that you will love and buy frequently from Prairie Bee Meadery”). Our product is light and smooth. We also make it in a variety of finishes – dry, off dry and sweet. With 12 different flavours and our product now selling in over 75 retail locations in the province we feel that this drink is accessible to all regardless of particular taste preference. Get a taste or find out Where To Buy

It is made with honey – is it really sweet?

No, it depends on the product.  We cater to all tastes from sweet to dry and that is how we finish the wine.   During the mead making process the sugar in the honey is fermented and turned into alcohol, leaving very little sugar behind. We control the fermentation process and measure the sugars to end up with a product people like to drink.  For some meads we add more honey and for others we don’t, thus our Rhubarb Rose has about 1.4g/l of residual sugar (dry) and our Strawberry Splash has 41g/l (sweet)

So… Should I serve it chilled or at room temperature?

This is a tricky one! First, let’s get it out of the way that mead is not a pretentious beverage. If you want to pour your Fruit Fusion over a pile of ice cubes to enjoy on a hot summer day, no one will judge you. Generally, we advise drinking them chilled. However, some of our wines, particularly the drier, fruity ones like Cherry Charm, Blueberry Bliss and Haskap Haven, are just as nice at cellar temp (about 15 degrees C) or room temp – in fact, letting them warm can enhance some of the deeper notes in the wine. If it’s your first bottle, try drinking your first glass chilled from the fridge while you let the bottle warm, and have your second glass at room temp. YOU decide how YOU like it best. The point is to enjoy the experience!

How sweet is sweet? How dry is dry? Which one am I going to like?

OK. We don’t want you to be disappointed with your mead so the first question we ask is “What kind of wines do you generally like to drink?”

Pinot Grigio? Sauvignon Blanc?

Try our Traditional Bee. A light, crisp white that goes with, in my opinion, everything.

Dry Riesling?

If you like your whites on the dry side, you have to have our Rhubarb Rose. The zest from the rhubarb gives it just the bite you’re looking for.

Merlot?

Blueberry Bliss is the one you want. Our go-to dry table wine, it’s great served with red meat or tomato sauce.

Pinot Noir?

Another marvelous table wine is our Cherry Charm. The savoury flavours from your favourite dinner bring out the light spicy notes in the cherry.

White Zin or Moscato?

You are going to love our Strawberry Splash and Fruit Fusion. Fruity with some of that smooth honey sweetness, these are definitely our gateway meads.

Icewine?

Open up a Raspberry Romance. It’s a delightfully sweet and fruity dessert wine.

Port?

We make a fortified mead! Our limited edition Chocolate Strawberry mead is going to please your palate. The full body you love with rich honey sweetness and a delicate chocolate finish. Dessert in a glass. Or to be really decadent, try it with cheesecake or your favourite cream-filled pastry.

And I won’t forget to mention:

  • Haskap Haven – What’s a haskap berry? You’ll find out below. For now, just know that they’re fabulous in mead! Serving up a filet mignon or chateau briand for that special occasion? Open our haskap. Glorious fruit notes layered over hints of honey and a little toasty caramel from the oaking, with an off-dry finish. This is a wine that never disappoints.
  • Cranberry Cheer – This mead has been expressly finished to pair with sweet meats like turkey or pork. So for your family get togethers, whether you’re serving poultry or ham, this is a must for your table. Tart cranberries with a touch of honey – we’ve put the cocktail in the cranberry.
  • Raspberry Rapture and Saskap Sensation – Two stand-out meads with no comparison in the grape world. Beautifully balanced with intense fruit flavours. The finish is off-dry, so try them with fish or salad, or just drink chilled on their own.
Tannins – Why does your mead taste smoother than a grape wine?

Astringency from tannins is what gives grape wine the dry, puckery feeling in your mouth. You get the same mouth feeling from consuming unripened fruit or tea. People often associate this mouth feeling with a dry wine. In fact the dryness of the wine (level of residual sugar) is not related to the tannins in the wine. Since Prairie Bee Meadery doesn’t work with grapes our mead is smoother and has less mouth astringency. At first taste people often think some of our the mead is sweeter because they expect the astringency. By the second sip people are talking about the smoothness and excited by how good it tastes.

Sulphites – Does our product contain them and if so why?

Yes we use Sulphites in our wine. Sulphites are a preservative that we use to ensure our mead does not continue to ferment in the bottle. Without sulphites we run a risk that when you open our mead it will have gone bad. About 1% of population has some kind of sulphite sensitivity, but contrary to popular belief the levels in wine are very low. Sulphites are one of the first things that evaporate once the wine is opened, so letting your wine breathe or using an aerator can ensure you get less in your glass. For some additional information from TheKitchn.com about how the level of sulphites in wine is often less than dried fruit and other tantalizing facts click here.

Gluten Free – Are our products free of those glutens?

Yes, our product is gluten free. All of it. We recently discovered that even though our port contains grain alcohol it is also considered to be sans gluten. Click here to see what Gluten Dude has to say

Shell Fish – Do you use anything in the production process derived from Shelly Fish?

No, all of our product is shell fish free. Half of our wine makers don’t even like shell fish – yuck! The other half think shell fish are great but not in the mead thank you!

Honey Sources – Where do you get your honey?

With our back ground as a U-Pick and being part of the farm community we have a huge amount of interest in getting the right kind of quality honey into our mead. On our farm we have about 40 hives. Our local apiarists (bee people, but not literally people made out of bees) has another 150 hives around Caron and Mortlach. Our bees do their pollenating in Alfalfa, Clover and Wild Flowers. It makes a difference in the honey flavour and the wine.

Fruit Sources – Where do you get your fruit?

We started as a U-Pick so we grow our own raspberries, melons, sour cherries, haskap, strawberries and rhubarb. Depending on growing conditions and our production plans this is usually not enough by itself so we also buy in fruit from local Saskatchewan producers and occasionally from BC.

*Might not be latin – we did not check (impressed that you read this far though! Good Job! Makes it all feel worth it)