The Best Meaderies in the US

Most “best meadery” lists are somebody’s favourites. This one is not, because we have not been to 310 meaderies and nobody has.

What this directory does have is data on all of them: Google ratings on 295, review counts on the same 295, and how often each one gets searched for by name. So here are three honest lists built from that, and the method is stated in full so you can decide how much it is worth.

Why one list is not enough

The average Google rating across every rated meadery in this directory is 4.83.

That number does most of the work in explaining the problem. Meaderies are small, self-selecting places that people visit on purpose, so almost nobody rates them badly. Sorting 295 businesses by a score that ranges from about 4.5 to 5.0 separates almost nothing, and it hands the top spots to whichever place has twelve reviews from its friends.

So each list below has a stated threshold, and none of them claims to be the answer on its own.

One thing that applies to all three: businesses Google marks as permanently closed are excluded from this directory entirely, so nothing on these lists is a place that has already shut.

Highest rated, with at least 250 reviews

Thirty three meaderies clear 250 reviews. Setting the bar there means a perfect score has to survive a few hundred visitors rather than a dozen.

1. Hive Mind Meadery, Anchorage, Alaska. 5.0 from 858 reviews.
2. Honey & Hops Brew Works, Front Royal, Virginia. 5.0 from 289 reviews.
3. Silver Hand Meadery and Honey Shop, Williamsburg, Virginia. 4.9 from 578 reviews.
4. Folklore Brewing & Meadery, Dothan, Alabama. 4.9 from 479 reviews.
5. Drinking Horn Mead Hall, Flagstaff, Arizona. 4.9 from 465 reviews.
6. The Brimming Horn Meadery, Milton, Delaware. 4.9 from 393 reviews.
7. Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, Georgia. 4.9 from 379 reviews.
8. Fabled Brew Works, Erlanger, Kentucky. 4.9 from 336 reviews.
9. Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, Tennessee. 4.9 from 287 reviews.
10. Mr. B’s Meadery Fremont, Seattle, Washington. 4.9 from 284 reviews.

Hive Mind in Anchorage is the standout on this measure. A clean 5.0 across 858 reviews is rare anywhere, in any category, and it is the only meadery in the country holding one at that volume.

The busiest

Review count is not quality, but it is the closest thing to a footfall measure that exists publicly. These are the meaderies the most people have walked into and then written about.

1. Obscurity Brewing and Craft Mead, Elburn, Illinois. 973 reviews, rated 4.6.
2. Hive Mind Meadery, Anchorage, Alaska. 858 reviews, rated 5.0.
3. Superstition Meadery, Prescott, Arizona. 791 reviews, rated 4.8.
4. Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery, Chicago, Illinois. 749 reviews, rated 4.6.
5. Silver Hand Meadery and Honey Shop, Williamsburg, Virginia. 578 reviews, rated 4.9.
6. Wyrd Leatherworks and Meadery, Milwaukie, Oregon. 545 reviews, rated 4.8.
7. BottleHouse Brewery And Meadery, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. 481 reviews, rated 4.6.
8. B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale, Michigan. 479 reviews, rated 4.8.
9. Folklore Brewing & Meadery, Dothan, Alabama. 479 reviews, rated 4.9.
10. Drinking Horn Mead Hall, Flagstaff, Arizona. 465 reviews, rated 4.9.

Notice how many of the busiest are breweries as well as meaderies. Volume follows the taproom format, which is worth knowing if you want somewhere lively rather than somewhere quiet.

The most searched for by name

This is the one nobody else can build. Across the directory, the meadery names in it are searched about 193,000 times a month between them. These are the ten people look up most.

1. Mead Hall / Swarm Brewing Company, St Charles, Missouri. About 6,600 a month.
2. Heidrun Meadery, Point Reyes Station, California. About 5,400 a month.
3. Clear Skies Meadery, Rockville, Maryland. About 4,400 a month.
4. Fabled Brew Works, Erlanger, Kentucky. About 4,400 a month.
5. Honeytree Meadery, Nashville, Tennessee. About 3,600 a month.
6. Monks Meadery, Atlanta, Georgia. About 3,600 a month.
7. White Bear Meadery, Maplewood, Minnesota. About 3,600 a month.
8. Wild Blossom Meadery and Winery, Chicago, Illinois. About 3,600 a month.
9. Wyrd Leatherworks and Meadery, Milwaukie, Oregon. About 3,600 a month.
10. Crafted Artisan Meadery, Mogadore, Ohio. About 2,900 a month.

One caveat, because it matters. A name that is also an ordinary phrase catches searches that were never about the meadery. “Mead hall” at the top of this list is exactly that, so read the first entry as inflated. The rest are distinctive enough that the number is close to real interest.

What none of this tells you

Nobody here has tasted anything. These are Google’s ratings, collected from Google, and this directory does not add its own score on top.

A great new meadery will be missing. The 250 review threshold that keeps the first list honest also excludes every good place that opened last year. Sixty seven meaderies hold 4.9 or better on at least a hundred reviews, so the shortlist is far longer than ten.

Awards are not in here either. The Mazer Cup and similar competitions judge the mead rather than the room, and plenty of the meaderies winning them are nowhere near the top of a review count.

The honest answer

For almost everyone, the best meadery is the good one nearest you, because mead does not travel. Distribution for most small meaderies is thin and much of what they make never leaves the tasting room, so the bottle you would have liked most is usually one you have to go and stand in front of.

Start local, not national. Find what is near you by state or in the full A to Z list, and every listing shows the nearest other meaderies with real distances, which is how one visit turns into a route.

New to it? What Is a Meadery covers the basics and Mead Tasting: What to Expect covers the visit itself.