Mead (Miodh in Irish) is the world’s oldest alcoholic drink, unique in that its primary ingredient is honey but also incredibly diverse – it can range from dry to very sweet, which may surprise you when you think of honey as its primary ingredient. It is the world’s oldest alcoholic drink, fermented from honey and fruit and sometimes with herbs or spices added.
Our meads are made in Ireland's first meadery in 200 years in Kinsale, West Cork, from carefully selected ingredients using ancient recipes and modern techniques. Finished wine strength and off dry, naturally gluten free and full of natural flavours to delight the palate.
We are about 600m from the Tourist Office in the centre of town.
We are in the building behind Lidl. Google Maps or Waze will generally give you two options walking to the meadery from the centre of town depending on your starting point. See our Directions here? https://www.kinsalemeadco.ie/directions/
Yes, right in front of the meadery.
Yes. There are no steps and it's all on one level.
Yes. They will be very welcome.
If you are pushed for time, you are welcome to call in just for a tasting. This lasts around 15-20 minutes and costs €12 per person. See our tour page for opening hours.
Our meads are all finished wine strength. The Atlantic Dry Mead and the Wild Red Mead along with the Barrel Aged meads are all 12% ABV which is on the light end of the wine strength spectrum. Hazy Summer Mead and our Wildflower Mead are both 11% ABV (so you can drink 10% more - mead maths!)
Mead is fermented from honey so it’s not a distilled spirit like gin or whiskey. The typical alcohol level for distilled spirits is 40%. Port and sherry are both fortified wines where they add brandy to a fermented grape wine. They would typically be 20% alcohol. Similar for vermouth and aperol style aperitifs. Beer is fermented from grains and would typically contain less alcohol than our meads and be carbonated. Similar for cider.
Our meads are still and 11-12% ABV on the light end of the wine-strength spectrum.
Yes all our meads are naturally gluten free and suitable for coeliacs. We won a Gold award from the Free From Food Awards in recognition of this and are on the recommended list published by the Coeliac Society.
No. Even though meads are made from honey, they do not have to be sweet. We ferment most of the sugars out to alcohol so they are finished off-dry. We leave a small amount of residual sugar in for the flavour, showcasing the honey and fruits. This would be comparable to a Reisling. The juiciest mead we make is the Hazy Summer Mead if you prefer a sweeter flavour. The exception is our Irish Wildflower Mead and whiskey cask aged mead which we finish semi-sweet.
We add a small level of sulphites to our meads, generally around 25ppm to preserve the freshness. Wines generally have 50-200 ppm. Our Mead is fermented from raw honey and honey/fruit and has quite a low pH (3.2-3.3), so we need to use very little. The lower your pH, the less sulphites you need to preserve your drink from infections and wild yeasts and oxidation. We don't use any in the pre-fermentation stage as wine makers do with grapes during pressing stage. Note also that you get some sulphites occurring naturally during fermentation and sulphites do degrade over time. We add sulphites in the form of potassium metabisulphite not sodium metabisulphite. We don't use any other preservatives.
We ship to Ireland and the UK as well as several European countries. Get in touch for where and for prices. We are not allowed to ship directly to most countries ourselves including the USA.
For other countries, we have a whole page with international shipping details.
https://www.kinsalemeadco.ie/international-shipping/
To summarise, look at Celtic Whiskey Centre, Irish Malts, Kilkenny Wine Shop and Amazon in the UK.
The more bottles ordered, the cheaper the shipping rate per bottle. Otherwise, you'll have to come back!
Yes! The whole process from honey mixing to bottling is done by us in our meadery in Kinsale town, just off the Wild Atlantic Way. Why not plan your visit now!
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