Mead mead have time to clear. If the mead maker wishes to backsweeten the product or prevent it from oxidizing, potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate are added. After the mead clears, it is bottled and distributed. Mead can have a wide range of flavors depending on the source of the honey, additives (also known as "adjuncts" or "gruit") including fruit and spices, the yeast employed during fermentation, and the aging procedure. Some producers have marketed white wine sweetened and flavored with honey after fermentation as mead, sometimes spelling it "meade." This is closer in style to a hypocras. Blended varieties of
Mead 60 CE. There is a poem attributed to the Brythonic-speaking bard Taliesin, who lived around 550 CE, called the "" or "Song of Mead". The legendary drinking, feasting and boasting of warriors in the mead hall is echoed in the mead hall "Din Eidyn" (modern day Edinburgh) as depicted in the poem "Y Gododdin", attributed to the poet Aneirin who would have been a contemporary of Taliesin. In the Old English epic poem "Beowulf", the Danish warriors drank mead. In both Insular Celtic and Germanic cultures mead was the primary heroic drink in poetry. Later, taxation and regulations governing the