Mead is a honey-based drink brewed in the 
Fermentation Barrel that grants Haste, speeding up your mining and attack speed for a limited time. Unlike grape wines that rely on fruit juice alone, Mead requires 
Honey Bottles alongside 
Apple Juice, making it one of the more resource-intensive drinks in the mod. It comes in a Big Bottle, can be placed as a decorative item, and improves with age, eventually granting Haste VI with extended duration when fully aged.
Obtaining
You brew Mead in a Fermentation Barrel using Apple Juice as the liquid base, with a Honey Bottle and 
Sugar added as ingredients alongside a 
Wine Bottle. The barrel takes 5 minutes to complete fermentation, producing one bottle of Mead. Make sure you have access to 
bees before committing to this recipe, as Honey Bottles cannot easily be substituted.
To obtain Apple Juice, you first need to press 
Apples in an 
Apple Press into 
Apple Mash, then ferment the mash. The Fermentation Barrel article covers the barrel’s fluid system in detail. Mead is not available from Winemaker Villager trades or the Wandering Winemaker, so brewing is the only way to get it.
Usage
Drinking a bottle of Mead is instant and grants Haste, increasing your mining speed and attack speed. Fresh Mead at age zero gives Haste I for 1 minute and 30 seconds. You can drink it at any hunger level since all wines in the mod are always edible, and the bottle returns to your inventory afterward as a Wine Bottle.
Wine Aging
Mead improves as it ages, with both the duration and the Haste level increasing over time. The effect gains one rank every 6 in-game years, reaching Haste VI at 30 or more years for up to 12 minutes and 30 seconds. Fresh Mead starts at Haste I for 1 minute and 30 seconds.
You do not need to do anything special to age Mead. Keeping it in your inventory or storage causes it to accumulate age automatically based on the world’s game time.
The Wine Aging System article explains how aging works across all wines in the mod, including how to track age and when to expect each upgrade. Each bottle tracks its own brew date, so bottles crafted at different times age independently. Storing Mead in a Wine Rack does not speed up or slow down aging.
Further Uses
You can place Mead as a decorative bottle block by shift-right-clicking a surface while holding it. This lets you display your collection without consuming it, and stored bottles continue to age in place. Mead fits into any Wine Rack or 
Wine Box for organized display and storage.
Mead also counts toward the “Wine Sommelier” advancement, which requires collecting every wine variant in the mod. Earning that advancement rewards experience and unlocks a completionist loot table, so brewing at least one bottle of Mead is worthwhile if you are working toward that goal.
Tips
Brew Mead before long mining or caving sessions. Haste meaningfully reduces the time it takes to break 
stone, ores, and other blocks, so even Haste I at a fresh bottle gives a noticeable benefit during extended resource runs. If you plan to mine for a while, bringing a few bottles is worth the preparation.
Hold off on drinking Mead if you can afford to wait. The effect improvement from aging is significant, going from Haste I all the way to Haste VI, and the duration more than triples at maximum aging. Letting Mead sit for even a few real-time play sessions before consuming it gives you a much stronger version of the same brew.
Mead pairs well with Efficiency-enchanted tools during a mining session. Haste stacks with Efficiency, and together they can make breaking stone feel nearly instant at higher levels. You do not need to be hungry to drink it, so you can pop a bottle mid-dig without any food management concerns.
Set up a dedicated apple orchard near your base before investing heavily in Mead production. Apple Trees grow naturally in plains, sunflower plains, and meadow biomes, and right-clicking leaves with visible fruit yields one to four apples per harvest. A reliable orchard removes the Apple Juice bottleneck that makes scaling Mead production feel slow.
If you plan to brew Mead in large quantities, consider wearing the full Winemaker armor set (the 
Straw Hat, 
Winemaker Apron, 
Winemaker Leggings, and 
Winemaker Boots) while tending your orchard. The complete set prevents 
bone meal from being consumed when you use it on plants, letting you rapidly accelerate apple fruit regrowth without burning through your bone meal supply. This makes scaling up your Apple Juice production significantly cheaper over time.
FAQ
Mead grants Haste, which increases mining speed and attack speed. A fresh bottle gives Haste I for 1 minute and 30 seconds. As the bottle ages, both the level and the duration increase, reaching up to Haste VI for 12 minutes and 30 seconds at maximum aging.
You need Apple Juice as the liquid base for the Fermentation Barrel, then add a Honey Bottle and Sugar as ingredients along with a Wine Bottle. The barrel takes 5 minutes to ferment, then produces one bottle of Mead.
No. Mead does not restore any hunger or saturation. You can drink it at any hunger level since it is always edible, but its value comes entirely from the Haste effect it grants.
Mead reaches its maximum effect level of Haste VI after 30 in-game years, which equals 720 in-game days at the default rate of 24 days per year. Duration continues to increase beyond that point and caps at 12 minutes and 30 seconds after aging further. The Wine Aging System article covers the full aging formula.
Yes. When you finish drinking Mead, a Wine Bottle returns to your inventory. You can reuse it when brewing the next batch, so Wine Bottles are not consumed over time as long as you collect them after each drink.
Yes. Shift-right-clicking a surface while holding a bottle of Mead places it as a decorative block. The bottle continues to age while placed, so you can age your collection on display and drink it later when fully matured. It also fits in Wine Racks and Wine Boxes for storage and decoration.
