How mead is made at home:
 To make a typical one gallon batch of mead three quarts of water, one quart of honey and about a teaspoon of wine yeast are mixed together. This is called "the must". A rubber stopper and airlock are placed on the top of the gallon jug. The airlock allows gases to escape during the ferment.
You need an airlock on the batch of must because the yeast, as it ferments has two major by-products. The first by-product is alcohol. The second by-product is carbon dioxide gas. That gas could build up enormous pressure inside the jug if the jug was sealed. So you need the airlock to allow the gas to escape.
The batch is now in its primary ferment. This is the initial two weeks of time where the majority of fermentation takes place. During this time millions of yeast cells will have grown and died. They fall to the bottom creating a thick layer of sediment (called the Lees).
The batch is then siphoned to a clean container leaving all the sediment behind. This cleans the batch and reduces the chances of the sediment causing off-flavors in the mead.
The batch is now in it's secondary ferment.
This process of siphoning to a new container can be repeated at intervals generally around one month. This is dependant on a few factors including how clear the batch is desired to be.
Finally, once the ferment has finished and the alcohol level is established the mead is bottled and corked.
How about when there is fruit added to the mead?
That's a simple process and the picture above showing a mead maker explains it pretty well. The fruit is often added right away at the very beginning of the batch making. But, fruit doesn't fit too well through the small opening of a glass jug so a food grade plastic pail is used. In the picture above the mead is being siphoned out of the pail and going into a new jug. This leaves the sediment behind and it also leaves all the fruit behind.
(As a side note: When you add fruit to a batch of mead you are making what is called a melomel. This is a spectacular way to make a mead and I have a tutorial on how to do it right here: How to make a fruit mead melomel.) At home you can easily make a batch of mead with just a few simple supplies. I have a beginners tutorial right here. 
And mead has experienced a rapid growth in modern society because of it's unique taste and unique ability to be combined with many spices, herbs, fruits and even flowers to create flavors unique to mead. Many meaderies have sprung up all over America. I have an interactive google mead map that shows meaderies across the country. You can check see if there is a meadery near you: The Interactive Mead Map
Mead is also made on a larger scale
Here is a look at some equipment inside a couple of different meaderies including Moonlight Meadery in New Hampshire and Earle Estates Meadery in New York. The process is identical. You mix ingredients, but rather than siphoning into a new container it is passed through a food grade filter to remove the sediment.
Large scale manufacturing like this does require some changes in process. For example a large fermentation like this can generate a lot of heat so they have to be monitored and temperature controlled. 
This picture shows mead being made in 500 gallon fermenters. These are at Moonlight Meadery in New Hampshire.
And often times the mead, after ferment, is aged in wooden barrels. And these barrels are important just as they are in traditional grape wine aging. The barrel itself departs a flavor to the mead.
And while a person fermenting mead at home is usually very satified with the clarity achieved just by siphoning the mead into fresh containers. This process is generally not feasible with large batches. Filtration is very often used to clarify the mead. This picture shows a filtration machine for mead.
Eventually, because of the large scale and number of bottles the mead will be bottled, corked and labeled with the help of machines.
And there you go. A bottle of mead has gotten it's label and is now ready for sale.
If you are interested in making mead and really like videos I have lots of mead making videos you can watch right here on my website: Mead Making Videos
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