Judging from popular culture, at least (and I have no idea how reliable this is), there used to be "mead halls" all over northwestern Europe in the Middle Ages, and mead was a common, popular drink. But now, it is almost completely gone, aside from a few tiny specialty producers. I've never seen it available in any bar or restaurant.

But interestingly enough, it seems to be pretty popular in Russia even today. In many restaurants, including the very popular Russian fast food chain "Teremok", one can buy "medovukha", which is a kind of mead (or a close relative; I'm not sure about the strict definition). It's not as popular as regular beer, but it's still pretty common, and it tastes pretty good.

So what happened to the popularity of mead in Western Europe? How did it go from seemingly being ubiquitous to almost completely extinct?