Until now, the only commercial meads I’ve had have been from Moonlight Meadery. Great meads, but their take is very much the big, sipping mead style; in the vein of a big red or dessert wine. To date, all my homebrew meads have been modeled after this style of mead, since it’s all I really know and I’m a big fan of it.
I just came across B Nektar in my area for the first time, so I grabbed a few of their meads to try. The first one I’m trying is Zombie Killer, which is a 6% cherry cyser.
This is something I can easily put down in mass quantities. The nose is apples with a cinnamon spice note. Flavor is cider first, with slightly tart cherry highlights. As the fruit fades, the honey starts to assert itself. The finish is a nice honey note, along with a hint of cinnamon. Sweetness is off-dry with light carbonation.
I get that cinnamon note in a lot of wildflower honey, so I’m guessing that’s where its coming from, but I’ve gotten it from apple cider before as well. This honestly has given me a whole new outlook on mead. Great stuff. This is a bit transcendent experience for me. It definitely makes me want to brew a batch or two of this type of session mead.
The owner/meadmaker came to our club a little over a year ago and did a presentation. He makes some nice stuff and it was very informational. The highlight was when he pulled out some of his personal stash of mead. The vanilla/cinnamon was wonderful. I also got to sample Ken Schramm’s at the NHC and my mind is still blown. I was so inspired that I got 15 lbs of Orange Blossom Honey that I plan on making a melomel with in the next month.
Honey/fruit balance is something I struggle with, and their blends are among the best. Honey/apple/cherry are all everpresent and in balance.
fridge to glass to mouth in 5 seconds = great. Once it warms very much the sweetness/balance is off for me but that’s just personal preference. just measured it at 1.027 or 28 at 61F. I now pour a few ounces at a time into a glass and keep the rest stoppered and ice cold in the fridge.
My wife & I have had that before. It is delicious. Although, I wish I could remember where we got it. It is definitely a great way to enjoy a honey & fruit based beverage.
The B Nektar guy’s are the ones that got me into making mead. I started making mead before I made any beer. They are very open and will help/tell you anything you want. I’m pretty lucky to live 3 miles away from them and Schramm’s at the same time…
You are not to far from Kuhnhenn then, which makes some good mead too.
There are some pretty good mead makers in my club, so I have made mead, but not to the quality level that they do, so a stick to mainly beer. I still do one or two meads a year. Disclosure -one guy in the club is named Schramm.
Cool. I will have to shoot them an email to get an idea how they go about making their session meads. They say “contains sulfites”, so I’m guessing they arrest fermentation once it gets down to their target FG, then force carbonate. But, if they’re open about their procedures, then I’d love to hit them up for whatever details they’re willing to share.
I’d like to play around with lower gravity meads too. We have been going a little less sweet the last couple of years but nowhere this low. We have so much mead in our cellar that we can play fast and loose with it so this time of year we tend to add ice and soda water and maybe a splash of Campari (or after a long day, gin). We also make a mean sangria with cranberry mead and fresh pineapple sage from the garden.
I’m drinking the Black Fang right now and it may be even better than Zombie Killer. They nail the balance of sweetness and acidity, as well as the balance of primary and background flavors and aromas every time. I need to learn how to brew mead like this, because at 8 bucks a bomber this could be an expensive habit.