Pips - Spumoni

Pip's Meadery, a soon-to-be-opened meadery in the North suburbs of Chicago, has been cranking out some really delicious and inventive fruit meads.  They especially excel at combining big bold berry flavors with nuts like cashews and pistachios.  Spumoni is a prime example.

Spumoni is a cherry mead with cocoa nibs and pistachios.  It's a unique as it sounds.  This mead is really lovely and nails the flavor profile they're going for. I know the picture is terrible but the mead inside is not.

This mead is dark cherry red and nearly opaque.  The smell is this burst of cherry juice with a bit of nuttiness.  The taste is a chocolate covered cherry drizzled lightly with crushed pistachios.  There's a nice creaminess to it that I take is from the nuts a cocoa nibs.  It's the definition of liquid dessert.

After trying this a few other Pip's Meadery meads I am very excited for them to open and looking forward to very good things to come.

Schramms - Red Agnes (batch 2)

Schramms Red Agnes is a red currant melomel that clocks in at 14% abv. Batch 2 of this mead was released in October of 2016 for a retail of $32, so this particular bottle was drank about a month after release.

Full disclosure I've had both b1 and b2 Red Agnes multiple times so I'm not new to this mead.  However it is always a treat, and each time I drink it I take a little something different from it.  First the color on this mead is stunning.  It's a very robust red.  The above picture doesn't give it justice, it gives it a dull reddish-brown tone, but this mead is a striking deep red.  And the clarity is beautiful too.  The nose is also lovely.  It's not overpowering but there's a nice fruity tartness to the sweet honey smell.  The taste follows the nose but in a much fuller way.  The flavors are bursting.  Juicy red raspberry-like tartness from the currants.  It seems that red currants are slightly less acidic and tannic than black currants, so I taste a more juicier, fruitier berry.  I also love the balance of the tart and sweet, nothing overpowers, everything is in perfect harmony.  I can't stress this enough with any mead, but this mead really shines as it warms from a cool 50 degrees up into room temperature in the 60s.  As the mead warms in opens up more layers of flavor and complexity.  A truly enjoyable mead and a wonder example of a well balanced melomel.

RELEASE: B. Nektar - Apple Pi w/ Graham Cracker Crust

Available starting 5pm on Tuesday, December 20th, B. Nektar is releasing Apple Pi with Graham Cracker Crust; their Apple Pi mead with spices and graham cracker crust.


This cyser is 14% ABV and available in 375mL bottles, 1/6 barrels, and on tap in the B.Nektar taproom.


375ml bottles are $13.99.

Misbeehavin - Pirate Love

Pirate Love is a rum barrel aged date mead that was available in the Fall of 2016.  Bottles are 375mL and retailed for $18 in September 2016.

The look is sticky rum, the aroma is booze with a sweet undertones.  The taste is rum soaked dates. There is a nice sweetness to the mead but it's boozy, you know there's rum there.  A great mead for anyone who loves rum drinks and a really nice sipper for a cool night.

RELEASE: Schramm's A Smile of Fortune (ASoF)

A Smile of Fortune Release - Saturday at 5:00pm!

$48 per bottle - Bottle limit of 1 per person.

"A Smile of Fortune is an incredibly well-balanced Black Currant, Lutowka Cherry, Heritage Red Raspberry and Oregon Boysenberry mead. The tannic, tart and acidic flavors marry beautifully with responsibly-sourced Orange Blossom honey. With flavors reminiscent of Madeline & The Heart of Darkness, batch one bottles of this limited mead will be an instant classic."

Bottle count for this mead is unknown at this point but it's low.  Schramm's has confirmed that there are less bottles of ASoF than Amelia.  Also, Lifetime members will have 2 bottles reserved, Annual Mazers 1 bottle.  So I'd venture a guess that half or more of these bottles will be for Mazer club members, making the availability to the public limited.

RELEASE: Misbeehavin December Releases

New meads coming out Friday, December 9th

Christmas Berry Blossom- made with Christmas Berry Blossom Honey. $24/ 750ml - Limit 2

Fermented with Pleasure- a mint mead. $11/ 375ml - Limit 3

Superstition - Safeword

Safeword by Superstition Meadery in Prescot Arizona is a mead made with Belgian dark candi sugar, that that used in beer such as stronger Belgian beers like dubbels and tripels.  This mead was also aged in bourbon barrels.  This mead is available in 750mL bottles and retailed for $36, when it's available.  

The Commercial description from Superstition is as follows:

This craft beverage is seductive and full of surprises. Safeword pushes the limits of liquid gratification as Honey and Belgian Dark Candi Syrup are tied together and then disciplined in a Bourbon Barrel until they are released for your pleasure. Enjoy the adventure waiting for you within this bottle and remember, don't forget the Safeword.

This mead is rich, it's rich in color, aroma, and taste.  The color is a dark dark brown, very similar to a barrel aged barelywine, bordering on stout level opaqueness.  The aroma is beets, candied dates, figs, and coffee.  The taste follows pretty closely with the aroma, lots of dark, rich fruits; figs and dates.  There's also a candied sweetness that might be the honey just elevated by the candied sugar.  There's also notes of leather, a bit of smoke and char, and some earthy, woodsy qualities to the taste a well.  This is a big mead.  Something that would be sipped nicely next to a fire, maybe with a cigar, on a cold winter night.  It reminded me a little bit of the Swedish mulled wine, glugg.  Something enjoyed around the winter holidays with friends and family.