Apis Póltorak Jadwiga

Brewed by Spółdzielnia Pszczelarska Apis
Style: Mead
Lublin, Poland

This guy stands out as a behemoth in the mead category, I’m psyched, so here goes.....Beautiful reddish honey color with a nice dark, reflective look and nice legs (hate using wine terms). Aroma is big and very sweet - lots of fresh honey and a bit of alcohol. Also picking up some earth and berries. Flavor is a wonderful mix of honey, alcohol (just enough to burn!), berry/earth/mother naturs/back to my primal roots kind of thing. Wonderful, thick mouthfeel. Wow - super strong and I can only imagine it gets even better with serious aging (as do most meads). Awesome! Thanks to miketd and stateline liquors for bottles of this guy.

Pours a rich, viscous clear amber color. Rousing leaves a thin sheet of mead slowing rolling down the glass sides. Great aroma of honey, alcohol, and a spicy herbal background. A sip coats the mouth with a honeyed sweetness that expands outward into a very earthy herbal character. Don’t give nearly as much heat as I thought it would. The taste pleasantly lingers and tingles on the palate. Damn good.

750ml bottle @ RBNAG’07. Beautiful amber body, pours with an almost oily consistence. Harmonic aroma of honey, dry fruit and some alcohol. Flavor is much the same as aroma, honey, dry fruit and warming alcohol. Nice and well balanced.

What a nice mead. There is more going on here than I have in my notes. Pours clear bronze with very nice legs to it. The aroma has sweet honey, heather, liquor-like and spices. The body is very thick smooth and velvety and just glides through its entire journey. The taste has honey, sugar, syrup, hint of berry and dark toffee. The alcohol is quite apparent, but works as a positive instead of a negative ~ just the right amount showing through. A terrific mead that I hope to enjoy again.

Bottle in a basket. Looks like bourbon but with a golden hue. Nose of honey with raspberry as it warms; a touch of alcohol. Intensely sweet, as expected, but not really cloying. Feels syrupy in the mouth at first but lightens out and becomes airy in a menthol kind of way. Very much like a sherry, hints of wood. Subtleties emerge with the long clinging aftertaste; for me the best part of this mead experience.

Clear amber colored headless body. Massive and inviting sweet aroma of alcohol-soaked fruits. Notes of herbs, mild spices, honey and burnt wood. Heavy, but refined sweetness in the flavor with honey and loads of various fruits. Syrupy mouthfeel. Fat body. Delicate sweetness and warming alcohol in the finish. A sweetheart! (Bottle @ RBNAG’07)

All hail high residual sugars. The star of the tasting of the night. It makes you wonder why don’t brewers mash more beers with temperatures resulting in high unfermentable sugars. Tasted at Patron Saints Angel Share Release. Bottle from Ughsmash. Tried with deftim13, brewboy1, Captaincougar, and others. JohnC, miketd, and WeeHeavy were here earlier, but left by this time. Not sure of the age. Something about 25 yrs aging, and something, about winning awards in 1996 on the bottle. No signs of oxidation. I’m not sure if a mead is subject to oxidation in the same way as beer. Very sweet. Vinous aroma, probably due to the high alcohol level. Lots of honey, and I detect peach in the aroma. No carbonation. Amber yellow color. Wonderful! Would like more, but at $25/bottle won’t buy for a while.

75 cl bottle. Amber color, no head. Sweet fruit, honey, leather, a bit smoke. Wow! (RBNAG’07 in Grimstad Nov. 3th.)