Apis Trójniak Bernardyński

Brewed by Spółdzielnia Pszczelarska Apis
Style: Mead
Lublin, Poland

WBF-Raleigh. Clear golden body. Sweet fruity and honey aroma. Sweet light fruit flavor with a smooth syrupy mouthfeel.

Bottle: Pours a shiny gold syrupy color; still. The nose is a bit musky and herbal with some alcohol, dusty fruit and a clean sweet oxidized note that only an aged mead can have. Deliciously complex and caramelized-like flavors, yet it’s lacking any sort of maillard reaction. Very tasty mead, just like the poles are best at.

Bottle: Pours a orange amber with no real head. Nose is fruity, hints of cider and pears. Sweet. The taste is light and sweet, fruity notes of pear and citrus. A bit of honey of course. Very smooth and clean. Thanks BuckDich for sharing this one.

No surprise that this high-quality mead is by the same maker as <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Beer/apis-póltorak-ja Jadwiga, the #1 mead on this site. Pours still with a vermillion/bronze body and forms a wisp of a soapy halo when swirled. Aroma finds a nice oak backdrop to an advanced alcohol presence giving it a whisky-like persona. Carl and I may joke until hell freezes over, but I still wouldn’t know a chokeberry from a dingleberry. Thick in the mouth, while the flavor holds a pleasant, sweet, grapey/raisiny essence over the woodsy honeyness that forms this mead’s base. Sweeter than the TiM S.A meads (Kasztelanski, Slowianski, et. al.) but of the same caliber.

<font size=-4>Thanks to <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/View-User-5777.htm> for bringing this to the <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve "Monthly" Chicagoland Ratebeer Gathering</font>

This is a nice, richly fruity, slightly spiced mead - sweet, but not cloyingly so. It’s clear with a golden amber body with sweet honey scents and refreshing berry smells. The fresh fruit flavors balance out the honey nicely, although it seemed to me that the addition was actually from chokeberry extracts. (<a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=1 on the other hand, thought that whole berries were added, but that they had been frozen.) The cinnamon spicieness complemented both flavors tastefully. It finished on a fairly clean note for a mead. Nice.

<font size=-4>Appreciated at the <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve Chicago RateBeerian Gathering thanks to <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=5 size=-1>

Golden colour, obviously no head as it’s a mead. Rather harsh beginning, slighly too acidic, but the latter taste is awesome. Natural, not too sweet, deep honey flavour, very smooth with herbs & spices notes. Nice, even beer-like malt-or-whatever end. Indeed refreshing, very good mead.

Buying mead is fun for me because it means I get to go to the Polish liquor store down the street from me and bamboozle the people working there by being a white person buying mead who doesn’t speak Polish. Apparently, they don’t see this much. This mead, specifically, is another pretty good one. The color is a nice, rich shade of honey w/ an overtone of amber when viewd from the right angle. It appears somewhat thinnish as it hardly sticks to the side of the glass at all, unlike the best sweet Polish meads. The nose is vibrant w/ floral overtones but there’s enough sweetness there to cloy a bit. The flavor, as expected, follows suit w/ a certain pleasant depth of cinnamon-like spice combined w/ a balancing dose of tartness. It’s very sweet but almost easy-drinking enough to be refreshing. If you find some of the other top ranked meads (say, Jadwiga) here to be too sweet and too thick for your tastes but still like the spicy, complex flavor, this might be a good one for you to try.

Bottled. Label 15% but also Specjalny. But I think it’s the same. Aroma of raisin, honey, cinnamon and herbs. Amber color, no head or lace of course. Very sweet, lots of honey, cookie and light spices. Lovely warming and mouthfeel.