Sky River Sweet Mead

Brewed by Sky River Meadery
Style: Mead
Sultan, Washington USA

750 ml bottle. Pours a clear pale gold with no head. This is a still mead. Pleasant aroma of honey. When I saw this in the store, my one concern was that being a sweet mead, it would be too cloying or syrupy. This mead is in fact the polar opposite. The honey flavor is subtle and quite lovely actually. While the flavor is sweet, it is much less sweet than I expected or have experienced in other meads. Light, almost delicate on the palate. Very nice and very enjoyable.

Poured a clear yellow with, of course, no head. Aroma is an interesting mix of honey and just a touch of wild berries, adding a bit of tartness to the smell. Flavor is sweet, as expected, but not overly so, with honey predominating but backed up by some strawberry and raspberry flavors. Nothing shocking or unexpected here, but smooth, drinkable, and pretty tasty.

Bottle. No head (still). Body is clear very light yellow (not too far from colorless). Aroma is notes of honey, wood, white wine (minerals, citrus zest, flowers), apple peel, hint of alcohol. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly acidic. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic. Medium body, watery/syrupy texture, flat carbonation, lightly alcoholic. A very clean and well-made wine-like mead. As with Medovina, its strengths are in its elegance, clean fermentation (no fusels), and attention to detail. Although it’s labeled as a sweet mead, this is FAR less sweet than most dessert meads (especially from Poland). Extremely quaffable and wonderfully balanced. If you like spaetlese/auslese rieslings, you are *totally* going to dig on this.

750 ml bottle. Pale straw colour, still mead. Sweet light honey aroma. Quite subtle, floral, faint alcohol. Flavour is also quite fresh and floral. Very subtle sweetness. Not terribly complex or interesting.