B. Nektar - Evil Genius

You gotta have a lot of respect for a beverage style that survived the Middle Ages.  OK, so technically there is evidence for it stretching back to 7000 BC.  However, having been so popular with the vikings (and at every Rennaisance Festival ever), I tend to associate it with the Middle Ages.  It was an era of plagues, serfdom, Crusades, famines, Joan of Arc, a very angry church, knights, castles, endless jabs by Monty Python, and the aforementioned vikings, and none of them could send this style of brewing in to the forgotten annals of history.  Oddly, despite its longevity this style of fermented goodness is remarkably hard to find commercially today.  This brand of mead is no exception.  B. Nektar is only available in a select number of states (FL, IL, ME, MD, DC, MA, MI, NJ, NC, OH, WI, & SC) and I have @kellyrose82, and her seemingly frequent trips to Michigan, for this bottle.

In case you couldn't tell by the label, this style is going to be a little bit of an experiment for them.  B. Nektar Meadery has been pretty good about experimenting with different things that taste good: meads, ciders, cysers, cherries, vanilla, cinnamon, agave, lime, etc.  This brew is truly a blending of styles.  Hops... in a MEAD?  I've never heard of it before and have been curious about this brew ever since I first read about it.  B. Nektar uses Chinhook, Cluster, & Cascade hops to make its Evil Genius and that sounds fine to me!  Let's pour!

Aroma 10/12

This brew presents two very different aroma profiles depending on whether you see the forest or the trees.  The forest is an interesting "hop funk" that is not without its light sweetness.  If you begin to dissect that aroma to see the trees, you will find a lot of the quintessential characteristics that make a good IPA.  There is a nice spiciness, noticeable resin, and some lesser pine notes.  Granted, these are much more subdued than you would find them in an American IPA that craft beer folks are used to drinking, but they are undeniably present.  Blending with that is the delicate sweetness of the mead.  It smells of honey (duh) and fresh green apples.  As the mead warms the "evil" in the "Evil Genius" becomes steadily more menacing and the hop traits become more aggressive.  The spice and resin of the hops take a big step forward, leaving the pine scent in the lurch, but still allow that crisp apple sweetness to shine.  A fascinating blend, even if it lacks a robust quality.

Appearance 3/3

Meads are only lightly carbonated, so I won't be able to judge the head on this.  However, for a mead it looks spot on.  It pours and sits in the glass like a white wine, even though some of the carbonation initially fizzed to the top after pouring.  It has extremely high clarity and its color is off of the SRM/Lovibond scale, making it lighter in hue than even some of the palest lagers.

Flavor 17/20

Trying to put such a unique experience into words or down on paper seems a daunting task after just the first sip, but you shall all have my best effort.  The first sensation is the wash of honey that slides all too well over the tongue.  It turns sugary sweet and then begins allowing in other flavors, such as the dry fruits of a champagne, vanilla, and an interesting bitter.  The bitter is surrounded by such sweetness that it's reminiscent of when you bite too far into an apple and get part of the bitter core.  The sweetness fades slowly after the swallow into the champagne dryness, which in turn fades into a bitter aftertaste.  Not long after swallowing this very sweet mead, the mouth has the "apple core" bitter spread all over it and it leaves the mouth very dry.  Not an experience I was expecting from something this sweet, but definitely something I would expect from a hoppy IPA.  Overall, this is a very sweet drink that borrows very little from the IPA style.  I hope my inexpertise with meads doesn't effect this review too negatively.  I found it to be sweet for my taste, but maybe for a mead this is perfect.  I simply don't have the background to know.

Mouthfeel 5/5

There is so much that B. Nektar has done correctly I scarcely know where to begin.  Might as well start with the first impression?  This beer is criminally smooth.  It's "Eddie Haskell" smooth.  It knows exactly what it's doing and it's way too good at it.  If this level of smoothness came over to pick up my teenage daughter, I'd be sure to be cleaning a shotgun in a conspicuous area of the house.  It coats the tongue with its sweetness and then gives a surprise ending, by ending bitter and dry like an IPA.  It was a great twist considering there were no hops detectable in the flavor itself.  It's carbonation is infintesimal at best and not inappropriate for a mead.

Did I mention the kick-ass bottle art?

Overall Impression 9/10

This is pleasing and I love the creativity involved in its creation.  It features distinct traits of both the IPA and the mead.  IPA drinkers will be disappointed if they are expecting a large hop flavor, but mead drinkers should see this as a neat innovation that adds something different to a tasty beverage.  The IPA style was detectable mostly in the aroma and in the aftertaste and left the mead to its own devices the rest of the time.  My only negative about this beer is that the strong sweetness and the smooth body do not make this something that I could drink all night.  However, that's not much of a negative as there are many beers that I enjoy that I would not wish to drink head to tail all night long.

Total 4450

I dig it and as long as you're not expecting an American IPA because it says "IPA-Style" on the bottle than you should too.  This is first and foremost a mead.  It's going to be sweet.  It's going to be smooth.  It's carbonation is barely detectable at all.  However, the aroma and aftertaste really do capture of elements of the IPA that I never would have guessed that I would see in a mead.  Not only is this a unique experience because it's a mead, it's a unique mead on top of that!  If you love craft beer and trying new flavors and new breweries and new ingredients I don't know how that could not appeal to you.  Overall, it's sweetness was higher than my personal taste would've wished, but I'm such a n00b h4x0r in the world of mead that maybe this is exactly how it is supposed to be.  Looks like I'll just have to keep drinking them until they're more familiar to me.  At least, that's what I'll tell my wife.

B. Nektar Meadery - Zombie Killer Cherry Cyser

Today's choice of review is appropriate for two reasons:  1.  Last night was the mid-season premier of "The Walking Dead" on AMC which the wife and I enjoy quite a bit.  2.  An article last week in the NY Times about the Renaissance of Meade.  (Click here for article)

For those not yet acquainted with mead, it is a wine made with honey in lieu of grapes.  Just as grapes can be early or late season (especially in Gewurztraminer varieties), so can flowers and thus even something as incalculable as the seasons can result in some major differences in mead.  Not to mention the different types of flowers (orange blossoms, wildflowers, etc).  Talk about the potential for nuance!  Also this is labeled as a "Cherry Cyser" which I found out is a mead (honey) with apple juice added.  Cysers are also a likely precursor to ciders/hard ciders.

The first time I tasted mead from B. Nektar was at 2011's Midwest Brew Fest in Plainfield.  They made a great showing and were one of the celebrities brewers of the day.  I bought a Zombie Killer t-shirt that day because of the great label art, even though B. Nektar did not have any Zombie Killer with them.  Today is my first taste of this mead and I've been more than patient.  Let's pour!

Big hand to Kelly for picking up this bottle in one of her not-so-recent forays into Michigan!!

Aroma 10/12
This is difficult for me to judge as it's mead and not my usual "comfort zone" of beer.  I have a feeling that will be a recurring theme here.  The bottle smelled of cherries upon opening, but with a 2-3 oz pour in my tulip the smell is mostly wine-like tannins.  They are slightly acidic and smell similar to a sweet white wine.  I am serving this chilled as I saw them doing at the Fest so I hope it is appropriate to do so for this particular style.  It has a lovely floral character that becomes more exposed as the bottle warms a bit.  The added cherry juice begins to show as well, but still lies well behind the "tannins" and the floral esters.  The more this glass warms, the better it smells.  I clearly didn't let this bottle sit out enough.  Make sure this is served LIGHTLY chilled if you have it.  Anything more will do this mead a disservice. (Even if the bottle does say to "Serve cold... zombies hate the cold...")

Upon finally achieving what I felt was an optimum temperature, the mead is an excellent combination of the sweet white wine, apples, and cherry juice with the floral note hanging way back.  Each sniff seems to allow the primary aromas to alternate in the spotlight!  The cherry note does smell like a juice and not that of cherries off the tree or cherry pie, etc, but it is fairly rich.  I'm not smelling any honey directly, but I assume that fermenting greatly alters honey's characteristics.

Here's a question for mead drinkers:  Is the aroma growing stronger because the mead it warming, because like wine it also needs to "breathe" and oxygenate, or a combination of the two?

Appearance 3/3
Since mead is not carbonated, there is no head to judge.  It is crystal clear and has a color a bit lighter than that of a blush wine.  The cherry juice and natural pigments of the honey create a light coral or salmon shade.  Not a lot of hue changes throughout the glass either, just one big cup of cyser-looking goodness.  I really wish I knew if this were good or not.  I can say that it also has some fair legs when given even a small swirl.

Flavor 18/20
This is phenomenal.  Immediately the tongue is bathed in a sugary honey sweetness and a tart cherry wave.  It's not sour the same way that Brett is, but in a sour we're more accustomed to in fruits.  Holding the mead in the mouth reveals a backbone that showcases all this mead's flavors in a wonderfully complex harmony.  The cherries are sweet, but ring sour on the sides of the tongue.  Its tart cherries are the star of the show and we find out now that they are quite understated in the aroma.  Honey lends its smooth, coating nature and blends its sweetness flawlessly with the cherry.  It's a delicious pairing that I'm surprised doesn't exist more in other flavored goods.  The finish shows the darker, more authentic, almost bitter cherry flavor that throws the salivary glands into overdrive.  The aftertaste isn't much, but is a faint haunting of the sour recently swallowed.

Mouthfeel 5/5
Smooth!  Smooth!  Smooth!  I can only assume that honey's naturally viscous quality help make this mead so wonderfully silky.  The body is light as expected, but I don't believe it to be any different than a wine.  Oddly, lightly swishing the mead in the mouth allows what feels like an extremely light carbonation to appear.  I know that most will think that its just from the swishing, but I'm not swishing this like mouthwash!  I don't believe what I'm doing is enough to cause bubbles in the mead.  Is carbonation possible?

Overall Impression 9/10
This is good stuff.  It's not in my wheelhouse of expertise, but I really enjoy this flavor.  It is, of course, very sweet like a cider, and has many characteristics of a wine with out all the acidity.  I would say it's more akin to drinking a juice, but I would not degrade this mead like that.  Juice is too simple and easy.  The blending of flavors in this mead took a lot of work and brewing prowess.  The body is one of the best attributes and if all meads exhibit a similar characteristic due to the honey in the brewing process, then you can expect me to incorporate many more meads into my regular imbibing.

Total 45/50
Why aren't more things flavored Cherry + Honey?  With what a great combination it is, I'm rather surprised that we don't see it in bubble gums, lollipops, sodas, and various other sweets.  Besides utilizing a great flavor combo, B. Nektar has really blended them superbly to allow the best of each ingredient to be recognized.  Can I again comment on the smooth mouthfeel!  Wow!  Even in oak barrels, I don't believe I've ever drank something so smooth.  They have a pretty good distribution in the eastern U.S., so if you find them, buy them. It's a great experiment into the world of mead.  I end with the quote from their bottle.

"Dedicated to the freaks and the geeks!  what started as a top-secret experiment with Michigan honey, cherries, and apple cider became a viral epidemic.  It won't be easy to survive, so grab your weapons and don't forget this bottle for backup!  Serve cold... zombies hate the cold...

B. Ware

GRrrHaarrhUrrgh"