The Bar Towel

Hearing through the grapevine that Moonlight Mead may be coming to Ontario this summer via LCBO.com sales.

if you haven't had it (or any of the US mead, like Schramms or B Necktar before) you should be really excited by this. it's a giant fruit bomb. amazing apertif.

Thanks for posting that! I love me a really good mead.

I've only ever had mead direct from a couple monestsries.....found it far too sweet to drink more than an ounce or two. How would these^^^^meads compare, you think?

sofakingdrunk wrote:I've only ever had mead direct from a couple monestsries.....found it far too sweet to drink more than an ounce or two. How would these^^^^meads compare, you think?

i've been lucky. think i first had Moonlight's mead in Grand Rapids around 3 years ago. i was there for the American Homebrewers Association conference. out of everything being poured by breweries, including Michigan breweries, Moonlight stole the show.

you have to know what you're getting and what it's like compared to the shitty Ontario meads on the market.

in ontario, we have Trafalgar, which is just gross. and you have Rosewood, which ranges from blech to not bad. but their mead is more honey focused, which means that it comes across as being medicinal and herbal, which is something i don't care for.

when you go stateside, you have Moonlight, B Necktar and Schramms. Basically, if you want a fruit bomb or something that tastes like a refined fruit syrup with the ABV of wine (around 14%) it's amazing. Schramms uses a mix of 49% fruit to 51% mead. so think about that - you are getting intense fruit flavours (when made properly).

Schramms and Moonlight are my favourite. I haven't had any B Necktar that i love, but that's partially because i mainly seek out Moonlight when i go to Buffalo.

regarding your comment on sweetness: yes, they are sweet. they're meant to be dessert sippers, not bottle chuggers. they're like icewines, but giant fruit bombs. my wife and i go through one bottle in about a week. you pour 30 mL at a time. probably have 1-2 glasses after dinner with/as dessert. if you want a dryer mead, then Rosewood, which doesn't have fruit, would be the way to go

Thanks for the clarification. I'll try and pick
Some up if I can. Havnt even bothered with any of the ontario stuff, as I just assume it was going to be rubbish

sofakingdrunk wrote:Thanks for the clarification. I'll try and pick
Some up if I can. Havnt even bothered with any of the ontario stuff, as I just assume it was going to be rubbish

just to clarify:
Rosewood's mead is definitely not rubbish.
i've had 1 good bottle from them - Royale Honey, which is available at the LCBO. i haven't had their $40 Ambrosia.
their mead is not a fruit bomb, which is why, to be honest, i don't love it. with honey, you get the flavours of the flowers that the bees pollinate. i find that, with mead that's unfruited, it tastes very medicinal and a bit metallic. i'm a fan of fruited mead and not what Rosewood does. Rosewood's mead definitely tastes like true honey wine, and that, in my opinion, isn't so hot. especially if you've had a chance to try fruit mead to see what mead's potential can be.

Ontario also has Munro Mead near London, they do lots of styles of mead, and seem to be pretty plugged in with the Michigan scene. You can order it online too.

http://www.munrohoney.com/store/store-1/mead-3