I haven't really had time lately to post new reviews as I've been working long hours on my Canadian Breweries List, something that will never ever be completed.. but with there being a large patriotic Buy Canadian campaign going on right now, Canadians want to know what beer brands are Canadian-owned and brewed by Canadians for Canadians. Hopefully I'll ramp up reviews soon.. but for now, I'm putting most of my mental and physical energy towards that.
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I don't review meads often as I find them a bit too wine-like for my tastes, but that being said.. I enjoy a nice mead over a red wine any day of the week. Many of my favourite breweries have been brewing meads for a few years now so it only makes sense to try them. I was casually strolling through one of the million wine aisles at the Liquor Mart and came across the mead section, and low and behold - Barn Hammer's Old Friar Mead popped out at me. Barn Hammer is rarely ever available in Brandon, and generally only available as a growler fill, so of course I was excited to see one of their products in stock.
Old Friar is made with locally sourced caramelized honey from Beeproject Apiaries. It contains honey, water, yeast, and yeast nutrient. 6.5% ABV - about half the ABV of your typical every day mead.
Appearance: Old Friar pours a rich, clear golden honey-orange body with a good deal of carbonation, quite fizzy, and a light amount of white head on top.
Aroma: While lighter than most other meads I've tried, it has a rich, sweet.. well.. honey aroma to it with a hint of wildflower to it. It reminds me a bit of ice cider to an extent. Seeing that it's only 6.5% ABV, it does have a noticeable whisky-like boozey burn to the nose.
Taste: Honey, with a mixture of wildflowers, a bit of a grassiness, a good amount of sweetness yet not anywhere near as overly candy-like sweetness that I've seen in a lot of meads. Easy to drink, moderately dry and leaves behind a slight honey aftertaste mixed with a light floral bitterness.
Overall Thoughts: It's not every day you see a mead that's made with urban bees, and it's a pretty cool idea! I'm not a mead or honey expert in any sense but compared to the rural meads I've had, this was more grassy and mellow than usual, not as much wildflower presence, more of red rose/flower presence to it. It's sweet but not so sweet that you can only have a small 5oz sample, making this something I could savour as I'm updating my Canadian Breweries List. At 6.5% ABV, I'm not getting plastered on this mead either, thankfully!
http://barnhammerbrewing.ca/beer/experimental-beers/old-friar/
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