Church-Key Riders of the Purple Loosestrife

Brewed by Church-Key Brewing
Style: Mead
Pethericks Corners, Canada

Serve in Snifter

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Sample at the TFOB 2006. Wow what an interesting try for my first mead. light yellow colour with a small white head. Aroma is so amazing. Sweet honey, with floral highlights. Taste is a great balance of honey, some spices and bitter hops. Just the perfect combination to keep it from being too bitter or too sweet. What a great find!

Cask at Volo, clear amber-gold, completely still. Light aroma of yeast and sweet fruit. Taste is a disaster: alcohol, bitterness and a dull, clingy sweetness. But good grapey-herbal notes like a sweet German white wine, or a muscat. Leafy. Incomplete.

bomber from tupalev shared at a KW group tasting. pours thin glowing green. honey and lavender nose but the decaying honey sweetness was the most noticable. the flavour was to deconstructed to really be commented on. way past its prime. i hope to have it again but much fresher.

650mL bomber, last of the night at our KW group tasting. Bottle originally from Jeff, bought by Matt. Thanks guys. Pours a lime green colour with no head or carbonation. Seriously, this is the first time I’ve come across something legitimately green in colour. The aroma is just not good. Beansprouts, booze, minor honey, not at all inviting. Borderline revolting. Flavour is awful, though I can almost detect some honey comb in there. Way too sweet, way too boozy, and kind of reminds me of wax. Bees wax. The earth behind Matt’s house is now stained with a poison which will prohibit the growth of grass for the next few decades.

On cask at Volo: Appearance: White wine but slightly cloudy. Aroma: Honey & wine. Flavour: Very sweet, similar to an icewine. Nice though and easy to drink. The 8% is not noticeable.

[1805-20081018] Cask. Apple flower blossom wheat aroma and apple skins. Hazy, pale yellow white body with quick white bubbles. Fruity apple skins flavour also hints at sweet apples with some berries. Light-medium body. Tastes better than it smells.
(Cask Days 2008 @ Volo; Toronto, ON)

cask @ volo tonight. very floral and light. light, light citrus and clear honey flavour, long sweetness is nicely balanced and not cloying. a little cloudy, pale yellow. tastes like a summer day. a very nice mead.

Cask@Volo last evening. Nose is a fruity lemon honey mix, very hazy yellow, zero head. Taste is like lemon cough drops, light bodied, a bit sweet. Good. Thank You Ralph.

Cask. At Volo Cask Days 2008. this rating has eluded me for a long time - and now I get it on cask! Poured a pale greenish, somewhat oily-looking, no head, a little clouding to it. Aroma of fresh clover and honey - pungently of clover. The taste is very light and delicate, just mild honey sweetness, very grassy and fresh. Incredibly soft and light mouthfeel, still on the tongue, a light quick finish - yummy and dangerously easy to drink.

cask at Volo
Appearance: Bright with greenish tint mead. Rocky ring on top.
Nose: Good mead aroma , slight sourness with honey sweet , flowery , alcoholic side. 7+
Flavor/Palate : Full bodied. Flat front with clean mead-honey feel in center. Flowery feel abound, sweet sugary finish. Slightly flat at end, missing alcoholic punch to balance.

ACtual name on bottle was Riders of the Purple Loostrife. +1 for the name, I really like it. Does mead have a head normally? This does not. Very stron sulfur like scent. Very thick and very sweet. A rather nice mead but very hard to rate as a beer.