Bersærk Organic Mead Danish Nature Brew Mead 50 cl 47%

A mead that has sat quietly for a year usually ends up in a glass and nowhere else. This one went onto a copper still instead. What came off was dark and severe, and it only settled down after a spell in sherry casks. Honey, it turns out, can bite back.

The expert's description

Bersærk Organic Mead Danish Nature Brew Mead 50 cl 47% is a distilled Danish Mead, matured in sherry casks and bottled at 47%.

Bersærk is the second in the line of organic mead products from Danish Nature Brew in Kolding, and the road to the bottle is long. The mead is first hand-brewed from organic ingredients, fermented and matured for at least a year as perfectly ordinary mead. Trolden Bryghus then takes over, drawing the spirit off small copper stills. Small stills work slowly and keep vapour and copper in contact for longer, which goes a long way towards explaining why the distillate never turns harsh.

The sherry casks handle the rest. They pull the honey character towards prunes, raisins and caramel and lay in the dry tobacco note that makes Bersærk resemble a dark rum or a sherried whisky far more than anything brewed from honey. This is a Limited Edition from the 2020 vintage, and 381 numbered bottles were made in total.

Distilled mead is a very small category. Most mead brewers bottle their mead as it is, and only a handful send it through a still and then into wood afterwards.

Tasting notes

Nose

Dark honey first, the sort that has begun to crystallise in the jar. Behind it sit prunes and raisins, a trace of vanilla and a dry streak of tobacco from the cask.

Palate

Full and almost oily in the mouth. Caramel and dried fruit carry the whole thing, while the alcohol runs as a warm band down the middle without ever stinging. The sherry cask shows most clearly here, nutty with a touch of bitterness.

Finish

Long and dry. Tobacco and caramel hold on for some time, and right at the end the honey returns, now with no sweetness at all.

Specifications

Name: Bersærk Organic Mead Danish Nature Brew Mead 50 cl 47%
Producer: Danish Nature Brew
Region/Country: Kolding, Denmark
Type: Distilled Danish Mead
ABV: 47%
Size: 50 CL
Cask type: Sherry casks
Distillation method: Distilled in small copper stills
Number of bottles: 381
Edition: Limited Edition
EAN no.: 5700002146434

Flavour profile

Honeyed · Sherried · Dried Fruit · Tobacco · Caramel

Investment potential

Medium. The release is small and closed, and distilled mead matured in sherry casks is a category with very few bottlings to collect in the first place.

Did you know?

Sugar does not evaporate. When the mead is run through the still, the sweetness of the honey stays behind in the pot, and the spirit that comes off is bone dry. Every bit of honey character you meet in the glass is pure aroma and oak. Not one gram of sugar.

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Frequently asked questions about Bersærk Organic Mead Danish Nature Brew Mead 50 cl 47%

What is the difference between Bersærk and ordinary mead?

Bersærk has been through a still and ordinary mead has not. Ordinary mead is fermented honey bottled as it is, while Bersærk begins life as exactly that kind of mead and is then distilled. The sweetness stays behind in the pot, leaving a dry, powerful spirit that afterwards spends time in wood.

How is Bersærk best served?

Neat and at room temperature in a tulip-shaped Whisky Glass. Give it five minutes in the glass before you taste, so the alcohol settles and the cask notes step forward. A single drop of water opens it further, but ice mutes both the honey and the tobacco.

Where do the dark notes come from?

From the sherry casks. Fresh mead spirit is pale and fairly plain, and it is the wood that lays in prunes, raisins, caramel and that dry tobacco edge. The longer the cask has it, the further it moves away from honey and towards dark fruit.

Does Bersærk work in a cocktail?

Yes, and it works best wherever you would otherwise reach for dark rum. Try it in an Old Fashioned with a little sugar and angostura, or stirred with sweet vermouth. It has too much character for long drinks with soda, where the cask notes simply disappear.

Does an opened bottle need to be finished quickly?

No. At 47% and with no residual sweetness, Bersærk behaves like a spirit rather than a wine, so the bottle will happily stand for a year or more. Seal it properly and keep it upright and out of the light so it does not work on the cork.

Will a whisky drinker enjoy Bersærk?

Yes, and that is probably the drinker it speaks to most directly. The combination of sherry wood, dried fruit and tobacco sits very close to a sherried single malt, and the strength is in the same territory. The difference is the raw material, since there is honey at the bottom of this one rather than barley.

Why is it called Bersærk?

The word comes from the Old Norse berserkr, the warriors who went into battle at the front and without mail, fighting in a kind of trance. The name points squarely at the strength, because 47% is a very long way from what a bottle of mead normally holds.