Kill All The Golfers Honey Wine by B. Nektar (8/10)

If, like me, you are a fan of the 1980's film "Caddyshack" that starred Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Chevy Chase, and many others, you'll recognize the name of this honey wine as a line from the film.  On the basis of the name and description on the label, I had to try it.

(If you're not familiar with the movie, the line is used during a conversation between the head greenskeeper and Bill Murray's assistant greenskeeper characters.  The head greenskeeper's thick Scottish accent makes Bill Murray's character think he's been asked to "kill all the golfers" instead of "kill all the gophers" on the course. Karl, Murray's character, responds with "Correct me if I'm wrong, Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they're gonna lock me up and throw away the key...")

Kill All The Golfers is a honey wine (mead) brewed with tea and lemon.  It's produced by B. Nektar Meadery of Ferndale, Michigan.  It's intended to be an homage of sorts to the "half and half" tea and lemonade drink popular with golfers.

The aroma is strong with honey.  In fact, you might have trouble smelling anything else.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.  I think I catch a hint (but only just a hint) of the tea and lemon.

It pours a cloudy, orange-ish amber color.  It's mildly carbonated and has only the vaguest notion of a head.  If I hadn't poured it somewhat hard into the glass for the picture at the right, there'd be none at all.  What there is disappears quickly and leaves behind no lacing.  To be clear, I wouldn't really expect a mead to have a head or leave behind lacing, but I like my reviews to be as consistent as I can make them.

The flavor took me by surprise.  Mead can often be sweet, and I expected that here.  It's not, though.
 The lemon adds a decidedly tangy note to it.  Each sip starts with a definite flavor of honey.  The sweetness and flavor of the honey lasts perhaps a half-second, then the tea and lemon swell up and dominate.  From that point on, it's like drinking a strong iced tea with a lot of lemon and honey in it.  To be honest, it took me two or three drinks to really appreciate this one.  The first drink was so far from what I expected that I could only go "Wow..." when it went down.  On the second and third, I began to notice and appreciate the complexity and mingling of the flavors.  It's really quite nice.

RateBeer gives Kill All The Golfers an 89 out of 100.  Beer Advocate gives it an 81/100.  I'm right there with them.  I like this enough to give it an 8 out of 10, but not quite enough to jump to a 9.

I purchased this bottle at Savor Pint on Indianola Avenue for $6.99.  According to BeerMenus.com, at the time of this writing (June 2015) it's available at Savor Growl, 101 Beer Kitchen, and some shops elsewhere in the state.

It's a 6% alcohol by volume beverage.

Because I enjoyed the artwork and wording on the label (which calls to mind the Caddyshack scene referenced earlier), I'm including photos below.

In case you can't read the text in the picture, here it is in its entirety:

It's been a long day.  I had to hide out in my burrow for the better part of the day waiting for those damn golfers.  But today was my day, I finally did it.  I didn't even need a reason.  I wonder if they received total consciousness.  It's like a Cinderella story, out of nowhere, a former dancing gopher becomes a killing champion.  I had my special drink, a half & half, while I got in touch with that force in the universe that makes things happen.  All I had to do was stop thinking... let things happen.. and B. THE BALL.