I picked this Allagash Brewing Company Hive 56 Ale Brewed with Honey and Brettanomyces, 9.2% ABV up from a clearance cart in my local grocery store beer and wine department just the other day. Hive 56 is a dark sour ale aged with honey in an oak foudre for eighteen months and blended with dark Munich malt, chocolate wheat, midnight wheat, roasted barley, and hopped with Cascade and Northern Brewer. Hive 56 undergoes initial fermentation with Allagash’s house yeast; then they transfer the beer to a foudre with Brettanoyces Bruxellensis (a type of wild/living yeast) and fresh honey from their own beehives. Hive 56 pours a dark brown color with a two finger slow beige head giving off dark fruit aromas with some sweetness and a slight honey note, that takes you into a sweet dark fruit/ tropical fruit taste with nice slight touches of honey that finish with a strong note from the 9.2% ABV and some slight sweetness and a nice fruited aftertaste with a fuller mouthfeel that kind of sticks to your tongue for a short bit. Hive 56 is an interesting beer that has a lot going on, I give Allagash Brewing Company Hive 56 Ale Brewed with Honey and Brettanomyces a B. I could taste a big tropical fruit flavor on this beer, it was faint at best but you get more dark fruits which are good. I don’t think this beer is for everyone, and I think you have to really enjoy most styles of beer to really want to try this or to like this beer. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!
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