Booneshine Brewing Co. Hig Country Honey Amber Ale

Posted on by Evan

High Country Honey Amber Ale from Boonshine Brewing Co. is a 5.5% ABV beer with Pale, Munich, Honey, and caramel malts. It also has Cascade, Centennial, and Amarillo hops, clean water, healthy yeast, and local Sourwood Honey. I have recently come across Boonshine, and I never really heard of them till I found the last one I reviewed, Hatchet Coffee Porter. This Amber ale pours dark amber/red color with a two-finger beige quick fading head. The aroma is sweet, with light bread notes and malts. The flavor is lovely and clean, with light bread, malts, and honey. It has a smoothness to it with a medium feeling in the mouth. The honey here is not really dominant. Then it finishes with a malty sweetness and a nice malted aftertaste but not as malty as some darker beer. This is a deliciously pleasant fall beer that you should be drinking. I give this High Country Honey an A-. It has all the flavors with just the right amount of deliciousness. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Appalachian Mountain Brewery Boone Creek Blonde

Posted on by Evan

Boone Creek Blonde from Appalachian Mountain Brewery in Boone, North Carolina, is zested with orange and has a hint of Wildflower honey. This beer is 4.9% ABV. This beer pours a light orange color with a one-and-a-half finger white quick head. The aroma is orangey, sweet from the honey. The flavor is sweet honey, a big orange flavor that is candy-like. There also is a light hoppy note. The mouthfeel is light. But almost medium feeling. Then this Blonde beer finishes with a sweet orange flavor. Then comes an aftertaste of honey and orange with a hint of a hoppy noted that lingers. The hoppy note fades away quickly as the big honey/orange stays. This ale is not terrible, but I don’t think I could have more than one or one and a half. The flavor is good. It just becomes slightly overwhelming as you finish a can of Boone Creek. That is why it only gets as low as B-. It’s not bad enough that I would pass it up, but I would if I were having a growler of it. Please be kind, stay safe, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Legion Brewing Winnie the Brew Honey Double India Pale Ale

Posted on by Evan

Here is another Legion Brewing beer, Winnie the Brew Honey Double India Pale Ale, 10.2% with 95% IBU (International Bittering Units) a high IBU for an IPA. This IPA is brewed in Charlotte, North Carolina with honey. It pours a deep copper color with an off-white four-finger head that is slow to fade. The aroma is piney and bitter with a very faint sweet honey note. It’s a strong bitterness coming off this IPA. The Flavor is very bitter with piney notes and a little honey sweetness, but the honey also adds to the big bitterness and makes this a very hoppy bitter IPA. It does have a light honey flavor that follows the bitter/hoppy flavor. The mouthfeel is full and sticky. This Legion IPA finishes with a bigger bitterness and has a piney bitter honey aftertaste that comes and goes rather quickly living only bitterness behind before your next sip. Legion Brewing Winnie the Brew Honey Double India Pale Ale is a big bitter monster of an IPA but the flavor is right on with the bitter and the honey, they play well with one another. I give it a C+ it is good but the huge bitterness holds it slightly above average in my opinion. Not a beer you would have more than a pint of. It is better than some honey-flavored IPAs I’ve had but I’m not the biggest fan of honey IPAs but I don’t dislike them. Please be kind, be safe and please enjoy responsibly

Birdsong Brewing Company Honey Pie Double IPA

Posted on by Evan

Birdsong Brewing Company Honey Pie Double IPA, 8.9% ABV which I picked up from the local Harris Teeter grocery store. Honey Pie Double IPA is brewed with local North Carolina harvested Cloister Honey, and pours a deep orange color with a slightly off white two finger head that does leave behind fluffy lacing, giving you sweet malted notes of bitter grapefruit, orange and some honeydew melon that then take you to a big sweet malted bitterness of some orange, grapefruit and some honeydew with a sizable honey flavor note that follows, with a bittersweet finish and a bitter melon grapefruit aftertaste that is lingering with a booziness and a full mouthfeel. I was going into Honey Pie Double IPA with good expectations and I have come to the conclusion that it was too much and I didn’t find this beer as good as I was hoping, so I say it deserves a D. I think the honey and the bitterness combined to really wallop you with bitterness but the sweetness does keep Honey Pie Double IPA from being the worst beer and I actually like most beers from Birdsong Brewing especially their IPAs. But this Birdsong Brewing Company Honey Pie Double IPA just wasn’t one Birdsong IPA I liked. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Burial Beer Co. The Keeper’s Veil Honey Saison

Posted on by Evan

Burial Beer Co. The Keeper’s Veil, 5.5% ABV, a honey Saison is another selection from Pop the Top Craft Beer Shop. This saison is brewed with fresh honey, Carolina grown 6-row barley and wheat, laid upon a bed of flowers. The Keeper’s Veil pours a light orange color with a quick moving one finger white head with nothing left behind but the sweet aroma of floral honey with some light funky notes that take you into a sweet floral honey flavor with funky tart notes that fade into the back of the mouth with a semi-sweet floral finish and a light sweet funky aftertaste with a light to medium funky mouthfeel. Too much floral notes on this and it does not really go well with the honey sweetness I give Burial Beer Co. The Keeper’s Veil a C at best. I don’t think I could have more that one pint of this and one pint was more that enough. It was to flowery for my liking and if that’s you kind of beer that Burial Beer Co. The Keeper’s Veil is the beer for you, and not so much for me. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Gizmo BrewWorks Beekeeper Honey Wheat Ale

Posted on by Evan

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Gizmo BrewWorks Beekeeper Honey Wheat Ale, 5.5% with 11 IBUs from Raleigh, North Carolina is a nod to the beekeeping profession according to Gizmo BrewWorks. Beekeeper Honey Wheat Ale pours a deep yellow with a five finger pillowy white head with an aroma of sweet wheat, banana, and clove that leads you to a taste of some sweetness with nice honey wheat and clove with a floral banana that is easy to drink but not memorable and finishes clean with some sweetness, banana with clove and a semi-sweet wheat aftertaste that lingers a little with a medium mouthfeel. Gizmo BrewWorks Beekeeper Honey Wheat Ale is not bad but there are plenty of better wheat beer out there, and I give it a C. It’s average taste and I wouldn’t mind having it again. But it doesn’t really stand out/ Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!    

Throwback Thursday: The Pike Brewery High Five Salish Lodge & Spa Hopped Honey Ale

Posted on by Evan

Originally posted July 15th, 2016

IMG_4093The Pike Brewery in Seattle Washing is one of my favorite breweries. While I was in Seattle this past spring I happened to go to The Pike Brewery and have some of their beers. One, in particular, I had I tap, Pike High Five Salish Lodge & Spa Hopped Honey Ale, 5.6% ABV with 24 IBUs, really caught my attention and I said I need to review this. Well, it just so happens that they have bottled it and are distributing into here in North Carolina. High Five is collaboration, but a different kind of collaboration, not just between to breweries, but between the Pike Brewery and Salish Lodge & Spa. Salish produces the honey that is used in this beer, along with aromatic Yakima Valley Hops. High Five pours a dark yellow color with a deep orange tint to it that makes it look more of an orange color. The head is a bright fluffy white standing two fingers tall and slowly fades into thick gorgeous laving.  The aroma is sweet with tiny traces of a hopped aroma; there is also a faint biscuit scent. The taste is that you’ll what to enjoy over and over. There is sweetness from the honey up front and a biscuit flavor in the middle and a very faint hoppy note on the back. High Five has a nice faint hoppy-sweet finish that lingers into a sweet honey biscuit aftertaste, which coats the mouth. When I had High Five on Tap at the Pike Brewery I knew it was excellent and had to review it for sure. It’s is most definitely A+ beer. I highly recommend it and would rush to have it again, and I can’t say enough good things about The Pike Brewery. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Benford Brewing Company Irish Honey Ale

Posted on by Evan

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I haven’t heard to much of the Irish Honey Ale style in the craft beer world nor have I have very much of it. Benford Brewing Company Irish Honey Ale, 5.1% ABV of Lancaster, South Carolina is the first I’ve had in a while. This Benford pours a clear orange color with a big four finger pillowy white clean head, giving off a sweet honey aroma. The taste is sweet and sticky with honey, slight crispness. This Irish Honey Ale get sweeter the more you get to the bottom, but finish with a nice crisp sweetness and a lasting aftertaste that is sweet with clove honey with a thick mouth feel that coats you mouth which causes the aftertaste to really linger. This Benford Irish Honey Ale is a C. The sweetness is just a little to much but it is a bit refreshing. After two or three of these and I think the flavor would become to much. It not so bad just a little to much sweetness and a somewhat bland sweet honey flavor, nothing to really write home about. I won’t be rushing back to this beer. I might try this again. If you like sweet its okay, but Olde Mecklenburg Hornet’s Nest Hefeweizewen is a better choice for a sweeter beer. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!