Hive Double IPA w/Honey

Built in Toronto by Bandit Brewery, Hive Double IPA w/Honey is a burly 8.5% ale sold in 500mL bottles. The apiary-infused brew is a cloudy golden ale and it pours with a fluffy eggshell head.

The beer has an extremely sweet nose—honeyed, and also pretty boozy. The flavour is similarly sweet, packing lots of honey notes along side an alcohol-heavy warmth. The Double IPA part of this beer is more of a booze platform than it is a true-to-style element, as there really isn’t a whole lot of bitterness, other than a bit at the back end.

All in all, Hive is a decent after dinner ale. It’s strong and sweet, but it’s missing the bitterness that I was hoping would hold my interest. Not the best offering from Bandit, but it’s not bad.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Whitney’s Vantage Wet Hopped Ale

Brewed with some regional ingredients, including hops from Bighead Hops from Meaford, Ontario, and honey from Beaver Valley Gold Honey, Whitney’s Vantage Wet Hopped Ale is a 6.9% alcohol 35 IBU concoction from The Collingwood Brewery in Collingwood, ON.

Sold in yellow 473mL cans, Whitney’s is a handsome, slightly hazy sunburst orange ale with a fluffy white head. It has a robust aroma that blends the sweetness of honey with juicy tangerine notes. It tastes a bit quirky, with a mélange of sweet, tart, and bitter flavours; these are represented by honey, citrus, and sticky hops respectively. 

The only real stumbling block for this innovative and enjoyable ale comes at the finish, which isn’t nearly as assertive or hoppy as I’d have liked—something a bit more bombastic would have really shut the door more effectively. Otherwise, it was tasty -land bursting with flavour.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Honey Habanero Spicy Ale

According to the copy on the snazzy 473mL cans of Frank Brewing Co.’s Honey Habanero Spicy Ale, this brew was created in homage to the brewer’s grandad’s zeal for his wife’s honey habanero marmalade. Low-test at just 4.8%, the beer is crystal clear and golden, with a thin disc of eggshell head.

To my sniffer, honey sweetness is the big contributor to the aroma of this little effort from Tecumseh, Ontario. Interesting, the spicy pepper is used sparingly, and only becomes evident on the finish after a couple of sips. Otherwise, the flavour is mild and sweet, with mellifluous notes on top of an otherwise mild and balanced blonde ale.

I’m conflicted when it comes to reviewing this ale—typically with spicy beers I fear over-emphasis of heat elements, but with this one, I’d have liked just a whisper more potency. As well, I always like to know where a beer’s honey (and peppers) are sourced. That info would have been nice.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

RGBee

Billed as a tripel with wildflower honey, RGBee comes from the Halo Brewery. A Torontonian ale with some heft, this re-imagining of the Belgian-style contains a stern 8.7% alcohol and comes in 500mL bottles.

Initially, the beer poured extremely clear, which was an unusual characteristic for a tripel-style ale. However, my second pour seemed to dislodge some sediment and resulted in a considerably more cloudy second half. Additionally, it proved to be substantially carbonated and occupied space beneath a fuzzy white head.

I found RGBee's nose to be a complicated affair, encompassing malt, honey sweetness, and a whiff of copper. The beer tasted extremely sweet--a product both of its boozy nature and of the use of honey in the brewing process. While there was definitely some Belgian-inspired yeastiness, I found it to be rather understated, taking a backseat to the sugary qualities that were the real drivers of this ale.

RGBee was a very interesting ale. I found it to be well-conceived, but not quite as well-executed. A bit too cloying and not nearly as representative of the tripel style as I wanted. Still, the use of wildflower honey created a pleasant clover feel that made for a memorable flavour.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Blood & Honey American Ale

According to the label on 12 oz bottles of Blood & Honey American Ale, the stuff is brewed with "blood orange peel, honey & spices". A pale wheat ale, B&H comes from Granbury, TX, where it's brewed by Revolver Brewing. The beer came highly recommended by my pal JG, so I rushed out and bought a bottle at the first opportunity during a stay in Dallas.

The beer was cloudy and sunny gold, with a thin disc of white head. It' aroma was both slightly yeasty and slightly citrusy, with a whiff of something sweet. At 7% alcohol, it had some gravitas without putting me to sleep. As for flavour, the ale had an agreeable spice presence, some charming citrus elements, and a bit of honey sweetness attributable to Texas honey used in brewing.

On top of its excellent name, Blood & Honey proved to be a delightful little grog--strong and sweet, but backed with a decent hops finish, and buoyed by a zest of orange. If you're in Texas, you should really take this ale out for a spin or two.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Home Sweet Home

Brewed with honey malt and vanilla beans and packed into a 650mL bottle, Home Sweet Home fairly jumped off the shelf and into my arms. This wheat ale, from Whitby, Ontario's 5 Paddles Brewing Co., contains 5.5% alcohol.

Home Sweet Home is a very pretty beer--brassy, slightly hazy, and topped with a blanket of white head. It is possessed of a sweet and smooth nose that blends honey with fresh grains. Notes of vanilla become more evident in the flavour, which is extremely sweet and a bit syrupy.

This beer is unique, particularly as a flagship brew. It has a nice, mellow vibe that is complimented by its appearance and folksy name. My biggest complaint has to do with over-sweetness, but really, when you're dealing with a vanilla-honey ale, sweetness is probably to be expected. The beer tasted fresh and pleasant. It's worth a trip to a local beer vendor.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Smoked Honey

Royal City Brewing Co. is a new (or at least new to me) brewery operating out of Guelph, Ontario. When I saw their Smoked Honey hit the shelves of my local beer vendor, I jumped at it, both because it's an early offering from a brewery I know nothing about, and because the description beguiled me: "Lightly smoked, easy drinking brown ale ... made with real honey." Sold.

The 500mL bottle boasted an attractive label and it has a 5.5% on there too, which isn't bad at all. The label invited me to "share with friends & enemies", but I decided to hoard this one to myself. Smoked Honey proved to be a deep mahogany ale. It was cloudy and had some subtle ruby highlights underneath a healthy eggshell head.

The aroma found an interesting point in an unusual spectrum, somewhere between sweet and smokey. In addition, there was an entertaining waft of brown ale malt running through from end to end. The flavour wasn't quite rich, but close. I'd call it bourgeois, upper-middle-class ale. Honey and woodsmoke mingled in this one, giving it a slight BBQ hue; however, neither honey nor smoke was present in abundance. As for my old pal hops, there wasn't much of a sight of him in this particular beer. Just a few footprints in the finish.

Nuance and restraint typify this flavoured ale. Really, in spite of its apiary and incendiary leanings, this beer was basically a mildly malty brown ale. It was too sweet for multiples in an evening, but an enjoyable treat that I'd gladly welcome next to a campfire as the sun goes down.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.