old faithful wrote:I haven't yet found a honey beer I like. I used to taste mead and never really came to terms with that either.
The only mead I've tried is the raspberry one from Trafalgar. I like it but not the cost so it's a rare treat. ($14 for six tiny 200ml bottles.) I tried aging a bottle for a year but didn't notice any difference. (I think the box mentions about aging to improve it further.)
My friends and I did a brew, a braggot, last year or two with imported French honey. I think it was our third brew so the filtering wasn't the best (it's much better now) so we got floaty bits in the bottles. They kind of looked like pieces of honeycomb. Anyway, when we finally sampled some we all actually agreed on the taste, which is pretty rare, it tasted faintly of bubblegum. Very odd but pleasant to drink. Subsequent tastings were the same. I was thinking to myself that we might have stumbled on something the female population might like. Our two usual female test subjects thought it tasted like hay.
I still scratch my head over that. So much for the female market.
Then too, honey beer isn't exactly a new idea, how many other honey beers are out there already...?
Lots and most of them suck. I feel like Clara Peller everytime I try a new one... "Where's the honey?!"
By the way for those who are interested in mixing beers, try any honey beer (e.g. Sleeman's or any other) mixed 50/50 with a stout, this is very good, MacAuslan Outmeal Stout, or any good stout works well.
I may try that to see if the yucky parts of stouts are eliminated.