The Bar Towel

I tried this recently and thought it was quite good. The main flavour is typical Canadian big brewery (that "Blue"/"Canadian" taste) but overlaid with a rich sweetish honeyed flavor that blends well with the crisp nature of mainstream Canadian lager. The beer is quite dark in colour, indeed a honey brown. I can't tell whether this is a standard recipe to which honey is added after fermentation or whether it was brewed from a mash which includes honey, or both, but the result is quite good and shows much more flavour than the usual lager that issues from its source. The beer improves with chilling since drunk room temperature it tends to be quite sweet. This is a fine summer quencher and seems made for the barbeque. I don't generally drink mass-produced beer (except for Pilsener Urquel and occasionally, Guinness) but this one is creditable and well-made.

Gary

This has got to be a joke....it is the worst beer ever. I would rather drink the Lakeport or poison.

I have been drinking beer for 35 years and studied it in all its manifestations. I yield to no man in my appreciation of the best craft (and other) beers in the world, so I think I have some qualifications for saying this is a good beer, but if you don't like it that's fine - and just your opinion.

Gary

I got my hands on a gratis bottle this past weekend. While I didn't find it offensive, there wasn't anything there that gave me that "Oh I have to try this again!" feeling. I didn't find the honey taste to be all that rich and/or sweet. Maybe it's just my expectations that if you use the words honey or maple in the title of the beer that you should notice it in the product. Damn sweet tooth... I had a Floris Honey after it. BAM! That's more like it.

I also had Brick Honey several weeks ago. At the time of ordering I wasn't sure if it was going to be their Honey Red or just a straight honey brew (I didn't know Brick had a straight honey beer.). I've had the Honey Red a couple of times beyond the first taste when there hasn't been anything I cared for on tap at certain places. The straight Honey brew was dropped off at my table. I pretty much had the same reaction as Labatt's Honey. An "enh" and an "at least it's not watery like Brutopia's Honey beer." I guess if the plan for both is to fend off the cheapy honey's then I suppose it's mission accomplished though I know I'm not interesting in signing up for that mission.

Of the currently available honey beers I still prefer Muskoka's Honey Brown. Still nothing tops the defunct Algonquin though.

lister wrote:I also had Brick Honey several weeks ago. At the time of ordering I wasn't sure if it was going to be their Honey Red or just a straight honey brew (I didn't know Brick had a straight honey beer.). I've had the Honey Red a couple of times beyond the first taste when there hasn't been anything I cared for on tap at certain places. The straight Honey brew was dropped off at my table.

So they have a honey beer separate from the Honey Red? Or are you referring to the Algonquin Honey Brown?

JerCraigs wrote:So they have a honey beer separate from the Honey Red? Or are you referring to the Algonquin Honey Brown?

Yes Brick has another honey beer separate from the Honey Red and it's definitely not the Algonquin Honey Brown. I had it at the Village Idiot pub on Dundas & McCaul about three weeks ago. It was much lighter in taste and colour compared to Algonquin and pretty much identical to Labatt's.

I could be wrong, but I doubt that Brick has launched a new Honey beer in addition to their Honey Red. I'd suspect it's more likely that they've simply rebranded their Honey Red as Brick Honey (and perhaps tweaked the recipe as well), since it really wasn't very red in the first place.

Either that or the server at the Village Idiot didn't know what they were talking about.

GregClow wrote:I could be wrong, but I doubt that Brick has launched a new Honey beer in addition to their Honey Red. I'd suspect it's more likely that they've simply rebranded their Honey Red as Brick Honey (and perhaps tweaked the recipe as well), since it really wasn't very red in the first place.

The Honey Red is redder than what I had. The place wasn't that dark and I was kind of expecting the Honey Red. I've had the HR several times at Summit and while it wasn't as red as the sole reds out there, it was nowhere near the pale straw colour of the honey I got.

Either that or the server at the Village Idiot didn't know what they were talking about.

That's entirely possible and something I considered though it wouldn't be the fault of the server but rather the person who wrote up the "on tap" sign. Maybe they decided to pass off Lakeport or Labatt's Honey as Brick. *shrug* Regardless it wasn't that great.