First Draught — Fuller’s Organic Honeydew Ale is sweet, naturally

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This article was published 13/10/2017 (3122 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This week, the beer is all about honey! Honey has been a part of beer for centuries now: macro breweries like Sleeman have their Honey Brown Ale, while many smaller craft breweries will actually make their own meads out of honey! Half Pints created an amazing white honey mead called Sweet Heidrun, which at 10.5 per-cent ABV, which was incredibly heavenly, sweet, syrupy, and may never be available in Brandon at this point.

I’ve been looking for a good honey-based beer rather than a mead for the last little while — I’ve tried Unibroue’s Lune de Miel but it is currently out of season, as well I’ve tried Little Brown Jug’s honey-based Golden Ale, but it was lacking the honey, and wasn’t available in Westman yet … So, I needed to go out and find a honey-forward beer that’s worth savouring post-harvest.

The one beer that came up in my search was Fuller’s Organic Honeydew Ale. I have vivid memories of this beer back when there was a Liquor Mart at the Shoppers Mall — this beer seemed to be everywhere. I refused to try this beer for several years since because I just wasn’t interested in reviewing a “popular honey ale that you could get anywhere.” The thing is that I need to try everything that I feel will become the next big trend, and I know that honey ales and lagers will be a popular spring time seasonal style of beer in the coming months.

So, this week I am finally going out and checking out Fuller’s Organic Honeydew Ale. I love seeing new certified-organic beer here in Manitoba, and hope to eventually see organic grain farmers here in Westman being malted at organic malting facilities … but until then, I have this beer and Beau’s All Natural for that.

Fuller’s Honeydew pours a crisp, light, blonde body with a liberal amount of carbonation. There’s a very thick amount of head on top that gradually diminishes, but leaves behind a frothy threat for glass users.

The aroma is a mixture of straw, a moderate amount of honey, grass hops, light notes of lemon, and for the most part — comes across as a light pale ale/Pilsner-style ale with a bit of a honey note to it.

The taste turned out to be reminiscent of some of the sweet, sweeter-style lagers as the honey presence was dominating everything else in this beer. There was also a bit of caramel, a bit of a light, grassy hop presence, and a graininess that seems to be present in a lot of North American pale ales in this day and age.

The thing about this beer is that it reminds me of a lot of Canadian craft brewery one-off honey beers, especially Whistler’s popular Honey Lager. The honey makes a good presence in the beer, and this is a great example of a honey ale out of the U.K., but I could name five breweries in Manitoba that could come up with better honey-themed beers, using Manitoba honey.

Fuller’s Organic Honeydew Ale (5.0 per cent ABV) is currently on sale at Liquor Marts for $2.81 per 500-ml bottle, so it’s worth trying out for the lager fan who loves organic honeydew! You can find the beer at Liquor Marts in Brandon and Virden.

If you want a taste of Western Manitoba honey, Killarney’s Rigby Orchards has a White Manitoba Mead at Liquor Marts in Brandon, Neepawa, Virden, and Killarney for $17.25 per 750-ml bottle. I’ll never be a wine fanatic like Vine Lines’ own Diane Nelson, but I find that a delicious glass of honey wine (mead) goes well with any autumn dessert.

Rating: 3/5 Pints

» Cody Lobreau is a Canadian beer blogger who reviews every beer he can get his hands on as hbelieves that he should try every beer twice to get an understanding if it’s truly good or bad. BeerCrank.ca