Bayhawk Poorman Honey Blonde Ale

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Pours into glass with clean, light amber color. Smells distinctly of honey and something malty/biscuity. Smooth but almost sticky mouthfeel; very rich in honey flavor, little hop balance, very malty. Coats the throat but goes down easy. A nice beer for the warm night after a day of working on renovating the house. After 2-3 though, my mouth wants something hoppy.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 3

Wow, this is not-so-interesting, to be honest.

I figured with the current heatwave that SoCal (and the entire South-West) has had to deal with as of late, this would be a welcome respite from the heat and humidity. After all, if a "Honey Blonde Ale" can't satisfy during these sort of conditions, it won't do so well any other time of the year, eh?

But really, this is a classic example of why I normally shy away from "Honey" ales. Sweet and cloying in the mouthfeel, and entirely too sweet and sugary for my taste.

This does have some bitterness in the middle, but not nearly enough to counteract the sugar-cookie sweetness in the front and the backend. Comes across way too "amaturish" and (dare I say it?) vaguelly homebrew-ish. And if a homebrewer like myself usess that term (in this isolated instance) as as derogatory thing, you know it must have issues!

This actually brings me back to the mid-90's, to be honest. The microbrew explsion was fully underway, and you couldn't turn left nor right in a decent liquor store without running into 10-15 different fly-by-night microbreweries, trying to cash in on a trend that was bound to burn itself out (i.e. which it did, by `99). Nothing too wretched, but way too many marginal schwills with way-too-fancy labels. And while I'm not saying that Bayhawk is neccesarily a fly-by-night outfit, their beers often do have a rather slip-shod feel to them. "Flood the market with enough Bayhawk brands, and something is bound to stick", perhaps?

Anyway, $3.49 for a 22-ozer, that I can afford to dispose of via the nearest sink. Sweet, sickly, and (worst of all) boring as all-get-out....

Music: Nightrage's "Descent Into Chaos".
//TB