Cucapá Honey

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

355ml bottle from International Advent Calendar. Label says "Amber Ale", BP says "Blonde Ale". Whatever. Clear copper pour, no carbonation led to almost no head, just a brief, thin white layer. Nice aroma, honey for the most part. Mouth started thin but improved as the temperature rose. Flavour was bland to start, honey became evident towards the end. Drinkable and actually not revolting, given the origin.

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

Sampled on 6/7/2011. This blond/golden ale pours a very slightly hazy orange gold color from a 12oz bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is grassy, grainy, fruity and honey. A medium bodied blonde/golden ale. The malts are fruity and sweet, mostly pears and honey. The hops are herbal. Decent carbonation. The honey flavors are quite evident, but it is not very sweet. Actually for a blonde ale, it’s kind of hoppy and has a dry finish. Not quite what one would expect from a honey ale. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and dry. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

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

It pours a dark-copper with a thick light-tan head and copious lacing. An aroma of caramel malts, light hops, citrus, light cactus, and honey is evident. The mouthfeel is smooth and rich. Flavors of caramel malts, hops, citrus, honeycomb, earthy like agave, cactus maybe and spiciness. Very tasty and refreshing.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a frothy, initially two-finger thick, tan colored head. The beer is a bit darker than your typical honey beer with a rich, reddish amber hue that shows a brilliantly clear, deeply red stained, bright copper color when held up to the light. The aroma smells of lightly herbal hops, a touch of caramel malt toasted character and perhaps a touch of light, berry fruitiness in the finish. This has no real honey nose to it, and is surprisingly herbal hop focused considering that most honey beers are completely devoid of any hop character at all.

Lightly sweet up front, but a bitter hop note easily keeps this in check along with an herbal hop flavor. The bitterness lingers on in the finish with quite a bite to it. The aggressive hop notes certainly dominate, but there is a substantial use of crystal malts here with flavors of toasty grain and caramelized malt sugars playing a significant, if only supporting role. The crystal malt keeps the hops just in check and some honey flavors would help this be more balanced, but these are strangely lacking. When I am not so focused on the lingering hop bitterness in the finish I do get flashes of sweet honey flavors in the finish, but they are certainly not a substantial part of the flavor profile.

An interesting take on the typically hop-less Honey beer. This is perhaps a bit too aggressively hoppy as it can get a bit astringent and even a bit harsh at times. The hops even get in the way of being able to notice the honey flavors and aromatics, which are almost non-existent. The beer isn't nearly as bad as all this, but somehow I find myself a bit disappointed that this wasn't another standard, crappy, simplistic honey beer; this is actually a decent Pale Ale and in a blind tasting would do at least half well as one (though incredibly poorly as a Honey Beer). The bottom line is that if I was in the mood for a Honey beer I wouldn't get this & if I was in the mood for a Pale Ale, I still wouldn't get this.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ