Purchased at: Sicilianos Market – Grand Rapids MI
What makes this beer different: Not very bitter for an English Bitter
Will I be drinking this again: If I’m ever in Chicago yes.
Grade: B+
3/7/2010: I remember passing on drinking this on tap last time I was in Chicago, why? I don’t know. It seems to be very popular as it was on tap at every bar we stopped at (this was over a year ago before I rediscovered my love for craft beer).
Honkers Ale is my first “English Bitter.” With a style named English bitter you would expect a lot of bitter hops right? Well I didn’t really get that from this beer. Which is weird because a lot of the reviews on this beer say its perfectly balanced… Maybe I got a goofy batch? Anyways the smell is very hoppy, but the taste is not. The taste is almost like a sugar candy, very malty, with some hops in the background. I would say the mix was 75% malty flavor, and 25% hops. A lot heavier than I thought it would be for a beer with 4.2% alcohol content. Overall a pretty decent beer, a bit too sweet and not really what I was expecting.
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The name's Drew. Just a normal 32 yr old guy from Pittsburgh with an abnormal obsession for craft beer, web design and photography. I run my own web design business over at 
From what I’ve read and tasted of English Bitter, the style isn’t meant to be super hoppy as the name would imply. I think this style was more bitter in comparision to other beers 200 years ago. These days, if a beer isn’t coating your teeth with resin it’s not hoppy enough. The last time I drank Honker’s Ale, I do remember it being more “hopped” than the other beers I had that night.
I wasn’t so much expecting a ton of hops, but they were almost none existent in this beer. Maybe I am getting used to imperial ipas and have lost a knack for detecting hops haha.
I didn’t get much for hops either from what I remember of my review. A good beer though.
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