Eco-illogical

I was a little disheartened when organic beers was chosen as this month's Session topic. I've had quite a few organic beers over the course of this blog and very few have been memorable. To the best of my knowledge, Ireland has only ever produced one organic beer: a lager in Celtic Brew's late Finian's range. I don't remember much about how it tasted, just that it was gassy as hell and a bugger to pour. There are some real stinkers from Britain, like Honey Dew, Whitstable Bay and Lomond Gold, though redemption comes in the form of St Peter's Best and a number of beers from the Marble Brewery in Manchester.

New Zealand's Green Man Bitter stands out as the first organic beer I tried and actually liked. It seems that most of the organic hops we get in these parts come from Down Under and this beer uses them in spades. New Zealand also provides the green for the beer I'm actually reviewing for this Session: Broughton's Angel Lager -- not something I'd be running to try normally, but the only organic beer I could find that I hadn't already tried.

Leaving prejudice and apprehension aside, I'm rather enjoying it. It's a dark gold colour and every bit as crisp and dry as one would expect this style to be. There's plenty more, however: a heavy aley body for a start, and an interesting hoppy spice which leans towards a mediciney bitterness. This runs in parallel with some sweet malt and diacetyl butterscotch notes. There's a lot to this, which is always good to find in a pale lager, not to mention in an organic beer

All that said, I have to wonder what the point of the organicness is. There's nothing in the flavour that couldn't be achieved with non-organic ingredients and I can't help thinking Mother Earth would prefer us to use chemically enhanced Hallertau from local German farms instead of flying nature's own from the other side of the world. The overall environmental benefits of most of the organic beers we get is questionable.

If it's not going to save the world and doesn't taste any better, why are we doing organic beer? Could it be that the Soil Association badge is just another marketing gimmick to appeal to a certain sort of drinker?

Mad limey

The beer blogging world's eye on London, Stonch, reported recently that Fuller's had been touting the notion of serving their organic Honey Dew ale over ice and with a slice of lime. He wasn't in favour of the idea. Despite my many past reservations on organic beer and honey beer, I felt that an experiment was in order. So I'm taking advantage of a brief cease in the hostilities of the June weather to write a post from here in the lavish grounds of Beer Nut Towers where I am joined by a bottle of Honey Dew and two glasses: one with ice and lime, and one not. The aim is to determine whether Fuller's are onto something with this, or whether they're just running out of marketing ideas.

Against my better judgement I'll try the ice-and-slice one first... It could be that I overdid the ice, but I'm not getting very much by way of flavour at all -- just wateryness and fizz. There's a vaguely beery hint somewhere in the background, but no honey and no notes to even indicate what style of beer this is. Refreshing, yes. In the way a glass of iced mineral water is refreshing.

The raw product, then... OK, so there wasn't much flavour to start with. This has to be one of the blandest ales I've ever encountered. Sharply fizzy and very much dry rather than sweet. At the end there's a sort of beeswax stickiness, but nothing like the honey-in-your-face of St. Peter's Honey Ale, for example. It's getting better and sweeter as it warms, but too little too late.

Perhaps the point of the lime was to impart some kind of flavour. We'll never know.
I doubt if I'll be buying any more Honey Dew and I very much doubt that I'll be flinging fruit and frozen water into any other beers (unless instructed to by the marketing department of a large brewery, of course, and only then in the interests of scientific reportage).

This is The Beer Nut, adulterating my beer as per the brewers' instructions, so you don't have to.