simpson bbq

If you have read any of my Drink This Beer posts, my affinity for ales, particularly English-style ales, should have come through. As such, I am a big fan of Fuller’s, an English brewery with over 150 years of heritage. I’d estimate that my favorite beer, if given the chance to pick one beer amongst others, is Fuller’s 1845. It’s a balanced, delicious, English strong ale. I could drink it with any meal at any time, or with no meal at all. I won’t review it here, since my goal for Drink This Beer is to try new things. However, you need to try that beer.

When I took a trip to England a few years ago, I had lots of Young’s and Fuller’s, including plenty of Fuller’s London Pride – another favorite you can get in six packs in the States. What all this means is that I hold the Fuller’s people and their brewery in high regard. This gave me no hesitation in selecting Fuller’s Organic Honey Dew.

Honey Dew beer in a bottle

I cracked it open and picked up on a slight but notable sweetness. Once in the glass, it has much more of a lager appearance than an ale. The color is a nice light amber, almost a yellowish hue. Easily the most translucent of English beers that I’ve sampled, though the poor quality of my photo below makes it look darker than it really is.

Sweeeeeeet English beer

I am a little surprised how much the flavor of honey comes through in the finish of this beer. I’m not just talking sweetness in a sugary sense, but the actual taste of a teaspoon of honey.

It’s as crisp and refreshing as you might expect from looking at it and seeing it poured, but there is a strong honey flavor. I guess the brewer got a little reckless in squeezing his plastic honey bear. If you don’t like honey, you will hate this beer. If you like sweeter beers with a refreshing finish, then this might be for you. It’s not a good example of English-style ales, but it is an interesting change of pace.

I don’t have any idea what I would pair this with in the ways of food. It’s that distinct.

Bee carcasses add a unique protein favor profile

Definitely unique, something I can have one of every once in a while. If you are some kind of honk for organic stuff and like sweeter beers, give this a shot. I liked it in moderation. My recommendation for Fuller’s Organic Honey Dew: Drink this Beer

A random WordPress commenter read my review of some random impulse big beer that I bought: Hop Stoopid. In the comments, he/she told me to get a hold of other Lagunitas Brewery beer: A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale. Well, I went to Friar Tuck’s and picked some up. Good thing I did.

Who's up for a little sumpin' sumpin'?

I’m an unabashed Ale fan. A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale has an IBU of 64 (45 is hoppy) and an ABV of 7.5%. Bring it on!

Who doesn't like the paint can beer opener?

It has a fairly light color for an ale with this robust of an IBU. Still, it’s a very smooth beer with a nice hoppy, fruity finish. My wife is not a high hop fan, but she loved this stuff. I wasn’t getting much of a head on the beer with the glass tilted, so I got a little reckless in the pour, giving me a strong head. The aroma is great, but not remotely overpowering. It’s very easy to drink, so watch out with the 7.5% ABV.

I paired the beer with a smoked pork shoulder sandwich and things could not have gone better. The crisp, hoppy, fruity flavor was an amazing compliment to the spicy, smoky pork. This is not an overpowering beer. It’s not the star at the meal, but it doesn’t fade into the background. Very drinkable.

In the suburban St. Louis area, this stuff is $9.99 for a six pack, if you can even find it. Much love to Friar Tuck’s for having this in stock. Worth the price for sure.

For the second time I am reviewing a Lagunitas Brewery creation, and for the second time my recommendation is: Drink This Beer.

Did you know Walgreen’s sells beer? It’s a relatively recent development here in suburban St. Louis. About this time last year, I was in Walgreen’s buying a bunch of crap I didn’t need when I came across a pallet of beer selling for $2.99 per six pack: Big Flats.

Uh oh

You could pejoratively call it “Walgreens Beer” but at 50 cents a can… it’s a price you can’t beat. Being that I chronically was low on cash 12 months ago, how could I not buy this stuff? I snagged a sixer on St. Patrick’s Day and settled in for a work-from-home 50-cent-beer day full of NCAA basketball. It was something like 70 degrees outside. Life was good.

Not pictured: Unsupervised children

It’s amazing what green food dye does to otherwise non-awesome beer.

Soon it came time for a fantasy baseball draft, something traditionally spent with “bad beers”, though I have only had a few truly Bad Beers (Bud Light being candidate #1). Once again, I called on my new friend, Big Flats.

Ready to draft like a moron again

I finished in third place, despite being a huge dumbass when it comes to fantasy sports. (I chalk up my “success” as due to being in a league full of idiots.)

Times improved (financially) and I could suddenly afford beer that did not come from a pallet at Walgreen’s. It’s been a while, but I had to take a late night trip to the drug store a couple days ago. Sitting there, next to the magazines, batteries, and Airborne, my old friend shot me a wink.

Amazingly, the cost of discarded mutant barley must have gone up! Big Flats is now $3.19 per six pack! This shocking inflation aside, I decided to saddle up and get some Big Flats. This isn’t the typical edition of Drink This Beer.

Scotland disapproves

Crack open the first one and take a whiff. Not good. It’s got a typical cheapo canned beer aroma. Don’t breathe it in too deeply, lest you get scar tissue in your trachea. Before consuming, make sure that it is unbelievably cold. Otherwise, your taste buds might collect the full impact of the brew as you hastily fling it down your gullet.

I suggest drinking it after cutting the grass, while fishing, or while doing anything where your senses can be distracted by other odors and tastes. Given the wateriness of the beer, it helps if you are in stifling heat.

Now, you need to drink this thing out of a can, typically quite quickly. I don’t want to soil a nice pint glass or one of my frosty mugs, but I want to get a photo of this beer outside of its usual habitats of can or belly, so I am using a rarely used juice glass as the Big Flats vessel.

Semi-translucent. Are you surprised?

It is exceptionally effervescent, with a tall but thin head. It’s more yellow than I anticipated, amazingly darker than Bud Light. I’ve never seen it unadulterated in a glass before.

As you sip it, your body will wonder, “Why are you doing this to me?” The only thing to stave off the inevitable bad beer headache is to quickly consume the remaining beers as fast as possible.

Taste… let’s see. Imagine if Pearl Beer had a love child with some Hamm’s. It’s too light to compare to Pabst or High Life. But it actually has an acrid, acidic flavor reminiscent of a high school chemistry lab test tube used to drink pooled rainwater from a Bronx rooftop.It’s bitter, but not like a hoppy IPA… more like licking a magnet. I am starting to feel strange pressure in my frontal lobe and get a little jaw pain.

I feel compelled to pour it back into the mare from whence it came. Instead, I will just drink the entire six pack, watch a DVRed Walking Dead, and probably get the taste out of my mouth with some Jim Beam and water.

Even Stephen Colbert is on board: “BIG, as in the quantity you can buy with the change between your couch cushions, and FLAT for both its taste and the position it will put your body in.” (Seriously, click the link and watch the video.)

My recommendation for Big Flats Beer, of course, is: Drink This Beer At Your Own Peril