Phoenix Black Bee Honey Porter

Brewed by Phoenix (Oak Brewing Co.)
Style: Porter
Heywood, England

March 2008 Soft black porter with plenty of malt offset by well balanced rich honey. Nicely joined up.

Cask @ The Angel, Manchester M4. Pours a dark brown almost black color with a small creamy head. Has a roasted malty chocolate and honey aroma. Roasted malty chocolate flavor with hints of honey. Has a roasted malty chocolate finish.

Cask at The Waters Green Tavern in Macclesfield. Dark dark brown. Oaty coffee aroma. Usual coffee and chocolate hints of a porter with an honey hint. Don’t like honey but this worked well. Bitter finish, slightly oily mouthfeel.

Handpulled cask at JDW Watford during recent international beer fest. Very dark brown with some reddish undertones. Plenty of caramel and fruit aromas with a touch of honey. Flavour began with some coffee and dark chocolate, before a crunchie bar finish. Drinkable.

Cask at the Monks Retreat (JDW), Reading. Black with a bright reddish hue when held to the light, and a trace of cream head; light aroma of roasted malt; fruity, dry and rather thin; some coffee and sweetness in teh finish, but no trace of honey.

Knickersby ’Spoons. Dark ruby with beige lace. Blackcurrant, red pepper and roast on nose. Creamy chocolate malt, lingering smoke and a firm underpinning of almost citrussy hop bitterness. More drawn-out chocolate than honey character. Maybe a nibble of burnt Sugar Puff. A distinctive beer with an intriguing interplay of hops and malt. (Smithfield Hotel, Manchester...dark ruby with beige rim and lace. Nose sickbowl and butter, medicinal cherry lolly. Disinfectant honey, tiny puff of smoke, spoiling cherry. Pretty shite, but original rate stands).

Cask in the counting house. Aroma is black and roasted malts, grassy hop character. Taste is similar slightly tart, thin body, drinkable but unexciting.

Cask, Ship and Mitre, Liverpool. Deep dark brown with a light tan head. Aroma of coffee and molasses. Sweet, roasty toasty flavour, bit strange, something like manuka smoked caramac. Caught the buzz on this one.