Spanish Peaks Honey Raspberry Ale

Brewed by Flying Dog Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Frederick, Maryland USA

Nice brown golden color. Malty aroma without any hint of the fruit, but a bit of honey. Some head, but little lacing. The raspberry flavor is there, but not overly strong, a nice subtle tone. Sweet and smooth, it really coats the mouth.

Aroma is weak at best. Pours red with no head, constant bottom carbonation. Flavor is of fruit and weak beer. If your drunk and want to try something different, have at it!

Well it isn’t summer so not really time for the fruit beers, but I got this in a sampler pack a while back and it did hit 80 here in Ohio today so I thought I’d give it a try. It pours copper in color with a head that disappears quickly but it is fizzing like a coke after the head is gone.. Appears to be strongly carbonated. Aroma is very sweet. Some raspbery and much honey. You can taste a little malt in it but the honey flavor really comes through and just a touch of the raspberry. It is refreshing. I have to say most of the flavor in this doesn’t come from the beer but the honey and the raspberry. I’ve never been a big fan of fruit beers but this one really isn’t all that bad. It is very carbonated and fairly light on the palate. I could see drinking this in the sun on a hot day maybe. Not one that I will buy again though just as I haven’t met a fruit beer that I like yet. But if you are into them I’m sure it is worth a try.

By far the best raspberry-type fruit beer I’ve had in years. Very "natural" raspberry flavor; and very drinkable; Much better than other fruit beers like Magic Hat #9. Almost as drinkable as the old Norwestern Brewery Raspberry Wheat ale made in the same Saratoga brewery about 10-12 years ago under that name...

(12 oz bottle: Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa, CA) This is one of the few raspberry beers I’ve had that tries to combine a flavorful mix of malt, hops and fruit. They succeed, as it’s rather flavorful, and all those components have a noticeable presence, but to mixed results. The raspberry flavor is moderate, and while not fake and perfumy, doesn’t taste like fresh berries either. Malt is mild and tastes like a simple amber, and the hops contributes a very mild bitterness. It’s moderately sweet, presumably from the raspberries, but also from the addition of honey, though I can’t specifically taste any honey, per se. What’s missing is some sort of balancing tartness, so the sweet, but medium bodied palate becomes tired very quickly. The nose is almost entirely sweet berries and a sweetness that seems vaguely influenced by honey. Medium to dark amber in color exemplifies the brewer’s desire to make this fruit beer with an amber ale backbone. Off-white head pours to an average size, and fades away to a wide rim around the edge of the beer’s surface. I like some of the Spanish Peaks brews, but I wouldn’t care if this one went away.

Raspberry is apparent in the aroma and taste, although it doesn’t overpower the flavor. Head lasts for a long time, and it goes down smooth. One of the few fruit beers that I can drink all night. Not bad.

I don’t think this one is trying to be an outstanding brew so I’ll rate it as such. I really like the dominant rasberry flavor. This would be an enjoyable brew on a warm summer night. I’d drink it again when I’m in the mood for something different & fun.

It pours a nice enough red/brown/pink/orange color, with a little bit of sediment in the bottom of my glass (or was my glass just dirty?), and a moderate off-white head. The aroma is heavily on the fruit side rather than the honey side, suggesting a nice bouquet of raspberry and raspberry-flavored mineral water. The palate struck me first as slightly frothy, but it is a slightly larger type of carbonation than the archetype of frothiness found in Belgian ales, so it has a slightly more stinging sensation. The flavor begins with a dull, malty and slightly salty note, then reveals raspberry in the mid-finish before leaving some honey tange (but not an exceptional amount of sweetness, contrary to expectations) in the later finish. A perfume note hangs in my mouth before breaking down into a rather cardboard-and-dust blahness in my mouth. But it isn’t that bad on the whole. Most disappointing was the palate, which gets progressively watery with each sip. That really compares to the better fruit beers that manage to sustain a ringing palate through one of: acidity, sweetness, sour, or carbonation. This just slides down and leaves a few messy flavors in its wake. So in the end it is pretty middling for a fruit beer, which is a style I generally quite like. I think some of the problems (weird notes) come from the sense that it tries to provide a "beer" profile in balance with a "fruit" profile, whereas the best fruit beers go whole-hog with the fruit and don’t try to hop it out too much.