James Boags & Sons Honey Porter

[BrissyBrew]

I was at the regatta (Brisbane pub) the other day looking for some porter, specificaly James Squire, the guy serving me informed me that they were all out, but told me they have some limited edition James Boags Honey Porter it is 5.5% and I must admit I did not mind the taste, more of a honey chocolate taste than a coffee/chocolate bitter taste of what I would normally recognise as porter, but with such a diffused style who knows. Anyways the limited ed is suppose to be only .. get this 10000 cartons. Anyways though some people might want to think about trying it.

 

[voota]

I tasted it the other day, not too bad, surely the best from Boags.
Dark amber in colour, very clear and inviting. Head is off white with quite good lacing. Aroma of honey and a bit of hops. Flavour is sweet honey, not too much, but definitely there, also with some nice malty flavours and a soft pleasant bitterness, not overly roasty, perhaps a little chocolate. Overall is a pretty well balanced beer, perhaps a little thin but well worth the try.

 

[sinkas]

Hi all,
Prior to this, I was in doubt as to whether I liked Porter, but this one is really quite nice, fairly sweet, perhaps a little lacking in body.

Cheers

Case

 

[BrissyBrew]

Hows this for service, I checked out their website and could not find a single reference the honey porter. I emailed them recieved a response within 24 hours and yep they updated their website and here it is
http://www.boags.com.au/Files/00269_BoagsH....asp?flash=true

I must admit, I am thinking of buying some more!!!

 

[spog]

boags,love it,gotta track some down.thanks for the heads up, :beer: cheers.

 

[kook]

It's been a while since I tried it, but I dont think I enjoyed it:

Boags Honey Porter
AR: 3/10, AP: 3/5, FL: 3/10, PA: 2/5, OV: 7/20 - 36/100
Clear dark amber with high carbonation. Nice beige head. Smells like a typical australian "premium" lager, ie skanky hops with a hint of sugar. Thin watery mouthfeel. Very bland flavour all through, apart from a slightly smokey aftertaste with a bit of bitterness. Astringent honey-like aftertaste present too. Definately not worth the price. Imagine watered down tooheys old with a bit of cheap smokey honey added.

 

[warrenlw63]

Agreed.

I was stupid enough to buy a slab of it. I found it to be megaswill with an overwhelming, bordering of sickley honey flavour with a slightly tinny/watery edge. My opinion is the beer needed more body and roast background. I'm guessing that sugar was still added with the honey.

First time I took about 9 months to finish a slab of beer. Sort of beer you could only drink one and gladly wait a few weeks before another. Not so much a good beer (by any means) but a beer that encourages other brewers to produce specialties. That can only be a good thing.

Problem with the mega brewers re; specialties is they're still listening too hard to their marketing people who think they know what people like.

Warren -

 

[Snow]

Warren, I have to agree with you. I bought a couple of bottles of this last night and I have to say I am quite disappointed. If I had made this beer, I would have to seriously go back to the drawing board and do some major research into the style and brewing techniques in general. The beer is way out of balance, with the wrong hops, too much sweetness and some kind of strange "dog food" aroma coming from it when the glass warms. It lacks body and just leaves a bad taste in my mouth all together. I had to have a Tripel Karmelite(sp?) just to cleanse my palate!

I am so spewing I bought 2 bottles of the porter. I can't imagine the depression if I'd bought a carton! :huh: I guess I can put it under the stairs for a couple of years to see if it improves....

Cheers - Snow

 

[warrenlw63]

Snow,

I kept the slab for near on a year. I can tell you this, it did not improve, in fact it only seem to get worse. They have the cheek to call it a Porter. Colour puts it more into a bad shade of brown ale that you could almost swear is not coloured by dark malts more so than a turd. :lol:

The dog-food aroma is just typical Oz Swill aroma mixed with honey, bit like when your mum tried to get you to swallow your medicine. Poor attempt at turning a sow's ear to a silk purse.

Glad you consoled yourself with a Tripel Karmeliet. Would have restored your faith in good beer quiet nicely.

I managed to down a bottle of Gouden Carolous classic on the weekend. Now that's complexity at it's finest. :wub:


Warren -

 

[Guest Lurker]

Ditto. To me that slightly weird honey flavour came across as "soapy". And without any prompting Mrs GL came up with the same description after trying a sip.

 

[Airgead]

Folks

I had a bottle of this over the weekend and my impressions were much the same as the last few posters - very thin (especialy for a porter), not much flavour or at least not the roasty/chocolate I would expect from a porter, too much honey on the nose. Smelled quite sweet. Pretty pale for a porter too... I make regular ales as dark as that sometimes.

Not one I would buy again. Getting a honey beer right is pretty tricky and obviously beyond Mr J Boags & Sons.

The 25l of braggot sitting quietly in the secondary at my place on the other hand...

Cheers
Dave

 

[macr]

Here is my opinion and a beer reviewers, review.

 

[joecast]

well, this is different. im usually the one putting down macro specialty beers.

while i agree with the honey porter being light in body, i didnt find quite as many flaws as the others. im pretty new to porters, so how close it is to style may have me fooled. anyway, while i would not call it a go-to session beer, i wouldnt be terribly disappointed having the odd one occasionally.
joe

 

[BrissyBrew]

Ok I tried another 6 pack.
Now I dont quiet know if it was number of beers I consumed before trying it last time or if age or batch was different but the second 6 pack was not good. I had trouble finishing a single stubby, they honey profile was totally different from what I remembered. I brought this lot from another bottleo so I dont know if storage or age had anything to do with it, but I was not impressed with my second taste test.

Not too sure what to put it down to?
Batch variance?
Storage?
Freshness?
Too drunk to tell last time?
Been drinking too many Belgium beers of late?

 

[Bigfella]

Well I guess that is what makes the world go round I bought 2 the other night and a 6 pack of mercs own. I have to say the Porter was fantastic I really liked it so there ya go. Mercs own reminded me of red back wheat beer for some reason so go figure.

Bigfella for now.

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

I did'nt mind it at all, Mrs Vlad loves it ( the beer ). But a porter it is not.
The initial aroma, described by others as soapy or dog food, is rather offputting but I found it to dissipate as the beer sat for a while, I thought it smelled like a bag of cheese and onion crisps, but then my sinus's are shot.
The mystery hop is very Fuggley, anyone else found that?

 

[pbrosnan]

Hi All,

Bought a 6 pack Friday and thought overall it was an average beer. Not bad but nothing to rave about. I thought it lacked body but seemed to have an authentic Porter roastedness and appropriate bitterness. The honey was a bit of a waste of time as it doesn't add much to the experience. I would rate it about 4-5 with JS Porter at 7-8.

 

[kook]

Tried another Honey Porter this weekend whilst judging at the CAMRA/SIBA Ealing "Beer on Broadway" festival.


Grand Union Honey Porter
AR:5/10, AP:3/5, FL:6/10, PA:3/5, OV:11/20
Black with a small head. Lacks aroma, just a touch of roast coffee. Sweet mild choc, with a coffee roast finish. Aftertaste of woody honey. Not bad!


Also had a cask of Salem Porter (from Batemans) burst, showering me in beer! Strange experience watching people panic and try to plug the hole where the bung had flown out.

 

[Scratchy]

Hi all,

Maybe QC is a problem or storage variences or something as the one I tried was rather enjoyable.

Reasonably complex, quite well balanced, lasting head and just a pleasure to 'down' compared with so many mega swill shite brews.

I was genuinely surprised as I only really bought one so I could slag it off.

Bye, Andrew.

 

[Sean]

Also had a cask of Salem Porter (from Batemans) burst, showering me in beer! Strange experience watching people panic and try to plug the hole where the bung had flown out.

[post="64255"][/post]​

Been there, done that - including the running around trying to replace the keystone bit.

Especially exciting when it's at face height, so you have a stream of beer spraying into your eyes while you try and hammer the new keystone in.

Or when someone walks up while you are still dripping with Freeminer Shakemantle (heavily ginger flavoured Wit), covered in bits bits of ginger, and busy mopping up a very large puddle of the stuff, and says they can "smell the distinctive tones of Fraoch". No you can't you pillock - you can't possibly smell anything except ginger - I'm standing in a pool of the stuff.