Steelback Tiverton Honey Brown
Steelback Brewery

From BeerAdvocate Magazine Volume II, Issue VI:

Yeah! "It is what it is"--their slogan is starting to grow on us. Obvious because it's in the name, this is brewed with a touch of honey.

Bubbly and foamy from a medium pour, some lacing sticks. Light copper color with a filtered clarity. Mildly sweet aroma of honey and malt with a quick twang of grain husk, other than that it's clean. Smooth and slightly creamy slick moderate body. Wet maltiness, a bit thin. A little bit of toasted malt within, sweetness and a very mild honey flavor. Clean throughout. Hop bitterness is modest yet helps to balance. The palate stays sweet and another flash of honey is present in the finish.

Easy to drink and balanced, we are sold on the whole honey component of this beer, as it really does help out the slight weakness of the malt. This middle of the road lager is still worth a try.

Please do note, that this beer is NOT the same animal,the Tiverton Bear from the D'Angelo era. I tried this and the Lager at the Hamilton food and wine expo of 2008 and was pleasantly surprised. More recently I had this at a local bar near my office where they sell it for $12 a pitcher (cheap by Ontario standards) and this is what I am basing this on.

It came to me dark brown, in a pitcher, some off-white cloudy head, pour contained some lacing, Smell is malty, sweet, not overly sweet, but sweet enough to notice. Flavor is also quite nice, definitely more on the malty side than anything else, a bit nutty, slightly bitter and sweet. Unlike Steelback offerings pre- 05/08 (the time of the brand's relaunch) this beer actually was carbonated, and carbonated nicely too. Quite drinkable, Me and my work buddy polished off two pitchers of this quite easily.

With this, don't expect complexity, broad flavor profiles or anything like that. With this you will get a pretty simple, drinkable Amber Lager that for it's style is a fairly decent example, a good choice for the fridge for when people come over.

A markedly deep copper with rusty hues, pours a frothy white cap. In the nose, caramel meets honey,malty grains meet plum, it is also a bit toasty.Sweet and fruity with good caramel malts and honey is actually present in the flavour. Nice bittering hops towards the end to balance the sweetness. Medium body, creamy, delicate carbonation. Surprisingly good.

Picked up a 12-pack of bottles from the Beer Store - I was looking for something decent in the "Discount" category, and the price was right, even if it was from... *shudder* Steelback. Someone mentioned plastic bottles, I've seen those for other Steelback products but this is a 355 mL clear glass bottle with pretty cool-looking shrink-wrapped graphics. Also, the bottles came in sort of a cardboard tray with a cellophane wrapper covering the bottles, like what you'd get when you bought a case of water bottles - a bit unorthodox, but Steelback are big on gimmicks.

Now, onto the beer... it looks decent, a nice reddish-bronze colour with a surprising bit of head that disappears after a little while.

The smell's not exactly overwhelming. Sugary sweet, corny. Nothing too offensive.

I was expecting more in the taste department. I just feel cold, fizzy sweetness on my tongue, no real character. Definitely not tasting the honey. The back of the bottle has a blurb that calls it "full-bodied" and with a "subtle hint of honey", but I think that's wishful thinking.

The mouthfeel and drinkability are both decent. If I was getting sloshed on a budget I could see myself drinking a few of these. The sweetness sticks around for a bit. Nothing I'd necessarily call bad, though.

If you like sweetness and cheapness, by all means give it a shot. It's one of the beers that Steelback didn't entirely ruin, and in an odd sense I guess that's a compliment.

I pick this up with a few other singles the last time I was in Ontario. It is like what the can says “It is what it is”.

Appearance- The can is pretty cool and in all honesty the beer has a pretty impressive look. There is a nice bronze amber body. A slightly off white two fingers of head formed when the beer was poured from the can to the glass. A very nice lace follows it down.

Smell- It had a strong lager smell that I smelled from about two feet away. Very malty and sweet.

Taste- Not much for hops. It is sweet but not honey sweet or malt sweet. It is bland for the most part.

Mouthfeel- A little bit watery but mostly carbonated.

Drinkability- An average and drinkable.

RERATED 26/6/07... had to retaste this to placate the nattering marketers who run the OCB awards who think it warrants an award and has been "changed"...well from my perspective very little has changed.

..it has a real rocky cap now but it doesn’t last and goes to a open suface with just a micdoscopis lring that does not lace

...virtually no aroma smells of faint husk light sweetness and something that gives a wet cardboard decernment.

...this time around this beer seems more watery in the body than I remembered...no hint of honey although sweet in character, weak malt presence ...but the off tastes are absent...I guess that’s something but still this is a long way from an award winner in any contest of crafted beers.

Must've been the only entry in the category or the judges were on crack...or maybe they just like watery bland industrial beer.

Far too sweet. Like drinking corn syrup.Overly carbonated. I can't say that I would ever touch this again but my roommate was kindly sharing so I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings.

If you like the kind of fake maple syrup, corn syrup stuff that you pour on pancakes then you might like this. Otherwise stay away.

Pretty light looking for a dark beer - about the hue of a cup of tea. Instantly disappearing head, no lace. Sweet nose with just a whiff of malt.

Sweetness is the dominant characteristic, no hoppiness at all. Slightly syrupy, fizzy. Fizz burn on the roof of your mouth. Then you can feel the burpy afterburn creeping up ...

Pretty dull as a beer goes. Packs too much belch. Feh.