Honey Badger Brown Ale
Royal Oak Brewery

This was served on tap at Royal Oak Brewery in Royal Oak, Michigan. It arrived in a generic pint glass showing the color of chocolate Tootsie pops, and sporting a two finger head of latte colored foam. This retained decently, leaving speckled lacing around the glass. Haze was minimal, without sediment, and carbonation appeared to be rather light. Roasty and sweaty chocolate and simple brown malts, red wine vinegar, blue raspberry Gatorade, tart cranberry juiciness, medicinal phenols, nail polish remover, clove cigarettes, and wood lacquer comprised the aroma. The taste followed with raw barley and brown malts akin to the flavor of freshly steeped wort, with tannic tea leafiness, chocolate cocoa bitters, gentle smokiness, light grassy hops, deep fruitiness of plum and fig, melty brown sugars, and lactic creaminess. Each sip gave moderate cream, froth, slurp, and smack, but was otherwise watered and thin on the body, with mild carbonation to the prickle. There was light tannic dryness to brush the palate, and the otherwise appropriate abv kept this one drinking back decently.

Overall, this was an interesting beer for us. The aroma was oddly fruity and tart, like an electrolyte-laden, sugar-packed athletic beverage. This was curiously dispelled through the flavoring. The mouth met a curiously boasted smokiness of tobacco leaf and hickory that acted to effectively balanced and subdue the harsh and tart fruits and the cloy of the malts. That said, the taste, in general, was washed through a bit, with translation into an equally watered and dull feeling beer. A fuller, chewier body would much more legitimize the flavor dichotomy here, with more of a stickiness for contextual clarity. Along this line, we felt the name suggested a honey flavoring, and this was either lost or simply absent, leaving us wanting for even more.