Honeyball
Idle Hands Craft Ales

Pours an ugly hazy golden. Some citrus zest on the nose. Yeah, it's all citrus all the way. I get a lot of orange zest in terms of flavor. It's soft, it's flavorful. No vegetal obstructions as some of these hazy IPAs tend to have. It's good.

 

 

Grapefruit juice color with a 2F head in a Stone IPA glass.
Pine, citrus , earthy aroma.
Very dry MF- I like this, adds character to the IPA.
Strong citrus taste, pine and grapefruit, with a sharp, hoppy finish.
Excellent beer. I don’t taste the honey, perhaps the “pine” or other flavors are
indicative of the honey brewed in the beer.

 

Alright, here's a new NEIPA from a brewery that has been knocking them out of the park (get it? Heyyyy, baseball puns!) since their first few batches of Four Seam and the Change Up stuff they did. With Six Seam (their Mosaic-focused, rye-heavy double NEIPA) standing in the upper echelon of excellent hazy, juicy IPAs made in my area, I have high hopes for this, their honey-infused IPA. I've had some really good honey NEIPAs, not gonna lie (I think my favorite at this point is probably "Lawyers, Guns, and Honey" by Lamplighter), and this is going to have to do some solid work to stand apart from them. Dry-hopped with Cascade, Simcoe, Motueka, and El Dorado, I'm expecting some big time "hop candy" notes.

Pours an extremely pale yellow/light-orange hue and a thin yet nicely-retentive head of pure-white foam. I do have to say that this beer looked a little silly coming out of the can... like a milky, thick, consistently-opaque liquid with not much to it, but it does look better in my glass than I expected. That said, it's still pretty awkward looking in ways other than its color. For instance, the head doesn't really have much going on when it comes to retention, and the lace seems lazy and lacking. Not sure, but it could have to do with the honey. I don't recall LG&H by Lamplighter looking quite this "meh," but it was also of a slightly cleaner pedigree when it comes to IPAs. Who knows? All I can say is that this is not meeting my criteria for "good looking beer."

Luckily, it smells quite nice. Not really aggressive, nor does it jump out of my glass, but it has some superb aromatics going on in a more subtle way. I always find that El Dorado is a seriously forward hop when it comes to dry-hop additions, and this is no different. It smells like ripe pineapple and mango with some serious grapefruit notes. Leafy, almost "generic" hoppiness which I assume comes from the Cascade, as well as some zesty citrus notes, likely Motueka-driven... this is very interesting for sure. Simcoe gives off more citrus and oily elements, but it seems to lose out, ironically, to the combination of more subtle hops going on. Perhaps it wasn't used to such a high degree as those, however.

Flavor profile is utterly mouth-watering... I'm not sure what's going on with the interaction of hops, honey, and yeast here, but it's wonderful. Each sip gives me complex notes of honeyed sweetness overlaid with superb and complex hop notes ranging from grassy and leafy to dank and fruity. The Simcoe and Cascade hops almost work in some kind of strange dance to deliver a bevy of freshly-juiced citrus, peeled citrus rind and freshly-cut grass to the proceedings, while El Dorado lends its unique melon, tropical and orchard fruit here as well. Motueka doesn't really make itself known, but perhaps the slight spice in the finish, along with the candied pear-like element can be attributed to it (maybe along with El Dorado as a partner hop).

This is delicious and a bit more subtle than I expected. I dig it a lot. Feel is heavy-bodied for a sub-7% ABV IPA, but I can attribute that to it being a yeasty NEIPA. I think I would like it to be a little zestier, less intense and a bit drier, though, considering the honey involvement. However, I do have to give them points for the use of orange blossom honey instead of the more-generic wildflower honey. Pretty nice stuff here. I would enjoy it again!

 

 

 

On draft at the taproom.
Appearance is yellow haze, opaque, glow-in-the-dark; no large particulates, very little head - just around the edges.
Smells floral, honey, grapefruit, green melon.
Taste of grapefriut, wild honey, pineapple, lavender. no dankness. Clean, dry finish.
Smooth, medium body, good mouthfeel, low carbonation.
Overall, a NEIPA with honey, floral/lavender elements, minimal to no dankness. Not as complex (complicated) as some of the other, higher alcohol, NEIPAs. Vibrant yet smooth, refreshing.

A good IPA in its own right, but not really that special. Beautiful hazy yellow look. Little honey is to be tasted.