Honey Apple Ale
Hokkaido Brewing

Hazy, pale look. Tastes like that apple cider you buy in the nice glass bottle at the grocery store for holidays but with a subtle bready aftertaste. So more fruit than field, and it leaves me wanting a bit more field. Still good though.

10oz stubby bottle into a 12oz glass. Dating on the cap a bit confusing.

Looks nice enough in the glass. Head disappears quickly. Slow streams of carbonation thg through a very pale crystal clear yellow body.

As with the previous Hokkaido beer, initial aroma was clean and fruity, in this case sweet crisp apple, but then turned a little musty. Thoroughly cleaned the glass between drinks, but same effect.

The taste is semi sweet crisp apples. There is a touch of honey. Also a very faint bitterness in the finish. The apple taste is really nice.

Mouth a solid medium, finish still apple.

Overall, kind of a cider feel without any carbonation. Abv invisible. Nice drink.

I am currently engaged in drinking (hopefully) refreshing fruited beers in the hopeless hope of beating the heat during the current heat wave. I spotted four stubby grenades in this series at The Beer Shoppe in Ardmore, PA & you better believe that I bought every one!

From the Bottle: "Brewed with Yoichi apple and honey".

The cap was an unusual Pull & Pop!, kind of akin to an early pop top beer tab. No church key required. Having Pop!ped the cap off, I began a slow, gentle C-Line pour into the awaiting glass. This was the most fizzy-foamy of the lot, fizzing & foaming as quickly as I poured to create the briefest finger of fizzy, foamy, rocky, bone-white head that I had seen in a while. Do I need to mention that head retention was lousy, at best? Color was a slightly-hazy Straw-Yellow (SRM = > 2, < 4). Nose smelled like a bag of apple slices at lunchtime! I seem to spend a lot of time in elementary schools & this was the first association that came to mind! Yoichi? I was thinking Red Delicious, but definitely apples. Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, not watery but not terribly far beyond it, either. The taste was less apple than the nose had led me to expect, with an odd sweetish spiciness that might have been from the honey or perhaps the yeast. This was an odd little duck, more akin to cider than beer, as @beerthulhu mentioned. Finish was semi-sweet, still obviously of apple, but the honey & the yeast had worked some magic to keep it from being too sweet. It was probably my least fave of the four & between its price point & its resemblance to cider, I would not return to it unless they deem it CAN-worthy. YMMV.

-brewed w/ Yoichi apple and honey.

A: A pale apple cider pour yields no head formation. There is a soft haziness factor, while the carbonation is almost non-existent. Comes off as first impression very cider like.

S: A pull cap reveals a huge burst of really fresh and wet apple slices, which may be the understatement of the year. A abnormally strong strength and freshness factor, applesauce, and a soft dryness of apple skins inter-mingle. The honey not so much. But kudos for the fresh wet apple like expressions which fills the nose.

T: The sweetness of the honey combines with the amplified sense of freshly sliced apples hits you upfront. Some apple and pear juice, along with some applesauce notes. The whole flavor is defined by the fresh like apple flavor.

M: Softly carbonated, juice like body.

O: Overall this drinks like an apple cider with a huge expression of fresh wet apple slices that fills the nose and taste buds with a sensory overload. Sweet apple and pear juice with unfermented sugars add to the mix. Exceptionally sweet, fresh and wet with a strong intention of flavor. Props for the execution. An ale that drinks more like a cider. 乾杯