Sleeman Honey Blonde Lager
Sleeman Breweries Ltd.

Appearance: Poured with a thumbs worth of head that immediately disappeared and left no lace. Body is an ironically honey colored yellow which tends towards slightly darker then typical lager.

Smell: Barley malt and a mild honey note and a faint rotting carrot note which sounds a lot worse then it is. Warming helped it come out a little bit, but it's still pretty mild.

Taste: There isn't a lot of complexity to this one, starts with fairly pedestrian doughy barley malt that turns to a touch of honey that reigns a somewhat swampy grassy hop end. If I'm being honest, it tastes like a milder Heineken with some honey masking some of the less then pleasing parts.

Mouthfeel: The problem with this offering though is that is cloys over time, and gives this weird, sweet bog kind of vibe in the aftertaste that starts out more sweet and herbal and then turns more and more sandy, dry and swampy. The carbonation of this beer is really low...and I'm not sure if that is helping make this offering passible (but not accentuating the end) or hurting it as it does feel pretty basic and dull.

Drinkability: The first half it does great, light medium body with some interesting honey notes to add to a pretty run of the mill lager, but it quickly overstays its welcome. It gets really cloyingly dry in the second half that kills the desire to continue.

Final Thoughts: Part of me honestly wonders if this beer came about as an accident. Sleeman has a well know Honey Brown that I haven't had in ages but have good memories of. While I don't suspect that this was a case of them putting honey in the wrong vat and selling it, part of me wonders if that is how this beer came about, and if they made some tweeks to make something presentable, which I think is the one word I would describe this beer as. Presentable. It's not bad, but it's certainly not up to a good standard.

At my lady Pamela's place; canned and chilled, 473mL in a pint glass. From my favourite The Beer Store on Goyeau St. in nearby Windsor. My first beer from the Guelph, Ontario brewery.

473 mL can from the LCBO; coded Feb 25 2025 and served slightly chilled.

Pours a clear blonde colour, producing an inch of foamy white head that lasts for a couple of minutes. Afterwards, a half-inch band of even lace has been painted onto the perimeter of the glass, with a tight collar and sudsy cap living on. I do get some real honey aroma on the nose, which (in my experience) is actually not that common with honey beers - bonus points are in order. Other than that, it's faintly grainy, with maybe a touch of boiled vegetables.

It's alright - the flavours are fine/in line with the rest of Sleeman's lineup, but the sweetness becomes increasingly cloying over the course of the session. Grainy sweetness, doughy malts and a hint of cardboard are paired up with noticeable honey flavour; no real hop presence, which results in poor balance. Honey-sweet, doughy aftertaste that doesn't really dry off. Light-medium in body, with low-ish carbonation that provides just a touch of crispness to this lager's smooth mouthfeel. Easy enough to drink, but due to the sweetness I doubt I could drink it all night.

Final Grade: 3.41, a B-. Sleeman's Honey Blonde Lager was better than I was expecting, and if you're looking for an accessible honey beer then this might make for a good starting point. I'm not sure I'd take this over their Honey Brown Lager: objectively speaking, they're both mediocre, saccharine macros, but I think the honey works better within the context of an amber/brown lager vs. a blonde. That's just my take, though - Sleeman Honey Brown was one of the first non-yella beers that I latched onto, back in my pre-craft beer geek days, so I'm a little biased here.

Dec 10 2025