The Hive
Manayunk Brewery and Restaurant

The past couple of days have been an amazing CANmalgam of Goses & Pilsners, but now my supply is exhausted. I had the Duvel as kind of an oddball, but it will lead me back to some of the breweries from which I reviewed beers the last couple of days, including Transmitter, Manayunk (CANayunk), Sly Fox, Conshohocken (CANshohocken), Sloop & Great North. Following that excursion, I will be focusing on imports for a while, bringing me full circle to that one. Stay tuned. It's gonna be CANother wild ride on The CANQuest (tm)!

From the CAN: "The Hive India Pale Ale brewed with Honey"; "Like busy bees working hard to please their queen, this citrusy IPA will take your palate for a spin. The Hive is loaded up with massive amounts of Amarillo and Columbus hops and complimented with raw wildflower honey procured from local PA hives. Using a small amount of specialty malts and nearly every method of hopping possible, we present to you this delicious, refreshing hop bomb."

I Crack!ed open the vent on this honeycomb and beCAN a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass. It foamed beautifully, creating two-plus fingers of massive, dense, foamy, tawny head with excellent retention.

Want me to make one of the CANnections alluded to in the opening? Think back to 28 April's review of Left Hand B.C.'s Les Quatre Saisons: Saison au Miel (Wildflower Honey) and: "My ex-Old Lady was & is an apiarist & would cart honeycombs around in her car. Who needs air freshener when you've got fresh honey?!? Mmm." Or to Odd Side's The Stinger Honey Double IPA on 30 April.

Color was a magnificent Golden-Amber (SRM = > 5, < 7) with NE-quality clarity, enticing yet CANother visit from The Gelt Gang of Midas, Croesus & Mammon, all clamoring for a taste as I marveled at its honey-like color. Nose was very honey-like, but with its sweetness tempered by/with the hops. CANversely, the honey was strong enough that I could not identify the hops based on nose alone. Hmm.

Interestingly, hops are a wind-pollinated plant with nothing in the way of pollen or nectar so bees would most likely eschew them.

Mouthfeel was medium, but with a softness not normally associated with the hard water of PA. Much of our bedrock is limestone with porous aquifers, making for excellent farmland, but not always great brewing water. The taste was slightly-bitter honey! Wow. This beer was truly the sum of its variegated parts. I still could not tell which hops varieties were used, but they were definitely present, as was the honey. In total, it added up to an earthy, herbal tea-like brew that was very relaxing.

I have mentioned before about having hop tea, but it never occurred to me to add honey until now. Mmm.

The brewery characterized it as a "hop bomb", but I feel that such is an imprecise assessment. I will grant them that there was an undeniable hop-driven bitter bite, but I would CANter that it was tempered by the presence of the honey. It was unquestionably an AIPA, but one that used its honey adjunct to its optimal advantage. Finish was surprisingly dry.

Surprising because I would have thought that the honey would temper its bitterness sufficiently to render it semi-dry, at least. Not so fast, my friend, as Lee Corso would say. Cleverly, the brewery knew enough not to ruin a good thing with too much of a good thing, The inherent sugars in the honey may have been a happy snack for the yeast, further drying it out while retaining the flavor.

Dang, but this was good! Way better than I expected, truth to tell. YMMV.

Manayunk Brewing Co. "The Hive"
16 fl. oz. can, without production codes or freshness dating

Notes via stream of consciousness: A rough pour has brought up a massive head of rocky, yellowed off-white foam atop a cloudy golden and amber body. It looks a bit like a traditional German hefeweizen. The aroma is rich with pale malt that's bready and grainy, and orange-like citrusy hops. It's also a little bit earthy and spicy. On to the flavor... it's bready, biscuity, sweetish but not sweet, mildly citrusy with orange and citrus pith (just a touch), slightly honeyish, and gently earthy, herbal, and spicy. To a certain extent it reminds me of orange marmalade on a sweet wheat cracker. I'm finding it quite earthy in the finish but that's followed by some residual orange and honey which is nice. There's a decent amount of bitterness to it, it's clearly an IPA with honey added and not a "honey bee"r. In the mouth it's medium bodied and gently crisp-then-smooth. Overall it's a decent IPA but don't expect too much honey, and don't expect strong hops.
Review# 6,336

I am a big fan of Manayunk and IPAs. This wasn’t one of my favorites. I get malt and bitterness - this is not a juicy IPA. Overall I found the taste and smell to be flat. Interesting idea to try honey but I didn’t like it as much as I hoped. I had two 16 oz cans on two different nights with the same result. Manayunk makes some great hop bombs. This isn’t one.

I like honey tyaste in my IPA.

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at Whole Foods Plymouth Meeting, this really hit me as a very fresh IPA from the dank aromatic hops to the silky sweet touch of honey. Nice layers of hops coming too from citrus to floral and all very fresh tasting. I found this IPA to be very balanced and easy drinking!

 

750 mL gifted bottle (thanks, Mr. K. Sevarg), unknown brewing/bottling date, poured into my The Bruery "Rue the Day" large bottom snifter glass, drank over several hours