Honey Fayre
Conwy Brewery

My incredible bro bought this bottle in Wales, and it survived the journey back to the States via carry-on bag.

Allowed to settle, then poured into a pint glass without the sediment as recommended on the bottle.

An orange/golden color with a touch of haze and a fine sudsy head that calmed to a film.
The actual clover honey aroma is surprising and inviting. Also a subtle malt scent.
First taste is prickly and enjoyably bitter, floral, and grassy. Then a slight sweet honey flavor followed by a malty aftertaste of toasty crackers. The taste that lingers is a perfect balance between toasted cracker malt and grassy astringent hops. Never too bitter.
Mouthfeel is fairly light, but not watery. Medium to light body and carbonation.

Overall: My first English Bitter, and a darn good one based on the beer itself and what I can gather on the style.

 

A - Pours with a small, one finger head of white foam that rests on top of a slightly hazy, golden body. The foam dissipates quickly and leaves moderate lace.

S - An aroma of dry bread with some malt and a bit of earthy, floral honey.

T - Dry malt up front with a cracker-like bread character. Floral honey and earthy hops show up in the middle. It finishes with a dry, slightly toasty malt note as well as moderate hop bitterness.

M - Medium body, moderate carbonation, and a dry finish.

D - The hop bitterness and flavor are quite dominant throughout the beer and tend to suppress the honey, especially in the finish. The malt begins strong but fades towards the finish. It is also lacking in sweetness that could counter the fairly aggressive and musty hops. Not a bad beer, but not particularly well balanced or drinkable either. Worth a try, but if you can find this, you can likely find better beers along side of it as well.

Purchased at the Spar chain grocery store in Church Stretton, Shropshire (where I got plenty of other Welsh bottled beers!); coming in a 500ml brown bottle, BB 12/02/09, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. According to the beer label, this "dry, refreshing honeyed ale" is brewed with Welsh honey from the New Quay Honey Farm. The brewery website also lists down numerous awards won by this beer:
* Gold award for best golden ale at South Devon CAMRA beer festival 2007.
* Double Silver Medal winner at SIBA West & Mold beer festivals 2006.
* Double silver medal at The Great Welsh Beer & Cider festival 2007 & 2008.

A: pours a bright tawny hue with mixture of fine and huge bubbles in action, topped with a lingering white fluffy head.
S: upon the opening, a whiff of skunky note escapes from the bottle, albeit not pungent; in the glass, the aroma has resinous notes of hops, sweet/syrupy orangey citrusness, and intensity of nectar (due to the honey?) all coming before a lighter performance of biscuity malts... a swirl gives rise to a rather focused and clean flow of spicy-floral touch of English hops on top of the settled citrusness (a bit like Challenger to me).
T: the taste is yeasty, earthy and slightly grassy from the start (in a pleasant way), carrying with it a "settled" pale ale maltiness (with hints of raw-ish grains) and lightly sour-sweet citric+honey flavour; gradually, the latter two elements (sort of) intertwine to result in a clean palate of lingeringly aromatic honey-malty aftertaste, leaving ample space for the moderate-level hop bitterness with its tangy-citric edge to develop quietly at the back of the palate.
M&D: not bad in terms of bottle-conditioning, as shown by the refreshing (but not sharp) carbonation and a sound body that stays intact throughout the drink; somehow the honey is perhaps (too) well-consumed and leaves little trace in the beer, as compared with malts and citric hops, dragging down the performance a bit if one looks to have adequate honey pleasure of any form in his glass (like me). That said, this is a well-made, dry-ish quaffable golden bitter all the same.