Lymestone Stone Brood

Brewed by Lymestone
Style: Bitter
Stone, England

Serve in English pint

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A strange example of a honey beer, there is no real aroma apart from the classic roasted malts but this is not the case for the taste. There are strong caramel and malty flavours which are mellowed by the addition of the lymestone breweries honey. The honey makes the beer slicker than some similar beer and reduces the bitterness, with hints of sweetness. A great amber to brown beer.

Bottle; red amber; flavours of roast and caramel malt, coffee, developing into a fairly rich, warm, bitter and slightly dry finish; the unobtrusive honey is in the background throughout and helps to develop a smooth mouthfeel; not what I’d expect from a honey beer. It’s the bee’s knees.

Tall brown 500ml bottle Best Before End of June 2012: poured into an Abbot Ale glass tankard on 2nd May 2012. Looked good: red/amber body, clear and clean, on top a biege foaming head of closely knit bubbles. Pleasant malty smell, no honey aroma though (honey is within the ingrediants). The taste also has malty front (hints of dark chocolate): a hop bitterness soon arrives though and this isn’t a sweet brew at all. Full bodied and filling: a fine beer.

Bottle from Best Western Moat House Hotel, Stoke-on-Trent. Pours a chocolate brown with reddish tint. Cloudy. Minimal head. A strong, roasted/toasted aroma. Full of flavour - far more than its 4.4 ABV would have you expect - malt, caramel, chocolate. Not much honey, despite the manufacturer’s description. Initially bitter with a medium finish. A little thin on the palate but still a lovely beer.

500ml bottle. Pours dark copper with a medium head. Aroma is honey and chestnut malt. Taste is slightly smoked to start. Dark malty, chocolate finish.

Bottle. Copper with a thick beige foam. Aromas are weetabix and toffee with mixed berries and fudge. Light aniseed with earthy, herbal notes. Flavours are vinous fruits with sweet toffee malts and some molasses. Chocolate with some dark honey. Spicy with dry, black tea. Fruity and dry on the finish. Good.

UPDATED: JUL 14, 2011 Bottle from Alexander Wines, Coventry. Firstly, bonus points for subverting my expectations of English honey beer which are; 1) the beer must be pale, 2) the beer must be shit. This fits neither box. Eyebrow-raising chestnut with slim, clinging cappuccino head. Jellied orange, discreetly earthy, creamy chestnut aroma more akin to some Belgian-influenced big Italian honey beers I’ve had that the standard, undrinkable English attempts. Drying and tannic with some black/green tea character, good bitterness, earthy malts, some length in the finish suggestive of milk chocolate Hobnobs. Full bodied, some Ribena and honey notes, a dab of sour, black bean sauce? Honey dirtied, bittered, spooned with earth and Hobnob crumbs. Could session this. The second notable dark Lymestone beer I’ve had in the last couple of weeks, and probably the best English beer I’ve ever had containing honey.

Cask conditioned at The Royal Blenheim, Oxford. Deep brown with white head. Rich, honeyed, heavy on the palate with a crusty roastiness. There is a hint of peaty smoke in there, milky chocolate. Plenty of depth, a most enjoyable beer indeed.

Cask, gravity, King’s Arms Beer Festival, Kidlington, Oxon 20.11.10 Dark chestnut in colour with an off-white filmy head. This is malty in the mouth with the honey showing , creamy chocolate flavour’s linger as does ab ever present pleasant bitterness. Nice beer. A6 A4 T7 P4 Ov13 3.4