Goose Island Honker's Ale Review

Name: Goose Island Honker's Ale
Style: English Bitter
ABV: 4.3%

Goose Island Brewing brings back a flood of memories for myself when I lived in Chicago. No matter where you went in The Windy City, you could find this beer (amongst many others) at pretty much any bar and restaurant in the Chicagoland area. In fact, for quality purposes, I would recommend reading this review while listening to the song below because Chicago is a pretty awesome place plus this song, like the beer, reminds me of Chicago.

I remember having this very beer for the first time at Giordano's along Rush Street about a block from Michigan Ave. We were waiting for our deep dish pizza to finish up when a buddy of mine recommended that we have a beer while we wait and Honker's Ale was his recommendation. I thought it was pretty good at the time and we ended up having a couple more pints to go along with our meal.

But there is however a bittersweet anecdote to all of this. You see Goose Island was bought out by AB-InBev in 2011 and while I personally don't think it's hurt the overall quality of the products, Honker's Ale is now contract brewed out of Fort Collins, CO but their more specialty beers like Bourbon County and Pepe Nero are still brewed in Chicago at least to my understanding.

Honker's Ale pours a copper color with an amber hue and a slight hazy appearance. There is a high amount of carbonation and a semi-foamy head.

The nose has a semi-pungent yeast and bready scent with a slight floral hop aroma and some pale malts to go along with it.

Like-wise the flavor is fairly comparable to that of the aroma but with a slightly more profound yeasty/biscuity notes.

The body is moderately carbonated which slowly subsides and it's a pretty light weighted beer. It also has a pretty crisp and refreshing feel to it, adding to the overall drinkability.

This is by no means a complex tasting beer, but it manages to still be a good one. It's one of those beers that's perfect for any occasion and I'm happy to say that despite the InBev purchase, this still is as good as I remember it. Like the label says: You'll look forward to it time and time again!

Goose Island Honker's Ale - 8/10

Boddington's Pub Ale Review

Boddington's Pub Ale is one of those beers that I've seen everytime I goto grab some beer but never really bothered with until I decided one day to try it out, plus it was reasonably priced for what it was. Upon looking at the can, I figured why I've seen this pretty much everywhere I went: Boddington's is brewed by Samlesbury, which is a subsidiary of AB-InBev so it's safe to assume that this beer has a very long reach in terms of distribution.

As for the beer itself, it's categorized as an English Bitter with an ABV of 4.7%, and as I've mentioned before, the English Bitter that most people are familiar with is Goose Island Honker's Ale.

Boddington's pours a clear pale golden color with a very filmy & creamy-looking head along with some abundant lacing.

The nose has some light honey notes, along with cereal grains, malts, and barley. Very dry smell and not much else. As for the flavor, you have light honey, cereal grains and barley; That's pretty much it, there really isn't too much flavor to this.

The body is light & creamy and the carbonation is light; It's very smooth and easy to drink, which is probably the best thing about this beer.

The flavor and overall experience are pretty much the exact same that I had when I had my first Old Speckled Hen, it was even served in a Nitro-Can just like Boddington's. It's a very smooth and creamy beer, but the flavor is quite dry and leaves much more to be desired. It could've been alot worse but I wouldn't recommend drinking this your options are very limited.

Boddington's Pub Ale - 5.5/10