Image credit: thebeernut.blogspot.com

I should warn you, my being new to the Greenists and all, that I am a beer geek. I see a Guinness and think “light beer.” (It’s actually lower in alcohol and calories than Budweiser.) I’ve taken notes on every single new beer I’ve ever tasted.  I once spent a week working in the brew house of a brewpub for free just so I could see what it was like.

That being said, I’m not a jerk, so I’m not going to belittle your beer choices. Heck, I even accept my uncle’s offers of Miller High Life on occasion. Just because I like the finer ales in life doesn’t mean I have to be an antisocial blowhard about it. I’m also going to refrain from beer geek speak in this review. Honestly, a lot of beer geek jargon, like the phrasing you see in wine reviews, comes across sounding like gibberish to almost everyone outside of a small subculture of people.

Okay, enough of the warnings and explanations. The beer is Fuller’s Organic Honey Dew. The brewery describes this as being 100 percent organic, meaning every ingredient and all of every ingredient was organic. From what I’ve gleaned from some of the brewers I’ve talked to, this is actually a big deal as a beer is actually allowed to be labeled “organic” even when not all of the ingredients are organic. This originally was intended to make allowances for the fact that organic ingredients for beer were not always easy to come by, although according to several brewers I’ve talked to, the selection is quickly increasing and the quality is rather good.

When I was assigned this review (Greenists Julie and Courtney are friends of mine and aware of my obsessive-compulsive love of craft beer), I was pretty sure that what I was going to taste was going to be decent, at least. Fuller’s, from an American perspective anyway, is British beer, and unlike their cuisine, the Brits are known for being able to brew up a tasty beer. Honey Dew did not disappoint.

The Honey Dew is a golden ale, the lightest (in flavor and color) beer style outside of pale lagers like Budweiser and European Pilsners. They’re also lower in bitterness and easy drinkers. This beer definitely lives up to that standard. This is going to be richer than your typical American-style lager (although it’s exactly the same in alcoholic strength) but I don’t think anyone who can handle a Newcastle Brown or Budweiser American Ale is going to have the slightest bit of trouble knocking back a Honey Dew. In most honey ales I’ve had there’s a slight honey to the aroma and maybe a little sweetness in the flavor, but that’s usually it. The Honey Dew, on the other hand, really shows off the Argentinean honey in the aroma and the flavor. Honestly, there are moments when it seems like I’m drinking a mead, a traditional alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey mixed with water. Honestly, because there are some similarities in flavor between meads and wines, there’s a chance that people who are more comfortable with wine than beer could use this as a crossover beverage. Just don’t forget that in the end that this is first and foremost a beer.

Fuller’s Organic Honey Dew is expected to hit the shelves sometime this month and is has a suggested price range of $3.49 and $4.49. That’s a little pricier than the average beer, but, like other Fuller’s products, it will be in 16.9 oz. bottles instead of the standard 12 oz. bottles that are standard in American breweries.