Bison Organic Honey Basil
Before brewing our classic summer ale, we went to the certified organic farmer’s market to go shopping. The fresh basil is from Watanabe Farms in West Sacramento and the Honey is from Britt’s Honey, two California artisanal producers. This brew is subtle and refreshing. Starting in 2012, Honey Basil Ale will be a year round offering in 4 packs.
3.1
169 reviews
Berkeley, United States
Community reviews
12oz in Seattle. Opaque gold brown, thick foam. Spicy herb, pepper and sweet basil. Caramel malt body with fresh herb and dry pepper. Interesting.
Sweet. Tastes somewhat like basil as well, with sweet honey at the beginning. Not something I would drink regularly, but good to have on occasion.
"An amber colored beer with a small creamy textured, off white head with not much hang time. It settles into a moderate ringlet. A nose of honey sweetness. A tasteness of honey and herbal spiceness Moderate bodied and smooth. Really nice. "
Bottle - thanks Brian! Pours hazy orange with a medium beige head, creamy and nice lacing. Aroma is grassy, grain, honey, herbs. Flavor is the same, medium sweet, herbal and light bitter. Not getting basil specifically, but an overall pleasant herbal character. Medium body. Quite interesting and certainly drinkable.
A gorgeous appearance to this beer, the strong head lets out a wide arrange of aromas I never thought I would find in a beer, but I didn’t get any taste from the beer. I have a feeling that the flavor would explode from this beer, if I was drinking it with food.
bottle. Golden with small head. Strange herbalness, I guess it’s the basil, but I wouldn’t recognize it as such. Drinkable, but that’s about it.
From the Bison Brewing Company’s four-pak, this beer has a delightful light herbal- basil honey taste with slightly sweet malt after taste. The clarity of this amber honey colored beer seems to vary slightly from batch to batch, but the excellent taste is always there. It pairs well with light pastas and fish. Overall, this is one on my favorite ’go to" beers.
Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. Needs to be poured over a salad or used to marinate some cheap piece of meat. Yuck.
Interesting beer. The initial taste lacked flavor. It tasted a bit like a generic light lager. The after taste was actually pretty good and strong with hints of honey. The basil flavor was lost completely.
Cloudy, light brown with a thick, ivory head.
Aroma is honey, sharp herbals.
Taste is spicy over sweet.
An odd mix....
Decent. just not appealing to me, personally.
Draft at ncbc. Pours a murky dark amber with a scant loose bubbly light tan head. Beautiful sweet nose--honey and basil are prominent, giving it the pleasantly floral and herbal quality you would expect, backed with a bit of darkened caramel from the malt. Creamy medium body with soft carb. Flavors are much less pronounced. Mild finish.
Smells quite strongly of honey and has a fairly strong resemblance to honey as well. This was pretty good actually. The sweetness of the honey is there and while I can’t identify basil distinctly, the herb-like characters are enough to put a bit of an edge on the sweetness. Nice.
Bold copper color, I get gingerbread and honey in the aroma. I can taste both the honey and the basil, but it’s weird to be sure. Not undrinkable, kind of a conversation piece of a beer. Incredibly herbal, more than any other taste. I wouldn’t buy it again.
I like honey and I like basil, but I don’t like this beer. I didn’t get a lot of basil but I did get the honey taste. After about 1/3 bottle I used the rest in a soup.
Brought back from Vegas by Lilihel. Pours a clean dark amber colour with an off-white head, good retention and thick lacing. Wow ! What a beautiful nose. Maybe because I am a big basil fan. Yes, basil smell with a little sweetness from the honey in the background. Hints of alcohol and ginger. The taste is not as sweet as expected with the organic malt forefront. Then, some lightly rusty hop. Can’t say I am a fan of the flavours though. Great original aromas and style !!
Pours a deep opaque copper with a tanish head that has excellent retention. Strong basil aroma with minor hints of malty sweetness. Starts off with a good spice on television tip of tequila tongue, transfers to full bore basil. Very smooth beer with some sugar type tackiness
Orangey-amber color, clear and lighter bodied with a thinner head. Slight basil aroma but less noticeable on the tongue. Mild honey sweetness and overall balanced character.
Poured black with almost no head. Aroma is chocolate with a touch of honey. Taste is caramel, slightly acidic. Some honey. Overall its ok but nothing special.
This copper brown beer with little head has not too much aroma. It has a mild sweetness and the basil flavor come though and matches the beer well.
Yes, smell is sorta honey basilly. Darker than expected from a bottle. Nice quarter inch head. Taste is a little too much of some kinda herb, herb. YEs mild spices in there. I was expecting a form of mild beer but this don’t hide the alky well. More than I expected. Why was I expecting a mild wheat thing and then kicked in the jaw? Massive mixalot but not in an over the top way.
You pick up on the honey, but only enough to know its there- more like honeysuckle... the basil is there, adds a bit of spicy note, drinkable, but kind of leaves you wondering, why bother?
Nice entry to the savory end of the spiced beer spectrum. Very clean, pronounced herbal flavor and inviting aroma. Captures the basil very well, even in the aftertaste. Great body and texture. Like the Dogfish/Victory/Stone Saison du Buff, pairs exceptionally well with poultry and mild cheeses. Highly recommended with those foods, merely a curiosity without them. A difficult review. If pairing with appropriate dishes, easily a 4.0 to 4.5 overall.
Pours amber with a quickly disappearing head. Aroma is a little floral, not so much basil as honeysuckle, maybe. Little lemon zest too. Taste is pleasant - a little sweet, and both the honey and basil are difficult to discern. For anyone thrown off by the idea of basil beer, that;s good, but sort of defeats the purpose. Still an easy-to-drink ale.
pour is a reddish amber with a thin tan head. The smell is very much like an italian cafe, the basil is subtle but somehow very apparent, the honey is integrated well adding sweetness and depth, also notes of peppery spice and some oregano. Seems well balanced but just not aromas I like together or in beer. Taste is the same with notes of dough, this is basil pizza esq. the honey is subdued and the basil is forward with spice and oregano. Strange stuff but well made for what it is intended to be.
12 oz bottle. Pours cloudy orange with a medium off-white collapsing lacy head. Aroma consists of honey mostly with basil a little faint, but there. Taste is sweet, herbal and minty with a dry and lightly tart finish; reminiscent of herbal tea. Interesting and different than your average summer beer.
I usually don’t care for certain spices in beer, such as basil, but the basil in this beer was mild, so it wasn’t too bad. Malt base was on the sweet side, and it was kind of tea-like. Also had hints of clove, honey and a pinch of caramel. Overall, it was ho hum and its flavors and aromas were very mild.
Very light orange citrus smell. Light body without much flavor. Easy to drink, but not much to it.
Refrigerated 12 oz. brown bottle poured into a shaker extra from JStax. Pours clear amber with small off-white head. Some small bubble lacing, light body, and strong basil aroma. Taste is caramel malt, strong herbal basil, and a hint of honey. Not that good.
Tap, Church Key, San Francisco, 16/08/12. Rated to "Everybody’s Talking At The Same Time". BONUS POINT. Murky, slim headed orange-copper. Papery basil aroma. Eye-watering fizz , red berries, herbal streaks but not obviously basil. Almost works.
Bottle from TWM McLean - pours a clear orange with a thin white head. Aroma is a basil, sweet malt thing. Taste is sweet finishes dry. Its ok, but I’m not enjoying the basil, it just seems weird to me.