Today I have another beer from Lion’s Tail Brewing. Royale with Bees. A French Saison, with which I am going to assume is, honey. Let me find my glass and get at it.

Now the last Lion’s Tail beer I had did not go over so well. Horrific really. So I am a little hesitant but, I do like a Saison, especially the non-fruited type, which again I am assuming. 

If you are mentioning honey in the name, it is probably going to be the major focus of its profile.

Honey is fairly delicate and difficult to make stand out, so any fruit added covers up all the honey notes. But we will see.

6.5%. French Pilsner, Vienna, rye, wheat and spelt make up the grist. Barbe rouge and Saaz make up the hops, and of course Wisconsin honey. According to the taste chart printed on the can,  we should in for a predominant honey character. 

Ok pouring into my tasting goblet, I’m getting a kind of murky darker golden body with very obvious carbonations. A nice white, fluffy head. The wheat and rye are doing their thing. Looks nice I must say.

But.. oh oh here we go already. Just by pouring this beer I am being met with the unmistakable aroma of your classic dive bar floor. This is two beers in a row from Lion’s Tail that have this stand out note. If you have ever home brewed and have smelled spent grain that started to turn,, that is the smell.

There is something of a faint roasty-ish note in there plus a tiny bit of stonefruit. No honey aromas. But over all, not so great of a start.

That good looking head has already completely collapsed to nothing. And with as strong of carbonation bubbles that there are, it seems weird that the head would fall that fast to so little. But tie that in with the dumpster aroma and you can start to see the direction this must be leading. But, we will continue…

Taste-wise. Damn it. There is Pilsner malt and red apple, a bit of bubblegumminess and banana-ish, and that is usually awesome in a Saison.. But backing all of that up, is that sewage taste that is in the aroma. I cannot say this any differently than this beer is just terrible.

What the hell is going on here? The same awful tastes, same awful aromas in two beers in a row from the same brewery. Two very different and seemingly unconnected beers. But there is an obvious trend here. 

Connecting all of those dots from this beer and the stout I had of theirs last time.. The spoiled aroma, the crazy foaming on one, and complete lack of head in a wheat and rye and spalt beer in the other, the thin slippery mouthfeels and God awful tastes.. There can be only one explanation. 

I can’t finish this. Another dumper from Lion’s Tail. I think I will pass on anything further from them. 1 or less out of 5.