Review: Drekker Royal Bee Honey Cream Double IPA

Thanks Amanda for sending me this! I've only ever had a few beers by Drekker Brewing out of Fargo, ND and each time I've ever had one, it was all thanks to an awesome friend sending one my way! I'm quite impressed with how well the North Dakota brewery scene has done in recent years, there's some really impressive breweries like this one and Aytpical Brewery & Barrel Works, I can't get enough!

Amanda sent me a lot of really good beers so I know this will be good - This one is Royal Bee Honey Cream Double IPA. I don't have much information about this beer but the beer is brewed with Pale two row, oats, carafoam and spelt malt, Magnum, Hallertau Blanc, Ekuanot and Mosaic Hops, honey and lactose sugar. I'm expecting this beer to be exactly what the name describes - a Double IPA with a good amount of honey and creaminess to it.

Appearance: This beer has an appearance that's like a cross between orange juice and creamed honey but not quite either. Very hazy. The head is fairly light a few big bubbles here and there.

Aroma: Wildflower honey is definitely the first thing I get in this beer. It's quite sweet but also decently bitter and hoppy. The hops have a bit of a tropical presence to give off some notes of pineapple and orange, while also giving off a floral presence with a mild amount of pine and fresh cut grass.

Taste: This time around, I get the tropical presence of pineapple and orange popping out right from the beginning. Quite a sweet Double IPA but I find most are anyways. Notes of honey but much more toned down than what I saw smelled in the aroma but it definitely, but the honey definitely shows up as the main aftertaste in the beer. This definitely has your typical Double IPA kind of vibe to it.. hefty amount of hops - moderately piney and leafy, as well as a bit of a booziness that reminds me a bit of a Barley Wine.

Overall Thoughts: Absolutely stellar - it's an easy drinking Double IPA with a nice wildflower honey sweetness to it, a good amount of tropical fruitiness to it and a bit of a piney bitterness with a bit of floral notes to it. Everything I've had by Drekker has been tasty. This is your typical Double IPA but with a nice honey/tropical presence to it. As for the cream aspect of the beer.. I really didn't see that in this beer, and surprisingly the oats were pretty muted in the beer, but that's what oats do in many beers!