Beer #187 - Invercargill - Wasp Honey Pilsner

Ok in for one Honey beer in for two - part he second  - an Invercargill - Wasp Honey Pilsner - Brewed by Invercargill Brewery in the style of a Golden Ale/Blond Ale in Invercargill, New Zealand.

This a 330ml bottle of a 4.9% ABV beer, and that's about 1.2 standard drinks, and at 16 IBU which is low by most measures of IBU more a Scottish Ale.
We’ve blended four malts and two hops with kamahi bush honey to craft an authentic taste of New Zealand... the perfect anytime beer. A New Zealand Pilsner that’s been inspired by Nature’s Raider. A great summer thirst quencher featuring Kamahi Honey, the bee-blended taste of Catlins Forest Park. Best served chilled.

Pouring a rich golden hue beneath a wispy white head, Wasp has a sweetish aroma and palate combining biscuity malt, caramel and floral honey. Medium-bodied, with a spritzy mouthfeel and lingering vanilla note that remind me of creaming soda, the beer finishes crisply with an edge of citrusy tartness from the hops.



So they talk it up a bit.

and I know I bang on a bit about head and lack of but I lost about 35% of this beer to over carbonation and a much livelier beer than should be allowed.

And I coughed and spluttered up truing to neck the foam. What an interactive beer this is!

and yes that's 66% head over beer, which isn't what you'd expect.

So It's settles to a murky golden colour that I'm now dubious of, there is a bitter aroma that reminds me of Belgium or Wheat beer, which I like though. The head thankfully has stopped looking like an ice-cream and settled back to being normal.

So the taste, which I actually sort of  like, and is nothing like I was expecting. There defiantly in honey in this but's it's a musty kind of taste. So to clarify that :  It's a taste that I wasn't expecting but am enjoying, and second the musty taste that I'm getting is part of the thing I like, but it's not what I'm expecting to have as the way this beer is described.

Almost as confusing at 66% head of beer.

So the pdubyah-o-meter is having a confusion.  Label says Pilsner, Web Site says Golden or Blonde Ale, tastes like a Wheat or Belgium beer. The heck. This is a beer that could put you seriously wrong in your thinking. I notice too that in various reviews that the ABV content wanders around like a lost person in a mall

So this is a confusion in a bottle, is it a Pilsner, Golden or Wheat beer? And for that reason it scrapes a 5 despite it having a taste that I'm not unhappy with. Or I am unhappy with as described. That and that wandering ABV.

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