Belt’s Beer Garden: What an Honour

More Brewing started off in the Chicago suburb of Villa Park back in 2017 and quickly made a name for themselves. They are known for their great hazy IPAs and their incredibly rare and sought-after stout, Henna.

Last year they opened up a second location 40 miles northwest of their original location, in Huntley, Illinois. But, even with the expansion, their distribution range is still limited. Right now, you can find their beers across Illinois and Wisconsin, although it’s mostly contained to the Chicagoland area.

The cool news is...if you live in Chicago or the suburbs, they will actually deliver beer straight to your door with their More Mobile!! Now you don’t even need to leave your house to get great beer from the brewery!

Today I have one of their newer hopped-up brews - Honour.

Honour is a Double IPA brewed with Conan yeast and a combination of Amarillo, CTZ, Idaho 7, and Simcoe hops. Each can packs a solid 8% ABV but will cost you $5 for each 16-ounce can or $18 for a four-pack. The beer was released January 8th and this review was written on January 27th.

The beer poured a slightly translucent, mostly hazy bright golden straw color. There wasn’t too much head to this one, as no more than half a finger of pure white foam ever appeared. And it quickly disappeared into a razor thin coating across the top of the brew.

Honour had quite the inviting aroma; it was chock-full of citrus and tropical fruits. Peach, mango, papaya, passion fruit, and grapefruit were all very noticeable and gave off a nice tropical vibe. Behind the fruit, there was a sticky dankness (just to remind you that the hops are there) and a very light flaked grain quality from the grist.

My first sip started with a massive rush of carbonation that slowly gave way to a moderate hop bite. There was a quick bitterness that hit the back of my tongue before the flavors really began to come forth and pop.

The stone fruits appeared first with a nice rush of peaches, mango, and just a dash of apricot. Subtly mixing their way into the mix was a combination of sweet, slightly tart lemon and papaya.

Then, around the midway point, a strong pithy grapefruit characteristic appeared and became one of the more prominent flavors, along with the peaches. The grapefruit notes were not alone though, as a sticky and dry feeling began to creep forward.

And, with that, the flavors began to fade away, leaving behind that sticky, dry feeling and just a bit of grapefruit rind bitterness. After half the can, my mouth was sufficiently dry enough that taking a swig of water was needed.

Overall though, this was a tasty DIPA. More West Coast than hazy, it’s a nice reminder that all IPAs these days don’t have to be “juicy” to be good.

More Brewing continues to kill it with hops and, if you’re in the area, you can’t go wrong with one of their brews. Very, very close to an A- but the dry/sticky ending brings it down to an 89.4%.