Honey Badger

Origin Story

When it comes to our cellarman Al Russel, it seems that bigger and blacker is better. At least that's the impression I get from having tried his last, and now his latest, conceptual Short's beer selections. Taking Al's second idea from the "to brew" list to the brewhouse, the Honey Badger has some fun similarities, but also some clever differences, from his first Short's brew idea, Goodnight Bodacious: Double India Black Ale. Also described as an India Black Ale, Al thought the use of orange blossom honey during the brewing process would help balance the roast malt intensities and provide a few unique flavor twists. Always enjoying the opportunity to allow the creator to personally be able to describe the source of their inspiration for these beers, below are Al's thoughts on how Honey Badger came to be: "This beer was originally a homebrew and was brewed in the fall of 2011. Like most of my beers, Jess (Al's wife) actually came up with the original idea. (ironically, she doesn't really care for beer) I was super into the honey badger viral video and she suggested I make a honey badger beer brewed with honey. I had been working on an India black ale recipe for a while and knew right away that it would be the perfect beer style for a honey badger theme. The original batch also had a few ounces of King Cobra malt liquor in it as another nod to the video. When I told Ryan about the King Cobra on brew day, he actually sent me out to try and find a bottle of it in Bellaire. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any, so the pub version is sans essence of cobra. As far as the recipe goes, it's pretty straight forward. It uses de-bittered black malt so that it can have roastycharacter and a dark color without astringency. The honey mostly just lightens up the body of the beer and adds a bit more alcohol. Obviously, the beer has a lot of strong flavors, but I do find that the meady and sweet honey character comes through a little bit in the final beer. I used orange blossom honey just because that is my favorite type of honey. The hops I used were mostly chosen just because that is what I could get. I had originally wanted to use Simcoe, Amarillo or Citra, but classic "C" hops were all I was able to find. Luckily, I have always been a fan of Centennial, Chinook and Cascade and I think they worked well. Also, the pub version is a bit stronger than what I made at home due to a better extraction rate."