The Hopping Hare form Badger Brewery Beer Review

This is my third Badger Brewery beer review and so far I'm reasonably impressed so lets hope they keep the good run going. For anyone who doesn't know Badger Brewery are a seriously old independent brewer from Dorset and I'd suggest that if you've seen one of their beers before it was probably this one. I picked my bottle of The Hopping Hare up from Sainsbury's before taking it to a friends garden to drink on a reasonably nice May bank holiday Sunday. Don't worry we were all socially distanced etc etc.

Hopping Hare comes in a nice enough 500ml bottle not surprisingly featuring a hopping hare. I can't tell you how the beer pours as I had to drink it straight from the bottle, but I can tell you it's a lovely clear golden pale ale containing a very sessionable 4% alcohol. 'The brewer describes the beer as ​a light hoppy ale. A marriage of aromatic citrus American Amarillo and Cascade hops and the finest barley,' which sounds fine to me. I do miss drinking form my pint glass on days like this but I didn't fancy carrying it all the way to my friends garden and borrowing glasses just doesn't feel very socially distanced. 

The beers aroma is very pleasant, very floral, and pretty hoppy. There might be some light citrus notes in there too but if there are they aren't overly prominent which is a bonus for me as I'm sick to death of overly citrus based pale beers at the moment. The Hopping Hare has a very light refreshing feel to it so I'd say it's very much a summer beer rather than one you'd want to drink in the dark depths of winter.

The beers taste very much matches the smell. There's some very nice leafy floral flavours, a fair amount of hops, and just enough malts to keep them under control and well balanced. It's quite a weak taste but also quite a pleasant one. This certainly isn't a beer that tastes of enough to be overly interesting on a tasting session, but on a warm summers day with a barbecue going I imagine it's really quite enjoyable. I'm going to give The Hopping Hare from Badger Brewery decent 7 out of 10. It's a beer that has its place, and that place is very much out in the warm sun on a summers day.