Drinking at the Brewery: JW Dundee's Honey Brown Beer Versus Miller Genuine Draft Beer

I like to have a beer now and then but I just don't see the point in paying microbrew prices for every bottle. I am enough of a beer snob that I generally won't drink beer out of a can, but not so much that I haven't had my share of Miller Genuine Draft or other, similar varieties.

Miller Genuine Draft beer is a classic pale beer, in the pilsner style. It has a sharp fairly clean taste without much of an unpleasant aftertaste, although I find it slightly bitter. However, the taste is fairly weak, even for a pale. When you first open a bottle not much foam froths up, this could indicate a less fresh beer, this may also be a result of the cold filtration process the beer goes through. A single Miller Genuine Draft is often not terribly satisfying, but more than a couple almost always lead to intestinal difficulties for me later in the evening or the next day.

The packaging itself is appealing to the eye. The label is neither too flashy neither is it so minimalist that you wonder if maybe you aren't actually drinking a generic brand. The black and gold label with the Miller log in red nicely accentuates the gold-toned beer.

As the beer gets warm the taste becomes distinctly less appealing. Miller Genuine Draft should be consumed before it approaches room temperature or it begins to taste like saliva. The cold filtration process ensures that your Miller is always cold, but not all beer, especially darker beers and some finer pilsners and lagers, is actually supposed to be consumed at near-freezing temperatures. Miller Genuine Draft's tendency to lose flavor as it warms is definitely a major drawback as I frequently enjoying watching the sunset on my porch with a cold beer at the end of the day. Unless I plan to throw my beer back quickly, a Miller will not stand up to the task.

JW Dundee's Honey Brown, produced by the High Falls Brewery in Rochester, New York, is another fairly inexpensive beer, usually available around $4 - $5 for a six-pack. This is a little more than a six-pack of Miller, but unless you plan to drink the entire six-pack in a single evening, this isn't a major difference in price.

JW Dundee's Honey Brown produces a nice, thick head upon opening the bottle, which imparts a nice richness to the beer-drinking experience. The taste is very full, but it is a little sweeter than Miller Genuine Draft. Although it is still a fairly pale beer, Honey Brown is a lager, which indicates a bolder flavor. Unlike other lagers, JW Dundee's Honey Brown has a clean finish that sits lightly on the tongue with no bitterness at all.

The aftertaste is pleasant and light, very much like the kind of aftertaste one finds with a much more expensive beer, but without a heavy wheat or hopsy taste most Americans find somewhat unpleasant. Similar to Miller, it doesn't sour on the tongue and goes well with a variety of foods.

Honey Brown holds its flavor even once it has hit room temperature. The amber-colored bottles keep the product fresher as light is not as able to penetrate to destroy the delicate product within. The label is a simple yellow with red accents, giving it an old-timey feel.

I prefer JW Dundee's Honey Brown as a beer with a fuller, richer taste and more satisfying finish. It really holds flavor as the temperature rises and does not produce the kind of intestinal problems I find with Miller Genuine Draft. For my money, Honey Brown is the best inexpensive American beer available.