Miller High Life
Well, people love them some shitty beer. This week has seen new records for page visits. I hope that my dip into what my friend deemed, “low brow” beers has encouraged you to try something new and different.
Speaking of “low brow” this one goes out to my buddy Jeff who has stood more than once in defense of Miller High Life. According to the interwebs, lowbrow is “a person who has uncultivated or nonintellectual tastes” According to the wikipedia, “Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor – sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it’s a sarcastic comment.”
I’m not sold that Miller High Life, or most of the beers I have tasted this week, fit the lowbrow definition, however Miller High Life was surprisingly drinkable. I was pleasantly surprised that a beer so open to the potential of off flavours, was not off at all. It might even be better if it was in brown glass or a can.
Miller High Life is crisp and slightly malty. There is a slight acidic twang to the beverage. The twang is not bad, but it is not a hoppy twang, I can’t really place it.
Overall, not totally awful but I can think of a ton of other crisp lagers I’d rather drink on a hot summer day while chopping wood.
Keystone Light
Williams kids, this one goes out to you. I’ll be honest, I have been bashing your beer of choice without ever trying it. Part of my reason for suffering through “Shitty Beer Week” was because I found a can of this beer like beverage on a walkway on campus a few weeks ago and needed a reason to consume it. One day I asked a student, “Why Keystone?” There are so many other shitty beers WHY??? The student said to me, “[Beer Geek, dude], it is cheaper than water, why not?” Ok, good reason.
Last night as I poured this beer the main thing I noted was the lack of standard things I notice when I usually pour a beer:
- no colour
- no aroma
- no flavour
- no lacing
- no head
OMG… its water! No it really tastes worse than water, but it is so close. This beer is closer to water than anything else I’ve seen. My dear student friends, Water that comes out of the tap is beautiful well water. It is FREE to you. It is healthy, clean and clear. It tastes better than this beverage you often refer to as beer. Please drink it instead.
Rating this is hard cause it is not beer in my opinion. I guess a near-beer can only get a 1 star, sorry.
PBR
January 5, 2011 by justin · 2 Comments
Shitty beer week continues with one of my favorite shitty beers, hipster favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon. The thing is, it tastes like every other shitty beer. In fact, the reason I like it better than most bad beers is that it lacks taste. So much in fact that I can actually stomach it.
Maybe hipsters clung to PBR like shit on a toailet brush (trying to stick with the theme folks) cause of Blue Velvet? “Heineken?!?! Fuck that shit! … PABST BLUE RIBBON!!!” – Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth”
Last year AnimalNewYork stated that, “Five years ago Pabst Blue Ribbon rose like a phoenix from the ashes to become the official beer of the sad modern “counter-culture,” effectively branding itself as the adult beverage of choice for urban 20 and 30-somethings seeking to shed their pansy-ass realities and earn some hard street cred by creating a facade of being one with white-trash folk. But do the cool kids realize that the folks at Pabst who make and market their beloved “anti-establishment” beer of choice are also savvy capitalists who’ve been quite effective at making massive profits off of their “non-conformist” asses through slick marketing?”
Their point is spot on. The thing missing though is that PBR has been a marketing ploy from day one.
It is all in the name. Pabst never won a blue ribbon. They never won a ribbon cause there was no ribbon being offered. The company has historically claimed its flagship beer was renamed Pabst Blue Ribbon following its win as “America’s Best” at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Interestingly enough it is probably named after the fact that they used to tie a blue ribbon on the neck of the bottles. The image here is an invitation to the Chicago Fair, note the blue ribbon was already around.
Anyway, PBR sure does love their marketing and I have to give them a for marketing and a for the beer itself. So buck the system, drink real beer instead!
Note: I drank my PBR on draft at The Red Herring tonight and the lighting is as bad as the beer. Since I was not able to get a good shot I borrowed the images used from : http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/11/the-resurgence-of-pabst-blue-ribbon/ http://yestreasures.com/images/pabst.jpg and http://www.periodpaper.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/540x/3be94435fc5c39f0d7e641591902dff2/F/A/FAIR9_006_9.JPG
New Years Eve at Ye Olde Forge
December 31, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
What a great way to ring out a year, at Ye Olde Forge. With only 29 days left in my project things are still going strong and I got two tasty winter ales in before midnight.
I was so happy to see two beers I was interested in on tap, 21st Amendment Fireside Chat and Mikkeller Red/White Christmas, a nice strong ale.
I started with the Mikkler’s. It was as expected, a strong ale should have an almost liquor quality to it. Slightly viscus and sweet. Very nice
The Fireside Chat is a spiced winter ale and as I am not a fan of spiced ales i wasnt sure. I have loved all of the 21st Amendment beers so I figured Id give it a go and I had been hearing about this but had not even seen it in a can. Totally dig the name of this dark beer. The brewery describes it as “Like FDR’s Depression-era radio addresses, which were like a kick in the butt and a hug at the same time, our Fireside Chat is a subtle twist on the traditional seasonal brew.” It is an odd brew. It is actually almost porter like but tastes more like and English bitter. I totally dug the first few sips but after about 1/2 a glass I was not as big of a fan. Something was just not what I was looking for.
Happy New Year folks!
Dogfish Head Namaste
December 29, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Ok, Love Dogfish Head, love this beer, mixed feelings about the name. While the word is a common greeting in India, and most Americans just think it is some weird word their hippy yoga teacher says at the end of an ass whipping class, according to Aadil Palkhivala from Yoga Journal, it actually means, “The gesture Namaste represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us that is located in the heart chakra. The gesture is an acknowledgment of the soul in one by the soul in another. “Nama” means bow, “as” means I, and “te” means you. Therefore, Namaste literally means “bow me you” or “I bow to you.”
So when you name a beer Namaste what does that say? Does the beer bow to me?
Then, I read the reason they chose this name. Brewery 3 Fonteinen, in Belgium had a thermostat break and as a result, excessive heat ruined about 100,000 bottles of lambic and gueuze in storage – representing about a third of their annual revenue.
Sam Calagione says, “We decided to brew a beer together along with our lead brewer Bryan Selders and my wife Mariah that would be a tribute to 3 Fonteinen. We will be sending a portion of the profits to 3 Fonteinen but more importantly we wanted to use this brew as a celebration of the vibrant, creative Belgian brewing culture that, in our minds, 3 Fonteinen embodies. Our ultimate goal is that news of this brew and the production set-back will inspire beer enthusiasts to seek out 3 Fonteinen beers in which ever town and country they live in.”
Ok, so that is really cool. And this Belgian White rocks. It is sweet, but not overly so, and smooth and well just swell. Support 3 Fonteinen and Dogfish Head, they are good peeps.
12 Days of Christmas – Santa’s Little Helper
December 24, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
On the eleventh day of Christmas…
One of my favorite beers of all time is Santa’s Little Helper. Port Brewery kicks ass and this is the best of the best. I needed Santa’s Helper to paint my kitchen. This Bourbon Barrel-aged Imperial Stout is rich, deep solid, just seriously amazing. There is so much going on here that it blows your mind. Last year I got wasted on this on a Sunday morning with my mom at the brewery. It was a total hoot and a half.
I would love to drink this all day long all year long. If I could function I would 
Do you like my grey paint in the background?
12 Beers of Christmas – Celebration Ale
December 24, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
On the tenth day of Christmas…
Celebration! A Christmas beer list cannot be complete without Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale. This American IPA is hoppy and sweet. The aroma is killer hops due to the dry hopping method used. I personally would prefer to be drinking this in early fall as it is so crisp and strong. I like it, just think it is more of a harvest IPA than a Christmas IPA.
12 Days of Christmas – Yule Smith
December 20, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
On the eighth day of Christmas…
Yule Smith! Yep, Santa loves me. I just love that I can get more and more San Diego brews up here in chilly Massachusetts, getting better everyday.
Ale Smith is one of my favorite breweries and Yule Smith is one fine beer. This is the best beer I have had in this little Christmas series.
Yule Smith is brewed twice a year, Summer and Winter. The summer Yule Smith is an Imperial IPA and the winter is an Imperial Red. Both are amazing!
The Winter Yule Smith is thick and sweet with strong warming characteristics. It is big on everything, hops, malt, alcohol. But hey there is balance, so weird it just all works. LOVE!
Beers like this make me wish it was Christmas everyday
12 Beers of Christmas – Wreck the Halls
December 19, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
On the seventh day of Christmas…
Full Sail Brewing brings us this fine offering, Wreck the Halls. Wreck the Halls is a very hoppy IPA. I totally dig it. The hops are totally upfront and not backing down. Slight malts, kinda a cereal flavour and taste and some string citrus.
There are not a lot of “holiday” qualities here. Just a fine IPA, no problem with that.
PS if you want to get me a Christmas gift, I’d love to try the Wassail from Full Sail.
Lagunitas Lucky 13
December 19, 2010 by kevin · Leave a Comment
This beer was created to celebrate Lagunitas Brewing Company’s 13th anniversary. I’ve always liked Lagunitas, they are like Stone but less arrogant and more accessible. They have a very strong line up of regular beers, but this one just doesn’t do it for me. Lucky 13 is an American Strong ale, red in color and with ample hops and malt. The dominant flavor is caramel sweetness, but this is a bitter beer as well. I feel like this beer didn’t do enough with the malt to really earn any praise. The beer is aggressively hopped, with spicy, bitter and somewhat tobacco-y hops, but they are clearly only here to balance the malt. This is like a double IPA without the hop-bomb character. I feel like this could be the timid little brother of a beer like Arrogant Bastard. All of the same flavors are there, but they are muted. Do not get me wrong, this is definitely a tasty beer, but I feel like Lagunitas has done so much more with similar beers like Brown Shugga, Hairy Eyeball and Undercover Investigation Shutdown Ale, that this really isn’t deserving of the 13th anniversary title. Good, but not reccommended. There are more interesting beers in this style out there.