Beer Reviews: Bad Beer and Going Against the Grain

This morning I was asked my thoughts on PBR, or Peeber as it's affectionately called around here. I replied that for what it is, a mass-produced macro lager, it's relatively good. I mean really, for that category, all it has to do is resemble good beer and be inoffensive.

This got me thinking to a recent addition to BeerAdvocate, where you can see how your review of a beer deviates from the average. Low and behold my top 3 beers that I rated over their average were either light macro lagers, or macro lagers - because hey, for the style they're not that bad.

Some people may not take a brew's style into consideration while reviewing, but a trained judge such as myself (a "recognized judge" by the Beer Judge Certification Program) knows that some styles suck pretty hard and it's unfair to the beer to just say it all blows. Sure it may be splitting hairs when the flavor profiles are so bland, but hey, somebody's got to do it.

Bud Light
Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Light Lager

Average score from 666 reviews to date: D- / 1.87
My Score:http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif C- / 2.6
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | drink: 3
rDev: +28.1%

Looking at Bud Light as pure beer, as an art removed from the social implications of drinking, it is both uninspiring and disappointing. To begin with, there isn't much to look at. It sits flatly in a glass like a urine sample. The aroma is weak with only hints of fresh barley. The flavor is a touch sour and grainy with a slight sweetness and faint bitterness. An easily ignorable but unpleasant and unnatural tasting flavor lingers after each cold gulch.

All in all, when it comes to the flavor department, Bud Light is severely lacking. What is so impressive about Bud Light, however, is the beer craftsmanship of Anheuser-Busch. In the world of brewing, a finely-tuned light lager is the most difficult product to create. Errors or flavor imperfections are readily evident, with nothing to mask the flavor. Then consider the flavor consistency for the millions of barrels of Bud Light, and you have one of the best-made beers in the world.



Amstel Light
Amstel Brouwerij B. V.
Light Lager

Average score from 276 reviews to date: D+ / 2.47
My score: B- / 3.4
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | drink: 3.5
rDev: +27.4%

Wow, the best light beer I've had. But maybe I'm just easily impressed by hops in a light lager. The pale malt was weak, but there was an actual hops profile of spicy European hops. The aroma was actually quite big for a light beer, and while it hinted at it's light lager style with adjuncts, the pale malt and hops still showed through. Really, this has to be one of the only light lagers that actually leaves some bitterness in your mouth. Still, this beer is only good for the style.



Busch Beer
Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
American Macro Lager

Average score from 221 reviews to date: D / 2.04
My score: C- / 2.6
look: 3 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | drink: 2.5
rDev: +21.5%

Poured from a 16 oz. tallboy into a weizen glass

Pale yellow (some would call it piss-colored) with a bit of suds Smells like DMS, lots of cooked vegetable with a little bready pale malt in the background. The flavor, while bland, isn't offensive, which is alway the threshold of bad beer. Instead this lends a light toast taste with a bit of lager tang which is almost fruity - sort of like an artificial fruit flavor. The carbonation is appropriate, not too sharp, not too flat, and while this beer isn't out and out offensive, I don't see myself drinking another. Still, considering the style, this could be a lot worse.