I went for a meal with my son last week and we ended up in an 'authentic' New York diner, part of the Frankie & Benny's chain. Nice enough place with nice enough food, but this isn't a restaurant review so we'll dispense with the niceties and get right down to the beer.
Unfortunately, going for that 'authentic' feel involves serving up macro-brewed pap at inflated prices. The range of beers on offer were: Corona, Budweiser, Bud Ice, Peroni, Rolling Rock, Scrumpy Jack Cider, Clausthaler (0.5%) and Michelob.
Oi vey, what a choice!
I chose a bottle of Michelob.
The reason?
Was it because I knew I could rely on Anheuser-Busch (the makers of Michelob) to provide me with a tasty product brewed with quality ingredients? - Um...no, it wasn't quite that.
Did I have a burning desire to quaff some adjunct-laden fizz that was more rice, than nice? - Hardly.
No. The simple but sad reason was that I've reviewed most of the other beers except the cider [yuk] and I don't drink 0.5% 'beer' for anyone, anytime, anywhere.
So an icy-cold bottle of Michelob it was.
Anheuser-Busch is the biggest brewer on the planet (that's planet Earth), which proves the old maxim - 'size isn't everything'. They've been around since 1864 and are close to world domination...sigh.
Click on the link if you want to read more.
THEY SAY:
"Super-premium Michelob was developed in 1896 as a "draught beer for connoisseurs." Michelob is brewed with a superior ingredient blend for fuller body with a clean finish, using all imported hops and a high percentage of two-row barley malt."
This beer pours...um, actually, it was served up still trapped in the bottle and completely glass-free. I suppose I could've asked for a glass, but I didn't want to appear elitest, y'know? I'm sure if I had poured it into a glass, it would've been a pale, wishy-washy yellow with an initial sudsy head that soon flopped into nothingness.
I had a good sniff at the bottle though (well, you never know. If I'm going to stick something in my mouth, I like to make sure it's clean).
Not much aroma, but that could simply be because not much could escape the tiny neck. There's a little malt, but not much, and some grainy tones. I think I detected some faint floral hops, but in general it was pretty nondescript.
The taste is not exactly big and bold. Pretty inoffensive, there's not really a lot going on here. My guess is that there's just enough of everything to keep it resembling a beer, but nothing imaginative to try and add a little interest. It's sweet with a semblance of lightly roasted malt, but I'll be jiggered if I traced any hop flavour whatsoever. I can taste rice though - never a welcome flavour in a beer. Slightly dry finish but no bitterness to speak of.
At 5%ABV, this is just another mass-produced and unexciting beer from the makers of Bud. To be fair, it's probably better than Bud, but that's hardly a major achievement. Served chilled to within an inch of its life, it's refreshing enough, and I'm sure it would hit the spot on a hot day when all you really want is to quench your thirst, but it's pretty ordinary stuff and as for letting it warm up a little - I don't even want to think about it.
I read somewhere that A-B import Saaz and Tettnag hops for this brew (presumably to give it European-like flavour). Flip knows what they do with all those imported hops, I certainly couldn't find the slightest trace of them in the beer.
However, it had been a long day, we had a 'drouth' on us that made the Sahara seem veritably moist and I'm afraid to say I chugged a couple bottles of this with my meal and quite enjoyed them. Hey, what can I say? Sometimes it's good to live like the 'ordinary people'.
Speaking of meals, I had baked salmon and pasta and the beer went reasonably well with it.
I don't mind paying premium prices for good beer, but I have to say, getting hit for 2.70 for a 330ml bottle of this is close to highway robbery - a fact I pointed out to our server when she removed her mask.
Would I drink it again? - Not at nearly three quid a flippin' bottle, I wouldn't.