Malt Beverage Sacrilege
Written: Jul 23 '04 (Updated Jul 23 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Let's see...it's easy to drink and widely available
Cons: Nearly tasteless; Too watery
The Bottom Line: Aspen Edge is another low- carb deadbeat in the world of beer.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Aspen Edge |
Light beer, as most beer drinkers know, is a pretty popular alternative to high octane malt beverages and has captured a fair share of the marketplace since it was first introduced in the 1970’s. American consumers, always worried about their appearance and ready to cut calories at the expense of taste, seemed to adapt well to these lighter beer products. Most people agreed that the taste was not very impressive. But if drinking light beer removed some of the tinges of guilt associated with indulging in high- calorie brew, then lighter beer was worth the sacrifice.
Today, however, beer drinkers have a new enemy to confront. If light beer wasn’t bad enough, we now have a new adversary to face as we scan the beer isles for our weekly six- pack. The new antagonist is the low- carb fad and one of its latest victims is called Aspen Edge, a low- carb product from the folks at Coors Brewery.
Basic Characteristics of This Beer:
Poured from the bottle, Aspen Edge is very bubbly and produces a fizzy head of white foam that disappears in about one minute. The color is straw/yellow and the body is completely clear, indicating the beer is well- filtered. The nose of this product is grainy and paper- like and reminds me of corn meal in a box.
Tasting this product yields no great surprises. The beer has a flavor that is sweet and grainy, with light malt dominating. There is practically no finish at all and only the slightest indication that hops are present in any measurable quantity. The beer begins and ends on a watery note, making it very easy to drink and very thirst- quenching.
A bottle of Aspen Edge is similar to other products in its category. A twelve- ounce (355 ml) serving has only 2.6 grams of carbohydrates and 94 calories, along with .7 grams of protein, zero fat, and an alcohol level of 4.1 percent by volume.
Food Compatibility:
Because this product is very weak, it can be matched up with most any type of food. Like other light lagers, it seems like a beer made for consumption with salty snacks, like potato chips, corn chips, or tortilla chips. With so little body and so little taste, it could be consumed with many other foods, too, but I would recommend something more respectable to drink with anything better than a simple snack.
Final Thoughts:
Dieting has been an ongoing fad in the United States for decades with different doctors and nutritional experts offering new ideas and “proven” effective ways to lose weight. At one time, sugar was the main culprit of obesity. Then, excess fat was blamed for the burgeoning waistlines of Americans. Today, the talk of the weight loss town is the reduction of carbohydrates- not just ordinary sugars, but carbohydrates of all types. Many food and beverage manufacturers have jumped aboard the bandwagon, offering low carb versions of their popular food offerings in an effort to please consumers and take advantage of the latest craze.
Aspen Edge is produced by the Adolph Coors Company and it comes at the heels of other low- carb malt beverage products, like Michelob Ultra, Rock Green Light, and a few others. Aspen Edge is comparable to other low- carb products in nutritional levels. Michelob Ultra and Rock Green Light also have 2.6 grams of carbs and Miller Lite has 3.2 grams of carbs. Calories are almost identical between any of these beers. The carbs in Aspen Edge are significantly lower than Coors Original, which has 11.3 grams of carbs per 12 oz. serving. If one is looking to lower the intake of carbs and enjoys beer, I can see how Aspen Edge would seem appealing at first.
Comparing Aspen Edge to other low- carb/light beers shows that they are basically all about the same. Not just in nutritional analysis, but also in taste. There is very little to say about these types of beers because they are so lacking in character. Aspen Edge is no exception. It is very light and watery, making it a very easy beer to consume, which can be both good and bad, depending on one’s perspective. It might be ok to drink after a sweaty task like mowing the lawn, since it is basically a glass of water with yellow tint. But the ease of consumption also makes it an easy beer to pound away, one after another, without even realizing how much you have consumed.
The low- carb gang has been assaulting our consumable goods for quite some time, thanks to the “genius” of Dr. Atkins and others. Low- carb versions of all sorts of different foods are now available in grocery stores and restaurants to accommodate the needs of the reduced carb generation. I could tolerate this in the past, but now, the low- carb freakazoids have violated the most sacred of all places special and dear to me: my beer. I don’t mind if the new low- carb establishment wants to pollute my ice cream, cake, soft drinks, and other foods with its reduced- taste substitute for simple and complex carbohydrates. But I wish my beer would be left off of the list of food and drink products earmarked for desecration. Just when I think the anti- carb capitalists have gone too far and couldn't possibly go further, they come back and assault another food or drink with their special recipe, promising to end the obesity problem in America and the world.
Low- carb beer and light beer basically belong in the same category. Most of these products are weak, watery, and forgettable, tasting and looking very similar to one another. Calling one of them better than the others is like saying that a Ford Pinto is better than an AMC Pacer. The quality is low and the differences are so slight and so subtle that most consumers wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test.
Aspen Edge is right on the edge all right- the edge of emptiness. It’s a grainy, water- enhanced concoction that doesn’t even deserve to be called beer. Hopefully, in due time, the low- carb craze will come to an end and we call all look back and laugh at this era when our beer was violated with the likes of Aspen Edge and other low- carb malt beverage losers. Until then, we must tolerate these tasteless, bland, boring, products and accept them for what they are: attempts to market to consumer needs with complete disregard for any hint of quality or goodness.
Recommended:
No
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