Natural Ice: Specially Brewed for the World's Alcoholics
Written: Sep 04 '01 (Updated Dec 14 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Low Price; Easy to Drink
Cons: Bad flavor; very little foam; very light
The Bottom Line: Natural Ice is a lame beer product, recommended only to those who are very short on cash and want a good buzz.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Natural Ice |
Being a beer connoisseur (or beer “snob”, as some like to put it) and a frequent taster/rater of beer here in Epinions, I have had a great time discovering new and unusual malt beverages. When the mood to try a new beer hits me, I’m off to my favorite beverage store to look for something interesting to sample and rate. More often than not, my experiences have been favorable. I’ve had some great adventures in the beer isles, and I have discovered some excellent beers along the way.
One bad thing, however, about sampling and rating beer is that I sometimes have to try a bad product. Ok, I guess I don’t have to try bad beers, but I think it’s a good idea to rate across the board, sampling the bad along with the good. Yesterday, I was browsing through my favorite beverage store and decided that I would pickup a quart of a bad product to sample and rate. I looked at the quarts that they had available, but there were none on the shelf that I hadn’t already tried. Fine, I said to myself, I will just have to look for a six pack instead. I ended up choosing Natural Ice, a product of the Anheauser-Busch company. The 12- pack was specially priced at just $3.99. This was only $1.00 more than a six pack, so I went ahead and purchased the larger quantity.
Basic Characteristics of This Product:
Because this beer is priced in the lower range, my expectations were low from the start. I already knew that it would have typical cheap beer qualities, before I even opened up my can.
I poured my Natural Ice into a glass. The color of this beer is a very light golden/straw hue and completely clear, with an aroma of paper and grain. The foam level was low, which is typical of many cheaper beers. They start out with a good head of foam, then they fall flat on their face in a minute or two. However, in spite of the low level of foaminess, the carbonation level is still relatively high. Consequently, you can expect to have a belch attack (along with other gas- related attacks) after you consume a few bottles of this swill.
Now, for the part I dreaded the most: the tasting. The initial flavor was one of sweetness, followed by a tasteless finish with no hop flavor at all. There is a little bit of alcohol in the finish, which I expected in an ice- brewed beer. But the finish isn’t bitter, or as strongly alcoholic as I expected it to be, because the sweetness of the grain helps to cover it up.
The taste of this beer is weak, overall. What little flavor there is reminded me of the taste sensation of eating raw barley and rice, wrapped in a piece of paper, and dipped into a mixture of water and rubbing alcohol.
With the ice-brewing process (the beer is cooled to below freezing temperatures, and then the ice crystals are filtered out, causing an increase in the percentage of alcohol), the final product is stronger in alcoholic content and smoother to drink. I agree that this product is smooth, and it should be. It has almost no taste. The alcohol level is 5.9 percent by volume, and there are 156 calories per 12oz serving. The calories are not that high, considering the alcohol level. The truth is, with the amount of ingredients in this beer being so low, practically all of the calories are coming from alcohol.
Food Compatibility:
What food should I recommend to eat with a product like this?? I really don’t look at this beer as something worthy to be consumed with any food, but I think that it would go fairly well with fish. Not fancy seafood dishes, mind you, but rather a box of cheap fish sticks or fish fillets.
Final Thoughts:
This is a very cheaply made product, brewed with very little ingredients and then ice- brewed, to increase the alcohol level. It has all the qualities that you expect to find in a poorly made beer product: very light color and body; very low level of foam; aroma of paper and cereal grains; bland taste; etc. The lack of any real flavor makes it very easy to drink, and with the alcohol level being higher than average, this product could give the naïve drinker a very painful experience the next morning.
The quality that stands out, for this product, is the low price. At $3.99 per twelve pack, it’s one of the least expensive beers you can buy, rivaled only by Milwaukee’s Best and a few others for the cheap- beer crown.
Natural Ice is popular among people who are on a budget; college students; and those who just want as much alcohol as they can buy, for the lowest possible price. If getting a cheap buzz is your goal, then go ahead and buy Natural Ice. If you want quality beer, look elsewhere. I’ve tasted worse products, yes, but Natural Ice ranks in my bottom 10 percent of beers, in terms of flavor and quality.
Now, I need to figure out what to do with those other 11 cans!
Be sure to Click the Links Below to Read Reviews of Other Anheuser- Busch Products:
Budweiser:
Budweiser
Bud Light
Bud Ice
Bud Ice Light
Budweiser Select
Michelob Products:
Michelob
Michelob Light
Michelob Ultra
Michelob Amber Bock
Michelob Black & Tan
Michelob Honey Lager
Michelob Marzen
Michelob Pale Ale
Michelob Pumpkin Spice
Other Anheuser- Busch Beers:
Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale
Busch
Busch Light
Natural Light
Anheuser World Select
Recommended:
No
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