Wild Blue Blueberry Lager: A Winos Malt Beverage Wet Dream
Written: May 01 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It would make a good ingredient in some recipes
Cons: Too much sweet fruit; Doesn't taste like beer; Weird smell
The Bottom Line: Wild Blue Blueberry Lager is yet another Anheuser- Busch flop.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Wild Blue Blueberry Lager |
I’m not a big fan of fruity beer. The reasons for my negative attitude are numerous, but the main reason I don’t like them is because so many fruity beers are too sweet and don’t taste like beer and other than sampling one for review purposes, I generally don’t spend money on these products. However, I will at least give these fruit beers a try and one that caught my attention recently was Wild Blue Blueberry Lager, a fruit- enhanced beer from Anheuser- Busch.
Basic Characteristics of This Beer:
Copper- colored with a purple tint, Wild Blue Blueberry Lager offers a scent that is blueberry with a touch of grain, alcohol, and something I can’t put my finger on. An attractive head of purple foam forms quickly, but falls apart very fast and leaves no lacing.
Wild Blue Blueberry Lager tastes like, well, blueberries. The beer has a alcoholic, tart blueberry jam taste up front and in the middle, followed by the sweet flavor of blueberries with a touch of grape. If any hops are used to make Wild Blue Blueberry Lager, they are used sparingly or they are overwhelmed by the fruity flavor.
Wild Blue Blueberry Lager is brewed using two row and six row barley, along with Willamette and hallertau hops and natural blueberry. This beer is stronger than average, with an alcohol level of 8 percent by volume.
Food Compatibility:
If you’re thinking about drinking Wild Blue Blueberry Lager with food, keep in mind that this is strictly a dessert beer and nothing else. It would taste okay with a berry pie (not just blueberry- other flavors would also work), blueberry muffins, fruitcake, and possibly certain raw fruits. But no other type of food would match with this flavor.
Final Thoughts:
Is this really beer?
That is the first question that entered my mind when I sampled Wild Blue Blueberry Lager for the first time. I found Wild Blue Blueberry Lager in the beer aisle at the local grocery store and it did say “lager” on the label. So, my assumption was that this product really was beer. But after one taste and subsequent tastes, I started to wonder about Wild Blue Blueberry Lager. I started to wonder exactly how it was made and what could have resulted in this type of taste.
Like I alluded to above, I am not a big fan of fruity beer and Wild Blue Blueberry Lager has not changed my opinion on this matter. This beer is far too sweet and too blueberry enhanced to take seriously as a malt beverage product. Supposedly, two- row and six- row barley malt are used in the process, and I have heard that hallertau and Willamette hops are also part of the ingredients. But you would have a hard time finding these or other flavors in Wild Blue Blueberry Lager. It takes more like a fruity wine than a malt beverage, and not a very good wine at that.
One thing about Wild Blue Blueberry Lager that might mislead some consumers is the brewery information on the label. It says it is brewed by Blue Dawg Brewing, but some quick research reveals that this is actually an Anheuser- Busch product. Once again, good ol’ A-B is deceiving the public to an extent, making them think they are purchasing a fine craft beer by using a make- believe brewery. This isn’t the first time A-B has done this, and it certainly won’t be the last. It’s enough to make you want to swear off the King of Beers on a permanent basis.
Another quality of Wild Blue Blueberry Lager that is misleading is its use of the word “lager” in the title. Trust me when I say there is no discernable lager flavor in Wild Blue Blueberry Lager. To add to the confusion, the side of the label claims it is a flavored ale! Well, Anheuser- Busch, which one is it? Are your brewers so inept that they cannot tell ale yeast from lager yeast? If the label didn’t include the word lager in its name, I would guess this was an ale, if I had to classify it as beer.
As much as I dislike Wild Blue Blueberry Lager, I cannot rate it with one star because there are some good uses for this product, and I’m not referring to its possible use as drain opener or fragrant toilet bowl cleaner. Because of its wine- like flavor and fruity soda pop taste with added alcohol, this beer would make a good choice as an added ingredient for cooking with certain foods. Adding it to cooked, fruity desserts is one obvious choice. It could also be good for making salad dressing and even as an addition to homemade pasta sauce. The beer itself doesn’t taste very good consumed as a beverage, but these flavors would be very good as ingredients in certain compatible foods.
Overall, however, Anheuser- Busch has laid yet another malty egg with Wild Blue Blueberry Lager. It’s like a cheap wine with a small amount of added barley malt to pass it off as beer. It will likely be appreciated by those who don’t really like beer very much and by those who prefer wine to beer. But for the rest of us, Wild Blue Blueberry Lager is a beer to avoid and one I hope A-B drops from its dismal lineup in a short time. With the flavor of alcoholic fruit- flavored soda mixed with blueberry jam, Wild Blue Blueberry Lager is a product to avoid.
Recommended:
No
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