Head for the Mountains

I collect "retro" and vintage beer glassware. My most recent purchase replaced a Hamm's pilsner sham that got knocked over and broke into pieces. The new glass (pictured) promotes Busch Bavarian, an old Anheuser-Busch product (now Inter-Bud-Ambev or whatever) that was recently re-packaged into cans with a retro label from just after the time when the "Bavarian" part of the name got dropped. As you can see, the can says "Clear and Bright as Mountain Air" and "Busch Classic." The can says the beer was introduced in 1955 as Busch Bavarian. Wikipedia adds that it changed to just Busch in 1979. I'm guessing that real Bavarians were appalled by the original name and made Bud change it.

This beer has a bubblegummy and slightly fruity smell laced with a sort of medicinal aroma.It tastes very watery and light for its 4.7 percent alcohol by volume, with a bit of bubblegummy sweetness and a dryish, but slightly sweet finish. It's definitely light, but with a fairly inoffensive amount of corn. This stuff initially formed a bit of a rocky head (which I missed in the photo) and which I haven't been able to replicate since, which makes me think it was my imagination. Budweiser has always equaled Wonder Bread. They brew the Wonder Bread of beer and in this sense, Busch doesn't disappoint. That said, it seems like the kind of beer that just doesn't get you drunk, it makes you stupid and maybe a nasty, old, hillbilly. Oh, and if you're still interested, I paid a little about a buck for the big can and I noticed it's $3.40 a six-pack, definitely qualifying as cheap.

Well, what else can I say...it was time to head for the mountains.

PLZNR?!

PLZNR, huh? Interesting. A "Josephsbrau Brewing Company" beer the Trader Joe's Czech/German-style line of lagers bought for a buck. Available for six bucks a six-pack. Well, it pours nice an clear with a decent quarter-inch of head. Bubbles stream from the bottom of my PLZNR (pilsner) glass. Smells like fresh malt and herbal hops. It ain't too bad. Tastes crisp and well, like a Pils. Decent malt flavor here, with some decent hop bitterness. Tastes almost exactly like pils I had a Gordon Biersch. I'd drink this stuff again. Especially in summer.

Not bowled over by Boatswain

A new Trader joe's beer brand called Boatswain (pronounced Bo-sun) has pulled into port. It's brewed by Rhinelander Brewing Co. of Monroe, Wisconsin, which really is Minhas Brewing, which brews a lot of cheap beer for Trader Joe's. The two beers are both described as IPAs. One is simply called Boatswain IPA and the other is called H.L.V. -- or Heavy Lift Vessel. Both are also described as brown on color, but really only H.L.V. is really brown. The beer snob in me also knows that IPAs really shouldn't be brown, but this is cheap beer, so who cares?

I bought both these beers for $1.99 each. I tried the IPA first. It poured crystal clear amber with plenty of carbonation and big fluffy white head. This beer certainly looked tasty enough. It smmelled of sweet cereal grains with only a faint floral hop nose. I suppose I really shouldn't have expected much more than that. Then there was the strange metallic bitterness that cthankfully comes and goes quickly. I'm calling this mallt liquor for people who like hops, but there's also no way this is 79 IBUs as indicated on the label. (An IBU is a measurement of bitterness in beer. Budweiser has about 10 IBUs.)

I have to say I "drain-poured" the bulk of the IPA, but quite possibly because I'd been drinking Three Floyds (expensive craft beer) earlier in the evening. I still moved on to the H.L.V., the darker brother of the IPA. I felt like this beer was a little better as the dark malts obscured the likely use of adjuncts. The label says dark brown and this time it is to believed. A slightly more pleasant aroma with this one, that fades quickly. The hop bitterness seems a little more for real this time, but I'm still not impressed, even for two-dollar price point. Tastes like a hoppy version of on of my all time favorite Huber Bock (another Minhas brew, but not sold at Trader Joe's.) That said, I think I'd rather pass these beers up and spend an extra buck on a bottle of Charles Shaw.