Michelob Pale Ale

Posted on 10.06.09 8:58PM under Tasting

You might assume that by the nature of this blog and the name of the post that there’s about to be a hateful rant going on here. Like how can this giant behemoth of a “brewer” dare to make a “pale ale”.

WRONG.

Last week at Oktoberfest at the Beach in New London, CT, I had the privilege of managing the server education for the Levine tables. For those of you not from Southeastern CT and/or not that close with the three-tiered system in our fine state, Levine is the Anheuser-Busch/InBev distributor for us.

We had Michelob (Pale Ale and Amber Bock), Newport Storm (Atlantic Amber and Oktoberfest), Long Trail (Regular, Double Bag, IPA, and Harvest), Red Hook (Longhammer and Late Harvest), Widmer (Slim Chance, Drifter, and Drop Top), Kona (Mocha Porter), Blue Point (Toasted Lager, Hoptical Illusion, and Blueberry Ale), Jack’s Pumpkin Spice, Wild Blue, and Bud Light Golden Wheat.

In this group there are a lot of beers I’d never had before. Gotta love beer festivals!

There were several beers that lived up to my high expectations: Kona (incredibly smooth coffee flavor) and Drop Top (like a less bitter and slightly darker Drifter) were welcome additions to my ticker pad.

There were many surprisingly good beers in the batch: honorable mention to Slim Chance (IMO better than Sam Adams Light) and Bud Light Golden Wheat (actually tastes like beer) stick out in my mind.

But the big winner of the night, especially in terms of surprise factor, was Michelob Pale Ale. This beer retails for like $6 a six-pack, making it a lot cheaper than your run-of-the-mill $10 Sam Adams sixer. I was expecting pure rubbish. I figured I’d be tasting a flat, warm Bud left out in the sun for two hours. Imagine my delight when I found a clean crisp aroma greeting me as I brought the tiny plastic sample cup to my eager face!

Suddenly I took a moment to perceive the finer aspects of the beer: crystal clear, nice pale color, decently sustained head. Then I delved into the real experience. I took a sip. I think I must have literally pulled my head back from the little cup in astonishment as the carbonated malt beverage crossed my lips, tongue, and mouth. This beer is damn well bitter. It is a clean crisp bitterness, with a delectable dryness throughout.

My immediate thought crime was that this beer is more appealing to me than Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Please do not drag me to Room 101 of the Ministry of Love for this thought. I swear, I love Sierra Nevada. But yet… this bargain bet Michelob is pretty good.

In the end, this subject requires a bit more field research. Perhaps a blind tasting among the more beer cognoscenti of my friends is in order. I wonder if I have any such friends… Maybe some of the guys at work would be cognoscenti enough…

The moral of my long and drawn out tale is pretty straightforward, and really nothing new:

Try beer you don’t think you will like. You could be surprised.

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