In case you haven’t been in the beer section of your local ale purveyor in the last couple of days, let me be the first to alert you that the seasonal beers have arrived. And while rushing the season with early in-store holiday decorations (I’m talkin’ to you, Cost Plus) can get me a little homicidal, somehow seeing a nice Deschutes Jubelale or a Widmer Snowplow in October gives me a warm feeling inside.
That is, until I read that Miller and Anheuser-Busch are rolling out their own versions of holiday-themed beers. With flavors like pumpkin ale and vanilla-flavored bourbon ale (not to mention chocolate stout), it sounds like the beer-making elves at big brewers have been inspired by a trip to the ice cream shop.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not averse to a flavored beer now and then (I developed an expensive passion for Lindemans Pêche this summer), but I worry that Miller’s and Anheuser-Busch’s move toward flavoring their beers is just another step down the road to the complete Starbucks-ization of our culture, as beverages get sweeter and sweeter until we all end up drinking pure high-fructose corn syrup.
Vanilla bourbon ale sounds good enough to make my tongue wag, but something tells me that if The King of Sleazy Beers is behind it, we can forget the thoroughly scraped vanilla pods and expect copious amounts of vanillin and “oak mist” to flavor our brew. Fingers crossed that Oregon’s Rogue brewery picks up the trend and delivers the real thing.
I’ve tried the Anheuser-Busch pumpkin ale, and just as suspected, it was a syrupy concoction that tasted like a pumpkin pie wine cooler rather than a subtly flavored brew. Just plain awful is the best description I can give, it was flat, sugary and extremely dissapointing.
I know someone who owns a brewery and has a conspiracy theory that all the big players (Budweiser, Miller, Etc.) are going to make all of these seasonal brews and make them taste horrible so that main stream beer consumers that finally branch out into trying these beers will hate them and never try another “craft beer” again.
However…he was really drunk when he relayed this theory.
Wow! That’s a great theory. It’s just creepy enough to be true …
I’ve been obsessed with Brooklyn Brewery’s Post Road Pumpkin Ale for about six years. When I moved to CA, I couldn’t get it (they only distribute to the New England/New York area) and had to resort to drinking Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale at this time of year. It’s a pretty good stand-in for my original passion.
The pumpkin ale I drink is not remotely sweet and has wonderful hints of spices in the dark brew. I am not even tempted to try the AB version.
Starbucks-ization….I like that. It’s sad, but accurate