Beer of the Weekend #251: Pabst Blue Ribbon
As promised, tonight I begin the Great Adjunct Adventure. Where will it take me? To places I have never been, places I have been but do not care to return to, and places I have never dared go. Also, to places I go often, like tonight.
I am starting the GAA with my steady base lager, the one beer I always keep in the fridge. It is almost family to me since I have known it so long: Pabst Blue Ribbon, brewed by the Pabst Brewing Company of Woodridge, Illinois.
That’s right, folks: Pabst is based in suburban Chicago — not Milwaukee as the label suggests. (It’s only claim for Milwaukee residency is a PO Box. If I’m not mistaken, any American can get a PO Box in Milwaukee.) Pabst has not been based in Milwaukee probably since 1997, when the iconic brewery closed. After leaving Milwaukee, Pabst settled in San Antonio, and from there it moved to Woodridge. In fact, it was announced in May that Pabst will be relocating once again to Los Angeles (probably because Illinois got real on corporate taxes).
According to Mervgotti, whose family has distributed PBR in the Iowa City area for three generations, Pabst does not even have its own brewery. The company’s products — which include such iconic brands as Blatz, Schlitz, Old Style, and Lone Star — are brewed on contract by beer conglomerate SABMiller. The stuff we get in IC is usually brewed in Indianapolis. In recent years, the beer has been adopted by hipsters as an anti-corporate, anti-commercial alternative to Budmilloors, but Pabst’s history is just as profit-centered as the big boys touting the technical advances of their bottles and labels. Read all about the irony in this Adbuster’s blog post: http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/blackspot_blog/cheap_beer.html.
However, you cannot blame hipsters for drinking PBR: it is good lager. On to the tasting.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The date printed on the shoulder of the bottle is “AUG0111.” That is the half-life date. More than likely, that is three months after bottling and three months before it begins losing its Pabst-ness.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pilsner glass. The color is straw leaning toward gold. One finger of white head dissipated very quickly to leave a thin nebula shaped film in the center and a ring around the edge.
Smell: I cannot say I have ever taken the time to really study PBR, so here we go. Lightly (very lightly) toasted grains, a little barnyard hay, and corn. It also exhibits a hint of strawberry-perfumed-hair-burning-on-a-curling-iron.
Taste: The mouthfeel is crisp and clean. It has a nice, though slight, bite — one you would associate with a higher end adjunct. (Golly, Wilbur! There may actually be a few hops in there!). The flavors mostly mirror the scents: grains (though the light toast is absent), a little hay, and corn. Just as the smell, the taste also has a hint of strawberry-perfumed-hair-burning-on-a-curling-iron.
Drinkability: I like PBR, but it is what it is: an adjunct. There is nothing really special about it; it is just another mass produced, cost efficient American lager. But it is one of the better ones.
Fun facts about PBR:
-Style: PBR calls itself “American Style Premium Lager,” but BA classifies it as “American Adjunct Lager.” Here’s the skinny:
Flattering description, huh?
-Price: $4.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 35-40ºF.
-Alcohol content: 4.74 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Just fire up the grill, start drinking, and I am sure whatever you cook will go well with it.
-Calories: 144 (probably per 12 ounces).
-Here is some nerdiness from the PBR website:
Corn syrup, huh?
-Personally, I prefer to drink my PBR out of the bottle. You’re not supposed to do that, but I like to anyway. Tonight’s sampling took me a little out of my element, but whatever.
-The use of “PBR” is probably ubiquitous, but on the east coast it is also commonly called “Peebers.” I like “Peebers.”
-PBR me, ASAP. You’re the only one for me. (Not.) (That was probably the last radio commercial slogan ever run for PBR. It played a lot in Iowa City, and its catchy jingle has etched itself in my mind. When Mervgotti first told me his dad distributed PBR, I knew exactly what he was talking about. “P-B-R me, A-S-A-P? That beer?” I asked. Yep. That beer.)
The Quiet Man’s grade: C+.
I am starting the GAA with my steady base lager, the one beer I always keep in the fridge. It is almost family to me since I have known it so long: Pabst Blue Ribbon, brewed by the Pabst Brewing Company of Woodridge, Illinois.
That’s right, folks: Pabst is based in suburban Chicago — not Milwaukee as the label suggests. (It’s only claim for Milwaukee residency is a PO Box. If I’m not mistaken, any American can get a PO Box in Milwaukee.) Pabst has not been based in Milwaukee probably since 1997, when the iconic brewery closed. After leaving Milwaukee, Pabst settled in San Antonio, and from there it moved to Woodridge. In fact, it was announced in May that Pabst will be relocating once again to Los Angeles (probably because Illinois got real on corporate taxes).
According to Mervgotti, whose family has distributed PBR in the Iowa City area for three generations, Pabst does not even have its own brewery. The company’s products — which include such iconic brands as Blatz, Schlitz, Old Style, and Lone Star — are brewed on contract by beer conglomerate SABMiller. The stuff we get in IC is usually brewed in Indianapolis. In recent years, the beer has been adopted by hipsters as an anti-corporate, anti-commercial alternative to Budmilloors, but Pabst’s history is just as profit-centered as the big boys touting the technical advances of their bottles and labels. Read all about the irony in this Adbuster’s blog post: http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/blackspot_blog/cheap_beer.html.
However, you cannot blame hipsters for drinking PBR: it is good lager. On to the tasting.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The date printed on the shoulder of the bottle is “AUG0111.” That is the half-life date. More than likely, that is three months after bottling and three months before it begins losing its Pabst-ness.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pilsner glass. The color is straw leaning toward gold. One finger of white head dissipated very quickly to leave a thin nebula shaped film in the center and a ring around the edge.
Smell: I cannot say I have ever taken the time to really study PBR, so here we go. Lightly (very lightly) toasted grains, a little barnyard hay, and corn. It also exhibits a hint of strawberry-perfumed-hair-burning-on-a-curling-iron.
Taste: The mouthfeel is crisp and clean. It has a nice, though slight, bite — one you would associate with a higher end adjunct. (Golly, Wilbur! There may actually be a few hops in there!). The flavors mostly mirror the scents: grains (though the light toast is absent), a little hay, and corn. Just as the smell, the taste also has a hint of strawberry-perfumed-hair-burning-on-a-curling-iron.
Drinkability: I like PBR, but it is what it is: an adjunct. There is nothing really special about it; it is just another mass produced, cost efficient American lager. But it is one of the better ones.
Fun facts about PBR:
-Style: PBR calls itself “American Style Premium Lager,” but BA classifies it as “American Adjunct Lager.” Here’s the skinny:
Light bodied, pale, fizzy lagers made popular by the large macro-breweries (large breweries) of America after prohibition. Low bitterness, thin malts, and moderate alcohol. Focus is less on flavor and more on mass-production and consumption, cutting flavor and sometimes costs with adjunct cereal grains, like rice and corn.
Flattering description, huh?
-Price: $4.99/sixer at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.
-Serving temperature: 35-40ºF.
-Alcohol content: 4.74 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Just fire up the grill, start drinking, and I am sure whatever you cook will go well with it.
-Calories: 144 (probably per 12 ounces).
-Here is some nerdiness from the PBR website:
Pabst Blue Ribbon is a premium lager brew crafted with a hefty infusion of 6-row barley in its ingredient package, a carefully balanced carbohydrate profile from corn syrup, and a unique combination of Pacific domestic hops blended with an imported Yugoslavian variety. Fermented with a pure culture of yeast and aged at high gravity, PBR is cellared and finished to the smooth, robust likeness of a fine Pilsner.
Corn syrup, huh?
-Personally, I prefer to drink my PBR out of the bottle. You’re not supposed to do that, but I like to anyway. Tonight’s sampling took me a little out of my element, but whatever.
-The use of “PBR” is probably ubiquitous, but on the east coast it is also commonly called “Peebers.” I like “Peebers.”
-PBR me, ASAP. You’re the only one for me. (Not.) (That was probably the last radio commercial slogan ever run for PBR. It played a lot in Iowa City, and its catchy jingle has etched itself in my mind. When Mervgotti first told me his dad distributed PBR, I knew exactly what he was talking about. “P-B-R me, A-S-A-P? That beer?” I asked. Yep. That beer.)
The Quiet Man’s grade: C+.
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