Moosehead Lager

Some of my early recollections about defining the branding of beer, once I got past the many macro brewery sponsorships of NFL games and things like that, were of Moosehead. This was the first kind of beer that I had heard of that was not directly from some massive US company that produced relatively watery lagers. In my ignorance, I imagined them as some plucky upstart that was trying to battle the likes of Budweiser and Coors. I have not had one of these in several decades. I don't remember if they were any good.

The beer pours a nice, clear gold with a white head of small bubbles that dissipates to an incomplete ring around the sides with scattered bubbles across the top. What struck me as soon as I opened this beer with the aroma, and it smells a bit skunked. I immediately went and looked on the label, and if I am to discern the weird numbers that they put on it, this should be good until... 2030? That can't possibly be right. I don't know what this number is supposed to indicate. There is a D121 above that that might indicate that it was December 1 of 2021 when it was made, and that would be less than four months from the time that I am writing this review. Beer should be shelf stable for that long. I think I smell a sweet malt underneath that skunk, and maybe this is just the aroma the beer is supposed to have.

First sip isn't bad once you get past that smell, but the smell is really starting to overwhelm. For some reason, it's not showing up in the taste, but it makes me want to not drink this beer. In fact, I think I've only ever made this decision on coffee beers in the past, but I'm gonna go ahead and end this review. This beer is skunked and isn't a good representation of what Moosehead is supposed to be. That said, I'm probably not going to try it again. Them not putting a clear born on or expiration date on their bottle means that I can't trust this.

Bottom Line: Failure to manage stock is failure to make beer.

0.0/5