Big Bear

Pabst Brewing Company
Brewed at Miller Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Malt Liquor
Woodridge, Illinois USA

Serve in Lager glass, Paper Bag, Shaker

Got this from a neighbor, and was completely unimpressed. Another shitty malt liquor with big alcohol and not much else. Pass on this.

I like the label. Unfortunately, it’s usually covered by the brown paper bag of its normal clientel. This nasty, metallic flavored 40-ouncer is the kind of drink that gives malt beverages a bad name.

Immediately thought of Mike when I saw this, so I had to pick it up in his honor. I can only guess this is 40 ounces of malt liquor nirvana. Straw color with a thin lid of white bubbles. Some pale and lightly toasted malt, green beans and hint of herbal hops. I have certainly smelt brews that are much worse. Sweet start with some corn syrup and hints of grain. Fairly fizzy feel, but I can only imagine what a sticky mess this stuff might be if it were to warm-up. I’m certain, this will only rise a few degrees prior to hitting the drain. Grain continues into the middle. Finish has a light alcohol and some metal. Finish is quite metallic as well. Quite not good, but far from some of the worst out there.

Fine then, as a joke (I think) a friend bought me a bottle of this. So here we go as the beer pours into my pint glass showing a clean golden hue and a lasting frothy head and even some lace. The aroma has notes of CORN and CABBAGE with a lovely fusel alcohol wrath. The taste is not any fricken better with a gosh awful DMS sweetness and lovely plastic medicinal phenolic mess. I almost barfed but kept it in check. Worse is that the one aspect of this thing that tastes like beer is a lot of sweet malt which sadly dominates the after taste. Well the mouth feel is fizzy. Taking one for the team I some how finished my pint glass. This is one big BAD bear, I am so ashamed.

A former Pabst/Hamm’s brand still available at Discount Liquors in Waukesha, WI. From a 40-oz screw top bottle pours a clear golden light amber colored brew with a fast dissolving white head that dissipates clean. Aroma of sweet corn, a hint of caramel and green vegetables. Taste is medium bodied, flavors of caramel, corn, and honey. Finish is quite gritty with some grain alcohol and corn aftertaste that quickly disappears. What to do with the remaining 39 ounces of this? Do I use it for bratwurst marinade? Use it has hair shampoo? Feed it to the cat? Nope, drain pour it back to the St Paul Sewage Department.

This was God aweful (is there any malt liquor that isn’t?). It was only redeemed by the circumstance under which it was consumed: Tyler Durden and I filled our go-cups with this and headed out onto Whyte Avenue after the Oilers beat Anaheim to win the Western Conference and advance to the Stanley Cup final. A perfect nasty-ass beer for the occasion!

ChineseHercules brought a big bottle as a "bonus" to a tasting. Label said it was brewed by Silver Creek in La Crosse WI. Pours a good head. Lasting skiff. Gold beer. Almost no aroma, just a burn in the sinus. Plenty of sweetness. Soupy palate. Each sip makes me shudder. Hate to think what it tastes like warm.

40oz bottle from some store in the middle of nowhere Michigan, consumed out of a paper bag in the backseat of a car on 6/2/06. Deeply golden, with strong amber tints, really speaking to the heavy amount of corn syrup in it. Though I did not decant it, the head foamed up quite nicely in the bottle, very white and fluffy, with fair retention (no lacing). Ahem....The nose is a stale barley aroma, much like budweiser, without any note of hops. Highly cerealic graininess, though mushy and doused in corn syrup. Some very light crisp lager yeast notes are slighly redeeming. DMS is heavy from the outset though, with light rancid cabbage and huge amounts of black/white pepper. Sweetness, however, does not overwhelm, dosent have that typical medicinal/cough syrupiness. The flavor, at first, seems passable for a malt liquor, with a decent amount of real malt flavor, certainly bolstered by some biproducts of corn syrup fermentation, which, while not exactly pleasant, are acceptable for the style (plastic, light powderiness and vanilla). Everything goes right out the window, however, when you arrive at the finish, which is just a mouthfull of boiled yams, cabbage and stale, rancid corn. Huge DMS, alcohol and plastic, with a light stinging sensation makes you sorry that you ever took a sip. Just hugely chemical in nature and truly disgusting. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated, though less syrupy than many. Still, plenty of sugars make it through.