Carling Black Label

Brewed by Molson Breweries (MolsonCoors)
Style: Pale Lager
Montreal, Canada

Heileman’s can. Ok, I must be the only non-hater of this beer. I actually thought it was pretty good and would consider buying a case to go camping with. Pours to a filtered pale yellow body with lots of visible carbonation and a tall, lasting frothy starch white head. The aroma has that corn and husky lager aroma with slight specialty malts and light floral hops. The flavor is actually not bad for a suspected premium lager. Corn flakes are crisp and it has a clean lager flavor. Very smooth flavor with no hints of nasties. The palate is medium-light bodied with a nice crispness and lingering mouth-watering feel. Nice simple hop bitterness. Surprising! I gave it a bunch of bonus points.

Can: Honey and corn nose, but also a little like ass. Yellow color, thin vanishing head. Slight corn taste. Surprising rose hip finish. Better than expected but still pretty cheap.

This pretty much tastes like "beer" I realize that in this particular forum that is a pretty silly observation. Also considering I drank stout before I ever drank "normal" bee, it’s hard for me to really call a light lager a definitive sort of "beer" but growing up in the midwest this is what beer smelled like, looked like, and tasted like when I took my first sip in the 80’s dry, watery, a little corny, & crisp. That being said this is a particularly refreshing beer for the style and I thouroughly enjoy it. Perhaps not in any sort of exciting or fulfilling way. But dammit, I like it and that’s my final word. Oh and on a sidenote my wife thinks this beer "Tastes like velvet" whatever that means I’ll say it sounds pretty good.

2008-03-08. Golden yellow body with a small white head. Muted grainy aroma, light industrial yeast notes. Similar flavour - bland, pale malts, muddled, with barely there bitterness. Average to thin palate. The highlight of this beer was getting me to stick around O’Neill’s long enough to catch the tail end of the Scotland-England rugby match on the telly. A lone Scottish supporter’s cheers stuck out amongst the long faces of the predominantly English crowd. I admire his gumption! An interesting way to finish my Belgium trip - with a crappy industrial "English" lager, listed under a Canadian brewer on Ratebeer, at the airport in London. It’s almost as if the rugby and gift shops full of Dairy Milk have designs on my future travel plans. We shall see...
On tap at O’Neill’s, Heathrow Terminal 3, London

Reviewer’s Note: 5.5% Produced by Heileman’s and since contract brewed by Miller. Not sure how this can be the same beer, but obviously the admins know better.

Pale straw color with a wispy, slowly dissipating white head and some lace. Mild grain with hints of white grape syrup and corn syrup and touch of floral hops. I almost gave it a 3 but I really can not smell any malt in this one. Thin and spritzy. Light grainy start with a rice over corn type taste. Touch of herbal hops helps bring in the sweeter flavors. LIght acidic finish and linger. Not much here, a summer quencher perhaps, ie. lawn mower brew. Low marks in the taste more for a lack of anything, than for anything really objectionable.

I pick this up in Western Massachusetts from time to time at $9.99 for a 30 pack of 12 fl. oz cans. This still comes in the traditional red and black label in the US version (nothing like the photo published here). Pours golden yellow with a lot of carbonation. The last time I actually drank it was in the fall of 2006. Goes over big at parties because we can’t get it in New Hampshire and everyone knows it and reminisces about it. Plus it is a nice deviation from the big three macros B-M-C. And you can pound them down. As for the flavor...nothing extraordinary, slightly hopped, crisp but bit watered down.

Pretty much defines a bland American macro. Pale yellow color, husky aroma and adjuncty tate. Not entirely offensive as it could suffice as an outdoor summer beer, but pretty bland.

I am rating the version brewed in the U.S. back in the 1950s and 60s. "Hey Mabel, bring me a Black Label!" or so the jingle went in the 50s. A big flavored beer compared to most American brews of that era possibly due to its’ Canadian origins. We coud not get Canadian beers in those days at least not out West. So many were brewed under contract in the U.S. I can’t recall who brewed the domestic version, maybe Lucky Lager, Ranier, or Olympia are some likely suspects. Have never had the Molson version but would probably try one if I can purchase a single sometime.