Green Valley Brewing Wild Hop Lager

Brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev
Style: Premium Lager
St. Louis, Missouri USA

Green Valley Brewing Co., my hairy buttocks! Fortunately, I read my The LoSBD colleague frankenkitty’s review and was forewarned that it was yet another A-B brew in disguise. I was able to pick up a single bottle at the Wild Oats Market in Hinsdale, IL, or I wouldn’t be trying it yet.

There’s nothing particularly wild or hoppy about this (Premium?) lager. The aroma has light malts, a touch of corn syrup, and a tame grassy hopping. Nice carbonation, but even that won’t cut the sugary coating left on the tongue. Sweet malt, sugar, and a metallic bitterness make up the flavor.

Dark golden color with a smallish off-white head. Lightly floral hops with a heavy malt and grain aroma, somewhat like a heavy euro strong or decent malt liquor. Sweet floral hops mix with sweet malt and touch of corn in the flavors. Fairly full in feel, yet some watery parts. A sweeter, heavier lager.

Bottle: Pale orange color, light head and lacing. Nose of light hop and dry malt, a bit of citrusy notes. The flavor is a bit malty, semi-sweet and a bit acrid with some dry bitterness. The finish is weak. A fairly hoppy lager, but only in the taste and smell, no bitterness to speak of. Looks like AB pulled a fast one on me.

Bottle from Party Source. Poured clear amber with an average frothy white head that diminished slowly with good lacing. Light balanced aroma. Light to medium body. Light bitter flavor with a light smooth bitter finish of short duration.

Bottle from Pat’s. Coppery ruby color with frothy off-white head. Aroma of caramel malt, hops, slight cabernet-like fruits. Medium to light palate heft, with flavors of caramel malt, slight hops, and some slight red grapes. Not bad, but there are just too mant great hop beers around to have this again.

Bottle. Head is initially small, fizzy/frothy, white, mostly diminishing. Body is clear dark yellow. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain, husks), lightly to moderately hoppy (grapefruit, apricot), with a light note of DMS. Flavor is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately bitter, slightly grainy. Light to medium body, watery texture, lively/fizzy carbonation. Somewhat grainy in aroma and aftertaste, but there is certainly hop aroma and bitterness to make this acceptable. Methinks most raters will judge this book by its macro inner cover (within the pseudo-micro outer cover), rather than by its contents.

12 oz bottle from Blue Max in Burnsville, MN (Oct 2006) consumed a bit above fridge temperature from a Corsendonk glass. They did a good job of hiding the macro ownership of this beer; I didn’t know until I opened this page that it was a Bud "premium" product, so I’m going to try to taste it as if I didn’t know that......pours fairly nicely, with a big frothy near-white head atop the bubbly, brassy body which at first glance seems a touch cloudy but no, it’s just the bubbling, it gets quite clear and thin-appearing after 5 minutes....aroma of faint rather cooked smelling hops, light pale malt, a bit worty....sweetish on the tongue, faint grapy sourness, pretty dull though a touch of smoky/toasty character shows up near the end....moderate to full body, light fizzy carbonation, dry finish. Probably the best beer I’ve had from these guys.

Light non-citrus hop aroma, along with a light malt. Not a lot there. Light amber color with a respectable white head that does not last long. First impression is of carbonation, mouthfeel is decent, lightly sweet, but there is a bitter balance along the back edges of the tongue. Decently drinkable, especially in comparison with A-B’s main event.