Hamms

Brewed by Miller Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Pale Lager
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Lager glass, Shaker

UPDATED: JAN 17, 2008 A classic cheap beer. Only tastes good if served at ice cold temperatures, flavor is watery and not great. However this is one of the cheapest beers around, a 12 pack in central WI averages about $5.50. This is also the trademark of the Elbow Room bar in Stevens Point where it’s always dollar hamms.

From a can and poured into a lager glass. A pale gold color with a large white head. The aroma is light moss in a pond with some carrots. The taste is slightly sour celery with some hints of sugary sweetness. Nice and light and not offensive in the taste.

UPDATED: APR 14, 2005 Opening the hunting camp in the fall is a magical experience: the musty smell, the Hamm’s signs dusted with cobwebs, the brisk autumn air...The leaves crunch under my feet as my worries disappear in that Upper Michigan wilderness. An owl can be heard in the distance. Back at camp, the sauna and barbeque get lit, and a cooler of Hamm’s and ice takes center stage. The sun goes down, and coyotes howl at the full moon. I climb into my down sleeping bag, gullet full of Hamm’s. I wake up and have Hamm’s and eggs for breakfast. The road hunt is on, with good cigars, hardroll sandwiches, Waylon Jennings on 8-track, and plenty of ice cold Hamm’s.

Nothing screams "I am a broke college student" or a tired custodian coming home from a rought day of work than Hamm’s. It is watery and is almost as devoid of flavor as Coors Light. Should only be consumed as a last resort.

After checking my records, it has been some ten years since I have had a Hamm’s. The beer spews from the 12-ounce aluminum can a cloudless gold with a pleasant bright white head that is frothy in texture, with the resultant lace a thin covering upon the glass. Nose is all malt, crisp and the start sweet with the top cadaverous. Finish is caustic in its acidity, the hops bitter and unpleasant, quite dry and the taste sticks to your palate like crazy glue, a once decent beer that has now become a joke.

My in-laws had this one because they saw it in the store and just "had to get it." Like it’s Dark Lord or something. Regardless... my rating. From the can. Steel, light, yeasty, pale lager aroma that takes some effort to sniff from this clear yellow carbonation bomb. Taste is metallic, over carbonated and weak. Some lighter malts gives this what body it has. Maybe something to have on hand for drunken softball games of yore, but I don’t know if I’d even go that far.

This is the first beer i ever had. So it has special meaning. But not alot of flavor. Good for memories.

Not nearly as bad as most of the ratings here suggest, Hamms is an old standby of many far-north huting cabins, duck blinds and ice-fishing shacks, and for good reason. If you haven’t spent a lot of time and money honing and refining your taste for craft-brewed beers, this brew is every bit as good (and bad) as bud or miller, and at half the price. Nary a better beer was made for mowing the lawn, drinking at a picnic (provided it’s provided free of charge), or drinking 24 beers when you only have $9.00. Not everyone can buy a $30 case of beer, and when you’re in the company of those who can’t, you can be proud to share a cold (hopefully tongue-numbingly cold) Hamms and a Bratwurst. You could definitely do worse.