Wild Blue

Rating: 5 out of 10

I saw this in a local store but waited till I could find it as a single after my experience with AB craft type beers.

Beer temp. 47.6F - 9.4C at 8% ABV. It poured a magenta-purple body with an 1 1/2 inch frothy head that I can only say was the color of a strawberry milkshake that dissipated quickly with fair head lacing. There was little carbonation and the body clarity had a dark, sparkling to normal look. The aromas were blueberry, cream, vanilla and (this one is kind of a stretch) pie (more on this later). The taste were the same all the way through. The initial flavors were moderate sweet and a light tart. The finish flavors were a harsh sweetness and a light tart. I could not find any bitterness from hops so must guess that there was little to none in it or were overpowered by the sweet. The mouthfeel was creamy, finish was short to medium and had a fair body lacing. On our malt to hop scale I gave it a 1 as I couldn't find any hop bitterness. Repeatable yes, drinkable yes, balance no, harmony so-so, memorable yes (more later) wow factor no, buy again yes.

I must admit I liked it. The lovely Mrs. Beer Love did too. This bad boy needs to be drunk pretty cold though. The sweet part gets a little annoying as it warms. This is more like a wine cooler than a beer which is right up Sister Beer Love's alley. In the Beer Love family about half of the birthday cakes were blueberry pie with Blue Bell (their motto: "We eat all we can and sell the rest") vanilla ice cream on top. How many blueberry pies ala mode have an 8% ABV? Huh! I must admit I gave it a bonus point for nostalgia and maybe a half for ABV.

By Dad on June 10, 2008 @ 5 PM with 2 Comments

Comments (2):

Not one for fruity beers but.....this is a great beer. 8%!!!! WWHHOOOOAAA!!!! I will drink more of this stuff in addition to my favorite Sam Adams choices. Glasses Up!!!

Posted by Dale on June 25, 2008 @ 1 PM

I searched and searched to try to figure out whether or not this was really an Anheuser-Busch beer. There's no mention of it on the bottle or the 6 pack - just a few blurbs that it's brewed and bottled by Blue Dawg Brewing in Baldwinsville, NY. We all know New York ain't Missouri, but further investigation led me to find the real story - Blue Dawg Brewing is a group within Anheuser-Busch that is responsible for marketing, selling and advertising Wild Blue.

It's a fairly smart approach - without doing some serious homework (Rate Beer and Beer Advocate both had it listed as an AB beer), the casual craft beer drinker will look at the bottle, find that it's not a mass market property and will probably be more inclined to buy it and try it. It's good branding 101 and a novel way to get us craft beer snobs to try something new. Even the Wild Blue web site (wildbluelager.com) has no mention of AB anywhere on it. It's a fun beer and AB may be honing in on the formula to hit the craft market full force.

Posted by John on July 7, 2008 @ 10 PM

Wild Blue

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