Heineken Lager - Heineken Nederland B.V.

    Heineken Lager is the original style of Heineken beers and is brewed in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands by Heineken Nederland B.V.. Brewed since 1873, Heineken Lager is likely one of the most recognizable beer brands in the world. I was extremely surprised to learn that, unlike our American macro-breweries, Heineken continues to brew without the use of adjuncts in their lager! That gives Heineken a step up in my mind over other macro-breweries for sure.

    Heineken pours the familiar straw-yellow of a Lager. Almost as many bubbles appear in the beer as when you pour a clear soda into a glass. A surprisingly thick 1/2 inch head of white foam caps the beer.

    The beer's aroma is very light, and consists mainly of grain scents without much else going on. There isn't really any perceptible hops scent in the nose.

Heineken from a Heiny-can.

    The Lager is very light bodied and almost watery. I'm surprised to find that there is a very light level of carbonation in the beer, especially after seeing all the bubbles upon pouring. I guess that initial rush of bubbles was all the carbonation escaping their aluminum prison. Heineken has a sessionable alcohol content of 5% ABV.

    Heineken Lager's flavor is mainly that of the light grains perceptible in the beer's aroma. The malts are actually quite sweet, however, and almost syrupy to the point of being highly unpleasant if you're drinking this after any hoppier beers. On its own, it's pretty drinkable and light. I'm thankful for the lack of sour corn adjunct flavors thanks to Heineken's philosophy of quality and just using pure barley malts. As the beer warms, a sort of skunky flavor begins to form, so drink it while it's cold!

    When I was little, the world was a different place. The cigarette smoking camel, two-pack-a-day manly cowboy, and many other mascots for adult items were free to advertise in media that kids were exposed to on a regular basis. As such, I saw a lot of beer commercials growing up, and I specifically remember Heineken as a brand that was advertised. Of course, as a youngster I had no previous experience with Dutch names and made the best of the name with words common in my own vocabulary. This is why I spent the majority of my childhood thinking that there was a beer called Heiny-kin. I had no idea why someone would advertise their product using a posterior, it seemed counter-productive. Obviously I hadn't learned that sex sells at that point either...

    While I'm super glad that Heineken avoids using adjuncts in their Lager, it's still just a plain, average Lager. While easy drinking, it's also somewhat boring drinking. You might choose this over your other macro-brews though, thanks to its faithful adherence to keeping barley the only grain in beer.

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Route 66 American Lager - Mustang Brewing Company

    Route 66 American Lager is an Lager brewed by the Mustang Brewing Company in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. According to the label, Mustang Brewing Company works to brew highly sessionable beers without skimping on the quality.

    The Lager pours a surprisingly dark color for a beer of its style. A small, white head forms at pouring, but quickly fades. No lacing is left by the seemingly thin beer.

  Route 66 smells mainly of grain. Bready malt with just a bit of sour corn scent make up the sweet smell. A tiny bit of hops fruitiness is almost hidden under the bready malt aroma.

    The beer has a light to medium body with a moderate level of carbonation. Surprisingly there isn't the normal wateriness seen in Lagers. The beer has an alcohol content of 5% ABV.

Aren't there laws against alcohol and driving? I know this is
at least an open container violation!

    Route 66 is very light on the tongue. Bready, pale malt flavors make up the majority of the beer's taste, with a bit of adjunct grain sourness. The sometimes unpleasant adjunct flavors are very mild. Mustang likely used fewer of these alternative grains than the bigger breweries tend to. There is an interesting spice to the beer, possibly due to the strain of yeast used in the Lager.

    Interestingly enough, after searching for this beer online to see if I could find the brewery's description of it, I realized that this is either an extremely new brew, or has been pulled from production. Even Mustang's website had no mention of the beer. I did, however, find another beer called "Route 66", so I wonder if there was a lawsuit against Mustang over copyrights or something similar. Either way, looks like I got my hands on a rare brew.

    Route 66 is a very drinkable Lager. There's nothing horribly wrong with the beer, but it certainly doesn't tread any new grounds. I'd like to see an all barley Lager, as adjunct grains just add unwanted flavors in my opinion. I guess it's a good thing that I didn't necessarily love this beer, as it may be unobtainable from now on.

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Florida Lager - Florida Beer Company

    Florida Lager is, unsurprisingly, a Lager created by Florida Beer Company which is located in Melbourne, Florida. Unfortunately, I used the majority of this beer in a beef roast recipe, so I only had a small taster left of the beer to review.

    The Lager pours a very clear, pale brown-amber color with lots of bubbles. There is a light head to the beer (though the picture was taken after it subsided). Really I'm impressed with the beer's color as Lagers tend to be a gross, pale straw color.

    The beer has a slight grainy malt scent with no perceptible hops presence. There really isn't much to say about the beer's aroma, it really comes off as mediocre.

    Florida Lager is light-bodied with a carbonation level that comes in at the high end of medium. The beer has a very weak mouthfeel overall. The Lager has an alcohol content of 5.1% ABV.

    Florida Beer Company's beer is lightly sweet. The light flavor of grainy malts is the only real noticable taste to the beer. There is a slight flavor of corn in the beer's aftertaste, suggesting some adjunct grains were used in brewing the beer. Overall a pretty boring beer as far as flavor goes.

    I find it interesting that this brewery is called the Florida Beer Company. It's as though they are the official beer makers of Florida. I wonder how other breweries in Florida feel about this title. Of course my imagination runs wild and I start thinking that maybe Florida Beer Company is some sort of evil empire that attempts to opress other breweries. If you ask me, it's time for these smaller breweries to combine their brew forces and stage a beer rebellion! I can see it now, one hundred smaller brewers, armed with bottlecap throwing stars, taking on the evil armies of the FBC.

    Florida Lager ends up being a pretty bland, mediocre Lager. This sort of beer is good for cooking, as hops tend to lend strange flavors to food when the grainy, maltyness of a beer is what you want out of cooking with beer. I wouldn't choose to drink Florida Lager for flavor, but it would be fine as a session beer.

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