Big Flats 1901 Lager

For my first beer to drink and review, I happened to choose the cheapest that I have ever seen! Walgreens recently started selling beer and wine and I happened to see a six pack of beer for $2.99, which I couldn’t pass up. It is apparently the Walgreens brand beer.

Big Flats 1901 Lager is brewed by Genesee Brewing Company from Rochester, NY. and it is officially an American Adjunct Lager (think of most cheap American beers and they probably fit into this category, with some exceptions). Anyone that knows anything about beer and is approaching this can, would be right to have reservations about its quality. Lets explore it together…..

Look - It poured a nice honey color with a finger width of white foamy head that dissipated VERY quickly. A good amount of carbonation bubbling from the bottom of the glass.

Smell – It had a somewhat sweet smell at first, starchy smell eventually. Definitely has the typical American Adjunct Lager smell to it (those of you who have smelled Miller, Coors, Bud, etc. would definitely recognize the smell). Not many important notes in this category.

Drinkability – It was a very easily drinkable beer of course. Finishing the whole sixer took very little time.

Taste – The very first drink was very surprising. It was flavorful, with hints of fruit, a very slight hopiness, and a very mild malt flavor. With each subsequent drink however, the tongue grew accustomed to the taste because of the beers severe lack of complexity. I was enjoying a tuna sandwich at the time and if anything, the tuna just accentuated the metallic taste of the beer. While eating chocolate, however, the beer provided a nice variance from the complexity and richness of chocolate. The simplicity of the beer is a nice compliment to foods with complexity in their flavors (it will be interesting to see if that is the case with other adjunct lagers).

The can has a proud slogan of, “It’s the water that makes it.” As most beer drinkers would agree, these adjunct lagers are very watery to begin with, so that statement is of course true. They seem to be proud of what is most likely the New York tap water that goes into this beer.

Conclusions: Drink while eating a complex food like chocolate. The more you can keep your taste buds guessing, the better the beer will be. The beer did make the movie, “The Other Guys” a little bit funnier than it already was as well.

For $2.99 for six beers, if you can stand to drink poorly made beer, I don’t think you’ll get a better value.

Subscribe! More beers to follow. Any suggestions and comments are more than welcome!