Wild Blue Blueberry Lager

So… after an extremely dissappointing round of Utah beers, Ryan and I decided it was time to head up to the Idaho border (Franklin, ID to be exact), visit a very popular gas station there (La Tienda), and get us some real beer.  This gas station has to be one of the most popular in the state due to its 20 minute distance from Logan (less than a mile from the UT border) and its availability of real beer, wine, and lotter tickets every day of the week.  Actually, good article about this - HERE.

So, what was on the list?

• Wild Blue Blueberry Lager - 6 pack
• Wasatch - The Devastator - Single
• Samuel Adams Cream Stout - Single
• Coors 24oz @ 5% - Single

Of course, I have had some pretty good experiences with fruit flavored beers in the past little while… at least the Weizens have been good, so I figured blueberry lager would be a winner…. but boy was I wrong… Wild Blue Blueberry Lager has to be one of the sweetest beers ever created.  I mean this stuff is suh-weet.  Several comments from the tasting gallery as this one went around:

• “tastes like badly fermented cool-aid”
• “way, way, way too sweet”
• “tastes more like wine that beer”

Now, I know that this says they won a gold medal, but yet again I wonder if it was some small county fair or something… I mean, this stuff wasn’t very tasty.  So… what was wrong?  Specifically, I think it was the fact that they claim to use blueberry syrup.  I think that is the failure.  It makes it too sweet, so sweet in fact that it overpowers the beer taste and just tastes like high fructose corn syrup infused beer.  I was really expecting something like the Pyramid Apricot Weizen where you get just a hint of apricot but the beer is still beer…  overal not good…  only redeaming value, quite honestly, is the high alcohol content… if you can stomach it, it will get you drunk.

Update (4/3/08): Alright… since I bought it, I kept drinking it… and it started to grow on me.  If I started the night with this beer, things turned out much better than if I had standard brews first.  So, I am changing my rating as follows:

• First Beer of the Night JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road
• If you had a different beer first JBB6 Rating: Just Not Right