Beer Review #8: Labatt Wildcat Strong

Picked this one up as part of a special offer at the BC Liquor Store opposite waterfront. It was cheap, but I still think I might have been robbed.

It may be true that I was drawn to this beer because it had a picture of some mountain lion-y thing on the front and I like cats.

It may also be true that the SKY SPORTS ACTION NEWS style font made me associate this beer with getting drunk while something exciting is going on, rather than watching a re-run of mission impossible on a damp sunday evening.

And it may even be true that I held out a faint hope that it would make the Sex-Panther roar when I opened the can.

But none of these things can make up for what I find inside the can.

I've had reasonable experiences with this company before; Labatt's Blue is a bit of a staple out here in Canada and as an inoffensive lager it certainly gets the job done. While I'm naturally wary of extra-strong beers that aren't Belgian I thought I would give the Labatt's boys a break and see if they can impress me with WildCat.

On the pour it actually looks ok. Nice colour, plenty of carbonation and actually retains some head after the initial fizz dies down.

It doesn't have much of a smell - some sweet malt and corn but nothing especially offensive. Trouble is, there's nothing good going on either.

Taste is worse - there's the same lack of any kind of flavour but it's got a rank metal aftertaste that doesn't hit for about 4 seconds, then hangs around for far too long. The aftertaste would be bearable if there's was some during-taste to make up for it, but there's not much of anything going on here.

The brewers are very keen to boast that WildCat contains 'No Additives'. Frankly, if people are drinking 6.1% beer they probably aren't doing it for the health benefits, and if chucking a shitload of E-Numbers, artificial flavourings or asbestos powder into this stuff would improve the flavour (or at least get rid of that sodding aftertaste, which is still with me as I type this, a good 30 seconds after my last sip) then I say go for it!

This beer has low price and high ABV content going for it if that's your thing. If not, avoid, avoid, avoid!

Verdict: 3/10

Beer Review #6: Rising Sun Pale Ale

Turned this up at the BC Liquor Store on Cambie. I've crossed Japan off my list for the Beers Around the World Challenge months ago (Ah, for the days when a simple bottle of Kirin Ichiban could still get my heart racing. It was a simpler time, was March of 2011) but this is something I've never heard of before.

The label tells me it's from Baird's brewery and from the name 'Rising Sun' I make the assumption that it's Japanese. I'm slightly concerned that thinking like that might be racist.

The rest of the bottle doesn't give me any clues - there's plenty of writing on the back but it's all in some kind of crazy foreign script that could be a desperate plea for help from a slave labourer in the bottling plant for all I know. Some light googling later and my suspicions are confirmed - Baird's is a brewery in Japan , there's no mention of slave labour being used in their factories and I'm probably not racist for not recognising Japanese script.

There's some cool artwork happening on the label. The red sun brings back childhood memories of beating the shit out of E-Honda on Street Fighter, the whole thing has got a lot of colour and Baird have got their craft-beer bases covered with a customised bottle cap with a picture of some barley on it. I've got high hopes for this one.

I’m a little concerned on the pour - Rising Sun doesn’t look as delicious as I was hoping. There’s some yeasty cloudiness and some specs of sediment floating about.

But lo and behold, it smells great! Piney and grassy with some fruity hop smells in there as well. There’s less of the fruit and more of the pine when it hits the mouth but there’s still some citrus going on there too. There’s a bitterness on the finish which might scare off some drinkers but, frankly, they’d be wrong and I hate them. It tastes awesome.

Since I haven’t learned to read Japanese between starting this article and writing this sentence I’ve no idea what strength this stuff is, but based on taste I’d put it around 5%. The only drawback for rising sun is price; this bottle was 360ml and set me back $7. It’s bloody delicious but I couldn’t justify this as anything other than a one off treat.

Verdict: 8/10