studentofbeer
01-10-2005, 05:07 PM
trader joes has a new line of self branded "craft" beer brewed by "Trader Joes Brewing Co." in San Jose. Speculation on BA is that it is being brewed by Gordon Biersch there. I've never really loved their beers, but bought one of each of the TJ's brews just to give it a try. They are selling the beers for $4.99 a sixer. This is the lineup:
Bohemian Lager, 5.0%
Bavarian Style Hefeweizen, 5.3%
Vienna Style Lager, 5.7%
Hofbrau Bock, 7.0%
The Bohemian lager checks (czechs? :-p) in at 5% abv. It pours a golden honey color, more similar to PU than Spaten premium, as it probably should be.
Nose is is right on-- sulfer and sweet malt. I'm finishing up a cold so my senses aren't super acute.
No real head to speak of, but could be my fault as I reused a glass out of lazyness.
taste-- first thing i notice is, where's the carbonation? Drinking the Spaten (which i get for $6 a sixer at TJs) and even PU, there is a pretty biting carbonation that I really enjoy. I know beers like budvar are on the softer side, but i expected a bit more carbonation bite.
The next sensation is a a flat, sweet malt, but unfortunately that recedes quite quickly and you don't get too much malt flavor. What you do get is a flabby, almost skunky aftertaste where beautiful, crisp saaz hops should be.
after the first sip i almost dumped it down the drain. i held onto it for a bit longer to take a few more sips for the review, but this one just isn't that great. a step up from bud, a bit too close to heineken for my liking. it's not 100% skunk aftertaste like heineken, but the bit of hop flavor definitely seems to be fighting against it.
Strike 1 for this brew. Not really worth drinking in my opinion. Not completely offensive, but I'd rather spend the extra buck and get a good lager at TJs. Good thing this was just a single. I'll dive into the other three at some point to see if any are worth the effort. I just wish my TJs would bring back Old Rasputin at 4 for $6. That was so great. I could forgive them the rest of their semi-crappy beer if they had that and kept the $6 spaten premium and franziskaner hefeweizen.
Bohemian Lager, 5.0%
Bavarian Style Hefeweizen, 5.3%
Vienna Style Lager, 5.7%
Hofbrau Bock, 7.0%
The Bohemian lager checks (czechs? :-p) in at 5% abv. It pours a golden honey color, more similar to PU than Spaten premium, as it probably should be.
Nose is is right on-- sulfer and sweet malt. I'm finishing up a cold so my senses aren't super acute.
No real head to speak of, but could be my fault as I reused a glass out of lazyness.
taste-- first thing i notice is, where's the carbonation? Drinking the Spaten (which i get for $6 a sixer at TJs) and even PU, there is a pretty biting carbonation that I really enjoy. I know beers like budvar are on the softer side, but i expected a bit more carbonation bite.
The next sensation is a a flat, sweet malt, but unfortunately that recedes quite quickly and you don't get too much malt flavor. What you do get is a flabby, almost skunky aftertaste where beautiful, crisp saaz hops should be.
after the first sip i almost dumped it down the drain. i held onto it for a bit longer to take a few more sips for the review, but this one just isn't that great. a step up from bud, a bit too close to heineken for my liking. it's not 100% skunk aftertaste like heineken, but the bit of hop flavor definitely seems to be fighting against it.
Strike 1 for this brew. Not really worth drinking in my opinion. Not completely offensive, but I'd rather spend the extra buck and get a good lager at TJs. Good thing this was just a single. I'll dive into the other three at some point to see if any are worth the effort. I just wish my TJs would bring back Old Rasputin at 4 for $6. That was so great. I could forgive them the rest of their semi-crappy beer if they had that and kept the $6 spaten premium and franziskaner hefeweizen.