Blatz

Draft at the OF. Hyper-filtered yellow-orange color. Patchy non-head with lots of CO2 bubbles underneath. Grainy and rough body. Finishes sugar water thin. Unoffensive at best, insipidly disgusting at worst. Slightly dry 6-row aftertaste.

Suprisingly I’ve never rated it, and just had it on tap again at the Crystal: Poured clear golden. Malty as hell with a huge white head. GRainy in every bit, not classy but grassy all the way through.

Gold with thin, fizzy white head / Light nose of grain, grass, and honey / LIght body, thin and watery, with minimal finish / Metallic flavor of old pipe water with hint of grain / Worst beer I’’ve ever had?

Courtesy of JMerritt. Color is one that you normally would not want to drink. Vibrant yellow, very clear with moderate carbonation and a thin white head. Aroma hits your nose as soon as the can is popped open, mild grainy and corn note with a grassy nops note. Flavor starts of with a slightly skunky note, sweet corn and malt. Density is low but flavors are crisp. Not the worst beer but definitely not my fav...and I normally don’t mind the "old man" beer. Guess they named this brew after the sound you make when you take a drink, "Blatz".

I am all for retro when it makes sense, but retro beer? I can see that being true if the beer was originally good in the first place, but some brews really shouldn’t be brought back no matter the amount of nostalgia it entails. We all know the saying, sepia-colored memories. Well, that sepia is so that our memories can hide behind false recollections of better times when, in actuality, they really weren’t as rosy as we would like to make them out to be. The same can be said of all the old beers of our father’s day. One in particular that I got to try recently was Blatz. Let’s just say that I am glad I didn’t have to grow up with only Blatz to satisfy my thirst.

My Blatz poured an unimpressively golden yellow into my glass with no head but plenty of bubbles screaming for freedom as they race to the top of my glass. I would want to escape too, if I was stuck in the middle of a sea of Blatz. A sickly nose of processed sweet corn wafts past before disappearing upon the wind. Closing my eyes, I brace myself for the first quaff. Watery, thin, and with hardly any flavor, but there is plenty of carbonation to compensate. A very faint hint of sweet corn makes a weak showing in his palate, but those too are washed away by his spritzy, seltzer-esque body. If I didn’t already know this was a beer, I would have figured someone gave me a glass of some out-dated cheap seltzer water. A few sips were all I needed, and the rest of the Blatz was willfully dumped onto the ground. Hopefully it won’t kill the grass.

Seriously, were you really expecting me to place glowing words of praise and wistful reminiscence upon this ghost of a retro beer brought unwilling back to life by people looking to make a few extra bucks by appealing to our blind nostalgia? If you were, too bad. It’s not the worst cheap beer that I have tasted, but pretty close. Anyone got some Dale’s Pale Ale so I can cleanse my palate with a good beer in a can, please.

Had straight from the can. Not great... not terrible. About what I expected. Glad to have tried it, though.

From the Can at the GABF, Colorado Convention Center 13/10/2007 Some carbonation. Floral aroma. Clear golden coloured floral and hoppy with a crisp malt finish.

Bottle: Sweet malt, grain, and mild floral hop aroma. Clear, golden with little head. Malt, grain, with mild hop presence. Watery with mild bitter finish.