No.
What about a 6-pack?
Never.
Why not?
Let me explain by showing you a photo from April, 1969.
["No Blue in Bermuda? I'm OK with that": photo of GAH,1969]
In it I’m sitting on Horseshoe beach in Bermuda with a bottle of beer in my hand.
Labatt Blue, Gord?
No. It’s Bass Ale. Even when I was under-aged I preferred beer that had interesting flavours, something to write home about.
And after drinking the Bass Ale, did you write home to tell your mom and dad you were spending your tuition money on beer?
Hmmm... let me think.
Back to the present: Why am I reviewing Labatt Blue today?
Two reasons.
["A Blue that was left behind": photo GAH]
One, it’s a decent, though unremarkable, example of a typical Canadian beer. It’s Canada’s Pilsener - says so right on the can.
Two, a fellow hockey player left two cans in my workshop after a recent chili night and I thought I’d do more than just say, "Thank-you, Johnnie. Kiss your beers good-bye.”
Blue is rated at 5% alc./vol. and is probably often sold in large quantities - i.e., by the jug - to hockey players who are simply looking for something cold to drink after stepping off the ice.
In a glass, the foam settles quickly and presents light, pleasant, grainy flavours to the nose, not much more. Because I live five blocks from the Labatt Brewery in London, Ontario, I am well-acquainted with the smell.
About the taste, I’d say mild Pilsener, and though it is described as ‘a well-balanced beer, matured for a smooth body and a full, fruity flavour’ in Beers Of The World (by David Kenning), my notes read as follows:
If it’s Canada’s pilsener then we must be mild-mannered with medium interest in good beer.
I’ve declared before that my chief interest lies in ruby red ales and rich, thick stouts (flavoured wheat beer on occasion) and I’d be more interested in earlier Labatt beers - that one cannot get any more - than present-day offerings.
["Labatt Bock, anyone? Anyone?": photos GAH]
I’d love to try Labatt Velvet Cream Stout but it has likely been off the scene - due to poor demand and sales - for many years.
Today, as I drink the last mouthful of Johnnie’s beer, I wonder what the two original founders of the brewery would say of today’s Labatt corporation?
(John Kinder Labatt and fellow Irishman, Samuel Eccles, formed a brewery in partnership in 1847, about 17 years after Labatt immigrated to Canada).
Would they tap on the bar at a local tavern for a home-grown stout and not be able to find one?
It’s a pity, I say.
***
Please click here to read my last beer review - Dead Elephant Ale.
Find Searching For a Fine Beer in lower right margin for more beer reviews.
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2 comments:
My first beer was Labatt 50 (label shown in the picture). It was the first beer to be marketed specifically to French Canadians.
Hi LM,
I drank '50' many years ago while trying this and that, settled on Carling Red Cap.
But last summer I stopped by the Richmond Hotel and really enjoyed one tall cold glass of '50' on draught. That, plus the the ambiance of the old hotel, made my day.
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