REVIEW 63: STELLA ARTOIS

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Belgium

BREWERY:  Stella Artois

STYLE:  Pale Lager

ABV:  5.0%

PURCHASE:  Draught (pint), $5.50

SERVING:  Stella Artois branded chalice. The usual inch-high crown from the tap, although it was a little more in subsequent servings. Average retention, more or less.

APPEARANCE:  Pale lagers basically all look the same. Transparent straw-brass color, with a bright white head. Great lacing on this one, however.

BOUQUET:  Slightly skunky--that's always a major drawback for this beer. Both malty and mildly--very mildly--hoppy, leaning toward the malty side of the spectrum. Generic grain seems to round things out.

PALATE:  Sweet and biscuity from start to finish. The finish itself is very yeasty. The aftertaste is even more so. Yeast seems to be the predominant factor on the whole. That said, earlier on, there do seem to be mild hop undertones as well as a slightly fruity mid-palate; it's actually kind of appley for a bit. Sports the usual carbonation with a light-medium body. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  There are Belgians, and then there are macrolagers from Belgium. 

In my experience, there are two Stellas: The draught Stella, and the bottled Stella. The former is usually an agreeable, if unspectacular, session beer. The latter is an inconsistent one, often featuring a metallic aftertaste. You read that right.

Tonight's version was the former, more favorable version. But I've experienced the latter on so many previous occasions, including the one time I reviewed it for a private board five years ago. Either way, I still feel Stella is severely overrated, often presented as a world-class pilsener when it's really just a standard adjunct (a.k.a. "Corn Flakes beer") with slightly better--read: European--ingredients. A sufficient but boring brew.




GRADE:  C