REVIEW 117: SHOCK TOP TWISTED PRETZEL WHEAT

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA

BREWERY:  Anheuser-Busch

STYLE:  Dark Wheat Ale

ABV:  5.2%

PURCHASE:  Draft (60-oz. pitcher), $10.00

SERVING:  Said pitcher, poured into chilled pint glass. A normal pour yielded slightly less than a normal head (half an inch or so). A faster pour yielded an initial head of roughly five times that; a slower one, only about a quarter of an inch. Head is wispy and does not retain itself well. 

APPEARANCE:  Opaque, mahogany color with an off-white head. Not much in the way of visible bubbling and very little lacing.

BOUQUET:  Smells more like toasted wheat than actual pretzels; pretzel is in there, but it's more of a placebo thing. A little nutty, and it seems to tease you with evasive notes of banana and caramel. 

PALATE:  Carbonation is soft and timid, particularly for a beer of this style. Average body. Doesn't really assert itself until mid-palate, when a mild salt note takes hold. Bready and wheaty; flavor comes off more as mildly salted wheat dough than actual pretzels. Slight "cooked-veggie" notes in the aftertaste--which is what mainstream North American macrolagers are known for. But I swore I picked up some caramel and/or banana in there as well. Just a very, very little bit.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Shock Top, more or less, is the craft beer division of Anheuser-Busch. Introduced ten years ago, the line's first entry was its flagship Belgian White, arguably the best beer in the entire A-B lineup. 

As for this particular Shock Top, it's a lukewarm representation of pretzels. As a beer, it's spot-on average. That said, average is above average for our friends at A-B.




GRADE:  C