Spendrups Pistonhead Hot Roddin' Lager

Spendrups Pistonhead Hot Roddin' Lager (Bottle) 5%

This beer was part of the spring news release in the beginning of February 2010. There has been allot of talk about this beer. Several beer blogers published news about the upcoming beer, for instance Beer Sweden and Malt Humle Jäst och Vatten. Which is quite unusual since mostly it's only the very extreme beers that gets that kind of attention and the news at Systembolaget. But what makes this beer interesting is that Spendrups claim that it has been inspired by American micro brewers (famous for their high flavour and extreme beers) and that they have used hops like Amarillo and Cascade in the brewing process. However the beer haven't been well received, for example: BeerSweden, Fajan och Jöns, Öl är gott och resor är kul and Belgian Friday all gave the beer low scores.

But enough talk lets see what the fuzz is about.

Style: Premium Lager

Cost: 11.50 SEK

Bitterness------Sweetness-----Sourness-----Intensity-------Body

□■□□□□□□----□□■□□□□□-----■□□□□□□□---■□□□□□□□----□■□□□□□□

Appearance: 3/5

Clear copper liquid with a big white foam that left some lacing.

Smell: 3/10

Very weak, some malt and bread, hint of boiled vegetables.

Taste: 3/10

Mostly bread, but also some metal and wet cardboard, but not allot. Very low bitterness and no hops. Some sweetness.

Mouthfeel: 3/5

Actually fairly smooth, just a little bit harsh, but the very light body is a downer. Low to medium carbonation.

Comment:

I have to admit I didn't have very high expectations about this beer. But this beer didn't live up to my low expectations. Looking at it as a hoped up lager inspired by craft brewers it's a horrible beer, but as a standard macro lager it actually becomes decent. It has some bad tastes of metal, cardboard and vegetables, but they are not dominating, the bread flavour dominates. However it completely lacks any kind of hop flavour and the bitterness is extremely low. Might sound like I liked this beer, which I didn't, I just expected something worse. It was drinkable but it might have been a Carlsberg, Sofiero or any other macro lager. I wouldn't have been able to tell a difference.

The theme for this release is spicy foods and I tried this with some spicy Tom Yam soup and it wasn't a horrible combo. The two didn't enhance each other in any way but it also didn't create any odd flavour combos.

In my view Spendrups is trying to market a standard lager with a cool sticker. I actually think they will succeed, most people doesn't even know what hops taste like, since it's not a flavour in the most common lagers.

Some people say this could be a good gateway beer into micro brewed beer. I have to disagree, if people think they are drinking a micro inspired beer they will be very surprised when they actually try one. Compare this to Mikkeller American Dream, which is a hoped up micro brewed lager and you will understand what I mean.

If Spendrups aims to create great quality beers inspired by micro brewers I salute them. But they have to try harder then this.

Total: 1,8/5