Big Flats 1901 aka "The Walgreens Beer"

Okayyy, so, tonight there will be two reviews. If you're wondering why: Stop, and read what the first review is for. You'll see below that I did a quick news item on this "beer" last night, Big Flats 1901. Walgreens has entered the beer scene - not sure if we can say it's the craft beer scene or not, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, this beer has become quite a joke between my friends over the past 24 hours, so I was compelled to go to my local Walgreens and "splurge" on a $2.99 six pack. As we were checking out, my wife chuckled at the total price, which was around $3.20 after tax, to which the cashier responded "It's actually not that bad. It's not good, but it's not bad". Got a good laugh from that one.

Yeah, that's a Bud Light glass

Okay, so this beer pours super light, we're definitely headed in the wrong direction. The can proudly states "Brewed from only the choicest hops", and placed in-between that "label" is a graphic saying "Genuine Beer". At the bottom "It's the water that makes it." On the side of the can: "Brewed by Brewmaster's Choice, Rochester, NY." It goes down very lightly, and there is a very slight trace of fruit and malt, it's incredibly watery on the roof of the mouth, light carbonation. ABV is at 4.5%, so nothing too heavy, and actually, that's higher than I thought it would be.

Overall, not a very good beer. However, if you're headed to the beach, want to get hammered, and don't really care what your beer tastes like, this is actually a good choice. I mean, you can't go wrong at $2.99. On a scale of 1 to 10, this pharmacy store offering gets a 4. Not a bad color, but everything else lacks. This can would go good next to a dead deer head in the garage....

Walgreens.... beer?

If you live in the suburban United States, chances are that within a five mile radius of your home, there is a Walgreens pharmacy. Walgreens isn't such a bad company, I suppose. Unfortunately most of their grocery items are pretty over priced, but if you need a medical item, or a cheap toy, they're pretty solid. Well, I stumbled across an article today (Walgreens selling its own private-label beer), and, it gave me a sour feeling in my stomach. Apparently, in December, Walgreens, with little fanfare, starting selling their own beer product, known as "Big Flats 1901". According to the article, the senior marketing director for the alcohol company (Winery Exchange) brewing this stuff said that "consumer feedback has been very positive". Well, if you zip on over to Beer Advocate, where contributors have graded it a "C" (mediocre), it makes me wonder what type of "consumer feedback" they're looking at. What's even crazier, again according to the article, is that a six-pack of cans is only $2.99. 

Enough of my rant, have you tried this stuff? If so, leave a comment. Here's a link to the article again: Walgreens selling its own private-label beer.