Central Market is crazy, and crazy expensive. Despite being owned by the H.E. Butts company, this place gives Whole Paycheck a new name- maybe Quarter Paycheck? If I had a real job, I think I could spend days in this place. I'm a pretty educated food person, and they stock fruits and potato varieties I've never heard of. They stock more Amarone wines than I've seen in one place in my whole life. They have a chocolate AISLE. The whole aisle. I think I could happily live there. Long story short, I bought whatever I felt like, and ended up consolidating some beets, microwave organic popcorn, and awful blueberry beer for dinner.
The beets were amazing, as always. Beets really are the perfect food. I roasted them with olive oil and green garlic, then sliced and covered them with more of the same and some salt. The microwave popcorn was a bizarre craving I had, although the butter remained stuck to the sides of the bag, hindering my enjoyment. The beer was not Central Market's fault, it should be noted. This beer is so bad, Jon thinks it deserves its own blog post...
I had encountered this beer back in May, when I was caught in a tornado and ended up at the Anheuser-Busch factory in Ft. Collins, CO. I sampled several beers, but had a cold, and was confused when all their flavored beers tasted like cough medicine. Knowing A-B, I figured they might be as sickly-sweet as they seemed, but figured they deserved a second chance. I also noted that the packaging has NO mention of their corporate overlordship, and that they have a cute cartoony label that looks very microbrewery.
Fast forward to this week, when we were at a convenience store in Houston looking for expensive cigarettes and cheap beer. Jon was fooled by the cute package, the "North American Brewer's Association Gold Medal" claim, and the statement that it was brewed by the "Blue Dawg Brewing Co." of Baldwinsville, NY. I thought it was the A-B beer I'd tried, but wasn't sure, due to the cutesey packaging and lack of A-B labeling.
I do not currently have a cold, and it still tastes like cough syrup. I have no further tasting notes, because that is all. Eau de cough syrup. In fact, I think the alcohol content (8%) may be similar to cough syrup. Assuming the label is not trying to mislead further, the label claims that the flavor is completely natural. If this is true, A-B must just add blueberry juice from concentrate to the final product, as it is a freakish purple shade. I can only imagine this product survives due to the 8% ABV and the malt beverages market.
More than anything, I'm appalled that A-B is so obviously misleading the public about the origins of "Wild Blue". Not as though I harbored much respect for large-scale American brewers, but really. Maybe if you have to lie about your beer to sell it, you should just give up. It's that bad. If you're ever in Ft. Collins, go to their brewery's tasting room and try it, along with their "hefeweissen" style 'Shock Top' beer...you can guess why I put hefeweissen in quotes. Please don't encourage its production by buying it, but it is so morbidly awful it must be sampled. Perhaps it would be ok reduced and drizzled over cheesecake.
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