Brahma

[old faithful]

Well, I had to try this.

Because the bottle is clear I took it from the back of the shelf at the Dupont LCBO (East of Spadina).

It was not skunky at all, it had a fresh light beer odour.

The taste was ... well ... light. But not bad. There was a mild, distinctive hop flavour combined with a citric note, against a 'spring water' background - better than Corona I would say. I can see that this is a beer people can drink in quantity, casually at parties.

Also, the bottle was easy to hold, the nipped shape facilitates easy handling and this "ergonomic" feature is not to be disdained, considering too the target market (the younger set drinking from the bottle at parties, etc.).

A nice effort for a mass produced beer. For me it is useful as a fresh clean chaser to a shot of bourbon or rye.

Gary

[lister]

My girlfriend picked up a sixer of this on the weekend. I had a couple of gulps. We both had similiar thoughts as you. Not bad but not really interesting. A small touch of sweetness. I'd have it over Corona easily if there wasn't much choice at a party. The bottle is really nice and different. The other target market could be women.

[Rob Creighton]

Labatt has you both...can you feel the suction?

Balanced opinion or not.
The Molson clone was universally slammed. Again, Labatt kicks their ass.
Sorry, I monitor this stuff.

[JWalter]

Reading your posts reminded me of the story of how you're supposed to make a 'REAL' Martini... That is, you pour your ounce or two of gin or vodka into the glass and then just show it the vermouth... I'm wondering if that'll be the way that new ultra-light beer will be made... They'll take a bottle of Daisani, and just hold up a hop cone and a few grains of malted barley beside it for a few seconds... Voila! a CLEAN, CRISP, COLD beer... No aftertaste!

[John Aitken]

Now thats funny JWalter

[downtown drinker]

The taste was ... well ... light. But not bad. There was a mild, distinctive hop flavour combined with a citric note, against a 'spring water' background - better than Corona I would say. I can see that this is a beer people can drink in quantity, casually at parties.

Also, the bottle was easy to hold, the nipped shape facilitates easy handling and this "ergonomic" feature is not to be disdained, considering too the target market (the younger set drinking from the bottle at parties, etc.).

No offense, Gary, but your review could be well applied to a nice glass of lemon-flavoured Perrier, minus the hop element, of course. And for a whiskey chaser, I'll take plain Perrier over boring beer any time. (Better still: a refreshingly cool Anchor Steam.)

I don't know about the ergonomics of the bottle, but then agin, I wouldn't. I use a glass.

[old faithful]

It is a well-made product (and - as important - well-packaged and shipped) and will appeal to many mass-market beer consumers and some admirers of craft and quality import beers. There really is, in this segment, a range of quality out there and this one sits at the top in my view. This is not to say I will buy it very often or even again, I am just trying to assess its merits objectively. I like Molson Export too when very fresh and brewed in Montreal I guess since those quarts sold at Beer Store are Montreal-filled, I understand. I find perhaps 90% of the mass market beers uninteresting but there is a time and place for the other 10% in my view.

Gary

[lister]

Labatt has you both...can you feel the suction?

Er, ah, no. Not at all.

[old faithful]

Labatt would have me if it brought back its original formulation of Labatt India Pale Ale and offered it on draft and occasionally cask-conditioned.

Gary

[Belgian]

Labatt has you both...can you feel the suction?

Er, ah, no. Not at all.

Some who are married haven't felt it in a while...

[lister]

Some who are married haven't felt it in a while...

I wouldn't know, we're not married.

[midlife crisis]

The Molson clone was universally slammed. Again, Labatt kicks their ass.

Interesting. Poor old Molson can't seem to do much right these days. Isn't it also the case that the Labatt product has a far greater share of the Brazilian domestic market than the "Molson" Marca Bavaria?

[GregClow]

The thing that amuses me most about Brahma is the fact that the beer being sold under the name in Canada, Europe, etc. isn't actually available in Brazil. In fact, my understanding is that it wasn't even created there.

InBev took the brand name from the Brahma line of beers that they own in Brazil (the most popular of which is a pale lager called Brahma Chopp), formulated a new beer in Europe, and are now selling it around the world under the Brahma name as if it's an authentic Brazillian beer. I wouldn't be surprised if the stuff they're selling here is brewed in Canada.

While they may not be great (or even good) beers, at least the other yellow lagers we get here from hot weather countries - like Corona (Mexico), Patagonia (Argentina) and Bavaria (Brazil) - can lay some claim to being authentic.

[Belgian]

Cool thread going here. "Authentic" Mexican / South American beer?

I like the Dos Equis beers, all malt base, the rest to me are uniformly "non-authentic" as beer at all. The Corona story is an interesting one though: a refresher designed to appeal to factory workers gaining world renown. And people love it because it doesn't put on pounds.

But if some folks buy 13-dollar six packs of Corona as some really fashionable thing, they are kinda already being had whether it's the original or the 'imitators.' You can buy good-ass beer for that money. (So go Bloor brewery, kick some Helles Lager butt in Ontario...)

[Steve Beaumont]

From the World Beer Cup results:

Category: 38 Australasian, Latin American or Tropical-Style Light Lager - 23 Entries
Gold: Norte Blanca, Cerveceria y Malteria Quilmes, Quilmes, Argentina
Silver: Kingfisher, Shepherd Neame Ltd, Faversham, England
Bronze: Bohemia Especial, Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic