Review: Alexander Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale

Review: Alexander Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale, a photo by Cody La Bière on Flickr.

The other day I reviewed Alexander Keith's Cascade Hop Ale, which was essentially meh... too little too late, but it's been picking up a lot of success apparently, but of course they would, Labatt has billions of dollars to invest in advertising so you will see ads for these Hop Ale beers all over hockey games.

Alexander Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale is the other beer in the Hop Ale series by Labatt. Keith's beers generally suck hard, and I keep calling this beer the "haltertop" because hallertauer isn't a word that is easy to remember, just like Keith's own beers!

Appearance: A caramel amber with a thick light beige head. Near identical in appearance to the Cascade Hop Ale they released, it's probably just the same beer, but they put in some haltertop extract instead.

Aroma: There's a light floral hop aroma, no where near as bitter and "out there" as the cascade hop one was.. the were incredibly conservative on the hop aroma in this batch. There are also notes of wet grass, lemon, left over barley and the maltiness of Keith's India Pale Lager.

Taste: One word: overrated. It's boring. A caramel and grassy taste hit the palate at the first sip, but then it turns into a kind of gross sweet aftertaste that just won't go away (like when you get film from Coca Cola stuck to your tongue after drinking too much Coke). There's minimal hop notes and it's more malty than hoppy by far. I'd compare it to Keith's Cascade Hop Ale, but with less bitterness. There aren't any single flavours in this beer that make me think "wow!" Mediocrity at best.

Overall Thoughts: Still better than standard Keith's, but not as good as the Cascade Hop Ale. The brewmasters over at Labatt and Alexander Keith's sure aren't trying hard to try to please the beer geek masses, they're advertising these beers for the hockey loving 18-45 year old who think a beer will be good just if it's on a commercial during Hockey Night in Canada, and people WILL buy this and the Cascade Hop Ale, instead of micros, and it WILL open some people up to hops, even though the same people previously would've cringed at the thoughts of bitterness in beer. Remember the days before Rickard's White? NOBODY bought witbiers out here, people cringed at Blanche de Chambly and Hoegaarden, but once Rickard's White came out, the beer drinkers acted like they discovered the holy grail of beer..

The haltertop (er I mean) Hallertauer Hop Ale has 5.4% ABV and I won't be buying it again, it's quite grassy, leaves a bitter sweet aftertaste, and I'm bored already. What's next?

Review of Alexander Keith's Cascade Hop Ale

keiths.ca/