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LaBatt Blue
General Beer Discussion by KENDOSURF
It's been many years since I had any reason to drink LaBatt Blue. Just to be sociable, I would drink one or two or bring a 12 over. Blue didn't seem to know if it was La bière canadienne or American adjunct lager. Result? Meh. :) Local Dollar General recently started selling beer! For what it is, DG did a good job of stocking decent variety and price range. LaBatt Blue 16 oz six packs for under $5 bt&d caught my attention. OK...after all these years, let's give it a try. It's now a GOOD + (3 & 1/2 stars) American adjunct lager! Slightly more expensive than Extra Gold (GOOD, 3 stars) but a bit more zing. Crisp, clean, refreshing, as Ron Theriot would say. Recommended? Oui. ;)
5 years ago
This area had/has a special limited release brew = Labatt Blue with Orange. In royal blue bottles, it's a tribute to the Syracuse Orange. A blend of Labatt Blue and blood orange, from Rochester. Good for what it is, but not something that a dedicated drinker of beer that tastes like BEER would prefer. Probably highly collectible, but I'm not a collectible's person. I drank the case up and gave the bottles away. I have a 30 rack of Molson Canadian here. I ass-u-me-d it was also from Rochester...but no, it's from Toronto! Go figure? :D
Labatt Canada and Labatt USA are two different companies owned by two different unrelated brewers. To the best of my knowledge, AB-InBev licenses the 'name' Labatt Blue and Labatt Blue Light to North American Brewers in Rochester, but the beer itself is a different beast and has been for a decade or so. There are certain areas of the US where they import the Canadian stuff, and this is marked on the bottle as 'imported'. Likewise, any other beers in the USA carrying the Labatt banner have nothing to do with the former Canadian brewer anymore. The only Labatt product I have any interest in is 50. Readily available, and doesn't taste awful. As for Molson, they have always exported their beer (and others) into the US. When I did my Ph.D in the early 90s in Memphis, you could buy Molson products, "brewed in Canada, imported by Molson USA (Reston, Virginia)". One such product was brewed in Toronto, and shipped to the US, but American's thought it was Australian.....Fosters. between 1987 and 2002, 90% of the Fosters sold in the US (and France of all places) was brewed at the former Carling O'Keefe facility just outside the Toronto airport. If only Americans had read the bottle.... :) The Molson-Coors merger changed that.
;I would certainly welcome a chance to buy 50 again! I really liked this admittedly macro product. Comparable to Molson Golden circa 1984. Not same taste, but same "crafty" quality. If the general public doesn't support good beers, Craft, Crafty, or Macro...the brewers can't afford to keep them on the market. {;'(
Bought my second pack today, then saw PACKAGED ON 04/09/19. Probably from the same shipment as the last one I bought? Not too many Founders or other craft brew fans around here, I guess. It's fine! I've heard of bottle-conditioned before, but can-conditioned? :)
