Grillo Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer
Not the most auspicious of beginnings.
Apparently marketing departments have me right in the palm of their hands. Show me a curious new twist on a popular product and I’m off to the local shop to investigate.
Well, typically that is. It turned out there wasn’t a single retailer within 200 miles of here selling Pabst Blue Ribbon’s Grillo Pickle Beer. After a bit of searching I was able to find a store in Illinois willing to send me a 6 pack of Grillo Beer through the mail. Maybe I should have paid attention. If my local shops were uninterested in carrying it, maybe I should have been a bit weary.
My tastes lean towards dark ales and craft beers but I’ve enjoyed a wide variety of beers over the years. Some years ago, I was actually paid in beer to maintain the website for an beer carryout specializing in import and craft beers on the Ohio State University campus. A very rewarding website to work on.
It’s amazing when a talented brewer subtly adds to a beer’s flavor through the addition of an ingredient like vanilla beans, chocolate, cherries, or raspberries. Pickles sounded a little surprising, but I was open minded.
Recently, I was lucky enough to try a gin by the the French brand Citadelle called Vive Le Cornichon. It is delicately infused with pickles and remarkably good. It’s gin, but with a very pleasant, deep underlying flavor.
Unfortunately, Grillo Pickle Beer is an entirely different experience. With enthusiastic optimism I popped open my first (and decidedly last) Grillo Beer.
The liquid contained within the shiny silver, green, and blue can would be difficult to even describe as beer. It bares no characteristic flavors that one would associate with even the cheapest of macro beers. Honestly, the juice from a standard jar of Vlasic pickles would taste better than this revolting liquid. It literally tasted like soapy water mixed with pickle juice.
The marketers are hoping you’ll be curious. Don’t be. You will regret it.
It wasn’t my goal to offer up a Five Kipper on my very first review, but it’s soundly justified.
