BREWER: Lion, Greater Auckland Region, New Zealand
STYLE: Lager
ABV: 4%
VESSEL: 330ml tin
TWITTER: N/A
INSTAGRAM: N/A
DATE OF POST: 17th July 2022
JYMI SAY’S…
It was 29th October 2004, a beautiful late autumn London sunset was underway after a huge storm the night before. It was a Friday evening and Sammy and I were set to test Victoria Bitter, the 71st beer of our ‘Book on Beers’ that we constructed all those years ago that eventually lead us to Muse on Booze as you know it today.
Now the reason I go back to then is that I really like the packaging of our brew this week, but it does bear a striking resemblance to VB’s brand. The odd thing is that I don’t like the VB packaging much, so I had to reach for my ‘Book on Beers’ just to see what I had scored it. 4.5/10 apparently, pretty fair I’d say. But now turning to our Waikato Draught tin, what was it that I liked so much?? And in true Muse on Booze expert analysis style, I literally have no idea!! I just really like it!!
Anyway, let’s pop this sucker and see where we’re at…
A strange aroma filled the air surrounding the testing desk in my garage. Was it a neighbour cooking something odd on the BBQ? Had a diesel car just accelerated hard outside of my house? Or was it just my beer? Surely not my beer? I sniffed the tin, that the beer was still in. Shit, it was the beer, and the smell was VERY strange indeed! Not totally horrific, just altogether weird.
Moving past this I poured and I sipped… this is not a good beer at all I’m afraid. After the initial excitement of the tin and the assumption of a NZ brewed beer using NZ grown hops (though our tin doesn’t tell us this) I was left very disappointed. This brew doesn’t really taste of anything. Once swallowed, whatever iota of flavour there may have been totally disappears when the aftertaste should be turning up. Then (now this is the really bad part) a squeaky texture covers your teeth, much like drinking a very metallic water. Really poor.
Other than the squeaky teeth thing Waikato Draught isn’t disgusting, it’s just, well, nothing!
It’s a miss I’m afraid Lion Brewery.
Jymi’s Rating: 30%
SAMMY SAY’S…
Waikato beer is best described as average. I can’t say much else about it.
It smells like a beer. It tastes like a beer (without doing anything spectacular at all!!!). There’s no USP. There’s nothing that sets it aside.
Would I have it again? Sure I would. Would I rush out to buy it again? I sure would not.
Sammy’s Rating: 51%
MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 40.5%
MOB review next weekend: PAULANER WEISSBIER by PAULANER
Sammy & Jymi – Musing on Booze weekly since 2017
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