This weekend I’m in Columbia, MO, home of my alma mater, the University of Missouri, for a fraternity golf tournament. I met up with my friend Bill and we hit one of my favorite food spots in town – Booches. I absolutely love their little cheeseburgers, and it’s a must for me when I hit Columbia. It’s also kind of a divey, pool-hall kinda place that serves cheap beers like this one. Therefore, to enjoy the campy atmosphere, my friend Bill ordered a Stag and I thought I’d have one too. I have fond memories of Stag. When I was in college, I worked at a gas station. When we discontinued it, the distributor told us to get rid of the remaining 6 cases. So of course, I took it to the fraternity house and we polished it off pretty quick.
Location: Served in the bottle, along with three cheeseburgers at Booches in Columbia, MO.
Numbers: 5.2% ABV, ~155 Calories
Appearance & Aroma: I couldn’t quite see it in the bottle, but I’m gonna guess that it’s light and pale yellow in color with a lot of carbonation. The aroma was bready-malty with some lagery-adjunct smells
Taste & Feel: The body was very light and the mouthfeel was quite crisp. The flavor up front was light and somewhat sweet with yeasty-bready flavors. The bready flavors changed to a more lagery flavor in the middle with some sweet corn-like adjunct flavors. It finished crisp and clean with a mix of the yeasty-breadiness and adjunct flavors, which lasted briefly in the aftertaste.
Food Pairing: This beer is light enough, and the flavors somewhat bland enough, that this beer could go with almost anything. This went good with my Booches burgers and helped to wash them down. It would probably be good with spicy food such as chili or Mexican, as the blandness would help cut down on the spiciness a bit.
Overall Impression: To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this given its reputation, and it seems Pabst has a tendency to buy old brands like this and adjunct them up and water them down. I actually enjoyed the lagery-breadiness, but the sweetness and eventual adjunct flavors took over. Unfortunately, these flavors took a light, fairly drinkable beer, and forced me to choke it down. Unless you’re stuck without anything else, I wouldn’t really recommend this beer. Even Bud Light* is more drinkable than this one.
* As I went to link this, I realized I haven’t reviewed Bud Light yet. I know some craft beer purists would condemn me for taking the time to review it, but as the most popular and accessible beers in the U.S., I’ll be adding it to the list soon.
My Rating: 
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