Saturday, April 26, 2008

Moe's Backroom Blunder

Tap Room No. 21 Brewery
Moe's Backroom Lager

The Great Depression.

That’s all I think about after sampling this forgettable lager. I have to confess that I was drawn in by the neck label that reads, “Celebrating the repeal of prohibition 1933.”

Beer nuts all over probably herald 1933 and the first regime of Franklin D. Roosevelt as the reawakening of beer in this country. It was, as part of his first 100 days work as president, that FDR managed to legalize beer in early 1933. Hooray!

I can imagine the brewers scrambling to fire up their brewing equipment to meet that first pent up demand; it must have been electric! I can also imagine what those first few batches of legal beer probably tasted like as so many breweries rapidly converted from making root beer, malted milk and spark plug parts to churning out cheap beer to sate the masses. I imagine a lot of it sucked.

Kinda like this beer, frankly.

The only difference is that in 1933, the brewers had something of a captive audience in that everyone who even remotely enjoyed beer was trotting down to the corner tavern to plop a dime or two on the bar for the newly legalized beer no matter that it wasn’t quite ready for prime time. No so today.

So, unless you’re a beer collector, skip this one. This stuff pours with a pitiful head and insignificant beading. Little wonder Moe keeps it in the back room. The only up side is that the price runs about a buck a bottle…or about 10 times the 1933 price!

Here’s a link to the brewer’s website:
http://www.taproom21.com/
I’ve seen rumblings on the web indicating that the brewer is actually affiliated with Kroger’s grocery store chain. This has credence, since Kroger’s is listed as one of the retailers for this beer.

Here’s what some other sites have had to say about Moe’s travesty:

The hosts at JustBeer had this to say….
http://justbeer.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/tap-room-no-21-moes-backroom-lager/

The folks at Beer Advocate rated it a C-. That’s about right, maybe lower.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/782/36857

2 comments:

Unknown said...

No, it's actually brewed by Milwaukee's best, which is owned by Pabst. No affiliation with Kroger.

Michael said...

Just goes to show you, Nostromo: you never know where your beer's coming from! Thank you for stopping in!

By the way, Moe redeemed himself a few days after I posted this unfavorable rant....I posted a follow up rant a short time afterword.

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