The Mendicant Bug

Tonight was the reception “TG” for new students of the Language Technologies Institute.  TG is the general term given to parties thrown in the department of computer science at CMU.  Typically TGs are thrown on Fridays by the student organization Dec/5.  So TG as in TGIF.

So anyhow, I tried a new beer that I hadn’t heard of before called Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat.  I was given a tip prior to coming to the TG that Leinenkugels was the mystery beer.  After a quick search on ratebeer.com, I found that Leinenkugel has one good beer and a whole lot of crap.  Smart money was on the crap being the pick.  Unfortunately, this was correct.  I even guessed the correct specimen of crap:  the Sunset Wheat.

So I decided to taste it so I could add another beer to my rating list.  My reaction was immediate.  Here is the comment I posted on the ratebeer page for this beer:

“I was immediately struck by a similarity to Flintstones vitamins. It was so intense I exclaimed. This beer was really atrocious. On the up side, it didn’t linger very long on the palate. This is a drain pour.”

I stand by this assessment.  After I posted my comment I perused the other comments to see if people agreed with me.  What I found was great.  A few of the tastier specimens I came across are below:

“There are aromas & flavors in this that just don’t belong in a beer. Tastes like the milk left over after eating a bowl of Fruit Loops was poured into my beer. And worse, the fruit taste is very artificial. Maybe it wouldn’t be bad on a hot day, but I think i’m going to avoid this one for now.

“If I got really drunk on beer Friday, woke up on Saturday and ate some Fruity Pebbles then threw up…this is what it would taste like.”

“On tap. Smell is 100% Fruity Pebbles Cereal. It is uncanny – as though it is liquid Fruity Pebbles. Cloudy golden appearance with no lastin head. Reminds me more of a Hefe than an American Wheat. Really distinctive orange flavor. Almost tastes like a candy beer. Very sweet taste.”

“not so good. Had a flavor of jelly beans totally nasty. Might be the worst beer Ive tasted”

Scanning just a few more pages of comments I found 8 more references to Fruity Pebbles.  I think the key here is that distinct artificial fruit flavor they put in jelly beans, flintstones vitamins and that cereal.  So yeah, it sucked.