By Gayne C. Young
Teenagers are stupid.
Or at least I was.
Case in point:
My high school buddies and I drank Mexican beer growing up because we could legally purchase it just across the Texas Border and it was dirt cheap. When we found other ways to obtain beer in high school (I plead the Fifth), we branched out to other nationalities. For some reason, I literally pulled Canada and what little I knew of it out of my butt. I said something to the effect: “I hear Canadian beer’s the best in the world (It’s not and I’d never actually heard that). I mean, it’s gotta be good as sophisticated as Canada is (I’m probably the first human on the planet to put the words “Canada” and “sophisticated” together in a sentence.). And Michael J. Fox is Canadian. He drinks beer. He’s cool.”
See.
Told you I was an idiot.
Regardless, my buddies and I tried some beer from the Great White North and came to like them. We drank them almost exclusively for a few months before moving on to the beers of Australia. I recently revisited the Canadian beers of my youth and here’s my adult non-teenage-idiotic-take on them:
Moosehead Lager
First crafted in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1867 and a favorite of Michael J. Fox back in the 1980’s. Fox told of his fondness of the beer on The Tonight Show and was gifted a truckload of it from the brewery in thanks. Moosehead Lager is considered to be Canada’s premium lager. It’s golden in color, offers the perfect balance between malt sweetness and hop bitterness, is extremely refreshing, and by far my favorite on the list.
If you’re going Canadian, go with a Moosehead. If anyone from Moosehead is reading this, feel free to give me the Michael J. Fox treatment.
Labatt Blue
My second favorite beer from the home of Dudley Do-Right just so happens to be the world’s best-selling Canadian beer. Labatt Blue is a clean, crisp beer that features slight fruit flavors and a touch of sweetness in the aftertaste. It was originally released in 1951 as Labatt Pilsener, but given the fact that it had a blue label and people referred to the beer as “Labatt Blue,” the name was officially changed.
Bonus, Labatt is one of the less expensive Canadian beers found in the US.
Second bonus, it is not blue like one of my idiot friends at the time of my first tasting predicted it would be.
Molson Canadian Lager
Molson is one of those beers you have when you’re planning on drinking more than a few.
And I do that a lot.
It pours golden with a creamy white head, has a sweet grain taste, and is extremely refreshing.
Again, this is a go-to for an afternoon (or night or morning) of relaxing.
If you’re looking for great taste and high quality, stick with Moosehead.
Lucky Lager
Like most things Canadian, this beer is something I just don’t understand.
It was developed and first crafted in San Francisco in the 1930’s before moving to Canada and somehow becoming a “Canadian Beer.” Regardless of historical origin, I pounded many a Lucky back in the day and still find them to be a light, smooth, and very affordable beer. If you’re looking for a high-class dinner beer – this ain’t it. If you’re looking for something that tastes good and will get the job done, you could do a lot worse.
Drink up eh!
Editor’s note: We found a couple of reviews on Beer Advocate for Lucky Lager that are too good to not include them. To wit:
“To properly appreciate the taste and aroma of a Lucky Lager I recommend that you cleanse [your] palate with 15 other Lucky Lagers first.” – BigFudge
“It’s basically a beer you keep for in-laws you hate.” – InsideLiquorMan
