Craft brewery acquisitions! They’ve been in the news a lot lately. Just a few days ago, the latest craft brewery grab was announced when Miller Coors intention to take a majority stake in one of my local brewers, Terrapin of Athens, Georgia was revealed. Miller already had a 25% or so stake in Terrapin, and claims they’ll leave Terrapin alone to manage their business. There’s always a bigger fish, though, and Anheuser-Busch Inbev is in the process of trying to buy Miller Coors. Where does it end?
I’ve opined on this before, and don’t think it makes any sense for a big brewer to buy a small one and then dumb down their beers. Beer geeks are fickle; they’ll just move on to the next of the more than 4000 craft brewers on their list. It’s business as Scrooge might have said, and well, there it is. On the plus side, if history has shown that Miller has pretty much left the Jacob Leinenkugel brewery of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin alone. I’ve been drinking their beer since before Miller bought them in 1988, and they haven’t changed in my recollection.
Overall, I like Leinenkugel beers. That doesn’t mean they don’t occasionally miss the mark, as I think they did with Leinenkugel’s Beergarten Tart. Leinie’s calls this their take on a Berliner Weiss style beer, and I recently tried it on tap at my local Taco Mac. Leinenkugels beers were featured as beer of the month, and several different brews were offered up to celebrate.
Here’s what Leinie’s says about the beer:
Leinenkugel’s® BeerGarten Tart starts out with a snap of tartness balanced by a subtle sweetness from pale malts. It’s our take on a Berliner Weisse, a classic German biergarten summer favorite. Brewed with American wheat, BeerGarten Tart’s light body and refreshing finish are perfect for warm summer days.
Leinenkugels Beergarten Tart has an alcohol content of 4.8% by volume, which is about 1% or more higher than the style allows. It was reasonably priced at $5 for a 20-ounce mug with my Brewniversity membership, and it sells for $8.99 a six-pack or so here in Georgia.
Leinenkugels Beergarten Tart pours to a pale yellow color with a thick short-lived head of foam and a subtle tartness with crackery wheat in the nose. Taking a sip, I get light crackery wheat and biscuit malt in the palate and a gentle sourness on the finish. Although refreshing, this beer isn’t nearly sour enough for the style or for me. I proper Berliner Weiss should be mouth-puckeringly sour; Leinekugel Beergarten Tart was not even close.
Berlin, you have nothing to worry about.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft