Well friends, I drank a Shock Top Twisted Pretzel Wheat, and I almost got kicked out of the beer enthusiast club for it. Mind you, not the Brew Guru club; I started that one, and I ain’t kicking anybody out. Still, the disdain for Anheuser-Busch Inbev runs deep, and the beer geeks gave me all kinds of flak for not just drinking, but liking this beer. Imagine that.
There it is, though, I drank a Shock Top Twisted Pretzel Wheat, and I found it to be quite good. Really, I was looking for a beer that tasted liked a pretzel, since that’s what the name implies. It did taste like a pretzel, a fresh-baked soft pretzel, and as I like pretzels and beer, what’s wrong with having them both in the same glass?
The Shock Top website only says this about the beer:
This new beer delivers the delicious taste and aroma of bakery-fresh pretzels in a Belgian-style, unfiltered wheat ale.
OK, we kind of figured that, though I’m not sure I agree with the “Belgian-style” bit. I didn’t get any citrus or coriander here, and don’t think I would want to. Have you ever had a pretzel rolled in coriander and orange peels? Nah, me neither.
On the bottle label, they call this a Belgian-style wheat ale (there they go again) brewed with spices and caramel malt and with artificial flavor added.
Shock Top Twisted Pretzel Wheat has an alcohol content of 5.1% by volume and you can get it at Target for $7.59 a six-pack, a pretty good price indeed these days.
Shock Top Twisted Pretzel Wheat pours to a dark caramel color (think the color of a pretzel) with a medium sized head of spritzy, short-lived foam and a very doughy, bready nose. Taking a sip, the beer has more of the same fresh-dough flavor, a lot like a soft-baked pretzel hot and fresh and just purchased from a street vendor. It’s a little salty, too, and damned if it does not taste like a pretzel. I have had beers that are bready malty, crackery wheaty, caramel malty, biscuit malty; none have ever been as doughy as this one.
Shock Top Twisted Pretzel Wheat gets 4.5 stars from me. Judge it for what they are trying to do here, make a wheat beer that tastes like a pretzel. If you don’t want a beer that tastes like a pretzel, you probably won’t be buying it anyway. It delivers on the named ingredient/theme, and does so at a bargain price. Can’t ask for more than that.
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