Print This Post
Tonight we are partaking of the fourth and final sixpack of the autumnal Michelob Sampler Pack. As a refresher, so far we’ve had the porter, the pale ale, the wheat beer and I’ve saved what I think is the bomb for last. Why the bomb? This beer has the highest bitterness units (IBU=50) of all four beers. It’s almost guaranteed to tie my tongue in a knot or blow a hole in my medulla oblongata. Or at least a burn spot.

Tonight’s beer is Michelob’s Rye P.A. and to be frank (pfff,) I’m a bit intimidated by the IPA style of this beer, the high IBUs and the mysterious rye ingredient. All we need is eye of newt and I’m off drinking this in the closet.

What can a fertile mind such as mine imagine this beer as tasting like? And why the “rye” ingredient? Maybe I’ll see a few caraway seeds floating around in my glass. Maybe it’ll remind me of some good, hard-crusted Polish rye bread and leave me with a craving for Polish sausage, sauerkraut and boiled potatoes drenched with butter. Somehow I think this beer will throw me a curve and catch me completely off guard. I might wind up writing a nice review albeit from the planet Uranus. But for the sake of science and zymurgy, I will drink this beer and I will survive with my tongue intact and my medulla modulating away as if nothing happened.

Friday’s stint at work culminated at 8 hour’s worth and a nice uneventful ride home. With the weather getting down into the 30’s at night, I didn’t have the gumption to trudge out to the Manly Garage, start a fire, and write a brew review while I waited for the entire volume to warm up. I resigned myself to lazily set up shop at my computer desk in the house and try to type quietly and belch softly while those other people I live with sleep.

With the Mac mini booted up and house slippers padding my feet, I grabbed the first Mich from the kitchen fridge and began my journey into hops and rye and beer.

I poured the beer into my souvenir Schlafly pint glass and beheld the contents. The liquid was a very nice copper color with tons of medium and large bubbles ascending. The head was a bout an inch tall, quite thick and creamy looking but with an off-white, beige coloring. There was not much aroma but there was a slight beery smell which was rather pleasant.

The first sip was odd. Is was as if a squad of tastes penetrated my mouth and dispersed to control their respective territories. The hoppiness was there, but not in the massive quantities that I was expecting. Dang, I was hoping for some tongue carnage or that medulla thing. Instead, I received a malty flavor and a tad bit of sweetness up front, a bit of thin and flat in the middle but a nice, perhaps overly crisp ending at the swallow.

As the sippage continued, the beer left some nice lacing on the glass and the flavors started to blend together. The maltiness came forward and filled up the middle and shook hands with the bitterness at the end. It appeared that the squad of tastes had taken all their assigned territories and set up camp in my mouth right under my nose.

I must say that was quite a unique taste experience, one that I thought would be a little uncomfortable to sit through let alone write about. Individuals’ tastes obviously vary from person to person but I didn’t really get any rye spiciness. Then again, perhaps my tongue just doesn’t know what to look for, never having experienced the taste of rye malt before. The hoppiness was quite tolerable but I’ll thank that blending of early malts in the taste for it.

Henceforth, after this drinking experience, I shall go forth with chest puffed out and a wry smile knowing full well that I, of all people, have tolerated, nay, savored the taste of Michelob’s most bitter ale and drank it, wrote about it and liked it. Squad dismissed.

The SixPackTech ratings for Michelob Rye P.A. are:

Taste: B > Wait till the end of the first glass… just wait.
Smoothness: B- > It’ll keep your tongue thinking about what it has to do.
Drinkability: B- > After the first, you’ll try another.
Bang for the buck: B > Not bad if part of the sample pack.
ABV: 5.9%
(BA) – (RB)