Beer review # 2 through 5: Weston Brewery Sample Pack

Beer review #2 through 5, sample pack of four styles, one taste.

Name: Weston Brewing Company Sample Pack, O’Malley’s Cream Ale, O’Malley’s Stout, O’Malley’s IPA, and Weston Ruddy Wheat

Style: Irish Ale, Stout, Amber Wheat

Date reviewed: December 2012

Ratings: D (Cream Ale, maybe the Stout), F (IPA, Wheat, maybe the Stout)

Analysis: I love sample packs.  Brilliant for the person who likes beer, likes different types of beer, and can never make up their mind as to what style or type they want to drink.  Except when every bottle in the sample tastes the same… and it tastes bad.  As a whole, the pack receives an ‘F.’  I brought this package of bottles to a holiday party of beer drinkers, and not a single good comment came from the bunch.  Every bottle tasted the same, as if Weston took all four styles, mixed them together, and slapped different labels on them.  Except they were all different colours!  The Cream Ale, which almost tasted like a cream ale, was nearly clear.  And had the same taste as the Stout, which was an see-through black.  Even the IPA, which by IPA standards should have tasted like hops, tasted like metal.  The Wheat was nearly undrinkable, and ended up as the penalty beer in a game of beer pong.

I have tasted this before.  At a small brew pub in the western suburbs of Chicago (which I will review next time I am in the area).  All ten of their different styles tasted the same.  You could not perform a closed-eye test and name the style of beer (we all tried).  All of them had a metallic aftertaste.  I has to be something in the production.

Regardless… back to the Weston review.  The cream ale was not unlike a mass produced light beer.  I pegged it somewhere between Bud and Bud Lite, but that is not what a Cream Ale should taste like.  Yes, it is lighter in colour, and lower in the hops department.  But there should still be a creaminess to be tasted, which was not.  Instead there was the spicy taste of Budweiser.  The Stout was not heavy or flavourful, with no hint of chocolate or coffee.  It was watered down.  The IPA had no hops.  It was reminiscent of Miller Beer, which states on their can it has been ‘Triple Hopped!’  Taking the same number of hops and dividing by three still gives you the same number of hops.  IPA should have a taste of hops.  The Wheat… was just bad.  It was like drinking bad tap water.

And maybe that is the piece that ties this all together.  Could it be the water?  I am going to assume that all of these are made in Weston, Missouri, using the same water source.  Even filtered (which I hope they do), this could be the culprit to all of the beers tasting the same, as well as inferior ingredients, and fewer ingredients.

At any rate… I would not suggest this beer.  I don’t even know if I would give it a second chance, or an in-person brewery chance.  If it is in fact a result of the water, there is no helping this one.