Booze Reviews: Pabst Blue Ribbon

A lot of college students tend to drink really crappy booze. Therefore, I have decided to start doing booze reviews so that you can hopefully drink better alcohol, or at least get your money’s worth. In Utah, that last bit is more difficult than you might think–state run liquor stores control the pricing of all beverages with an alcohol content of higher than 4.0% ABV (3.2% ABW), and often charge an exorbitant amount of money for decent beer. Anyway, first on the list today is the king of cheap beers: Pabst Blue Ribbon
PBR is, as you’d expect, a very light American beer. As with most cheap beers, the flavor isn’t what you’d call overwhelming; it basically tastes like beer-flavored water. No hops to speak of. That said, however, the beer flavor that is there isn’t terrible, just extremely watered down. The final product actually tastes a bit like Corona, but smoother thanks to the large quantity of water. Overall, it doesn’t taste great, but it’s not terrible either.

The real upside of PBR is its price. A twelve-pack generally costs about $6-7 in grocery stores, and a tall boy (24 oz) is about $1.50. This puts it in the same price range as other, much shittier cheap American beers like Bud Light, Natural Light, and Milwaukee’s Best. While Pabst is not a very good beer, it’s vastly superior to pretty much anything else you’d get for the same price. It’s a very good beer to drink while it’s hot; serves much the same purpose as a Corona (note: I have not tried a lime in PBR, but on suspicion alone I wouldn’t recommend it)–a good beer to have at a tailgate party or barbecue. It’s also excellent for beer pong.

Overall, there are many, many better beers than Pabst in the world. However, nearly all of them cost quite a bit more, at least in the US. If you’re not going to pay more than sixty cents a can for beer, or if you need something cheap for drinking games, Pabst Blue Ribbon is the way to go.