Labatt Max Ice
Labatt Brewing Company Ltd.

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From:
Labatt Brewing Company Ltd.
 
Ontario, Canada
Style:
Malt Liquor
Ranked #27
ABV:
8%
Score:
62
Ranked #28,473
Avg:
2.51 | pDev: 29.88%
Reviews:
61
Ratings:
110
Status:
Active
Rated:
Nov 27, 2022
Added:
Nov 13, 2002
Wants:
  5
Gots:
  11
Formerly Labatt Maximum Ice
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by Frozensoul327:
Photo of Frozensoul327
Reviewed by Frozensoul327 from Michigan

3.15/5  rDev +25.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3
A rather drinkable strong beer, Labatt Maximum Ice does have it's moments. Pours out to a medium golden color with a short lived white head of foam. No lace. Medium low carbonation. Aromas are quite sweet, and have notes of corn and grain leading the pack of otherwise normal smells of macro beer. Taste is very sweet and dense; strong notes of sweet alcohol esters, corn, thick malt. Not bad. Mouthfeel is boardering on sticky sweet and syrupy, but remained tolerable. Drinkability is average. Not bad for a higher ABV brew. Special thanks goes out to Derek for the sample.
Jul 30, 2006
More User Ratings:
Photo of VandilioffReborn
Reviewed by VandilioffReborn from Canada (ON)

4.57/5  rDev +82.1%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 5
Sunday Afternoon, November 2022

On a cold rainy day, its time for some Ice beer. Poured aggressively into tall cylindrical pint glass ice cold from a frosty tall boy can. A very sleek industrial look to the can; with a name like Maximum Ice we could be talkng about close to anything here.
Maximum ICE poured aggressively into a tall cylindrical pint glass. This lager beer is an aureate bronze with subdued carbonation from the pouring style. Atop the brew sits a sticky service envelope white head with big bubbles from the sugar used. It dissipates slowly and laces the glass well. Its a nice looking cold beer.
Under the honker; aromas of wet brown bread, fresh sourdough, white salt crackers and a pinch of honey. The malt and bittering galena hops hit and create a pleasent fresh aroma; similar to a walk in refidgerator.
Maximum ICE tastes of light caramel, English biscuits and a touch of table sugar. The hops bitter the beer and add some astringency and needed dryness.
A highly drinkable lager beer of the ICE beer family. Maximum Ice has a refreshing and warming collection of light candied malts and well hidden alcohol. Its a nice beer.
As we huddle in; Its a solid representitive of its style. I can certainly see this ICE beer pairing well with some ball park hot dogs or a huge bag of potato chips.
Nov 27, 2022
 
Rated: 3.33 by CRObighit2 from Canada (ON)

Sep 22, 2022
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Reviewed by DrOfGolf from Delaware

2.66/5  rDev +6%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | feel: 2 | overall: 3
Got this in a 24oz can and it was in a cooler at the bottom of all the ice. Drank it directly from the can but poured some into a glass first. Not so bad iced cold. Definitely quenches the thirst or to have with burgers or hot dogs.
Jul 25, 2022
Photo of Batheinfire
Reviewed by Batheinfire from Canada (ON)

3/5  rDev +19.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
I love when pompous beer people rate cheap swill in depth, always good for a laugh. Now don't get me wrong, I love beer and I love drinking top quality brews, but theres nothing wrong with slamming cheap strong beer and catching a buzz with your buds. Looks like bubbly piss, stinks like green Apple, taste like nickels in sugar water, but will do the trick, and fast. Tastes like nothing after 3 of them anyway. Drink up and have a good time.
Mar 02, 2022
Photo of Luscious_Malfoy
Reviewed by Luscious_Malfoy from Illinois

3.62/5  rDev +44.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.5
poured from a 24oz can into a forager pint glass. pours a standard deep gold with a frothy white head. strong corn or grain on the nose. drinks heavy, which at 8% is certainly expected but this is a hearty lager for sure. price to abv though, it’s hard to beat this one.
Feb 27, 2022
 
Rated: 2.5 by Velivolus1 from Vermont

Dec 17, 2021
Photo of GreesyFizeek
Reviewed by GreesyFizeek from New York

1.57/5  rDev -37.5%
look: 1 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.75 | feel: 1 | overall: 1.75
This one poured very bubbly and fizzy at first, and then settled immediately into pond water. The color is a weak and tepid clear straw yellow. There's a lot of lacing.

This smells horrid - wet stale leaves, old bread, metal, solvent, and green apple.

This is absolutely disgusting, and not even worth the $1.99 it cost. It's just super stale, vegetal, and weirdly sweet and bitter all at the same and in all the wrong places. It definitely tastes like it brewed inside of an old work boot and left to ferment in the Death Valley sun.

This is not drinkable, not even in the least, with a weird stale fruity bite on the back end.

This is disgusting and should be drank by absolutely nobody.
Jul 05, 2020
 
Rated: 1.51 by Wellgoose12 from New York

Dec 29, 2019
Photo of joesi
Reviewed by joesi from Canada (MB)

1.46/5  rDev -41.8%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.25 | feel: 1.75 | overall: 1.5
Well I'll first say that I had this at a quite warm temperature, so I admit that it's certainly warmer than ideal, however I drink a lot of beer at rather warm temperatures though, and they still can get good ratings.

Anyway, the smell was like a cheap beer: weak "standard beer" smell mixed with a bit of damp socks and/or urine. I suppse some corn too, which is maybe a bit different depending on what you think a typical cheap beer smells like.

The pour was very bubbly with a huge head that dissipated extremely quickly and eventually left no head nor lacing at all after some sips, not even around the edges of the glass. (temperature could play a factor in this, but still I don't think I've ever seen a beer that this has happened with)

The color was typical yellow like pee, with big bubbles everywhere like fresh carbonated soda.

The mouthfeel was rather hollow. It had very prickly carbonation like a fresh carbonated soda, but it didn't maintain its power/foam with some swishes.

Taste was metallic (VERY STRONG METALLIC TASTE), "watery" (I guess a lack of flavor) and otherwise just plain lacking, or dare I say "bad". While there was certainly SOME hops in here, it wasn't especially noticeable, nor was it a kind that tasted particularly good nor interesting in any way to me (just kind of generic bitterness/hopiness?). There wasn't much of maltiness taste to me either, or at least there was a lack of complexity/body to any maltiness that was there. I did quite easily notice multiple times a bit of "corn". If you've ever been to a brewery/distillery that uses corn fermentation you should know what I mean, but I suppose even eating fresh corn might give a bit of a similar taste. While senses can sometimes be deceiving/wrong, I believe that this beer must have been fortified with a corn-based low-filtration alcohol, otherwise I don't know why I'd be tasting any corn in this. Am I crazy to say this? I don't know if that's something that's ever done. Heck maybe it's a beer made mostly/exclusively from corn? is that possible? because that's kind of what it tastes like.

I poured it from a 473 ml can (and also drank most straight from the can), which some might say contributed to the metallic taste, but I don't believe in that sort of thing. I don't find that cans affect the flavor in any sort of significant way; especially not to this extent. The last beer I had as a draft from a bar and it tasted very metallic and "bad" like this as well, which is an interesting coincidence (it might have been Labatt beer even for all I know, as it was just the house draft). I think the metallic taste is due to the carbonation (carbonic acid), and not being masked enough by any other flavors. Another way to describe it would perhaps be like a mild sodium bicarbonate solution, or club soda. Mix a bit of really cheap low-filtered/unfiltered corn vodka with some club soda and you'd probably be getting close to the taste of what I'm predominately feeling here. Obviously that's a bit of an exaggeration though.


Unsurprisingly the 7% ABV isn't well hidden as it's an extremely prominent "flavor" as well. I do like that it has high ABV though, as I've found that I generally do like beers that have higher ABV, which is why I thought I'd give this a shot. However while it is a low price point for relatively high alcohol content, my go-to cheap high-ABV beer is MILES away better than this. Faxe Strong. At least where I live (Canada) Faxe is essentially the same price per ml as this, right around the bottom of what I think the minimum legal price is considering the ABV— or at least around the minimum of what's commercially viable in the country as well considering that they're individually canned and individually sold (although I suppose some are sold in packs as well). I wasn't expecting anything from Faxe Strong, but I was actually surprised at it being very good. It's one of my favorite reasonably-price high ABV-beers, right under most of the stuff that Unibroue produces (although Unibroue comes at a higher price point, still well-priced)

Because of how much I disliked it, or rather how I disliked pretty much every aspect of it, I'm not sure how to even rate this. All I can say is that it's probably worse than anything commercial that I've had before, and is right around the bottom, just probably not worst possible. I'm sure it's possible to scrape lower without getting into non-commercial or spoiled/skunked beers.

I don't know if this is a pro or a con, but I got to "enjoy" the beer over a long period of time due to it not being in any way delicious.

So really anywhere between a 1 and a 1.75 (out of 5) seems reasonable to me. The main thing that you take from this is that in most citiess there should be no reason to buy this when there are better alternatives (at least at other stores)
Nov 03, 2019
 
Rated: 4.22 by cetialpha10 from New York

Jul 22, 2018
Photo of superspak
Reviewed by superspak from North Carolina

3.53/5  rDev +40.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
24 ounce can into lager glass, canned on 4/20/2018. Pours crystal clear deep golden amber color with a 1 finger fairly dense and fluffy white head with great retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of cracker, corn, white bread dough, toasted biscuit, light honey/nuttiness, and mild herbal/grassy earthiness. A bit of fruity/metallic aromas, but not overwhelming; mostly went away as it warmed. Nice an pleasant aromas with bready malt, corn, and mild earthy hop notes; with solid strength. Taste of cracker, corn, white bread dough, toasted biscuit, light honey/nuttiness, and mild herbal/grassy earthiness. Very mild herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of cracker, corn, white bread dough, toasted biscuit, light honey/nuttiness, and herbal/grassy earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Nice robustness of bready malt, corn, and mild earthy hop flavors; with a nice malt/bitterness balance; and zero cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Very clean on lager flavors, with minimal fruity notes present. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering bitterness. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; with a smooth, creamy/bready/grainy, and lightly sticky mouthfeel that is good. Increasingly warming 8% alcohol, but not too rough of a finish. Overall this is a pretty good iced malt liquor. All around good robustness of bready malt, corn, and mild earthy hop flavors; very smooth and easy to drink for the ABV; with the mildly bitter/boozy finish. Clean and rich barely/grain flavors with mild earthy hop balance. Not overdone on the corn adjuncts. A nicely enjoyable, and well made style example.
Jun 02, 2018
Photo of ChicagoJ
Reviewed by ChicagoJ from Illinois

2.01/5  rDev -19.9%
look: 2.25 | smell: 1.75 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2
1/13/18: 24 oz can purchased at Shop & Save Market, $1.49 w/ tax. Poured a 24 ounce can over two pours, canned on 11/7/17 into a large flute. Beer is 8.0% ABV, not the 7.1% listed above. Pour clear yellow, soapy cloudy white head which lasted a while. Nominal corn aroma and taste, mild carbonation, very thin mouth feel. Alcohol hidden until you consume the can, very light drinking due to the light taste and thin texture.
Jan 14, 2018
 
Rated: 2.22 by BenHoppy from Michigan

Nov 17, 2017
 
Rated: 2.48 by OneTuffPony from Canada (ON)

Sep 26, 2017
 
Rated: 2.25 by Rhettroactive from Virginia

Jul 21, 2017
 
Rated: 2.73 by billab914 from Virginia

Jul 21, 2017
 
Rated: 3 by paulish from New York

Jul 10, 2017
Photo of YourMackDaddy
Reviewed by YourMackDaddy from Canada (NL)

1.55/5  rDev -38.2%
look: 2.25 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.25 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 1.5
I'm sure beer gets worse than this, but I'm blessed that I have only had one that would fall to those murky depths. This is in the bottom 2 worst beers I've ever had, and it's cutting it close. This stuff is awful, don't buy this.

L - Looks kinda off-putting. A yellow, over carbonated pour with some soapy head. Resembles something between fresh urine and mop bucket water. But it's hard to actually fuck this up and it has a head so although it's not a pretty sight, it's not as much of a warning sign as it should be.

S - It's the usual for a beer to rank poorly here because it has no discernible scent characteristics. It's not as usual for it to rank poorly because it actually smells unpleasant. This beer has its standard malty and corny smell, but intertwined with a chemical aroma that just doesn't belong there. It keeps reminding me of cleaner for some reason.

T - I could give the actual account of taste, which is chemical doused corn and alcohol and not much else. But really the way I'd honestly describe it is like drinking regularly bad mass-produced beer, by pouring it on a shirt you've worn for a long time and wringing it out. It's oddly accurate to what you'd imagine, and just as off putting as it should be. Aftertaste lingers for too long, and is a haunting reminder of what just happened.

F - Admittedly the mouthfeel is not horrific. It's actually kinda average. Not that light, little too carbonated, smooth enough, and goes down even if the entire trip is unpleasant. But it's not worth it.

O - If you're not a broke alcoholic, you can be doing better. Hell, even if you are a broke alcoholic you probably can still do better. I refuse to believe that there isn't better options than this. Such as drinking antifreeze or huffing your own excrement.
May 08, 2017
Photo of Schlitz74
Reviewed by Schlitz74 from Illinois

1.25/5  rDev -50.2%
look: 1.25 | smell: 1.25 | taste: 1.25 | feel: 1.25 | overall: 1.25
This is just plain awful, it pours a golden color with a thick white head, I put it in the freezer for a half hour. it leaves little in the way of lacing. There is nothing good here.
Jan 18, 2017
Labatt Max Ice from Labatt Brewing Company Ltd.
Beer rating: 62 out of 100 with 110 ratings