Evil Eye Ice
Melanie Brewing Company

 

 

 

Thanks to womencantsail and t0rin0 for this rare malt liquor tick. Served in a taster glass at my birthday party.

A - Transparent urine yellow. White foam quickly sizzles to a thin collar, minimal lace, and a few wispy patches on top.

S - A delightful blend of sweet corn and dirty laundry. Alcohol is pretty well-hidden, and this avoids having any chemical flavors too (unlike Biggs' 'stache'), but the aroma of clothes hamper (pre-wash) was a little strange.

T - The taste is a tad better, although some fusel and chemical notes creep into the mostly corn and grape juice flavor profile. A tad watery, but drinks pretty easy and has a relatively clean finish. Alcohol is mostly hidden here as well.

M - Smooth texture, lower carbonation, and a slightly flaccid and watery medium body. It's like corn water with booze in it.

D - I liked the Haffenreffer better, but it had the decided advantage of being 6.9% rather than 10%. Still, this was superior to regular Evil Eye and oddly palatable.

Pours a clear yellow with a 1 inch foamy white head that settles to a film on top of the beer. Small streaks of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of grain, corn flakes, and sugar. Taste is pretty much the same with a metallic flavor on the finish. This beer has a higher level of carbonation with a very prickly mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty poor beer that is quite rough and not very drinkable in my opinion.

 

Huge thanks to Jacob for setting me up with a couple cans of this bad boy.

Pours a pale yellow color with a fizzy but short lived head. Surprisingly, not a really...strong nose. Corn and apple juice are prominent and there isn't really much alcohol to be found. Plenty of adjuncts in there, though. The flavor is fairly sweet, but also shockingly clean. A bit of corn and rice, some apple juice and the faintest hint of malt. Light bodied with medium to high carbonation.

12/02/2011

Can shared by Andrew at Strong Ale 2011.

A: Watered down urine with a white head.

S: Smells like corn and bread with apple. Grainy notes are pronounced

T: Corn and rice with bread and grainy malt. Alcohol is pretty well hidden. There's just a dash of metal.

M: Light body with high carbonation.

Overall: Not terrible like I expected. I'm a little disappointed that I'm not hating this.

 

I flipped out when I found some Evil Eye (or Ojo Malo, which is what I prefer to call it) ICE edition, calling womencantsail immediately to see how many he wanted in addition to my own haul. This stuff promised to be bad on a legendary level. I'll cut straight to the chase--I am sorely disappointed in this. It isn't bad by malt liquor standards, it is actually pretty good by malt liquor standards. What is going on here? Duped.

The pour is a lustrously clear medium golden with a thickish pure white head with low retention and no lacing evident. Aroma is grainy with cereals, no alcohol, no excess sweetness, no off-notes, quite clean in general. Flavor is mostly grainy pilsner malt with some cereal elements with a good balance of sweetness and crispness. No off notes and surprisingly clean finish. Light to medium body, airy and smooth for a high gravity cheap malt liquor.

My score reflects a high gravity malt liquor, this is one of the better ones I have had. No off-notes and pleasingly clean and dry. I was expecting something horrifying and was bitterly disappointed in finding this was actually better than drinking a Corona or Tecate. What a surprise.

This was round 2 of the Evil Eye challenge. Evil Eye was terrible lets see what Ice is like.

A- Pours a lighter golden yellow color. This is actually lighter than Evil Eye itself. One figner white head still shows the poor retetion of the other Evil Eye along with no lacing on the glass.

S- Green apple hints with a hint of medicinal alcohol. Stale grains come in next with a bit of metallic scent which was expected. The alcohol in this comes out again in the ending which to gbe honest wasn't all that offputting.

T- Tons of apple flavor mixes with a creamy corn mash. Some light stale grain toward the middle with some alcohol flavor that reminds me of handsoap. There once again is no hop profile at all but the alcohol in this one is more apparent than in regular Evil Eye.

M- Light mouthfeel. Carbonation is good for the style. Green apple off flavor and wet corn are left on the palate. Aftertaste is stale grain and alcohol. Flavors were put together sort of well for the style. Off flavors presented in forms of metallic flavor and green apple undertones throughout the beer.

D- This beer was bad but not horrific like Evil Eye was. ABV was not in your face but it was well known. Not my favorite of malt liquors that I have tasted but not the worst by far!

Thanks to blutt59 for sharing this 24 ounce can.

The beer pours a clear yellow color with a white head. The aroma is apples with a lot of grain. The flavor is apples, grass, grain and corn. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation. Not a very good beer, but as far as cheap, big-can malt liquors go, you can do much worse.

24oz can bought for $.89 in Hammond, Indiana.

Like pretty much all >9.0% ABV "beers", Evil Eye Ice doesn't really hold together. As such, it is, at best, an efficient alcohol delivery device.

This puppy is a very light hue (white/yellow), with a mild Glade air freshener / alcohol hand sanitizer scent. In the mouth, it is highly carbonated with a fruity taste and a "boozy" finish.

Not recommended. Despite the name, this isn't an Ice beer at all - it is a poorly-made high gravity lager. Spend a few extra cents and get Steel Reserve if you need to take a dip in the high gravity pool.

Honestly, if you get this beer you know what you are getting into.

Not nearly as bad as original Evil Eye, smells as crappy, but has a halfway smooth taste (sweet and grainy).

It does what it is supposed to do without much fuss. It is pretty strong, so one is enough to garner a decent buzz.

Appearance: Pours a clear, golden body with no head to speak of.

Smell: Suspiciously mild aroma (for a malt liquor) comprised of equal parts corn and apple-scented hand sanitizer.

Taste: Creamed corn and yellow apples with an undeniably odd sweetness. Fake flowers, and pureed apple cores midway. No hop bitterness. Mildly fusel finish that leaves you belching fumes.

Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body. Medium carbonation.

Drinkability: As per usual, it's a crime against humanity.

This review of Evil Eye Ice is part of Malt Likkapalooza VIII. Although there's no ABV listed on the black and blue can, I have little doubt that it's 10.0% like every other Evil Eye beer ever brewed. Given the fact that 'ice' beer is usually a few percentage points more potent, it could be as high as 12.0%. I'm not sure whether that will be an advantage or a disadvantage when trying to outgun St. Ides High Gravity at a measly 8.2%. I could be in for some rough sledding.

Bright amber (like most macro lagers) with a much brighter, whiter head than is seen on its competitor. The cap has a less impressive texture, is much less persistent and leaves the glass untouched. St. Ides High Gravity grabs the early lead.

Evil Eye Ice's nose isn't pure evil and it isn't the least bit appealing. It smells less sweet and more 'barley stored in a stainless steel drum'-like than St. Ides High Gravity. That isn't to say that it's metallic, it's just... industrial. At least it doesn't smell like paint thinner like I expected.

This Melanie Brewing Company product (they do have nice cans) is outmatched by a country mile in this head-to-head competition. Strangely enough, it isn't a merciless booze monster that turns up the malt liquor volume knob to the 'taste bud bleeding' mark.

It's actually a drab, unfocused, poor constructed lager that doesn't even deliver the expected ethanolic punch. It's just a crappy version, that's all there is to it. It tastes like the world's first malt liquor to use wheat instead of corn. Sorry for the lack of helpful descriptors, but the flavor profile is almost devoid of identifiable flavors.

The mouthfeel can only be described as watery. Not as watery as Bud Light, for instance, but watery for a beer of this style. I wonder if the brewery simply added alcohol after the fact, rather than using malt or, more likely, corn syrup in order to jack the ABV up to double digits.

Evil Eye Ice isn't the snarling, slavering beast of a malt liquor that I expected it to be. Rather, it's 24 fluid ounces of liquid crap. An attitude adjustment is in order before this swill can be taken seriously. Don't be disappointed that it isn't available in your neck of the woods. Be grateful.