Carlton Cold
Carlton & United Breweries, Ltd.

Carlton ColdCarlton Cold
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From:
Carlton & United Breweries, Ltd.
 
Australia
Style:
Light Lager
ABV:
3.5%
Score:
50
Avg:
1.66 | pDev: 31.33%
Reviews:
30
Ratings:
51
Status:
Active
Rated:
Feb 28, 2022
Added:
Feb 24, 2002
Wants:
  4
Gots:
  3
No description / notes.
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Ratings by Andrewharemza:
Photo of Andrewharemza
Reviewed by Andrewharemza from Australia

2.95/5  rDev +77.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Carlton Cold is filtered below zero degrees celsius, creating a full flavoured fresh taste. The mid strength beer has subtle bitterness with a crisp dry finish, providing an easy drinking experience.
Jun 13, 2015
More User Ratings:
Photo of RichardLeahy
Reviewed by RichardLeahy from Australia

2.01/5  rDev +21.1%
look: 4 | smell: 1.75 | taste: 1.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 1.5
Looks like beer, smells and tastes like urine with a metallic taint to set your teeth on edge. In the Worst Rated list on BA and its place is well deserved. Horrible! No longer abv 4.9% but reconfigured a few years ago into a 3.5% mid strength. I never tried the heavy version, which a few members rate moderately.
Feb 28, 2022
Photo of Sigmund
Reviewed by Sigmund from Norway

2.23/5  rDev +34.3%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.25 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.25
September 2008: 375 ml clear bottle, courtesy of Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 4.6%. Crystal clear pale golden colour, fizzy, with a big to moderate lasting white head. Moderate fruity aroma, notes of candy and citrus. Zesty mouthfeel. The flavour is moderately sweet with some fruity notes, minimal hops, bland finish. Not much to write home about here. Far from undrinkable though.
Jul 20, 2021
Photo of kitschiguy
Reviewed by kitschiguy from Hong Kong

1.02/5  rDev -38.6%
look: 1.25 | smell: 1 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1
I recently reviewed Victoria Bitter which I drank for old time's sake by chance and it reminded me of one of the other beers I drank whilst in Australia; Carlton Cold.

I wanted to review this beer because unlike VB which I liked at the time but recently gave a very poor review, this beer I disliked even at the time so I wanted to see if it really is as bad as I remember.

My friend recently went to Australia so I asked him ton grab me a bottle so I could review it.

Poured most of a 355ml bottle into a 350ml beer glass.

Poured a pale watery yellow with a very loose, low head that disappeared almost immediately. No lacing.

Nose was extremely disappointing. A faint hoppy aroma, some other faint but unidentifiable aromas. maybe chemical. Horrible.

Palate. Much the same as the nose; faintly hoppy and watery. No complexity or malt. Horrible. Probably worse than the nose.

Mouth was watery with very loose medium to heavy artificial carbonation. Horrible.

Overall, probably even worse than I remember. An almost unbelievably woeful attempt at brewing beer. Breweries that churn out abominations like this shouldn't be allowed to call it lager or beer. It should perhaps be called "Carlton Cold - Adjunct Grain Derivative"

Absolutely horrible. Highly unrecommended.
Jul 27, 2015
 
Rated: 1.34 by nitrofenix from Australia

Jan 29, 2015
Photo of SmashPants
Reviewed by SmashPants from Australia

1.62/5  rDev -2.4%
look: 1.75 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.75
Format: a standard clear 355mL bottle with that old Carlton Cold macro label. I get the feeling that CUB has dropped Cold from being a full strength to a mid at 3.5% (as this bottle is) when they started their big advertising campaign a year or so ago. I used to drink Cold at barbeques because I was a poor student. Let's revisit it at 3.5% and see if it is any good.

Appearance: poured out a light yellow in colour with a continual swirling cascade of carbonation. Even with a fairly generous pour, very little head pops up - just a light white cap and ring.

Aroma: this has a smell? I got so close to try and smell it that I accidentally snorted some, which was both embarrassing and a bit of a mistake. Once it was clinging to my nose (and possibly my brain), I got wet cardboard and some cheap grains. Great.

Taste: a pretty damn awful cheap grain and corn adjunct dominates what little flavour this thing has. One of the rare few beers that actually makes me pull a weird face.

Aftertaste: drops away quickly with just a touch of sweetness coming through from the grain.

Mouth feel: light and watery in body with a mouth-filling carbonation. Not great.

Overall: for the sake of my many barbeque memories, I will assume that the Carton Cold that I used to drink 10 years ago (the full strength 4.9%) was less bad than this 3.5% that you get now. This beer manages somehow to be both boring, and taste bad. Most of it was donated to the Gods of the sink. It's only AU$40 a case, but seriously, just drink water or something. It certainly tastes better.
Dec 19, 2014
Photo of Andrewziggy
Reviewed by Andrewziggy from Australia

2.1/5  rDev +26.5%
look: 1.75 | smell: 2.25 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.25
Just a typical Aussie macro lager. Whilst the taste is not offensive and thankfully lacks the coin flavour that many others feature, it is just so plain and unimaginative that I couldn't commend it in any way other that to say it does not make me recoil. Basically water with a slight generic beer taste. OK for a knock-off beer after grafting on a stinking hot day
Dec 18, 2014
 
Rated: 3.12 by mgi020 from New York

Dec 02, 2014
 
Rated: 2.5 by Stuckey_Stuckey from Australia

Sep 16, 2014
 
Rated: 1.6 by Rickus from Taiwan

Sep 06, 2014
 
Rated: 2 by NorCalAussie from California

Jul 30, 2014
 
Rated: 1.5 by Taphouse_Traveler from Florida

Jul 29, 2014
 
Rated: 1.5 by BuddhaBrowett from Sweden

Jul 05, 2014
Photo of WaynesWorld
Reviewed by WaynesWorld from Australia

1.12/5  rDev -32.5%
look: 3 | smell: 1 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1
Honestly and without hesitation I can say that I used to love this beer.
When it was considered a heavy, in the older style bottle and before the $5m relaunch.
It had the crisp yet satisfying appeal but now that Carlton have sucked the the living essence out the first beer I ever tried I will never be buying it again.

All I can say is good job to the dickhead who thought that that was a good idea.
Mar 16, 2014
 
Rated: 1.5 by spycow from Illinois

Mar 15, 2014
Photo of piss-wreck44
Reviewed by piss-wreck44 from Australia

1.28/5  rDev -22.9%
look: 3 | smell: 1.25 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1.5
this beers is crap when i open there is minimal fizz from the low carbonation in the beer its self. the aroma that comes out when first opened is putrid my fat chicks girlfriends shit smells and tastes and better than this and trust me i would know. give me a VB any day that shit is fucking holy water even better taken as a suppository.
Jan 04, 2014
 
Rated: 1.5 by djbx from Australia

Oct 20, 2013
 
Rated: 1.5 by colbster92 from Pennsylvania

Sep 29, 2013
Photo of Olek4374
Reviewed by Olek4374 from Canada (AB)

1.57/5  rDev -5.4%
look: 2.75 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1.5
This is the second of three Australian beers my store has brought in, and is surprisingly the most expensive one despite... on here anyway, looking like the worst. I had to go for it though. My store, to make any sort of decent margin, sells this catastrophe for 4 Canadian dollars per small 330ml bottle, making it by far the biggest rip off in the entire store. Nobody even gave it a chance as a $21 6-pack. I digress though.

The beer honestly looks pretty nice - it as a slightly darker shade of yellow than most adjunct lagers and has a copper-y colour to it that makes it resemble almost exactly the bottle of maple whiskey that is sitting on my table. Not bad on that front.

The smell is also not bad. It's got the standard adjunct smell, but it has some kind of deep, fruity smell that makes smelling it almost interesting and is not offensive, especially considering the beer vatriety. Smells good; looks good; what could go wrong?

Well, after the first sip, I very well knew what went wrong. The taste of this beer is just bad, bad, bad. It's a corny burst on the tongue with an explosion (no joke, it felt that way) of sour aftertaste. Going down the beer felt like straw... it was ROUGH, a term I don't even use much for heavy beers, but that is what was going on. 1's for taste and feel for sure - I can't even finish more than 5cm of the glass, it is just that putrid. Do not want.
Aug 05, 2013
 
Rated: 1.5 by magpieken from Australia

Apr 11, 2013
Carlton Cold from Carlton & United Breweries, Ltd.
Beer rating: 50 out of 100 with 51 ratings