James Ready 6.0
Moosehead Breweries Ltd.

Clear gold with small fizzy head. Sweet corn nose. Light, non-descript sweet malt adjunct taste. Light carbonation. Did I say non-descript?

 

 

for the price and alcohol content, actually quite good.

 

 

 

355 mL slim-can from a 6-pack picked up at TBS. I only have this because I needed something cheap to drink socially a few days ago, and decided to save this can for review purposes (I really doubt I'll go out of my way to buy it again). Served ice cold.

Pours a pale golden-yellow colour, bright and clear, and topped with slightly more than one finger's worth of foamy, sparkling white head. It clings to the sides as it recedes over the next few minutes, leaving a fine coating of sticky lacing behind, and eventually a thin, soapy cap at the surface. Say what you will about these JR beers, at least they look attractive... but unfortunately, this consistency carries over into the familiarly unpleasant bouquet. This one's aroma isn't as rank as a lot of higher abv lagers, but there's still very little to describe - pale malts, corny sweetness, apple juice and a hint of ethanol. It basically smells like JR5.5 with a marginally stronger booze presence.

Actually, it pretty much tastes the same way - like someone splashed 0.5% more alcohol into a vat of 5.5. The usual corny adjunct, pale malt sweetness and appleskin flavours I find in these value-brand lagers are firmly evident, but the added ethanol provides a decidedly unpleasant, almost solvent-like finish. Aftertaste is corny sweetness and a twinge of alcohol, neither lingering long. Light-bodied, thin and watery, with high carbonation levels typical of macro adjuncts. Easy to drink quickly, and that is definitely what this was meant for - do yourself a favour and don't let it warm up.

Final Grade: 2.25, a regrettable D grade. I was a little confused as to why this stuff even existed - why bother adding only 0.5% to an already successful value-brand lager? So I did a little math to work out whether James Ready 6.0 is actually worth it.
- You can get an 8 pack of 355 mL cans of JR 5.5 for about $13.00
- A 6 pack of 355 mL cans of JR 6.0 is about $9.50.
In terms of mL of alcohol per dollar, JR 6.0 is a slightly better deal than 5.5, but the overarching empirical fact we are ignoring in this analysis is that 6.0 doesn't taste very good. Don't get me wrong - JR 5.5 is no masterpiece, but I honestly fail to see the point of this fractionally 'amped-up' version when it tastes so much lamer than the original. Probably meant more as a competitor for those Molson Cold Shots than as a serious pound-em-all-night value brand lager.