Spudweiser
Live Oak Brewing Company

Tasted on tap at the Live Oak Brewery Taproom.

Potato infused lager with American hops. Crystal clear with rocky white head. Light hops aromas seem more noble than American. Flavor is clean, light and refreshing This is a very well made lager, but not distinctive. This is a great lawnmower or ballpark beer, but the potatoes didn't do anything obvious or memorable here.

 

these guys make killer beer, stoked to find this on tap in my travels, a collaboration with hold out, which i know nothing about. its a basic lager but brewed with potatoes, which living in idaho i have seen before, some fermentable starch must exist in them, probably added to the mash then, not totally sure of the process, and this doesnt smell or taste like potatoes really to me, but its a nice crisp flavorful yet easy drinking lager, very professionally done and technically excellent as is always the case with live oak, a total drinker with a little bit of hops to it, impressive and delicious, and the name is funny. really pale, almost metallic shiny, lighter than yellow, radiant and excited with a high head and lots of frantic carbonation, looks like it should, really minimal and inviting. the nose has some earthiness to it, to me not potato specifically, didnt expect that though either, instead its dry cereal character, the lightest side of good pils type barley malt, great water chemistry too, like so clean and tidy that what i dont smell in this is part of what i do smell, if that makes sense, its snappy perfection is part of its true essence, even if thats a hard thing to really place. the hops are more robust than in a lot of basic american lager types, but its not bitter, light citrus and apple to me, herbal character too adding freshness, and its easy identify lager yeast in here even though its subtle and not real european or anything, compact and appealing. the flavor is the same, the light dry pils malt sets up the hops very well, faintly spicy on the swallow and a tad more bitter than it smells, but this has great flow and refreshment value, awesome minerality, and it seems patiently lagered, crisp and dry and polished up beautifully. this isnt over engineered and trend chasing, i think the potatoes are novelty but clearly contribute some special intangible aspects to this, as it has a lot of personality for being as brisk and light as it is, and i find myself wishing this was a full time canned offering in my neck of the woods, i could drink this forever, love the racing carbonation, and even though all the branding and stuff is goofy, i think its very serious beer. as good a clean and basic everyday lager as you will find, no kidding!

Another selection from the trip out to Texas in early June 2023. Hit up the Live Oak golf course on a hot day. Not bad. Good times. Anyways, its like 7 months later, and here I am, writing the first review for this Next Glass database. Makes you wonder if traffic down, bad. Of course not said the poser.

This pours amazingly clear light golden and yellow. I guess potatoes brew clean. 1/2" white head. The aroma was almost non existent. Ok.

The taste was like if a brewing engineer decided to make Budweiser, but with potatoes. Craft potatoes. Damn potatoes like doubled in price one night. Such nomics to campaign on. It doesn't taste like much, but its still standard lager stuff which is quite nice on a day like today (or should I say, that day). Its snowing today. But if you want to get your macro friend a beer while golfing on scene, I'd recommend this one. Light, easy, well made.

I really like both of these breweries.