Kick Axe Malt Liquor
Minhas Craft Brewery

Oh this is not retired. Just got a four-banger, alive and well. Classic malt liquor. Unless I am drinking something from two years ago these guys are still making it. Just bought it.

This is a typical H.G. malt liquor, strong sweet smell and big off white head poured into a large mug. There is some lacing left on the glass. I get a boozy taste in the finish. This is still available in the areas of Wisconsin I was in this weekend. This is not very good. Glad to see it is being phased out.

Yet another rarity from the shelves of John's Grocery.
The can looks like they told the marketing department: "Ok guys, make it look like St. Ides, just change it enough so we don't get sued."

Bright golden orange, a brief flurry of bubbles and thin layer of foam that dissipates in seconds.
Smells like a sweaty fistful of pennies and melting orange candies. Corn silage.

Tastes insipid and bland, with a gross slickened envelope glue aftertaste that won't go away. Sweet and fusely, wet paper, cloying like eight spoons of sugar on a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal. Kind of a harsh astringent feel, the opposite of what you'd want your malt liquor to taste like. Gross, but not the worst on the market. It swirls just above the bottom of the bowl.

Another clueless wonder from the minds at Minhas.

 

 

 

A nice little gem of a malt. Kick Axe is one of those brews that just doesn't get enough publicity, and that is a shame. The can is artistically different than other malts of comparable potency. The 'Kick Axe' logo is written in cursive on a shiny black can. She cracked open like a champ, and I was greeted by a sweet nose of fruitiness. The first sip is always the most interesting, and I was not let down. At a respectable 8.6 % ABV, it has a little kick to it, but not anything offensive or overly sweet. It's almost a slightly less potent version of Axe Head, which is also made by Minhas, and is delicious in its own right. Like Axe Head, it has a 'micro-brewish' quality to it. A great value at $1.25 per 24 ounce can, I had a good buzz for just over 5 dollars with tax and deposit. If you ever come across Kick Axe, be sure to grab it up...it's really quite good!!!

 

Did pour this from the can into a pint glass. Poured a dark yellow, with little head.

Smell was strong and wreaked of fusel alcohol.

Taste was not all that different from the smell. Big fusel note, along with the sweet note as well.

This one did not go down very smooth. Could have been much better on mouthfeel (when compared to other minhas brews)

Overall, I give this a D+ for being a strong malt liquor, yet lacking in the taste dept.

Appearance - Pale to medium yellow. Clear and bubbly. White film for a head with little persistence.

Smell - Light pale malt and corn. Cloyingly sweet.

Taste - Sweet light macro flavor. A little skunky off-flavor. Alcohol. The malt liquor trifecta.

Mouthfeel - Light and crisp.

Overall - Not sure if I can call this better or worse than other malt liquors. It's simply not good and lacks the cache of St. Ides or Old English. Why bother.

I am once again reduced to drinking an AmeriCAN Malt Liquor as part of the CANQuest. As an added bonus, it is another beer from Minhas Brewery in Monroe, WI which has yet to produce a beer that I would deem drinkable.

This from a 24-oz. King CAN. The head was a couple of fingers' worth of fizzy, off-white foam that quickly dissipated as though it were ashamed to be associated with this beer. The beer itself had a deep-golden yellow color with NE-quality clarity, not unlike apple juice. Nose was sweet and sickening, the usual combination of cotton candy and plastics factory that identifies a Minhas beer. Oof. Mouthfeel was medium with tastes of green apple, fusel alcohol and sugary sweetness on the tongue. Why am I doing this to myself? A steady diet of this would leave one with a hangover like one had been kicked in the head with an axe. Finish was bone dry, leaving me sucking for air. Gad, but this is evil.

Clear golden with a quickly settling fizzy off white head. The nose is faint grits and apple skin. The flavor is green apple heavy and that is about it, there is some slight corniness in the finish. While drinkable, this is mediocre malt liquor at best.

This 24 ounce can of Kick Axe Malt Liquor looks puny and intimidated beside the huge, 40 ounce, black and silver labeled bottle of Axe Head. The ABV is a good bit lower too. As a final insult, Axe Head Malt Liquor is so tough that it has earned an entry in the on-line Urban Dictionary. None of that will matter if this beer is able to stagger away with the Malt Likkapalooza XI crown. Let's see how things shake out.

The beers look the same (bright gold), but the head on this lager is brighter white, more uniform (less character) and leaves no more than a short collar of lace. It looks like Kick Axe just got its ass kicked in round one.

The aroma is just as disappointing as Axe Head's. There isn't as much alcohol (natch) and there isn't much of anything else either. Maybe a little musty grain, but it takes work to appreciate that. Neither one of these punks gets it done in terms of the nose.

Kick Axe tastes remarkably similar to its competition. The alcohol isn't as prominent, there might be a little more green apple flavor, and it's a bit sweeter as well. I have no doubt that the brewery didn't go to great lengths to come up with vastly different recipes, especially when the purpose is the same in the end.

As noted in the other review, the mouthfeels don't have a dime's worth of difference between them. Not even a nickel's worth. Anyone who drinks this stuff on a regular basis (hard to believe) doesn't care about mouthfeel anyway, just about mindfeel and bodyfeel.

Although Kick Axe won't kick your axe as quickly as Axe Head, it'll get the job done if you let it. Neither one of these beers is the sharpest axe in the shed, but then brute force is what malt liquors are all about. Congratulations to Minhas for winning Malt Likkapalooza XI... and condolences to them for losing Malt Likkapalooza XI.