Here's a bottle I picked up from Barcelona airport on the way back from my recent weekend break. With its fancy packaging and its own informative card handout and bottle leaflet. From the makers of Estrella Damm, Inedit, it says is a unique blend of lager and Wit bier styles and is designed for fine dining by being highly versatile with 'the most exquisite and challenging foods'. Apparently Inedit is named after the concept and means "never been done before" (your kidding me, right?). But coming out of a beer desert such as Spain, it sure is promoted with confidence.
So despite the hype, I've seen a lot of beer enthusiasts slag this beer off. Was it because it's a Macro beer, or because it just falls short? Take for example the Beer Nuts take on it. When you try it the term diluted Hoegaarden really does ring true tho. On the nose it's pleasant enough, coriander spice with subtle clove. Palate is very light but soft before the macro-lager influence gives a slight toasty, dry, watery effect that tones down the whole Belgian Wit Bier experience before fading to a dry finish of nothingness.
So I can see why beer enthusiasts wouldn't be drawn to this beer, or even hate it. The marketing really comes across as patronising and dismissive to what the worldwide brewing scene already has to offer. It assumes those reading it know beer only as a yellow fizzy mass market produced watery liquid to be served ice cold and are like 'wow a beer to be served with food, what a novel idea!'.
But despite the criticism I myself am giving this the benefit of the doubt. Think of it in the context of a nation with a relatively boring beer market (i.e. Spain) and how this introduces something a little different, or at least raises intrigue in that market. The beer has some character (although minimal) and what character it doesn't have it makes up for by being almost as bland and refreshing as most other Spanish beers. It's not quite 'lowest common denomenator' and to most beer drinkers at large it sits on the metaphorical line between blandness and interesting. But for a brewing scene such as that found in Spain, it has be a good thing that will hopefully lead drinkers to seek out and explore the world of beer.
Anything like this released over here tho, I would say down with this muck!
1 comment:
I tried this at Bruges Beer Festival of all places (not quite sure how it crept in there) and I also found it rather underwhelming. I entirely take your point about judging it in relation to the Spanish beer scene in general but I think too much attention was paid to the publicity and presentation (both of which were hard to fault - if you didn't know much about beer) and not enough to what went into the bottle. As you say, probably a beer for people who don't really drink beer. Certainly not worth its usual hefty price tag.
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