Carling Blue Label

[DieBaas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close DieBaas]

Saw a promo box at the Gautrain station this morning of Carling Blue Label SAB's first Single Malt beer and I'm thinking you lazy bastards, this ain't whiskey this is a SMaSH beer!

As a black label drinker (don't judge!), I'll give it a shot. Has anybody tried it?

[Michelle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Michelle]

No judgement from my side. I'm also a Black label fan but I was totally underwhelmed with the Blue label. But grab a 6 pack I decide for yourself.
Myself, sticking to Black label.

[Guest Close AtronSeige]

Saw a promo box at the Gautrain station this morning of Carling Blue Label SAB's first Single Malt beer and I'm thinking you lazy bastards, this ain't whiskey this is a SMaSH beer!

As a black label drinker (don't judge!), I'll give it a shot. Has anybody tried it?

I liked it, but it had a lot of diacetyl.

It does not have the strong banana esters of Black Label, so the two should not really be compared.

VERY IMPORTANT: Only buy the cans. Every bottle that I have tried has been skunked! Even the ones at SAB!

It uses more than one hops, so it is not a true SMASH. Some SA hops and Perle.

8 of them will get you tipsy.

[ljm109 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ljm109]

Tried it this evening.... not bad. Little hoppier and lighter than black label, but what a marketing ploy..

All this "Blue label" and "single malt" business smacks of an attemp to piggy back on the brand association and "status" of whiskeys if you ask me...

But in any event.......entirely quaffable

[DieBaas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close DieBaas]

Tried it this evening.... not bad. Little hoppier and lighter than black label, but what a marketing ploy..

All this "Blue label" and "single malt" business smacks of an attemp to piggy back on the brand association and "status" of whiskeys if you ask me...

But in any event.......entirely quaffable

I agree. I'll get some for this weekend. In my experience single malt whiskeys are also just a status thing. There is no holy grail grain, and that counts for beer and whiskey. Even fermented grape juice you can add around 20% of other grapes to the mix and still be able to call it a i.e Cabernet Sauvignon.

[Guest Close AtronSeige]

The beer is brewed and marketed for a very specific audience: People who used to drink Black Label because that is what they could afford, now, they have more money and status, so they move away from Black Label.

SAB thus produced a beer (and is aggressively marketing it) to be "like" Black label, but better. There are a few things on the label that indicates it's "superiority"; the name, the "single malt", the fact that it does not mention yeast as an ingredient, branded bottle, gold lines. There are a few other things, but I do not have the bottle in front of me, so I can't check.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

They got me to buy 1 bottle to try .... Lets just say that's the only money they'll make off me with this one