{"id":947,"date":"2010-07-02T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=947"},"modified":"2018-02-06T14:26:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T20:26:06","slug":"arbor-brewing-lager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/arbor-brewing-lager\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Arbor Brewing \u201cChips and Salsa\u201d Lager"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Arbor Brewing Says<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Our new Chips & Salsa beer is like nothing you\u2019ve ever tasted.\u00a0 Brewed with corn flour, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, onions, jalapenos and a pinch of salt, this beer is a fiesta in a glass.\u00a0 The base is a medium-bodied golden lager with a pronounced but well-integrated salsa taste resulting in a deliciously unique and drinkable brew.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BeerAdvocate Says:<\/em> Nothing<\/a>.\u00a0 I get a lot of food-menu results when I search for this so I’m going to assume I’m the only person to ever write about this beer on the internets.<\/p>\n

Sayeth The Guys:<\/em> Hm.\u00a0 A very bemused “Hm” indeed.<\/p>\n

How do you describe a beer that has almost zero relation to anything you’ve ever had?\u00a0 For as many beers that exist, they do tend to stay to a narrow range of recognizable flavors.\u00a0 So when a brewer decides to mix it up and brew something that resembles an appetizer at a Mexican restaurant…what the sweet hell are you supposed to do with it?\u00a0 Garnish with tomatoes?\u00a0 Dip something into it?<\/p>\n

A little backstory.\u00a0 I stumbled across this during a quick trip to Grand Rapids’ Hopcat, who trumpets themselves as the #3 Beer Bar in the World<\/a> according to BA Magazine.\u00a0 I can believe it.\u00a0 For our Chicago readers, if you were to pick up Hopcat, drop it just about anywhere on the north side of the city and open the doors, the immediate cry would be “It’s like the Hopleaf<\/a>, but bigger!\u00a0 And with house-brewed beers!”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Inside: Lots of beer and loud World Cup fans.<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ll try to put together a full glance at HopCat sometime in the future, fingers crossed.\u00a0 For now suffice it to say that between the huge list of drafts, the in-house microbrewery and the encyclopedic bottle list, if you can’t find something you don’t want to drink then you either aren’t trying or you’re just being stubborn.<\/p>\n

After spending a good 10 minutes inspecting the draft list, my server came over and asked what I wanted.\u00a0 Not having a clue, I performed the move I like to call the “See & Say.”\u00a0 The first beer I saw on the list as I picked it up would be the one I ordered.\u00a0 That beer was the Chips N’ Salsa.\u00a0 I was afraid I picked up the food menu instead, but lo and behold, it’s an actual beer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Yep, an actual beer.<\/p><\/div>\n

Made as a special batch to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I’m somewhat surprised it survived through to the end of June, or maybe I should take that as an indication of people’s tastes and how much they want salsa in their beer.<\/p>\n

Served up in a tulip glass, this shockingly yellow beer screams “I’m corn!\u00a0 I’m made of corn!\u00a0 Good lord am I corny!”<\/em> Which is true – but for once, in a good way.\u00a0 Or at least, a not-bad way.\u00a0 Not knowing what Arbor said about this beer going into it, I could discern the tortilla taste, the tomato, the salt and even a little scallion in this beer – in other words, it was a beer that tasted like chips and salsa.\u00a0 Hence the name.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, it had a very light feel, no syrup or\u00a0 malt to it.\u00a0 As it warms it transitions from corn overload to a sort of cider presence that wasn’t necessarily bad, but I’d suggest that you move quickly through this one.\u00a0 The 5.7% ABV is almost unnoticable, however – very well hidden.<\/p>\n

Arbor says there are also onions and jalapenos in there as well.\u00a0 Perhaps there were, but I love a spicy beer, and didn’t get any oniony tang or heat here, just a salt presence.\u00a0 But it did deliver on what it promised.\u00a0 It’s like the scene in Willy Wonka where he puts a full meal’s flavor into a piece of gum.\u00a0 Will it be the wave of the future?\u00a0 Time will tell.\u00a0 Would I want to drink a prime rib dinner with blueberry pie for dessert?\u00a0 Well….maybe?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

You can’t read this, but that’s just the draft list.<\/p><\/div>\n

Unique?\u00a0 Hell yes.\u00a0 Drinkable?\u00a0 Absolutely, especially on a humid June day.\u00a0 Arbor suggests that you pair this “with your favorite Mexican dishes.\u00a0 Stands up to your hottest and spiciest menu.”\u00a0 I would advise the exact opposite. This is so startlingly similar to chips and salsa that were you to put this up against a burrito, some enchiladas or…some chips and salsa, I’d wager that this beer disappears among the flavors.\u00a0 Just a hunch.\u00a0 Drink it solo.<\/p>\n

Would I order it again?\u00a0 I’d certainly tell you <\/em>to order one just to give it a once-over, but for myself, probably not.\u00a0 I’m glad I had it, but with my curiosity satiated and the rest of the HopCat menu in front of me, I didn’t see any reason to go for round two.\u00a0 Still, it’s a boundary-blurrer and remains the single most interesting <\/em>beer I’ve had in quite some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weird one-off Arbor Brewing Lager is “brewed with corn flour, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, onions, jalapenos and a pinch of salt; a fiesta in a glass.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[166],"yoast_head":"\n"Chips and Salsa": An Arbor Brewing Lager | Guys Drinking Beer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This weird one-off Arbor Brewing Lager is "brewed with corn flour, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, onions, jalapenos and a pinch of salt; a fiesta in a glass."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/arbor-brewing-lager\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Chips and Salsa": An Arbor Brewing Lager | Guys Drinking Beer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This weird one-off Arbor Brewing Lager is "brewed with corn flour, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, onions, jalapenos and a pinch of salt; 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