Yeah, you read that right: Pizza Beer. I heard about this beer a few months back and thought it sounded pretty out there. Still, it could work, right? Pizza and beer together? I'm sure at least one college student per week tries to put these together in a blender while heavily intoxicated.
Here's how the beer's made (according to the website):
"Pizza Beer is a debris free product. The Margarita pizza is put into the mash & steeped like a tea bag. A whole wheat crust made with water, flour & yeast is topped with tomato, oregano, basil & garlic. The essence of the pizza spices is washed off with hot water and filtered into a brewpot, where it is boiled for a long, long time. During the process, we add hops & spices in a cheesecloth type bag & filter the cooled liquid into a fermentation vessel. (big glass 6 gallon water jug). After a week or two, the beer is good to go. Keg it or bottle it."
Ok, I take it back. This sounds awful.
Pizza Beer pours a slightly cloudy pale yellow color with a lot of visible carbonation and a foamy off-white head. Despite the brewery's claims that Pizza Beer is debris free, I found what looked like a piece of crust clinging to the side of my glass, streaming bubbles of carbonation. Eeeeewwww. I was a little scared to see what the beer smelled like, but I finally mustered up the courage and gave it a whiff. Such a bad idea. I picked up huge aromas of...pizza. Or really, what smelled like day old pizza still in the box. I tried this beer with Beau and another friend from our work, Justin, and we all agreed that this beer smells like not only pizza, but the cardboard delivery box as well. The closest thing I can describe it to is this: Imagine that you went out to get a pizza and got distracted by something on your way home, leaving the pizza in the car. The next morning, you climb into the car and meet the smells of a soggy pizza, a partially eroded cardboard box and the smell of your car's interior saturated with pizza funk. If this has ever happened to you, then you know exactly what Pizza Beer smells like.
Honestly, after smelling this beer, I didn't really want to take a sip. Our tasting had somehow devolved into an episode of Fear Factor, and we were only on the first beer of the day. Beau was about to taste it, though, and I wasn't going to let him go alone, so I closed my eyes and took a swig. It's almost painful now to remember the taste, but I'll my best try to put in words what this beer tasted like. It was like a blend of crappy beer and pizza sauce. I picked up a lot of tomato, basil and oregano upfront. A slight hint of the base beer (which I'm nearly convinced is Coors Light or a duplicate) was evident in the background with a hint of grain and yeast. Overall, I would highly, highly recommend not getting this beer. Unless, of course, it's going to be used for a prank (and it would make a fantastic prank). And no, Pizza Beer didn't quite make the Top 100 list.
Final Grade: D-
Top 100 Beers Tasted: 19
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