Walgreens’ cheap beer fails Colbert taste test

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Typically, a mention on national TV of your product is a good thing.

That wasn’t the case, though, when comedian Stephen Colbert recently did a spoof on Big Flats 1901, a low-cost beer offered by Deerfield-based Walgreens.

“Big as in the quantity you can buy with the change between your couch cushions. And flat for both the taste and the position it’ll put your body in,” cracked Colbert on his Comedy Central show. “Who can resist a beer with the tag line ‘It’s the water that makes it’?”

The beer, priced at $2.99 for a six-pack, is about half the price of many popular domestic brands.

Walgreens says it is just offering a good product at a low price.

Kathleen Burns, senior marketing manager at Winery Exchange, which supplies the new beer exclusively for Walgreens, said “consumer feedback has been very positive, as beer drinkers across the U.S. are thrilled to have such a quality brew at a value price.”

It is brewed in a plant in upstate New York.

Craft beer buffs consider it a novelty.

“In a word, the taste is terrible, but at 50 cents a can, you can’t expect a whole lot,” quipped Gina Rakers at the beer blog www.HoosierBeerGeek.blogspot.com.

But Sioux City Journal reviewer Tim Hynds wrote, “Overall, this beer is drinkable, especially at colder temperatures, and might even be decent after a lawn mowing session.”

Dailybeerreview.com called it, “Not bad tasting, just bland.”

On the site ratebeer.com, drinker descriptions ranged from “skunky” to “tastes better than Budweiser.”

The same company brews other private label alcohol for chains such as Trader Joe’s and discounter Costco.

Walgreens also plans to pop the cork on a new table wine. Australian winemaker Daryl Groom created Colby Red, which is to be priced at $12.99.

Walgreens plans to introduced the wine this month.

Gannett News Service