Review: Steel Reserve 211

Review: Steel Reserve 211 by Cody La Bière
A continuation & finale of the swill beer marathon that started with Natty Daddy on the weekend. Tonight's review is Steel Reserve 211 (High Gravity) lager, which is a high ABV malt beer made by the Steel Brewing Company out of Milwaukee, Wisonsin.

Steel Reserve isn't the first Steel-based beer I've tried. Briefly in 2005, the MLCC sold Steelback Beer, a malty lager in a tallcan, just like this. The brewery has since shut down. Lakeport (Labatt) also has a Steeler beer. To me, any beer with the word "Steel" in it makes me think of malt lager, high ABV, a beer aimed to people who want to get drunk for cheap.

Appearance: Tall silver can. Pours clear and golden, somewhat darker than the usual lagers (almost honey), lots of fizzy carbonation, almost like a soft drink. Foam disappears almost immediately, eggshell white foam.

Aroma: The beer is probably 2 feet away from my nose and I can smell the really sweet maltiness of the beer. You can tell that this is a cheaply made beer. Very malty, cornfilled. A bit of an aluminum aroma even after pouring in glass. Not a fan of the smell/taste of aluminum in beer. That's cause I'm a glass man!

Taste: Not as malty as the Natty Daddy but still, very malty. I don't know.. this is just your standard very malty beer. You remember that tall can of malty beer you were handed when you were young? Yeah, it's like that. Not as bad as Natty Daddy but it's still not good in any sense. You can really taste the maltiness, as well as that stereotypical corn taste all macros seem to have now days. Yuck.

Overall thoughts: Better than Natty Daddy, as said before, but I hate overly malty beers. Not even a hint of hops, not really refreshing. Too sweet, corny. Obviously a low quality product made for those who want to get buzzed, fast. It has an ABV of 8.1%. On the can it states that it has "extra malted barley & select hops for EXTRA Gravity." Is select hops a variety of hops grown for swill manufacturers? I would not go out of my way to get this ever again. Even if I wanted a shitty beer night, this wouldn't be on my list.

"The two eleven mark, based on the medieval symbol for steel, appears only on Steel Reserve High Gravity lager. We use nearly twice the ingredients of many normal lagers & brew for over twice as long as many quality beers."

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