This is a great example of why I feel the need to walk into nearly every single beer retail outlet that I ever pass – you just never, ever know what might be in there! Picked this can (as pictured on BA) up for 50 cents at Track One between East Point and West End on the less glamorous side of Atlanta, GA, USA. Good value – just!
OK, here’s the deal. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw this can. Carling Black Label is a brand that I grew up with in 1970’s (and also the early 80’s) England. Not that I was drinking it, mind you, but it was a HUGE, HUGE beer at that time in the UK. I remember the jingle from the advert (commercial for you US BA’s), and I remember the “pump” on the bars in pubs, and I remember the whole concept – just type “Carling Black Label” into a YouTube search and you’ll find the classic, “I bet he drinks Carling Black Label”, and “Your best bet for a fuller flavor”! Happy memories…anyway, on to the beer…
Now, I’m not naive enough to know that this may be a completely different beer from years ago. What with mergers, buyouts, contract brewing, and general globalization, who the hell really knows what kind of relationship what is in the glass in front of me has to the draft versions of 1979 in England??
Pour is over carbonated with a very light head and some very thin, ugly lace. “Body” is one of the lightest colored I can remember seeing – ever! Head dies to give nothing, and you have a classic, low quality American macro lager sitting in front of you.
Just the usual in terms of taste and body. Thin, thin, thin, with some serious corn and veggie elements and the whole thing is horribly average even by macro lager terms.
Just about what I expected, but this did give me a massive blast of nostalgia, and a 50 cents a can I could not go wrong! Glad I came across this.