Mac’s Bohemian Raspberry Wheat Beer Review

22 November 2016 - Best Beer HQ

Mac’s Bohemian Raspberry Wheat Beer Review

A bottle of Mac’s new Bohemian Raspberry wheat beer sat forlorn and forgotten about in my staff room at work, until some kind soul rescued it from obscurity and delivered it to my desk, because they thought I might like to review it for my beer blog.

Never one to turn down a free bottle of beer – even one whose original owner obviously didn’t care much for – I took it home last Friday, chilled it for a couple of hours, then flipped that unique Mac’s rip cap and poured it into a glass.

This is what I thought of the pinkest beer in New Zealand.

ABV: 2.5%

Blurb on the bottle: It’s the refreshing splash of raspberry in this smooth wheat beer that’s bound to have your taste buds singing in harmony. Magnifico!

Taste test: Well, it’s refreshing at least – though I can see why this single bottle of beer was dumped unceremoniously next to the recycling and the garbage. Mac’s Bohemian Raspberry isn’t good; in fact, it might be the most average beer I’ve drunk in a long time.

Though the beer is as pink as my pasty-white face when I’ve been out in the sun too long, there isn’t anything to it but a sweetly savourless splash of raspberry, some decent carbonation, and a thin line of white lacing sticking to the side of my glass.

A mate of mine who doesn’t like wheat beers (I often do enjoy them, for the record) once told me that wheat beers taste like bubble-gum that’s lost all its flavour. Joe, if you’re reading this, you’re not wrong about this one in particular. It tastes like worn out Hubba Bubba.

The verdict: Though I’d far rather support New Zealand’s burgeoning list of independently owned craft breweries than the ones owned by multinationals, I’m a staunch defender of the Mac’s brand of beers. Its core range is good – you’ll often find bottles of Mac’s Hop Rocker Pilsner, Three Wolves Pale Ale, or Green Beret IPA in my fridge at home – and serves as an inexpensive stepping stone into the wonderful world of craft beer.

But Mac’s Bohemian Raspberry is bland, dull, insipid. I’m not even sure it’s worth the price I paid for it, which was nothing at all.

Beer/movie combination: Just as I’ll defend the Mac’s beer brand to my fellow beer snobs, I always champion the Rocky film franchise to my fellow film geeks and movie nerds any chance I get. All seven (!) of the movies in the series range from great, to good, to incredibly dumb fun, with just one exception: the frankly awful Rocky V.

Frustrating, pointless, ill-judged, Mac’s Bohemian Raspberry could well be the Rocky V of beers.

Craft Beer New Zealand / review /