BAD BEER WARNING: Henry Weinhards IPA

Me and a buddy picked up a six pack of this tonight. I was enticed by the "brewed with cascade, Citra, and galena hops" label... But alas, it was terrible. It tastes like they repackaged Miller Genuine Draft. Horrible! Stay away!

I agree completely. Woodland Piss, it should be called.

I didn't think it was all that bad. It just was more like a Pale Ale, than a hop bomb Ipa...but once I realized what it was, I quite enjoyed it. I don't think it warrants a "Warning" thread.... It's just not what people expect it should be. But that doesn't make it horrible. It just means it's no Two Hearted Ale, or DFH 60.....but it's still hoppier than miller light.

I'll give it somewhat easy to drink... But once I figured out it was a Miller product, I couldn't get over that one particular flavor of ML that I used to have.

My problem with A lot of beers like this is the way they're disguised to fool people. I have no problem with Miller, Bud, or Coors getting into the craft beer market. I enjoyed Bud American Ale. I just don't like not knowing what i'm buying. When i'm in a beer store I usually don't have access to a lot of information about a beer. I'd hope that the bottle would easily let me know who is brewing the product.

The bottle said Portland, OR, on one side, and Milwaukee, WI, on the other. That made me suspicious.

Wow really surprised about this thread. I actually really enjoyed it for a 6.99 6 pack.

Plus how citra galena and cascade are honestly my top 3 hops for aroma and flavor. I dont think they bittered with any of these strains unless possibly cascade? I find it really smooth and a great "session" ale....IPA? maybe not but deff beer to me!

EDIT: Ahh i see. Did you go into this tasting with the knowledge that miller manufactures it now?

Thought it was OK,mild ipa.More sessionable than most. Ive had worse better known craft ipa's. Glad I didnt buy a whole sixer of it,but I still would have one if offered. You(not you personally OP) probably will(or should) have an idea of what your getting into here with this if you buy it. I thought it was predictable,but a little better than expected.

Woodland Piss... good one. I agree.

Yeah, I was really disappointed by this one too. Its not that it was terrible, but it was not at all what I expected, or what they claimed it was.

Wow didn't know it was made by a macro. Maybe I'll have to steer clear of trying this one out.

+1 Dave

I was more disappointed in this one because it was a pale ale at best and not nearly the right hop profile. I was expecting more citrus and bright flavors, I got earthy, muddy, and crisp. Not what u expected…

Does anyone have a picture of this beer and bottle?

Several months ago I did a MillerCoors product survey for this exact beer. They showed us a bunch of different possible labels and product descriptions and we had to say our thoughts and rate each one. It was quite obvious that they were trying to pull the whole "wolf in sheep's clothing" bit by disguising this product as a local, small brewery made beer. I tried to warn them that it was a transparent ploy but apparently my voice went unheeded.

Here you go

http://www.henryweinhards.com/TheBeer/Default.aspx

Henry Weinhard's used to be an Oregon beer. Drank lots of it in college, decent beer for fizzy yellow water American beer at the time. It died when the Blitz Weinhard brewery in downtown Portland was shut down, then was made in Olympia. Then it got bought out by Miller and became a revived retro brand of beer.
Not BMC bad, but not craft beer good either.

b-boy said:

My problem with A lot of beers like this is the way they're disguised to fool people. I have no problem with Miller, Bud, or Coors getting into the craft beer market. I enjoyed Bud American Ale. I just don't like not knowing what i'm buying. When i'm in a beer store I usually don't have access to a lot of information about a beer. I'd hope that the bottle would easily let me know who is brewing the product.

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Hows this for not knowing what you are buying...this is the only thing on the bottle:

http://www.mustlovebeer.com/albums/photo/view/album_id/141/photo_id/9703

I am hoping that I got an old bottle or something because it tasted nothing like any review I read afterwards

pdxal said:

Henry Weinhard's used to be an Oregon beer. Drank lots of it in college, decent beer for fizzy yellow water American beer at the time. It died when the Blitz Weinhard brewery in downtown Portland was shut down, then was made in Olympia. Then it got bought out by Miller and became a revived retro brand of beer.
Not BMC bad, but not craft beer good either.

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Same, drank tons of Henry's until the brewery got gutted and turned into condos.

I had a thread about this same topic. My analysis is that it's a decent light Pale Ale, but nowhere near IPA in hops character. NOWHERE NEAR.

It's yet another attempt from a BMC manufacturer at selling pseudo craft beer to unsuspecting victims under the guise of a craft brewer name.

I have an image of a brewer standing over a boil kettle with a big ol bags of hops, and just not being able to dump them all in because they are so very expensive. "Instead I shall add more WATER!"

I still enjoyed the beer. It had enough malt and hops character to make it palatable, but I probably won't buy it again. I won't support such blatant intentional misinformation.

Never it had it in a bottle, but maybe it was old/stale? It wasn't that bad on draft and I'm a big quality IPA fan and homebrewer. I assume I got it fresh because it was not as horrible as you claim.

In the grand scheme of things I would still rate it average (C or C+). It was crisp, bitter, around 6-7% abv, and not super sweet.

It's just not as aromatic or flavorful as other examples. A little bit boring/bland.

There are far worse beers (and IPAs) out there to warn people about. BeerAdvocate gives this a 74 (average).

b-boy said:

I just don't like not knowing what i'm buying. When i'm in a beer store I usually don't have access to a lot of information about a beer.

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That's why I always have Pintly on my phone when I go into a beer store. I always check reviews if I am not familiar with a brewery. I love trying new beers, but I don't want to piss away my money on, well... piss.

I've got a few around here. The half case has taken a while to drink.
That being said, it's not a bad beer. It does make you re check the label to see if you poured what you thought you did.
IPA with no hoppy goodness.

It's no premium beer, but weinhard's isn't a premium beer. It's a better mass production beer. Nothing more.
I do buy their variety packs from time to time when I go to a buddies house. If not one of two things will happen.
I will be there with nothing but a 30 pack of Busch cans to drink. ( anything in a 30 pack is not going to be great) I can't stomach Busch.
OR.... I buy Black Butte and feed two premium beers to him for every one I drink!
Henry's is a good compromise.

I got my 6-pack for $5.99 from a discount grocery store so I knew exactly what I was getting (or I had a suspicion that it wasn't going to be a great beer). I get the warning. But it's definitely not the worst tasting beer I've tasted. I would still classify it as an IPA.

It tasted like bitter lies. Seriously though, I was suspicious but wanted to try something new. Opened it up and was not impressed by the aroma considering the hops listed. When I tried it, I couldn't place the flavor but definitely had something "lite" about it. Got through half a glass before I had to look it out and found out my suspicions were correct.
I guess it's ok for a cheap beer, but that's not how they market themselves.

I too wasn't impressed.

Also screw top bottles so I couldn't even re-use the bottles.

Flsurfdog said:

I guess it's ok for a cheap beer, but that's not how they market themselves.

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What buisness practice markets for being "cheap". Just because miller now produces and distributes it...?
Since AbInbev now sells and distributes bourbon county stout. Is it water-downed piss??

It's Henry Weinhards. It's okay. It's cheap. It's not a "real" IPA. This is not a secret.

I'm in agreement, this stuff shouldn't be called a hoppy IPA. Much better beer out there for the price.

Just a little recent background on Henry's. Since 2003 it has been brewed in Oregon under contract with Full Sail. Miller is not renewing the contract for 2013 and taking the product on a national level. Full Sail doesn't promote Henry's, you can't get it on tap at the brewery, but the deal has been a financial boost for Full Sail. They are probably sad to see it go.

http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2012/09/henry-weinhards-no-longer-to-be-brewed.html

With all the other much better choices here in Oregon I don't think I've had a Henry's in over 10 years.

Wife brought home a sixer of Private Reserve, I'd preferred they kept it private & not shared it with the public. It was rank.

Just to clarify: Henry Weinhard's is not one of the new "fake craft" brands. It was brewed in downtown Portland for decades until they sold out; sounds like now that they're owned by Miller, Henry's is showing up east of the Rockies as a new brand for some of you guys.

Due to regional availbility, back in the 70's and 80's Henry's had some of the same mystique and desirability that Coors used to for those outside Colorado. When my grandparents came up to visit from California, my Grandpa used to pile a few cases in the trunk for the drive home, since it was supposedly better than anything they could get down there.

The Private Reserve and Ale were always go-to beers during my high school and college days, and a definite step above the usual BMC stuff. I'll still sometimes pick up a half rack for campsite consumption. Recently they've come out with some more styles (IPA, Hefeweizen etc.) to try to keep up with the times, with varying success. Just have the proper expectations for what you're buying.

cjb said:

Just to clarify: Henry Weinhard's is not one of the new "fake craft" brands. It was brewed in downtown Portland for decades until they sold out; sounds like now that they're owned by Miller, Henry's is showing up east of the Rockies as a new brand for some of you guys.

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Decades?? 1860's or 1870's when he started.
Very old brand of beer and a northwest icon up until modern times.

All the old Northwest beers are bought up or gone now.

cjb said:

Just to clarify: Henry Weinhard's is not one of the new "fake craft" brands. It was brewed in downtown Portland for decades until they sold out; sounds like now that they're owned by Miller, Henry's is showing up east of the Rockies as a new brand for some of you guys.

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I bought a sixer this past summer when it was introduced at $4.99 here in Northeast Wisconsin; the beer was pretty unremarkable, and like GoldMiner, I was more annoyed at the twist-off bottles that I couldn't reuse.

45_70sharps said:

Decades?? 1860's or 1870's when he started.
Very old brand of beer and a northwest icon up until modern times.

All the old Northwest beers are bought up or gone now.

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True - 1856, to be precise. Even after Miller bought the brand and closed the downtown brewery, I could take comfort that it was still brewed in Oregon by Full Sail (after a brief period where it moved to the old Olympia brewery). Now that it's moving to Wisconsin or wherever...what's the point? Why even keep a brand that has no connection to any history or purpose anymore? As evidenced by this thread, the name certainly doesn't have any meaning to the "national" audience they're trying to bring it to; but nobody in the Northwest cares anymore either.

It will probably go the way of most of the other Northwest brews.
heidelberg. I don't think it's made any more.
Olympia. Still made, but not in the Northwest and although I can't drink the stuff, an older guy I know that's drank it exclusively for decades has just abandoned it. Says they changed it.
Rainier beer. Use to be Northwest only. Not brewed here anymore. I don't know if it's changed.
Lucky didn't originate in the Portland / Vancouver area, but it was there for decades. I don't know if it's still available in the Northwest even.

Johnnyhitch1 said:

What buisness practice markets for being "cheap". Just because miller now produces and distributes it...?
Since AbInbev now sells and distributes bourbon county stout. Is it water-downed piss??

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High Life basically markets itself as cheap. But that's not the point...they're marketing themselves as a small, premium brewery, and they're neither. Maybe the name is originally from Portland, but it's not made there anymore. So the beer I had really isn't a Portland beer, and not a micro/craft brew either. So like I said earlier. Bitter lies

It just went from $7.99 to $4.99 a six pack at my grocery store. It wasn't what I expected either. But I didn't dump it.

I split a bottle of this last night with my neighbor. Not anything I'd buy, but it was drinkable.

There's no way this can be more of a misrepresentation of the style than Alexander Keiths IPA. A friend of mine made the mistake of buying a 6 pack of this when we were in Vancouver a few years ago. He drank (part of) one, forced me to drink (part of) one to see my reaction, and the rest were left in the hotel room. So I feel your pain, its really annoying to to spend money on something that says IPA to get anything but.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/alexander-keiths-india-pale-ale/1518/