Costco/Kirkland brand craft beer

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JONNYROTTEN

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Walking through Costco today I saw Kirkland brand craft beer by the case. Talk about everyone hopping on the band wagon.For $19 a case I had to pick some up. Seems like a nice easy drinking variety. Haven't cracked one open yet but looking forward to it later today...

I'm not sure if this is new for Costco but I've never seen them before

Has anyone tried them out yet??

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I have bought once or twice. Certainly not anything special as far as craft beer is concerned. But a very drinkable for the price. Way better then anything BMC puts out for a similar price.
 
Man, you bring back memories...I did a thread on their beers back in 2008.... many of them then were by Gordon Birsch. Looks like on the side panel under each bottle might be the name of the breweries that brewed each one.

It's kind of like Aldi's, and Trader Joe's they have some decent contract breweries usually making their beers for them. And you actually can find hidden gems in there.
 
It's a different variety pack than I tried from them 5 or 6 years ago. They didn't have the Kolsch or the Session IPA then. Most of their beers were decent, but the IPA was the worst I have ever had - rank armpit up front with a finish of dirty pennies. Hopefully they have improved.
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
That's what I'm thinking. A 12 pack of Corona is $18. For a dollar more I have a case of a variety pack craft brew...How bad could it possibly be
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That scary question w/ private labeled beer. Ever try costco's private labeled BMC light? I think its called Kirkland's Signature Light? My FIL is one off the cheapest people on the planet and bought a case to try and keep guests from drinking his better stuff. Its awful. God Awful. IDK if its same brewery producing.
 
Much better than the Wal-Mart attempt (or at least the ones I bought years ago) which is borderline nasty. I actually kind of liked their Amber Ale for the 75 cents a bottle I last bought it for. I suspect these are different contract brewers than that batch, however. The funny thing is that those bottles were among the thickest ones I ever got and were great when I was starting off in the hobby.

I should add that those were like 6% ABV too. Bang for the buck were definitely there.
 
The verdict is in:
Kolsch... Nasty back end bite but drinkable without thinking about it
IPA...not enjoyable
Session IPA....Flat out nasty and undrinkable
Pale Ae....Not bad....Kinda reminds me of a not so great but drinkable homebrew we've all made at some point.

I wont throw them away but would never buy them again

Props to myself. My beer taste like liquid gold next to these...I actually swished my own beer just to get rid of the Sesson IPA taste in my mouth....

Pass on these beers if you see them
 
martiniw2olives said:
The pressure to put product on the shelf at cost leads to short cuts and BMC brewing techniques. I wouldn't get too excited.
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I'm no BMC fan, but you can't say their brewing techniques aren't top notch. This is the one thing that bugs be about the craft beer snobs(me included), I would be willing to bet that you can't make an American Light Lager as well as they do. I know I can't, lack of interest in drinking the style doesn't help though.
 
The chain of liquor stores in my area, Big Red, has a store brand of beer. I tried it about a year back and continue to drink it now not because its great but its not bad and the price cant be beat.

The 4 they offer, all in 12oz cans
Lite- well made for the style but not my go to style.
Lager- Ok but light on flavor reminds me of PBR.
IPA- Not bad but not always the same. I sense ever changing hop varieties.
Cream Ale- I didnt like this one but think it sells well in the area because of the popularity of sunking even though I don't think they make great beer.

The lite and lager is 3.99 for 6 or 10.99 for 24

The price of the IPA and CA is ever changing but right now its 4.99 for 6 or 20 for 24.
 
tmendick said:
I'm no BMC fan, but you can't say their brewing techniques aren't top notch. This is the one thing that bugs be about the craft beer snobs(me included), I would be willing to bet that you can't make an American Light Lager as well as they do. I know I can't, lack of interest in drinking the style doesn't help though.
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Yes agree, I am sure they are very efficient in their processing for yielding large amounts of beer at a lower cost. Craft beer steps away from that model and focuses beer quality. I am no beer snob and enjoy a nice cold Bud on a hot summer day. Roger that on the American Light Lager.
 
Definitely meant no disrespect, I've just seen people diss their skill at making a very boring beer with the precision and consistency they do.
 
Costco used to sell "craft" beer about 4 or 5 years ago. We used to pick up a 24 pack for parties back before we had kids. I remember it had an amber, IPA, pale ale, and a lager. All the beers were just ok. I remember drinking them when I was already pretty banged up and thinking, "huh... not bad." but I've found when something is "not bad" when you're hammered it tastes like crap when you're not.
Thanks for the review on this new case. I'll pass if I see it!
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
Walking through Costco today I saw Kirkland brand craft beer by the case. Talk about everyone hopping on the band wagon.For $19 a case I had to pick some up. Seems like a nice easy drinking variety. Haven't cracked one open yet but looking forward to it later today...

I'm not sure if this is new for Costco but I've never seen them before

Has anyone tried them out yet??
Click to expand...

I bought this for our camping trip because of the price. I thought it was okay, but I agree the IPA was my least favorite out of the pack, kept on handing those off first to someone else when beer was requested ;)
 
I'm glad more than one person was honest enough to reinforce my previous experience with this brand. A case of this made it into my house a couple years ago and I couldn't even tell one style from the other. In my opinion, they were all mediocre, thin, and badly hopped.
I consider my sniffer and taster skills to be unsophisticated, but if others on the forum come to the same conclusion, it might not be me.

Thanks for the thread. It let's me know things haven't improved and there are better buys out there.
 
bobeer said:
Costco used to sell "craft" beer about 4 or 5 years ago. We used to pick up a 24 pack for parties back before we had kids. I remember it had an amber, IPA, pale ale, and a lager. All the beers were just ok. I remember drinking them when I was already pretty banged up and thinking, "huh... not bad." but I've found when something is "not bad" when you're hammered it tastes like crap when you're not.
Thanks for the review on this new case. I'll pass if I see it!
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What got me into beer in the first place was Costco's Henry Weinhard variety packs, which was world's better than this drek. Last time I checked, they had an all IPA variety pack, an all fruit beer variety pack, and their own. Slim pickins.
 
JONNYROTTEN said:
The verdict is in:
Kolsch... Nasty back end bite but drinkable without thinking about it
IPA...not enjoyable
Session IPA....Flat out nasty and undrinkable
Pale Ae....Not bad....Kinda reminds me of a not so great but drinkable homebrew we've all made at some point.

I wont throw them away but would never buy them again

Props to myself. My beer taste like liquid gold next to these...I actually swished my own beer just to get rid of the Sesson IPA taste in my mouth....

Pass on these beers if you see them
Click to expand...

Thanks for this post. I was looking into purchasing this since I read some good things about Kirkland liquor in general. Searched for their beer mix pack and it led me to this post. Granted, taste is subjective. However, it steers me away from dropping $20 on 24. Might have bit on a variety 12-pack if that is available.

There's a liquor store in town that creates mystery 12-packs for $9.99. I'll continue going that route. There are usually some throw-aways in them but for the most part it's a selection of at least quality beers.
 
Bomber said:
Thanks for this post. I was looking into purchasing this since I read some good things about Kirkland liquor in general. Searched for their beer mix pack and it led me to this post. Granted, taste is subjective. However, it steers me away from dropping $20 on 24. Might have bit on a variety 12-pack if that is available.

There's a liquor store in town that creates mystery 12-packs for $9.99. I'll continue going that route. There are usually some throw-aways in them but for the most part it's a selection of at least quality beers.
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I haven't had the beer but I can tell you that the 1.75l scotch or canadian whiskey for $20 can't be beat for value.
 
LLBrewer said:
I haven't had the beer but I can tell you that the 1.75l scotch or canadian whiskey for $20 can't be beat for value.
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Sounds interesting, thanks for the suggestion. Can't wait to check out their selection and prices.

Just learned that in a dozen or so states, you don't actually have to be a "member" to purchase liquor from Costco (and Sams and such). So....kid in a discounted candy store.
 
z-bob said:
+1 on the Canadian whisky (it tastes about like Crown Royal), and also the Kirkland white tequila.
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Yeah the canadian is pretty good. The scotch is kind of boring but smooth, for the price it can't be beat. I'd imagine the bourbon is fine too. I'm definitely going to try the tequila. If nothing else it'll make good margaritas.
 
Man I wish my state wasn't so tight-ass about liquor laws. I'd love some Kirkland booze in my cabinet! We can only buy it at ABC stores though. They used to not even be open on Sundays but then the state got wise and realized they were missing out on money.
 
Special Hops said:
I have bought once or twice. Certainly not anything special as far as craft beer is concerned. But a very drinkable for the price. Way better then anything BMC puts out for a similar price.
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I bought a case once. Not bad, but here in Hawai`i it cost more than $26.
 
I don't often say this about craft beer...in fact I never remember saying this...but, this Kirkland craft beer is crap. It is bitter, flavorless barley water. I made better beer than this in my first couple months of home brewing.
 
I had their Pale Ale just last week.
I found it to be "ok". Nothing really remarkable. Had a nice aroma anyway.
Seemed like it might have been slightly oxidized though. Got a hint of cardboard in the taste.
The can listed it as being made by some brewery in California (didn't recognize the name).
 
I’ve been happy with their craft beers when I’ve had them. I think they are a good value if you are not looking for anything specific.

On a related note, their light beer used to be horrible but now is actually pretty good (as compared to standard BMC fare).
 
I had them in bottles as brewed by a place in Wisconsin. I found them to be better than BMC, but certainly not the penultimate expression of craft brewing, but ultimately good value for money (but not better than BYO)
 

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