One New York Life

Bravest Ale

Brewed By: Possibly Anheuser-Busch, but unconfirmed.
Brewed In: ?
ABV: “About 5%”
Type: American Ale

What they say: Not much. It’s theoretically a house ale. However, an unconfirmed source gave me an interesting factoid. I was told that the “house ale” is really an InBevheuser product called “Horseshoe Ale” which is marketed to bars via distributors. The bars are offered this beer without the InBevHeuser label with the right to market it as their own house ale. On my initial review of this, I was going to make a comparison to Bud Select or American Ale — as it turns out, it might actually BE Bud Select or American Ale. I find this equally sketchy and awesome. Who knew I was getting a Fine Belgian Ale? Just remember everyone, just because the company isn’t American anymore doesn’t mean it loses the ability to be shady.

Why I Picked It: Bravest is a bar near my office that we discovered because of its proximity and relative cheapness. On Manhattan, the happy hour bars close to Grand Central Station are tremendously overpriced and serve the after work suit-and-tie crowd. The bars know customers are probably only having one or two drinks and everything’s priced accordingly. It’s normal to find $6 drafts and $8-$12 mixed drinks. The aura around Grand Central is spotty, but bars become mostly reasonable in the high 30s. The East 30s are mostly residential so everything is more neighborhoody. The only gotcha is to avoid places full of 19-year-old Long Jersey Kids looking to kill more Jagerbombs then they can handle. This is the bar’s house ale.

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Presentation (5): I don’t know whether or not the semi-shady purchase of this beer comes with a free tap design, but I was impressed with this tap. It’s a long tap with a huge fireman’s helmet on top and a FDNYish shield on the side. The only presentation score is really the tap and it does a good job by standing higher and more noticeably than the rather pedestrian beer selections in this bar. 4

Originality (5): They claim it as an ale, but I find the claim somewhat dubious. The beer sits amongst the Coors Lites and Budweisers of the world, so pretty much anything different would stand out. This bar is, mostly, a Budweiser bar — featuring Bud specials and the like, so this is an original gem amongst others. On the other hand, after being told this really isn’t an offering original to the bar, I find myself hard pressed to give them big points. 1

Body (10): The initial pour is a somewhat pedestrian reddish amber with a small head. It’s ale-thin, as promised, but the hoppiness of the ale was something of a surprise. I usually expect these standard house ales to have a certain body type and this wasn’t it. 6

Taste (10): As previously mentioned, my original notes told me to compare this to Bud Select or Bud American. It’s a light, kind of refreshing ale with a blast of hops in the aftertaste. It’s too hoppy for me, personally, but so are a lot of things. I did like the flavor after I got used to it but, for me, I’ll stick with the $3 Bud specials before I’ll pop the extra $2 for a pint of this. 7

Efficiency (10): The really hoppy flavor kills any hope of efficiency for me. During happy hour, for $2.50/pint, it’s as efficient as any other 5% draft. After it kicked up to $5/pint after happy hour — well, $5 pint isn’t terrible by Manhattan standards, but there’s nothing so amazing in the flavor that it would prevent me from buying the “always $3 Budweiser”. 4

Versatility (10): Tough to rate versatility on a beer that’s only available at one bar in Manhattan (supposedly). However, even in this bar where there are better beers available cheaper, I wouldn’t recommend it. To be fair, I’ll not rate the versatility here because it’s really not possible. N/A

Final Grade: 22 of 40 = 27.5 of 50 — OK beer.