Cariboo Genuine Draft - Pacific Western Brewing Company

maclean25

British Columbia (Canada)

3.35/5  rDev +34.5%
look: 4 | smell: 2 | taste: 4 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3.5

From one of the biggest breweries in BC and it is from Prince George! As a northern BC resident I got a soft spot for the company. I've had Cariboo Genuine Draft a couple times before but this is the first time I've rated it.

It pours with lots of white foamy head and reduces with some lacing along the sides. It has a clear pale yellow body with small carbonation bubbles. The aroma is predominately grain and wheat, as well as some corn. The tastes has both a tangy and sweet quality. I detect mostly apple and a dull honey flavour. The feel is light (or as they call it "mild") and fizzy.

Overall, I want to like this but it obviously fails in a few areas. The taste is much better than the aroma. It is 'mild' in that it is light tasting but still has all the calories and 5.5% alcohol. I consider it a decent, inexpensive (~$1.45 per can) lager.

Serving type: can

05-09-2012 03:02:41 | More by maclean25

biboergosum

Alberta (Canada)

2.2/5  rDev -11.6%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

355ml can - Deer Beer! The label gives new meaning to the term 'Buck a beer'...

This beer pours a clear pale piss-yellow colour, with two fingers of thin foamy white head, which leaves an atoll of horizontal lace around the glass as it fades away. It smells of pale grain, spoiled apples, and skunky, weedy hops. The taste is pretty sweet, mostly of the overripe apple sort, with some plain malty grain, and practically imperceptible hops, save their contribution to the generally musty skank factor. The carbonation is moderate, the body medium weight, but with a cloying, pithy character. It finishes mostly sweet, the stale fruitiness doing its best to stay past its dubious welcome.

Not overly offensive, but still not worth drinking, unless it's for free, and even then...

Serving type: can

01-29-2011 00:59:14 | More by biboergosum

woodychandler

Pennsylvania

3.03/5  rDev +21.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

The CANQuest (TM) rolls on, thanks to my having gotten the hang of resizing photos for submission. I have a bunch of CANs that I was holding in abeyance until I could get a picture uploaded since they look better unopened, IMHO. This was one of them. CAN you dig it?

From the CAN: "Brewed with Pure Spring Water"; "Cariboo Brewing Spirit of the North Since 1957"; "Climate change affects us all. Our forests have been devastated by the mountain pine beetle infestation, an effect of climate change. All of us [CAN] make a difference and at Cariboo Brewing we are donating a portion of all Cariboo Genuine Draft products sold to refroestation projects in our northern communities."

The Crack & Glug led to a rocky finger of bone-white head with low retention. Color was a deep golden-yellow with NE-quality clarity. Nose was pretty sweet with a cereal-like quality to its lager sweetness. Mouthfeel was medium with a fairly sweet lager taste in the mouth. I was a little bothered on the finish by a metallic taste that was present briefly at the initial finish and then reverted to an overall sweetness on the extreme finish. I am not sure that the style is correct, but I CANnot tell from their website, either. This was an okay beer, but one was plenty.

Serving type: can

01-25-2011 01:32:14 | More by woodychandler

BreWolf

British Columbia (Canada)

1.78/5  rDev -28.5%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

A green case of green cans. It pours a clear yellow with thin white head. Smells somewhat metallic. Faint apple in the nose but nothing unique or impressive. Tastes cheap, faint sweetness and not crisp at all. Mouthfeel is thin and somewhat oily. Drinkability? Hmmm... Well as a cheap beer here on Vancouver Island this stuff is fairly common, but usually a second choice to Lucky Lager. It's like their goal was to create a generic factory beer, and if thats what you like you'd be better served buying Budweiser. It sure tastes better than this crap.

Serving type: can

08-28-2010 04:21:28 | More by BreWolf

Graham5161986

British Columbia (Canada)

1.55/5  rDev -37.8%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 1 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

Not expecting much from this beer but, hey, let's see what we got here.

It pours a clear gold colour with a small fizzy head that doesn't last and leaves almost not lace with a oily appearance on the swirl.

Aroma is of sugary malt grain with some sour apple, not much else.

Taste is really sweet, cloyingly so and again with sulphuric sour apple, sugary grain flavours and an aftertaste that tastes like I just had a big mouthfull of corn pops. This one tastes alot like cheap apple cider.

Mouthfeel is light and crisp but, because of all the sugars, is somewhat oily and unclean on the finish.

Despite it's relatively low ABV, this beer is made much more of a chore to drink from its cloying corn sugar profile and imbalanced mouthfeel. Man am I glad I got this beer for free. Now that I know what it's like, I won't waste any of my hard earned money on this beer. It's just another below-par effort from a below-par brewery.

Serving type: can

04-22-2010 19:16:52 | More by Graham5161986

wordemupg

Alberta (Canada)

3/5  rDev +20.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

355ml can poured into 400ml dab glass nov3 2009

A light golden yellow with a fast falling two finger head that leaves a patch or two of lace

S sweet grains and a little honey

T as it smells nothing great but nothing offensive

M thin but with good carbonation that helps it a little

D as average as it gets I want too say something sticks out about this beer in a bad way but I just can't place it so it can't be that bad

don't go looking for this beer and perhaps only worth drinking between paydays

Serving type: can

11-04-2009 06:45:34 | More by wordemupg

Grunewald

British Columbia (Canada)

2.42/5  rDev -2.8%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

A - poured from a 355ml can into a mug. It pours clear brassy color with vanishing white head.

S - malt, honey and skunk/gasoline

T - subdued malt, tart honey, flowers and chemicals (gasoline)

M - well carbonated light body and little sticky

D - smells like some kind of fuel but this does not harm the taste as much as I feared it would

*note - this may be an adjunct lager, but the only info I could find pointed to American Pale Lager

Serving type: can

08-26-2009 02:13:19 | More by Grunewald