This Shit is Bananas

I don’t know what compelled me to pick up this beer, read the bottle, think it would taste good, walk to the register, pay for it, open it and drink the whole thing when it says right on the bottle that it’s flavored with bananas. Don’t get me wrong, I like bananas. I like to eat them on their own or in a peanut butter and banana sandwich. I like to eat them in banana bread and banana nut muffins. I like bananas foster. But as long as I can remember, I’ve hated banana flavored things.

Remember Runts? The Wonka candy where the lime flavored ones were shaped (kind of) like limes, the orange flavored ones were shaped (sort of) like oranges, the strawberry ones were shaped like hearts and the banana ones were shaped exactly like bananas? I always avoided the banana ones. They were bright yellow and long while the others were all pretty much small circles as if to say, “Which does not belong?” Overly sweet and vomit inducing, banana flavoring has an artificial, plastic taste to it that doesn’t come through in the actual fruit. Well’s Banana Bread Beer isn’t artificially flavored, it’s made with actual bananas, but the characteristics that make it a beer, rich malt flavors and bitterness are totally overshadowed by banana.

First of all, it’s in a clear bottle and any beer drinker worth his salt knows that clear bottles leave a brew vulnerable to ultraviolet light and if the bottle is left on the shelf long enough (which I suspect his one had), the damage can produce off flavors. I had seen this beer on the shelf before and not grabbed it thinking, “Who the hell is going to buy a banana flavored beer?” eventually, most likely buying the very same bottle.

Brits have been known to buck the trend of amber or green colored bottles, clinging stubbornly to their clear bottles and sacrificing flavor. It comes as no surprise that Wells and Young’s Brewing Company calls the UK home.

The aroma on this beer is completely dominated by bananas. It smells like fermented bananas. The head is weak and quickly deflated. The color is medium amber, like the bottle should be. The taste is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s. It’s not too often I come across a beer I don’t like. I wont’ be drinking this again.