Christgau Reviews Natty Boh

The Great Gulp: A Consumer Guide’s to Beer

By Robert Christgau and Carola Dibbell (Oui, 5/1975)

“Eighty percent of the beer in this country is consumed by 20 percent of the drinkers. That’s why the most effective beer slogan ever conceived claims that its product is the best beer to have when you’re having more than one. Oui’s consumer guide to beer, presented herewith, has been devised for the 80 percent of American beer drinkers who care about that first one.”

NATIONAL BOHEMIAN LIGHT BEER
(Baltimore, Maryland)
It definitely does not let down the good family name. It’s clean and pleasant but not innocuous, with a slightly penetrating aftertaste. It generally placed high on taste tests, to discriminating judges and against stiff competition. We unfairly continue to measure it against the premium. B

NATIONAL PREMIUM
(Baltimore, Maryland)
For some time, we were convinced that this European-slanted beer with the conglomerate name and the water from Baltimore’s city water system was the best in America. National Premium not only scored consistently well against all American premiums, it held its own in blindfold tests against the best European labels. Dry, pleasurable to contemplate–particulary at warmer temperatures–with distinctive but not weirdo minty bitterness, and very clean and light, National Premium seemed to offer the best aspects of both European and American beer. We’d still like to think that’s true. But alas, after our free samples ran out, the bottles we bought in the real world (from our local supermarket) were so stale and inferior that we felt compelled to qualify our judgment. A MINUS

Continue reading Robert Christgau’s beer reviews at robertchristgau.com.

Robert Christgau (born April 18, 1942) is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-styled “Dean of American Rock Critics”. —Wikipedia.org

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