A discerning palate review
Walgreens' new 50-cent beer takes Houston by belch
"It's the water that makes it," declares the Big Flats 1901 beer can. But you don't have to take the word of just one can — you can now buy six of them at your neighborhood Walgreens for just $2.99.
The Illinois-based drugstore chain began carrying the house brand, which is brewed in Rochester, N.Y., in December to cater to cost-conscious customers. Walgreens must assume its clientele isn't taste conscious, then, because it's indeed the water that makes it — 99 percent of it, by my estimation.
Big Flats is to Natural Light as Miller Chill is to Bud Light Lime. (Can't remember SAT analogies? It means it's similar, but worse.) Expect a headache and an immediate, familiar odor that will bring you back to the days of crashing on couches that smelled like musty, stale beer, cigarettes and shame. It's kind of sweet, really.
My boyfriend and I cracked our first-ever Big Flats simultaneously, but he took the first swig: "What is this? I need another one, immediately. This is bringing me back to a time I didn't know I missed!" For me, it's not the taste that matters. I tend to agree with Time magazine's take: Two beers for a buck at Walgreens — the craziest thing to happen to drinking since Four Loko.
In keeping with their motto of economy, Big Flats don't come in cardboard — that would be snobbish. Instead, they're strung together with those things that kill seagulls.
But for 50 cents a can and a respectable 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, we'll turn our heads the other way, our chins to the heavens and keep knocking 'em back.
Cheers.
