VB Raw – 4.5% Alcohol
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
All the major breweries around the country are try to get drinkers attention of late claiming their new beer is extra pure, extra tasty and has less carbs than your run of the mill domestic brew. VB Raw is the Fosters entrant to the market place which attempts to throw off the image of VB as not being hip and with the times for Gen Y drinkers.
The bottle is green in colour and looks slightly like a Heineken bottle, so i think the marketers are aiming for it to look like an import rather than part of the domestic line up. Decanting the bottle into a glass gave a smallish white head around 1 cm in height floating above a bright clear golden coloured liquid. The carbonation level seemed a bit above average and the aroma had nothing really going on bar a very faint malt sweetness which i noticed came across as a bit “ciderish” later on after it had a chance to warm up a bit.
On the palate this beer is not very inspiring it has slight sweetness a bit of crispness that appears around the front of the palate the taste does seem to change throughout the beer however but it seems very hard to put your finger on how the taste changes.
Verdict: This beer aims to convince us it contains all malt and no sugar like a craft beer, has less carbs than your average brew and finishes dry clean and crisp like a Tooheys Dry, but seems to do all these things half heartedly. That said i was talking to friend about it the other day and he said he could see it being a good session beer for a hot afternoon. Personally though i can see myself reaching for a case of the original VB in the bottlo cool room before buying the Raw.
Rating: 4.1 / 10
Link: http://www.vbraw.com.au/ (Warning Flash based site)
Where to buy: Any mainstream bottle shop around Sydney should have it in stock.
