I received an email from Russell Brewing today announcing their new Cactus Lime Lager, to be sold at Cactus Club restaurants.  This news depressed me.  Does the market really need more lime flavored beers?  I hope the Cactus Lime Lager is better than their Russell’s Lemon Ale, which I have previously tried and, similar to Bud Light Lime, found it to taste like bad Sprite.  I thought I might enjoy the taste of “real lime flavor” in beer because I enjoy the occasional fruit wedge dropped into certain brews, but I really, really don’t. Those of you that do like lime flavored beers, what is it about them that you enjoy?  Some say it is easy to drink, but so too are many other lagers (also water).  I just don’t get it.

I really thought that Russell was going in the right direction with their recent IP’eh release, which I found to be a very tasty beer.  I hoped they might introduce more well brewed limited edition beers (like the Blueberry Wheat they had at the Dix Caskival) to the market, but am instead disappointed to find them jumping on the lime flavor band wagon led by Bud Light Lime.  It must make good business sense to be brewing this kind of beer, because they aren’t the only ones.  In addition to BLL, Michelob brews a lime flavored beer, as does respected Canadian craft brewer Big Rock.  I can only hope that other brewers don’t follow suit.

Cheers,

Chris