Searching for the line between "hobby" and "obsession"

Tennent's Super, Strong Lager

Having drank all together too much wine in Italy, I needed a change of pace and decided to seek out a beer at the market to pair with a late lunch (which was THE best slice of pizza I had on the trip, focaccia bread-based) on the deck of our apartment. I picked up a bottle of Tennent’s Super, a “strong Scottish lager” that comes in at 9%. I could definitely tell while drinking it that it was a very strong beer. It had good head retention for a lager, darker gold in color closer to what you’d expect of an IPA. The hop profile was light on the bittering additions, heavier on the flavor hops (tasted like an english variety), and seemed to have almost no aroma hop additions. The taste definitely lingers for a while.

Funny story: After returning home, I did some research online and found out this InBev product is often preferred by the homeless, teenagers and basically anyone looking to get drunk ASAP. There are some reviews online (good example here) that rip into this beer. Honestly, it wasn’t horrible. From my perspective, it was just an amped-up lager. I kinda think MOST lagers taste like shit compared to ales, just that this one had more malt dumped into it and a bigger hop profile which made it more interesting to me. Maybe they have a different recipe for Euro-distribution? I know Guinness does that. It seems this stuff is mainly available in cans in the states. Mine was out of a bottle, which adds to my suspicion that a different recipe might be in play here.

I dunno… I’d buy this again if I wanted a strong lager. It went very well with those amazing slices of pizza.

How much Tennent's is too much?

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