Miasmatic Review

PranQster, not just a clever name.

While walking through the store I saw a four (four?) pack of beer that caught my eye. It had an old Dutch style picture on the box, and I figured it would be interesting to try. The name gave me a moment of hesitation, but I figured I needed to try this beer. I placed the four (four? Who the hell sells in four?) pack of PranQster by the North Coast Brewing Co. in the cart.

It is in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. The label is quite interesting in that it’s based on a Dutch wood carving of the 1800’s. Other then that the label has the standard information on it, nothing to really make me sit up and take notice.

Pouring the beer into a pint glass, it gives a nice inch thick head that fades at a decent rate. There really is no lacing on the glass to describe. The color is a cloudy golden yellow. You can’t see through the glass, but light passes through easily enough.

Up until this point the beer seemed promising. Then I took a whiff, the first thing I smelled was liver. Folks, I kid you not; I thought I smelled liver. It was so predominant that I thought I might have some kind of liver residue from a liver dip my wife made, that I pulled out a virgin, untouched by anything other then sterile water glass and poured a new beer. The same thing happened. Even Ktreva smelled liver. After further examination, the scent is a mix of yeast, cloves and coriander. Due to the lambic style of the beer, it gives it a slightly musty scent as well. The beer tasted much like the scent, there were some malts, cloves and coriander, but it tasted like liverwurst. This is not a selling point in beers to me. I spent 15 minutes scouring the label and the box looking for the disclaimer. “PranQster is named that way as a joke because it tastes like liver! It’s great at parties and to unsuspecting friends to get them to drink this and see their reaction.” Unfortunately, they really want it to taste like this legitimately.

This is a medium bodied beer that has a slight carbonation bite. There is a coating of the mouth that makes the liver taste stick around for a while. It also is kind of unpleasant in the aftertaste.

If you couldn’t tell, I did not like this beer. I like liver, I like beer… but the two should never meet in one product. Just because I’m slightly nauseated by the fact that I drank three bottles of it to give this review, I’m going to have to give it a 2 out of 10.

This really is a joke waiting to happen.