Abita Brewing Company's Purple Haze

In 1986, Abita Brewing Company began production of their beer in Abita Springs; 30 miles north of New Orleans, or as I call it, Nawlins. Since then, they have increased production by 40 times and added root beer to their lists of delectable treats. They are an environmentally conscious brewery, whose efforts have lowered their carbon footprint in their brewing and paper saving efforts in their packaging. (Which makes the cases a bastard to carryout, but it's a small price to pay for Mother Earth, i guess) The brewery is currently owned by private shareholders who are probably rich as shit by now.

Abita Springs itself has some tricked out water. They even advertise they use "spring water" so I'm not too sure what kind of water they use the other 3 seasons. This water has actually been known to save lives. Some Indian broad was dying and shit and they straight up left her with a hammock and food and left her off by the river and, boom, cured. She later died of old age, because this was back in like the 1700's. So Abita was like, "Let's use this dang water in beer." Since then, I can only assume the water has been used to take more lives than it has saved.

They currently roll out eight regular beers and half a dozen seasonals. I picked up a sampler pack, 12 beers for $15, pretty good deal. I do this for two reasons. One is that it's economical as sin. The second is that I can do 6 beer reviews and one brewery review which allows me to drink beer faster when I don't have to look up a bunch of dangus facts about stuff that most people don't care about. I picked "Purple Haze" first because I will probably like it the least so I cracked her open and indulged. Now that "purple haze is all in my brain" and blood stream, I am ready to talk about it.

So first off, this has the whitest foam on a beer I HAVE EVER SEEN! Not necessarily a good thing, not a bad thing, but I HAD to talk about it. This 4.2% wheat beer has an IBU of 13, so it clearly does not have a hoppy taste to it. It is crisp and refreshing, don't get me wrong and it's like taking a rifle, filling it with raspberries and shooting yourself in the mouth, but in this case, it doesn't blow your brains out. It just taste like raspberries. I mean the taste is inescapable. It's a little tart, it's, its, it's just so much raspberry! The aroma is a wheaty, raspberry...dude. There's just so much raspberry! I mean, it isn't bad. It's just so much raspberry. I commend anyone who can stomach more than 2 or these in one sitting. I gotta talk to my friend Kerry and ask her what she thinks, because I mean, no man (if he calls himself a man) can drink this. It's acceptable as a "mix it up" in a sampler but, let's face it fellas, you're best off pawning these off on the ladies at a BBQ because you know how girls like their cider and Cosmos. So maybe they'll take this off our hands for us while he get into the more masculine beers, and talk about cars, sports, and babes!

Other Abita Beers:
Jockamo IPA
Restoration Pale Ale
Wheat Lager

Drinkability: 4/10

Taste: 4/10

Value: 5/10
Curb Appeal: 3/10

Overall: 4.0/10