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According to the Lightning Brewery website Ionizer is a “pre-prohibition premium American lager.” Initial appearance after pouring revealed a clear, deep golden hue. There was no noticeable hop aroma. In fact, I initially smelled corn and confirmed through the website that this beer is brewed with some corn adjunct “to provide extra fermentable sugars,” probably necessary to achieve 8.3% ABV. I cracked this 22 ouncer during a family barbecue, so naturally I had an audience and some additional (more worthy, accurate) impressions.

My first taste impression was a nostalgic trip back to my early teens when I would sneak sips of my parents’ Coors Banquet Beer. Not Coors Light mind you, we are talking about the full flavor gold can. Still, it would be inaccurate to imply that Ionizer is analogous to Coors B.B. In fact Ionizer would be analogous to Coors Imperial Lager if such a thing existed. The corn impression was evident on the palate as well, and was followed by sweet malt, a slight hop bitterness, and a dry, crisp lager finish. This beer was a stronger, better made version of many of the lackluster lagers that are cranked out in the American market. Just about everybody present (all non beer geeks) gave a positive impression of the beer, yet I was bored. Again, a well made beer, just not in a style that I would seek out.

Giving Ionizer to to some dedicated American Lager drinkers would be an interesting experiment. The best part of the experiment would be to see the damage caused by the 8.3% ABV on those who throw a couple back. Is this the gateway beer to better things, ween them off the domestics with Ionizer, the Imperial of domestics?

86/100 points on the BoozeReviews scale.

(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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