College students may have a new beer of choice when football season kicks off this week-- 7-Eleven Game Day Beer.
Beer is big business. It’s a recession-proof industry that has only grown in recent years, with more and more people skipping the bars and staying home to drink and entertain their friends. But for convenience store giant 7-Eleven, beer is more than big business. The company is the third largest beer retailer in the country, so it only stands to reason that at some point it would branch out and market its own line of private label budget beer. 7-Eleven even cites a Nielsen study stating value-priced beer sales are on the rise while sales of pricier imports and premium brands have faltered.
The announcement comes five months after 7-Eleven’s rollout of Yosemite Road red and white wines. The company says its proprietary wines are outselling its better-known, branded competitors. So why not try and duplicate that success with beer? Unfortunately, while cheap wine can be masked with additives like mega purple and an increased alcohol content, bad beer has no place to hide.
Game Day Beer was rolled out in the Spring of 2010 and comes in two varieties: Game Day Ice, a traditionally brewed ice ale, and a Light beer offering. Game Day is sold in a 12-pack of 12 oz cans or in single 24 oz cans. Prices vary between $6.99 and $8.99 for the 12-packs and $1.49 to $1.89 for the single 24 oz cans.
Game Day Ice looks and pours like a traditional lager. It’s light color immediately recognizable from other inexpensive offerings from Budweiser, Rolling Rock or other frat house favorites. But a strong, almost offensive scent of skunkiness hits the back of your throat before you even take the first sip. There isn’t much of a wow factor once you drink it. Sip after sip shows no indication of any real characteristic taste. Neutral, bland, and inoffensive to most, any sign of tastebud activity comes in the form of a sweet maltose aftertaste. When served with burgers, wings, chips and other high salt, high fat fare, Game Day Ice is a perfectly adequate offering.
Surprisingly, Game Day Light had none of these problems. Another mild and middle of the road offering, Game Day Light was actually quite pleasant. It’s a clean, crisp makes it one of the few light beers that actually manages to outshine its full calorie counterpart.
Game Day Ice - 155 calories per 12 ounces, 5.5 percent alcohol by volume
Game Day Light - 110 calories per 12 ounces, 3.9 percent alcohol by volume
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