Mamma Mia Pizza beer?

A beer like this is very much one that you have to try. Not in the same way as you have to try Westvleteren 12, however – there’s no bucket list of wacky beer out there – rather, you hear about Clam and Tomato beer, or Garlic beer, and think – “You know, that can’t be nice. But I should probably find out”. It’s like going to watch a gratuitous horror splatterfest at the cinema – it won’t be anything other than a pointless waste of two hours, yet there’s something that draws you towards it. Well, it’s the same with these madcap beers.

I can’t pretend the Garlic Beer was anything other than a horrendous mistake; whilst I struggle to name my favourite beer of all time, my least favourite is nailed-on. But there’s this perverse sense of interest over the quirky and unusual, the feeling that just maybe, one of them will be decent enough to make it all worth it. Mamma Mia Pizza Beer from Sprecher Brewing Company is almost, very nearly, just that. It’s a quantum leap ahead of the Garlic Beer – but still, not something I would try again.

It’s an ‘unfiltered ale’ brewed with basil, oregano, tomato and garlic. Described on the (truly hideous) website of Chef Tom and Mamma Mia – she is an actual person, rather than an ABBA fan – as the ‘world’s first culinary beer’ they also hedge their bets spectacularly by following up with ‘it also makes a tremendous ingredient in all types of foods’. You could certainly cook with it – primarily because it tastes like drinking watered down pasta sauce.

You’ve got to give Chefs Tom and Mamma credit – it really does smell and taste exactly as intended. Oregano is the dominant component, although tomato and garlic also come out with something vaguely peppery. It genuinely tastes of pizza. How strange. And yet, how disconcerting. Would you drink fish and chip flavour lager with your cod and fries? To sum up this beer – here’s a quote from a reviewer on RateBeer – “if I wanted pizza, I would eat pizza and not drink it”. Indeed.