Charlottesville may have a cheap beer shortage but there are a few things it has in abundance; students who think it’s the height of coolness to go to football games in shirts and ties and sundresses, Dave Matthews Band fans, smelly hipsters, pseudo bluegrass/country music listening to poseurs who’ve never driven anything manlier than a Prius and would scream if they saw an animal more dangerous than a sugar glider and a shit ton of grocery stores. In particular we have a glut of Kroger’s. There are literally 3 Krogers within a 3 mile radius of each other. Why am I telling you this? Because Kroger has recently made a foray into the world of cheap beer; Port Republic Light.
Port Republic immediately scores points with me as it comes in pints or 30 packs ala my favorite beer, Strohs. None of that sissy 12 or 24-pack nonsense. It was about $13 for a 30 pack which is a fairly good price especially for Schwagtown, USA aka Charlottesville.
It weighs in at only 3.9% alcohol which is I guess isn’t bad for a light beer whereas Port Republic heavy is 4.5% which is fairly respectable for a cheap beer. PRL pours out pretty pale but not as bad as say, Beer 30 or Natty Light. It has a lot of head for a light beer and while the taste is kind of thin, it’s not bad. A little bit of a bitter aftertaste but nothing overtly offensive, in fact it’s kind of pleasant going down and doesn’t have the watery taste that a lot of non-fancy man beers have. Overall, I’d say it’s a good keg beer that I’d serve to a keg party full of people I didn’t hate or a beer I’d drink while tubing down the river.
I’m going to give Port Republic Light a solid 3 Bundy Faces for taste. It goes down smooth and doesn't make you want to gargle with bleach to get the taste of it out of your mouth after you drink it so it’s a little above average in that department but it’s not something I’d go out of my way to get.
As far as the can goes, I do like the design but it’s nothing special. The logo is pretty cool but the slogan “Sail Close to the Wind” doesn’t really do it for me for whatever reason. I could also do without the First Rate above the logo which would just look better if it stood alone.
I can’t go any higher than 2.5 Kelly Bundy’s for can attractiveness. The logo is nice and I like the color of the can but that’s about it.
