Bell Rates... Stella Artois

type: Lager

origin: Belgium 1

ABV: 5%

location: Biergarten

served: from a 284ml bottle to a glass

Stella Artois... apparently it's 'Reassuringly Expensive', and apparently it also promotes domestic abuse. 

This review can sadly neither confirm these rumours, nor deny them, as the Stella I sampled for the occasion was left in my house2 at some point by a guest, and I'm not married.

What I can confirm, however, is that Stella is your basic mass-produced, commercial lager. It states that it's a 'Premium Lager Beer', but in the market segment Stella resides in, you can pretty much call anything you like 'Premium' and sell it on the price, rather than the quality. But let's not get too far into slating it at this early stage, there's still plenty of review left for that!

Smell: It presents a decent smell, with a hint of citrus, which is not too overpowering. Not that notable, odour-wise, but definitely not a bad smell. Fairly basic, basically. 2/4

Colour: I found Stella to be quite disappointing in the colour department, as it was slightly lacking, and it looked a bit watered-down, in essence. It edged slightly towards looking quite sickly and pale - but not pale in an attractive way, the way that a lager is supposed to look. no half-marks in this system, so it gets rounded down to 1/4

Taste: Pretty decent, and quite drinkable, all told. A bit over-hopped, and very bitter, but not in an unpleasant way. Some 'mainstream' lagers at around the 5% mark compromise taste for alcohol, but that's not so evident here, leaving it unremarkable enough to have a few pints and not get tired of it. Very little after-taste, but that probably works in its favour to a certain extent. 2/4

Overall, an easy-to-drink beer, and probably one of the best of the mass-produced, commercial lagers, actually. Stella is a viable option where choice is limited, and it's inoffensiveness would make it a good 'session' beer, if you were just out to get blootered. 

But then, I suppose that's the whole point of Stella, isn't it? 5/12

Notes

1. 'brewed in the UK', but it says 'Leuven, Belgium' all over the packaging.

2. Rule one of Bell's House: if you leave it in my house, it belongs to me. 


more info: www.stellaartois.com