Oculto

This 6.0% ABV Oculto beverage is from the Broken Barrel Brewing Company. The can doesn't really make any sense. If you read it top to bottom, left to right, it says this is a "Blue Agave Infused Oculto blended with beer aged on tequila barrel staves." So what exactly is blended with the beer now? On the side it calls it a "beer with tequila stave-aged lager and natural flavors." So, it is a beer mixed with beer? Who would release such a beverage that doesn't even know what it is? 

Don't let Broken Barrel Brewing Company fool you, the can says this was brewed in Houston, Texas and Williamsburg, Virginia. What do those two cities have in common? An Anheuser-Busch brewery in each. That makes sense, as one day I had never heard of this drink, and the next it was on the shelf in four-pack tall cans, six pack bottles, 12-pack bottles, and 25 ounce cans. AB-InBev still has the retail pull to make that happen. Another clue is the website; like every major brewery website, it tells you absolutely nothing about the product. I have always found it so odd that the brewers who spend the most on advertising have the lamest websites, over and over again.

A beer aged on tequila barrel staves sounds like a good idea, but how is this actually? I didn't want to invest in multiple containers, so I went with the single large can. The beer pours a very clear golden. There is about a half inch of white head that dissipates fairly quickly. The aroma is lime and artificial booze, but not particularly the aroma of tequila. Overall, it smells fake and vaguely fruity. The taste is the same, overlayed on stale Budweiser, sweet, yet not, all at once.  Man, this sucks. My wife said it "tastes like college." Zima was way better than this. Back to your focus groups AB-InBev, this is a hot mess.