Abita Brewing Company, the brewery of choice for many Louisiana residents, has released yet another beer as a part of its Select series — Strawator.
Anyone familiar with Abita’s beer selection would likely piece together that this brew is a combination of Strawberry Harvest Lager and Andygator, based on its name. While Abita does not directly acknowledge this as the beer’s origin, one sip of Strawator reveals that any other scenario is highly unlikely.
Having been released so recently, the beer is not yet available in bottles (at least as far as my search took me), but is on tap at many bars throughout Baton Rouge, including The Bulldog.
From tap, the beer pours an extremely hazy, deep golden color with a one-inch head that persisted through most of the session. The haziness is due to the strawberry juice that is added after filtration, which was expected, seeing as this beer plays older brother to the already-hazy Strawberry Harvest Lager.
The beer retains its roots in both Strawberry Harvest and Andygator, borrowing wheat from the former and the German perle hops from the latter. Strawator is still a lager, though, and definitely makes that clear from the first sip all the way to the final drops.
Of course, the pure strawberry juice in this beer produces a very sweet aroma and flavor, but does not mask the maltiness or slight bitterness that harken back to the beer’s Andygator backbone.
Strawator has a pleasant mouth-feel, with a level of carbonation that doesn’t cut through the intense flavors. At the back of the throat, its flavors blossom and give the beer a heaviness that was always missing from Strawberry Harvest Lager.
In fact, this beer does a lot to fill in for the shortcomings of its younger sibling. Strawberry Harvest is essentially a strong wheat beer, or a weak lager. Since the strawberry juice is added in a similar fashion, Strawberry Harvest always seemed too sweet and lacking in body to be a good session beer.
Adding elements from Andygator, a helles doppelbock, provided the bottom end Strawberry Harvest always lacked, making Strawator a truly well-balanced dessert beer. And at 8 percent ABV, it’s not to be taken lightly, either.
I enjoyed my experience with Strawator, though it’s definitely a beer I would reserve for special occasions. Strong, thick and almost overbearingly sweet, it takes a little longer to get a pint of it down than a pint of an unflavored wheat beer or lager.
Given this region’s obsession with Abita (particularly with Strawberry Harvest Lager), I fully expect Strawator to be fully stocked in local stores for quite some time. As with any other beer in Abita’s Select series, though, Strawator will only be available for a limited time.