DRANK: Bomb Lager, Bomb Beer Company, New York City, NY/Wilkes-Barre, PA - CAN

All this logo needs is spandex pants.

My weekly, Sunday Oliver's trip afforded me two opportunities to cash in on two of my top level beer criteria—new and cheap. Bomb Lager ($3.95 a sixer) fit the bill. I think I may have gotten out ahead of something in the beer world with this one, too. It's new—way new. It's has a total of four reviews between Ratebeer and BeerAdvocate. Truth be told, at first glance I thought it was an energy drink. It has, without a doubt, the ugliest logo I have ever seen on a beer can. It looks like something I would have doodled on my high school social studies notebook—far from out-of-place next to the inky Metallica and Van Halen logos adorning the scribbled blue spiral bound cover. This logo is the heavy metal dirtbag of the beer logo world. This logo makes David Lee Roth cry. The logo is bad enough but the 6-pack packaging is an all black, cardboard sleeve hiding the best part of the package, the cans. They're a cool metallic lime green with Keith Herring-esque, post-modern, Mayan hieroglyphs. That's it. No mention of style or ABV. No barley or hops, scrolls, cascading streams, mountains or animals. Just the crazy black, red and green grinning faces of, well, the Bomb Lager guys—and the regular legal mumbo-jumbo, oh and that stupid logo. Why the brewery thought it a good idea to cover all that cool craziness up is beyond me, but they just about missed an opportunity to sell me their stuff. Good thing I'm cheap on Sundays.

The kid behind the counter says, "Hey—Bomb Lager! Ever had it?"

"Nope, looks like I'm about to, though." I answered.

As he swipes my credit card he says, "They're new, out of Pennsylvania. It's kind of skunky in a good, Heineken kind of way." He seemed excited. I think he could tell by the look on my face I was not, but the card had been swiped, nonetheless. He grinned, "They sell it to us cheap, though!" Good thing I'm cheap on Sundays.

In fact, it is a good thing I'm cheap on Sundays. It's not skunky at all. In fact it's pretty good. It pours a maple-wood gold, with a wallop of a fluffy white head. It smells grainy, like wet bread, with no hoppiness at all. It's smooth, nearly creamy with a good bit of carbonation. It's grassy and just a bit bitter with a dry finish. It has a touch of sweetness—almost a sweet and sour note like fresh grapes—but just at start. The sweetness trails off and the hop bitterness steps in after the swallow.

Is it a light lager? Yes. Are there a thousand light lagers out there? Yes. Would it make for a great lawnmower beer? Yes. But, I can't say it's just a lawnmower beer, it's better than that. It's more than just refreshing, it's a truly well made light lager—and that's hard to do. There's little room for error in a beer like this and Bomb seems to have pulled this one off. So, not only did I get new and cheap I also got good—and maybe a little surprised thrown in there, too.