Kokanee

Kokanee is a 5.0 percent alcohol (by volume) lager that is smooth, clean and lightly hopped. It is brewed with mountain stream fed water and a blend of 3 malts and features a unique combination of superior Western-grown North American hops. Brewed in the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia by the Columbia Brewing Company, Kokanee is British Columbia's most popular beer over the last 10 years. Since its introduction to the Northwest U.S. in the summer of 1994, many people have discovered and enjoyed Kokanee's cool, crisp, glacier fresh taste.

2.1

470 reviews

Creston, Canada

Community reviews

1.8 Consumed while on vacation in Edmonton, Alberta. 12-ounce bottle pours clear light straw color with a spritz of white head and lacing. Aroma: corn syrup, cereal. Flavor: Corn Flakes cereal, Capt. Crunch cereal, Karo syrup, wet cardboard, salt. Mouthfeel: light-bodied.

1.3 Bottled at ranchmans at the Calgary stampede. Clear body, small white head. The aroma is yeasty like most cheap lagers. The taste is fresh but musty. Clean finish.

4.0 I strongly recommend this beer for people who are looking for a great taste at an affordable price. There are cheap beers out there and there are expensive beers, this one is right smack in the middle, and remains an icon to Canada.

0.8 Just a garbage beer, it’s got a bad after taste, there are cheaper beers with a better taste

2.8 I was weaned on this beer in the Crowsnest pass of Alberta. Served it at my wedding, my first born’s celebration party and my buddy’s divorce parties. It goes great with any food from Elk roast to veggie burger. Kokanee is the epitome of smooth drinkable North-American pilsners. Columbia brewing sold to Labatts but the Columbia brewery in Creston still makes the Kokanee at one location, with gristed malt and pelletized Pac-NW hops and most important, soft calcite glacial run off water (perfect for lager making). It’s available across Canada from the single source in creston BC……… Uh ya..Anyway...the beer. It’s the best attempt yet at Canadianizing a mega brewed plisner into a very drinkable form without loosing too much taste. It has an 8 stage brewing process and is naturally aged in cold storage 28 days. This is the beer for you if you like to drink a refreshing light summer beer with all natural chem-free ingredients. If you come at it from any other frame of reference you will be guilty of judging it to be something it is not intended to be. Gristed malt, great water, naturally lagered, smooth crisp, drinkable. There is no such thing as a "Kokanee hangover". I have been drinking and brewing and writing about craft beer for over 20 yrs and this is one of 2 commercial brews I can tolerate……… Pours a pale straw color. Pleasing 2 finger rocky white cap with moderate retention that dissipates to a surface lace and lasts the rest of the drink. Has a pleasingly malty and slight pils/saaz spicy hop aroma. On the palate: starts malty with light crusty malts, smooth palate feel....distinctly 2 dimensional and light with just enough light hopping so the biscuit malts don’t dominate, finishes clean with a biscuit-bready sweet bite in after taste. A really great Canadian mega brew...the best actually. This is a well made beer and the mistake most people make is serving it too cold, cold kills this delicate flavor - serve at about 8deg. C, this will allow you to find the character in this delicate light pilsner.

2.1 Bottle: Clear gold, with a thin white head. Grainy, straw scent. Taste is a little cardboard, bland grain malt, barley. Oddly, this one seems to improve (slightly) with a bit of warming....other than that , it’s a standard-issue bargain Pale Lager.

2.2 Terrible beer. No flavor, like a natural light. Pours light yellow very transparent. Had out of a bottle.

2.2 Can. Poured clear yellow with a dissipating white head. Stale grainy aroma. Light body, high carbonation, prickly mouthfeel. Grainy corn flavour, grassy hops, light bitterness.

2.3 Yellow coloured beer with white head. Aroma is grassy en a bit of hay. Taste is grainy and a bit watery.

2.5 Just your average canadian lager beer. I have trouble distinguishing between this, Canadian, Blue, etc.

2.1 Bottle at Snowbird. Light yellow body with thin head. Nose is nondescript. Taste is light, corn and malty. Crisp finish. Not much to it.

2.0 Crisp clean lager. Nothing great or bad about it. Golden and bubbly pour from bottle at the Calgary airport. White head. Grassy. Straw. Fine

2.1 0.355l bottle as "kokanee glacier fresh beer". pours a clear pale golden with a frothy white head and some lacing. aroma of grains, corn. flavour of sweet corn, mostly water. very thin body. sweetish finish.

1.9 12 oz bottle brought back from my aunt and uncle’s summer in Washington. Nose is corn and maybe a little floral hops along with a lager sweetness. Clear gold with a big, glass-lacing yellow tinged head that lasts a long time. Flavor is lightly sweet corn with a very slight bit of bitterness and caramel. OK pale lager.

2.2 A slightly below average lager and exactly the reason why craft beer got so big in northern america, I guess.

0.5 I really have nothing to say about this beer. I would rather drink water. After switching to craft brew I will never go back to kokanee.

1.9 Crisp but with a slightly more of a bit than your average Canadian lager. Kind of a chemical aroma.

4.0 Kokanee has always been one of my favorites from Canada. Has a good clean crisp taste smooth finish very drinkable.

1.1 Crisp clear coloured body with a thinnish white head. Aroma of pale malt, alcohol, cardboard and a touch of caster sugar. Light-bodied; Pale funky flavour of cardboard, stale malt and absolutely nothing else - not even bad flavours - just water. Aftertaste shows the cardboard, alcohol and water - pale and nothing giving. Overall, a very poor beer - and one I guess I should have known was garbage, but I didn’t recognise the name on a Chinese restaurant in the West End of downtown Vancouver, so I tried it, and I wish I would have thought othertwise. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Dinesty Chinese Restaurant in the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia on 07-June-2015 for CA$4,50.

2.2 12oz bottle pours a very bubbly pale golden with a large white head. Aroma of stale corn and garden picked green beans, and glue paste. Taste similar to aroma some upchuck belchy aftertaste. Hockey beer!

1.8 Bottle with Saturday Shirt. Pint glass which seems like too classy for this beer. Smell is pretty brutal...basically grains and malt liquor. Taste is pretty much the same with grain and mild unimpressive hops taking center stage. Feels like a frat beer. Not a compliment. Light and simple with little complexity. Kind ofsweet. Nothing noteworthy to be found. You can find better.

1.9 Bottle @ Raven's Nest, Whistler B.C. Pale yellow, little head. Watery, light malts, bit artificial. Immediately forgotten...

2.0 Ok it is what it is, but when we visit BC, we always have to get a "jug" of Kokanee, it’s just what you do. That being said, it’s still better than your average American lager (miller).

3.6 Nice easy drinking lager/pilsner. Pale gold in colour, white head, lightly hopped. My preferred non craft Canadian lager.

1.5 "light color, light flavor profile, aroma, etc, etc, etc... nothing good, not horrible, but on low side of things for sure. canned lager, what can you expect?"

3.2 341 ml bottle bought at foodGARDEN in D2 Place, Lai Chi Kok. Pale dull golden colour; One-quarter finger head with residual soapy white foam which fades in 15 seconds; Good sticky lacing with notable slight carbonation; Light aroma of malt, with very light grains, bread, moderate lemon and light grass; Light sweet taste of moderate malt, with very light grains, strong molasses, bread, light lemon and light bitter grass hops; Close to light body. Thin but slightly slick and crisp palate; Mouth feel is moderate, close to solid malt base for a Pale. Slightly watery but otherwise a good mouthful. Grain taste close to minimal, sweetness as in molasses not sickly sugar. Good breadyness. Solid!... Hoppiness is light lemon and grass in nose and taste. Low blow bitterness for an abrupt, faint astringent-light malt finish; Fairly dry after taste. Very easy, and quite malty to mouth. Comments: Compare to rice-infested water like Buds, I prefer light but honest Pale like this one: solid maltyness for the style, very low grains, natural light sweetness, fair low hoppiness. No foul smeel and taste. More than drinkable, this is easily a go-to just like Carlsberg, only the prohibitive Canadian import price tag is deterring. Pretty nice!

2.1 I’d have to do a side-by-side to speak intelligently as to how this compares to MGD and other pale lagers. It’s a bit above average, but otherwise too faint to notice any outstanding qualities.

2.5 Like most lagers it has almost no flavour. Pale straw yellow with a fizzy head that dies down fast. Thin malt based flavour but mostly tastes of light hay, straw, corn, etc. Not an awful beer by any means, just not very exciting.

1.8 Rated at the brewery, draft. Pale straw yellow, stable splotchy head, it’s actually fine except for the sweetness, clean, and has a very soft mouthfeel. Aches for hops, and not sure how many I’d drink, but I finished my pint and is not bad for what it is.

3.2 Typical lager. Clear with medium carbonation. Neutral nose. Medium mouthfeel medium carbonation. Malt based but not strong taste