Blue Moon Agave Nectar Ale

Earlier this month, I picked up a variety pack of Blue Moon beers.  I like regular Blue Moon, and I've tried one or two of their varietals in the past and found them to be decent.  The first beer I pulled out of the box was the Agave Nectar ale:

Vittles:
American Wheat or Rye Beer
5.6% abv
14 IBU

Score:
Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 17/25
Taste: 33/40
Mouthfeel: 7/10
Style: 4/5
Drinkability: 8/10
Overall: 76/100

Impression:
It poured decently, but the head fell insanely quickly and left no lacing whatsoever.  The aroma is very flat -- all I really smell is flour.  When I sniff the beer, I feel like I've got my nose in the flour canister in my kitchen.  Every now and then, I catch a little caramel or a hint of earthiness, but it's mostly just flour.  The taste improves on the nose a bit, but not a whole lot -- the caramel and the earthiness both come out to play more, and there's a floral quality that I didn't pick up on in the aroma.  The flour taste still dominates, but not as much as it did in the nose.  I only really taste the agave after I swallow; the "tequila" taste only seems to register in the aftertaste for me.

About halfway through this beer, I poured out a shot of 100% agave tequila so I could compare the two, since I'm not overly familiar with agave flavors -- I'm partial to bourbon and Scotch, preferably on the rocks or in a rusty nail with Drambouie (SO good!).  I left off the lime and salt, partly because I'm out of fresh limes, and partly so I could just focus on the agave flavors and, ya know, learn.  Having these two side by side (and palate cleansing in between) helped me better identify which floral and slightly fruity flavors were from the agave.  I was already familiar with the earthy-brown-sugar/burnt resin aspect of the agave, and I did pick up on those qualities in this beer as well.

All in all, this was a good learning experience beer.  And it was decently tasty to boot, once you either accepted or got past the over-the-top all-purpose flour aroma/taste.  And it gave me a chance to have some tequila.  For educational purposes, of course.  And it generated what's quite possibly my longest blog post yet.  So I guess I really can't complain too much, right?

Cheers!