I’ve written about a lot of different kinds of foods and beverages for Snackology. Fast food. Cookies. Soda. Candy. Even macaroni and cheese. But I’ve never reviewed a beer for this newsletter.
Until the moment came for me to crack open a cold PBR x Grillo’s Pickle Beer.
Snackology is not a newsletter about beer. I leave that kind of coverage up to the professionals like my buddy Will Cleveland over at The Cleveland Prost. But this is a newsletter that loves a wacky crossover or interesting gimmick, and putting the “crisp, dill-forward punch” of Grillo’s pickles into Pabst Blue Ribbon is what I’m here to write about.
“I don’t think the founder of Pabst saw this one coming. But somewhere along the line, someone put a pickle in a beer and never looked back,” Pabst senior brand director Rachel Keeton said in the companies’ announcement. “We’re taking that ritual and making it official with Grillo’s. It’s exactly as good as it sounds.”
Is a PBR that boasts the flavor of Grillo’s pickles “exactly as good as it sounds”?
Welcome to Snackology!
This publication is a free newsletter, but it’s fueled by readers like you. Support independent news, reviews and more for just $5 a month.
As someone with an extensive history on Untappd, the app that lets you log and rate every beer you’ve ever had, I realized there was a record of whether or not I’d had a pickle beer at any one point between like 2018 and the present day. There were two results in my history: Fresh Pickles from Other Half, which is very much not a pickle-flavored beer. And Fresh-Made Pickle Gose from 903 Brewers, which I sampled at the Rochester Real Beer Expo in 2025.
But PBR x Grillo’s Pickle Beer is the first time I’ve actually sat down with a pickle beer with the intention of giving it my entire attention.
This is a good beer? The pickle level feels correct, not too briny while also not letting you forget that, yes, you’re drinking a can of PBR with a cartoon pickle on it. Part of what makes this work is that PBR is an established lager. It’s not like this someone doused a 10% ABV milkshake IPA with pickle juice. This is a tried-and-true, reliable beer that just happens to have a hint of a dill to it.
A cold 6-pack of PBR x Grillo’s Pickle Beer would probably pair extremely well with a few white hots. (Or, you know, some other fun new hot dog releases.)
The Omnicosm founder. Snackology, Popculturology and The Cold Open writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
Bluesky
Instagram
