Beer Review: Natty Daddy

By: Sheriff of Rarden

Natty Daddy. Just the name alone is worthy of a review. This beer is synonymous with gas stations like Rod Stewart is synonymous with being sexy. As we speak, I’m drinking a Natty Daddy from a UDF while listening to the Rod. Natty Daddy is, well, the big daddy of the Natural world. Natural Light, lovingly referred to as Natty Light, is a beer review for another day. To make a long story short, Natty Daddy is similar to Natty Light but with over double the beer per can, almost double the alcohol content, and double the daddiness.

The Natty Daddy is almost an enigma in the beer world. It’s almost exclusively drunk in its tall boy form. I’ve never seen anyone drink it in its 12 oz. variant. In fact, I didn’t know it existed until a quick Google search. Apparently, there’s also a lemonade variant! You learn something new about beer every day!

This is certainly a more spontaneous beer review. Originally I was going to be reviewing craft beer but, because my birthday was recent, I was given the sweet, sweet gift of a Natty Daddy by my roommate. This is my first time ever having a Natty Daddy and it’s certainly an experience I’ll remember. Let us begin.

*25 oz. instead of 24 oz. Now that’s daddy!*

Cost: This beer is the definition of cheap. One 25 oz. can won’t set you back more than two or three bucks. A Natty Daddy makes for a great one-off beer. Purchase just one alone? You’ll feel something. Purchase it with a 6-pack of beer? It acts as a one-two punch to your liver. A finisher. The Natty Daddy acts as a cheap way to either start or end your night.

I wouldn’t recommend purchasing more than one, to be honest. Even though it’s cheap, buying more than one seems almost unnecessary. Drinking multiple cans of this beer just seems strange. As stated earlier, tallboys almost always serve as either the opener or the ender to a good night; they almost never serve as the main attraction. It’s a couple of dollars to amplify your evening of beer drinking.

I would rank a tallboy of Natty Daddy to be quite possibly the most cost-effective beer on its own. It’s seemingly the beer of choice for those that want a strong beer without shelling out the cash for craft beer. It fills such a niche void that I can’t help but rate it very highly in the cost-effectiveness territory because, well, there are not many other beers like it that fill that cheap, yet very strong, beer category as well as the Natty Daddy does.

Taste: Honestly… not that good. It’s a very strong taste. In my opinion, it’s a bit too strong of a taste. Usually, with high alcohol beers, they have something unique to it that compliments the alcohol taste. Whether it’s the hops from your common IPA adding a sweet bitterness, or craft beers that can make chocolate or peanut butter porters with insane alcohol contents, they usually have a flavor that distinguishes them from your standard lager or ale. A Natty Daddy, however, just tastes like a super-strong beer. Simply a beer. Nothing special.

I can’t say the beer tastes particularly bad, it’s just not good. Buying a beer in tallboy or 40 oz. forms present a problem unique to containers of that size: they warm up. They warm up much faster than 12 oz. cans and, thus, don’t taste as good for as long of a time. Drinking this beer is like a race against time: it starts off pretty decent but with each passing moment it begins to taste worse and worse. By the end, it’s a struggle to find any motivation to continue drinking it.

This is not a beer you drink for the taste. You drink this beer for its strength. Speaking of which…

Strength: Holy moly. This beer is strong. 8% ABV! So far, this is the strongest beer we’ve reviewed on Beer Reviews and certainly one of the strongest cheap, domestic beers available. Drink one can of this and you’ll feel it. Drink two and you’re probably already drunk. If you haven’t eaten much in the day, crank this beer’s strength up to eleven. It will get you drunk if you drink it alongside other beers.

Alongside the fact that these beers come in 25 oz. containers, 8% is nearly sinful. Our Natty Daddy, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy alcohol content. It’s very difficult to get a stronger beer for as cheap as this one is. The only real competitor seems to be the almighty Steel Reserve, a beer that serves as Natty Daddy’s companion in gas station beer caves.

This beer is nearly unbeatable in the strength category, and the only real reason anyone buys this beer is because of its pure strength. If this beer played Dark Souls, it would wield a Demon Great Axe +15 with a full Havel set. It’s that strong!

*A recently unearthed 15 pack of 12 oz. Natty Daddies. Extremely rare.*

Overall: This beer is not for the faint of heart. Extreme caution is advised when drinking a Natty Daddy. It’s strong. Not just in alcohol content, but in taste as well. With it being so cheap, it’s almost exclusively meant to be drunk for the 8% alcohol content and nothing else. This is not a beer I would drink regularly, but I wouldn’t mind having a few more in the future if I’m just trying to get drunk. Mediocrity seems to be the motto for Natural Light and its line of brews. The Natty Daddy is no exception.

Cost: 10/10

Taste: 3/10

Strength: 8.5/10

Final Verdict: In a rare moment, the sum is weaker than its parts. Good cost, good strength, but the taste is so meh that this beer struggles to tread water. Dad water.

“The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer.” – Ancient Egyptian Widsom, 2200 B.C.