America Can Make Beer

19 November 2008



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Bud American Ale Actually Tastes of Something

Anheuser Busch is best known for making Budweiser, the most renowned beer in America. Bud also has very little taste. For years, the big breweries have tried to convince Americans that their product is the best possible. The sales of imported beer suggests otherwise. Now, Budweiser American Ale has hit the market and it turns out that Americans can brew decent beer after all.

John Foyston of the Oregonian wrote, “And the verdict is: Not bad, not bad at all...the beer skews toward the malty side, but actual hops HAVE been used and it reminds me of a very drinkable ESB. My machinist/home-brewer pal Les Barker, was reminded more of a brown ale and noted that the beer has a nice dry finish. “

Lew Bryson said, “It’s bright and clear, it’s a deep ruddy amber, the foam is creamy and light parchment-colored. I smell sweet fresh malt, some caramel, and piney hop. The flavor has all that, in fact, it delivers on the aroma in an almost one-to-one ratio, although the caramel masks the hops to a degree. The ale is not overly full in the mouth, somewhat on the light side, but that’s not really a surprise; A-B was surely intending this as a drinking beer, not a sipper. The biggest surprise for me here is the finish: it’s relatively long, and bitter.

Bob Skilnik, author of Beer & Food: An American History, wrote “I say hold judgement until October. I thought that the bottled version that I enjoyed was the result of just what A-B personnel said they were striving for. The amber-colored beer was malty, with a nose that indicated a light dry-hopping of what I’m certain were Cascade hops and the muscle of 5.3% abv behind it. Budweiser American Ale was not, however, a hop-bomb, one of those toe-curling ales that have you burping up hop oils the next morning. It was, I don’t know how to put it any other way, it was…balanced. It was also very, very good in the bottle; I think it would be hard to put down, drawn fresh from the tap. And with the extensive A-B distribution network in place, it’s going to be near impossible to find an old beer on the shelves that has lost its hop nose, a complaint that I still have with some respected craft beers.

The trouble is just who is going to buy it? Regular Bud drinkers aren't going to like its powerful taste, their palettes too damaged by the flagship brew. And craft fans won't bother with it. Why drink that when one can have a Sierra Nevada or a Bass? Well, it gives the marketing department something to do.



© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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