Budweiser American Ale

Brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev
Style: Amber Ale
St. Louis, Missouri USA

From a 12 fl. oz. bottle marked 08298SJ07. Surprisingly good looking amber-reddish pour with foamy beige head. Aroma of malts. Above average mouthfeel. Taste more hopped. Hmm, something fairly decent from In-Bev/Budweiser.

Citrus, floral, and mild metallic aroma notes. Clear amber with white head and mild lacing. Cascade hop bitterness, lite caramel, and mild metallic flavour notes. Watery with medium bitter finish.

My first thought on this as I pour it into the bottle is quite encouraging. I mean, it looks like an ale, amber, decent, off-white head. Not much in the way of aroma, slightly flowery, hoppy. The first taste is alright! Wow! Slightly dry, malts, not much bite but that’s alright. I’m shocked that a macro like A-B can make a beer like this one. Good job.

22 oz bottle. Amber coloured beer with a very thick and persistent white head. Aroma is lightly malty and a soft chewy nutty sweetness. A very soft floral/fruity hopopy aroma on the top. A kiss of floral/fruity sweetness and a bit of light maltiness. Decent balance. It’s a bit too sweet for my tastes, but it certainly isn’t a bad beer. A light sweet nuttiness.

Budweiser American Ale is a very clear and sparkling light copper ale. It has a small, elastic off-white head that leaves good lacing and has good retention. The aroma is citrusy, with notes of light grain, starfruit, pepper and alcohol. It smells like a homebrew. It is medium-light bodied, pretty smooth, with a pretty crisp finish. It has a slightly metallic feel. It is pretty mellow and well balanced and dry. There are notes of Cascades, pretzels and pepper. Not bad, A-B!

12oz bottle poured into a shaker. BAA pours like an amber with a medium-to-thin head. The aroma is purely amber ale, that is to say, sweet malt with a faint hint of hops and a bit of stale grain. The body is thin, as expected from the brewer. The taste isn’t offensive like the corn-filled brothers of this beer but it isn’t noteworthy either. All in all, this beer isn’t good but it is a step in the right direction for AB. The finish is, again, as expected, quick, watery and lacking in character.

OK -- this beer was marketed to me, I admit it. After seeing 3,000 commercials for it, I gave it a try. Sparkling honey-gold. Caramel and toffee on the nose, alongside a muddy, musty aroma. Super-sweet malts on the tongue. Lots of carbonation and a sweet, papery finish. Unimpressive.

Bright golden-amber colour. The aroma is faintly woody, caramelly but mainly has stewed peaches and canned mushrooms. There’s some earthy character and lots of sweet caramel. Fairly bland, more amber than APA so I guess I was hoping for a bit too much. There’s certainly no evidence of dry-hopping. The light, appley fruitiness may not be terribly attractive on its own, but here it cuts through some of the thick caramel sludge. Still, the big guys were making better pseudo-craft beers in the mid 90s than they are today.