Budweiser American Ale

I was very sceptical to say the least. But I had it at a homebrew meeting today and I tried to keep out of my mind it was budweiser and it actually wasn’t that bad. I could actually tell they used cascade hops for dry-hopping. And it wasn’t too malty. there was an ok balance. I’m suprized. Not a bad beer.

Pours with a amber/orange hue, smaller white head. The aroma is hints of sweet malts and some hops. The taste, thinner than I like, is true to the aroma. A better then expected offering from an american macro.

It wasn’t really that bad. King of Beers? Maybe not. Anyway, nice brown color, nice head that lasted a while. Lace in my glass. Smells and tastes hoppy, this is nice. It wasn’t a bad beer, really, just not my thing.

A very good attempt by Anheuser-Busch at making craft beer. Nice amber color. Had what I look for in beer... good balance of malts and hops. This wasn’t like many of the other offerings from "the big three", this actually tasted like real beer. I don’t mean to come across as rude because I do realize that everyone’s taste is a little different, but come on... as soon as the ads for this beer came out, some of you were probably ready to come on here and give it a 0.5 because it is put out by a large American brewery. If you truly think its crap, fine, but some of you need to rate the beer itself rather than the brewery.

There are good and bad thigs about this offering from Bud. First off, this is the best beer that they mass produce, hands down. Really. It completely blows away Budweiser, Bud light, Michelob, ect. Its actually decent. But... it in no way even comes close to 90% of the craft beers now made by the micro breweries. It tastes very similar to Bass Pale Ale, but it costs less. Not bad, but nowhere near great.

Bottle. Medium off-white head over a clear redish ale. Smell of sweet malts and a bit of smoke. There’s more going on with the flavor than I expected. Mix of caramel, dough, and some hop bitterness with even a little smokey finish. None of the flavors are strong. Unfortunately the finish isn’t very good and the more of it I drank, the last I liked it as it left my mouth really sticky.

Hmm....pours an amber color with small head. Smells crisp and somewhat like a bud light. Tastes kind of like a bud light with extra maltiness. Almost as if it hasn’t fermented fully. Probably never again.

Bottle into clear solo cup (for bar’s lack of proper "glass" ware). Anyways, this thing exceeded my expectations and really impressed me, being that it says Budweiser on the bottle (which, by the way, I think exhibits a well designed attractive and non-tacky label, and I really like the bottle shape too). For me, the aroma is misleading, it doesn’t smell like much more than a slightly roasted pale lager. There were some nice hops in the flavor (some citrus grapefruity flavors) and the malt body was good and pretty rich and presented a nice rich medium body with a soft mouth feel. Overall: not the best, but truly outstanding coming from Budweiser. If this was 5 or 6 dollars a 6 pack it would be a very nice safety beer. There is a great bit of irony in the name of the beer, given the timing of its release, that always puts a smile on my face too.