TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

When Inbev purchased Budweiser, I spent about two weeks making fun of the snobbiest of beer snobs I know and asked them if Bud had immediately become a better beer because it was now a fine Belgian import. Inbev, on the other hand, went on an immediate marketing spree to try and convince the good ol’ boys that this was still going to be the American Budweiser they’ve been sucking down at the races for the last 50 years. This culminated with the release of Budweiser “We Promise We’re Still” American Ale. It has been getting some love from some surprising sources and general consensus has been “it’s not that bad for a Budweiser product.” Full disclosure: as someone who was weaned on Genessee and spent 2/3rds of my college career drinking Beast before upgrading to Busch, the column title is more ironic then anything else.

Budweiser American Ale
Brewed By: Budweiser
Brewed In: America… We Promise
Type: American Ale
ABV: 5.1%

What They Say: Why is this beer distinctive from start to finish? Brewed with caramel, malted barley from America’s Heartland for a beautiful, rich amber color and sweet malt character. Dry-hopped with Cascade Hops from the Pacific Northwest for a noticeably citrus aroma. Thick, frothy head with a nice, dense lacing. Satisfying bold taste with a bright hoppy finish. Achieving the perfect balance of rounded malt and hop flavor. An ale that’s distinctly American in character. Savor the difference. They surprisingly fall short of printing My Country ‘Tis Of Thee on it.

Website: It’s a corporate website for a product marketed to young people, which means it’s got to be Flash with CRAZY animation. The beer itself has its own website with its own crazy Flash animation. The website offers no text. Just video. I loathe video. Let it be known that Budweiser and Inbev hate deaf people.

Why I Picked It: The aforementioned decent buzz followed by props from That Bootleg Guy. Speaking of whom: Cam, you and I need to arrange an across state lines exchange of… um… collectible Fat Tire glassware.

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Presentation (5): Since I’m assuming this is designed for people who generally aren’t beer snobs, I’ll say that the packaging is low-key and non-threatening. Everything is meant to take a backseat to the bald eagle and the AMERICAN ALE logos. Whether or not that will get someone whose been drinking Buds for the last 20 years to try something new, I don’t know. I know the packaging wouldn’t have drawn me in for anything other than curiosity, so we’ll call it a push… almost. 2

Originality (5): To their credit, it’s not Budweiser with a different label. It actually is some kind of original recipe. Whether they bought it from someone or it’s some other Inbev product with the Budweiser label is something only the Belgians know. The taste is different from other American Ales I’ve had but not tremendously different from any other ale. 3

Body (10): It’s much thinner than I expected. I don’t know why because it’s ale and ales are generally pretty thin. With the flavor, though, the thinness works in a way it wouldn’t in some other beers. I think it feels thinner than even a Bud Light because of the completely unobtrusive carbonation. If this makes sense, it’s pretty thin but still almost borders on syrupy. I don’t know how that’s possible, but it works. All told, pretty good. 6

Taste (10): It starts off hoppy, but not cloying so. Fortunately, Budweiser hasn’t decided that the way to a good beer is to make it taste like pine cones. The flavor changes a bit from start to finish and ends with a touch of bitterness to keep you thirsty. God Bless America. I don’t love how the aftertaste stays with you permanently, but your mileage may vary. 6

Efficiency (10): Completely poundable combined with a delicate, easy drinkability (ugh) and a low-cost. As is the case with American Ale, it’s designed to get the job done and it does. The only thing that could have given it a higher efficiency rating is Bud Ice’s 5.5 ABV. 8

Versatility (10): As is the hallmark of an American Ale, it’s designed to be quite consumable. A relatively low alcohol content to keep you from getting too drunk and a bit of bitterness to keep you thirsty. Weak enough to be used for keg stands and strong enough to catch a quick buzz. 10

Final Grade: 35 (of 50) - Really Good Beer. I’m as surprised as you are

I installed Google Analytics on this thing recently to get some idea of exactly how lightly read this blog is. It was more out of curiosity than anything else but, much to my surprise, Google Analytics gives you a listing of the search terms that people used in Google to get to your site. Tonight I discovered that this post from last year is the third hit when you search for “jetblue sucks”. I also discovered that the beer reviews bubble up through Google amazingly well. Last week’s Beer Snob on Pete’s Tavern was the third hit behind the actual Pete’s Tavern Geocities website and the societal scourge (and bastion of blog fodder as soon as I figure out how to format it) known as Yelp. Google started sending me traffic on that post about 3 hours after it went up and it’s referred a significant number of people here since… more than 6 times any other post.

This tells me 3 things - 1) I need to start looking for a new template that I don’t hate that actually has better “if you want to read more about beer, click here” links. 2) I’m never, ever, going to be able to change the url of this blog without hosing my Google ranking. 3) I really, really have to do a better editing job in case anyone of import ever comes here and wants to take me away from all this and bring me to the Big City to follow my dre…

Dammit.