In defense of the Budweiser Ad

I’ll start right out with:

Now, there are many faults with this ad. For one, there’s no need to create division. There’s plenty of market share for yellow fizzy beer, and craft beer. Two, we all know ABI is already big in the craft game, and apparently Eleysian makes some sort of Pecan Peach Pumpkin Ale, which sounds just awful. So that’s dumb. BUT…

Brewing a consistent, golden lager with no off flavors IS “brewing the hard way”. This doesn’t mean craft brewers don’t work hard, but it’s well known that heavily hopped ales, or crazy roasted coffee stouts or dark porters, can create intense tastes which cover other brewing flaws. Yeah, it’s a little easier to do it when you’re doing in 100MM barrels at a time, but the brew masters at Bud work hard, and a producing an incredible product.

Second (and even more controversially): Regular old Budweiser is not a bad beer. I would say there are relatively few craft lagers which can stand up to it. I’m not talking about Bud Light, or the various other macro swills out there. On a hot day, when it’s not Stout or DIPA weather, plain ole Bud really hits the spot. In that sense, brewing up some golden suds is just fine with me.

Also, pretty much every pumpkin beer is awful.

28 views and no comments? I take that to mean everyone is complete agreement with my comments…as it should be.

Um, no. Better than Miller, Pabst and Schlitz, but no. Go Mexican (even Corona is superior) or go ale.

Um, yes.

Someone call me? I make lagers, and I believe my beers do a much better job of representing what lager beer is all about than Budweiser (so do a lot of other people). That said, Budweiser’s quality control is fantastic - certainly better than mine, though I suspect that some of the largest craft brewers can approximately their quality. Of course, quality is a measure of variance from intentions, not a measure of taste. A factory grown tomato is probably of higher quality than an heirloom tomato, but it tastes like shit.

Personally I’ve never really cared for Bud. They have a whiff of DMS in their beers (it’s there on purpose) that I find off-putting, and I have long struggled with the flavor of adjuncts (though rice is way better than corn, IMO). Personally I’d rather drink Coors if I have to drink American industrial beer. I think they use better malt, and they really care about beer, while InBev is more concerned about market share and acquisitions.

You basically just started the beer equivalent of the “Gallo’s Hearty Burgundy Actually IS Good Wine” conversation. You’re trying to have this conversation with the wrong audience.

That, and what Bob H. posted.

I’m not trolling. Much of what I said is non-controversial: Making a pale, mildly flavored lager with no off flavors IS really hard - see Rick’s comments. Covering up off flavors with excessive hops is rampant in the craft business.

Gallo’s Hearty Burgundy is hardly the appropriate comp here. That stuff would be down with the Colt 45. Bud’s a reasonably premium product in the beer space. Would you cast aside Ravenswood Zinfandel (owned by Constellation Brands) so quickly? I’m not saying Bud’s the pinnacle of brewing achievement, but can we get off our high horses long enough to admit it’s not rotgut?

No high horse. I do not like DMS and I HATE beechwood. Those are the only two flavors in Bud.

That’s two more flavors than I can distinguish in industrial beers.

You and I clearly have very different qualitative opinions about Budweiser. I place it a mere half notch ahead of PBR, Milwaukee’s Best, King Cobra, Steel Reserve, et al. …

Beechwood aging refers to having slats in a lagering tank that collect yeasts and other solids that need to fall out of the beer. They carry an opposite charge to the slats in the beer so they end coming out of solution and sticking to the slats. Traditionally the slats were made out of beechwood. Some still are, but some are made out of aluminum and they serve the same purpose. Frankly, this wouldn’t be necessary if they spent more than 28 days making their beer (we take twice that long).

It is hard to think of two consumable beverages that look alike but are more disparate than Budweiser and Rick’s H-A Pils.

I’d drink Pabst or Schlitz any day over Bud.

I have been told fairly recently that Bud used beech chips. I certainly [think] that the wood is pretty pronounced in the beer

A couple of observations from my point of view.

-Bud is a very consistent brew and their quality control down to the distributer level is as high or the highest in the industry from retailors to bars.

-Lagers are hard to brew consistently! Ask any home brewer.

-Bud/InBev was very hypocritical calling out brews when the parent company brews said brews.

-From what I have read Bud has been dumbed down over the last few decades. IE Bud use to be around 15-16 IBU’s and is now around ~10 IBU’s.

-Some times call for a light, quaffable beer: AAL fill this catagory fine. My personal go to’s in the cheap lager are Coors and St. Pauli Girl, yeah imported (use to get 12 pacs for $9-10) and Becks for same price before it started being brewed in USA.

-Some of the good regional beers are still good but some have become un-reconizable from what they were. Olympia is not bad. Rainier Ale is a shell of it’s former self. A couple of Hamm’s last summer hit the spot.

They still use some beech chips, but not very much. Think about how many beech chips you’d need for 16 million barrels (that’s around 500 million gallons).

These days manufacturing has become very good in most industries. If your definition of quality is “adherence to a standard” (which I’d disagree with since it is only one dimension of quality) essentially what ABI is saying is, we’re really good at manufacturing beer. So is almost everyone else. So I throw that argument out the window and get into a real quality discussion involving many dimensions – Toyota vs. Mercedes. They’re saying most people don’t want a Mercedes. That’s true. Most people will be just as happy with a Toyota – maybe even happier. In that regard, I doubt it was a successful ad. They were saying, “you drink Budweiser because you don’t want anything better”. That’s not going to win a lot of new converts IMO.

I think Pabst is terrible. Like a lot of big brands it used to be better. Same with Coors banquet, though still decent. I also think that Bud was better before it started using so much rice. That said, a really cold Bud on a really hot day is fine by me. I’ll go Busch for my cheap beer of choice.

Never been a Budweiser guy - I am lucky to be able to get GRAIN BELT PREMIUM here in the Midwest, which I consider to be the best cheap, yellow wienie beer out there.

But I loved the commercial, and am going to steal the idea lock stock and barrel for a new Minnesota Lager coming out this summer.

same here. granted, a large part of that is personal nostalgia (it was my grandpa’s beer of choice), but even putting nostalgia aside I do think it’s fractionally better than many of the other macro American crap lagers.