Budweiser American Ale

Since I haven't posted in awhile, here's a bonus post about my thoughts on a beer. No taste test, just thoughts. I refer to the new Budweiser beer I'm sure you've seen advertised all over TV. For years now there has been a slow and steady move toward better tasting beer. The movement is alive. There have been advertisements for the different brews Sam Adams offers, the Guinness "Brilliant" commercials that mysteriously died out and more recently the Michelob variety offering and Budweiser American Ale. The Budweiser American Ale is different than all of these though because it is being pushed by a true giant of the industry. And unlike the Michelob advertisements, they’re heavily marketing this one on its own. When they show the Michelob ones on TV, it is always as a group and they have other commercials not referring to those craft brews. Plus I have never seen those in stores. Mike, the disciple who opened my eyes to wonderful world of beer, said he ran into a variety pack at Sam's and said they were pretty good but they are not easily available to the masses as I have no doubt this new Budweiser beer will be.

My initial thoughts on the beer were I doubt it would be any good but I’m still going to try it. Then I thought I should approach it as I do all beers - with an open mind. However, I think Budweiser might be in a catch-22 with how they’re approaching this beer. In my opinion they are playing with fire because if it’s too strong, which I doubt, people aren’t going to like it and it will fail and fade to black as quickly as it came to Lite (get it). If it's too light then people won’t see the point to it or will simply drink it to be different and it won’t gain a large market (then again, people love Amber Bock and that’s just as flavorless to me however it has a strong market. Maybe the new Bud might succeed for the same reason of people drinking it to be different because I don't know as many hardcore Amber Bock fans as I know Bud or Miller fans). Now if they hit it right, and you know they’ve done thousands upon thousands of taste tests to get it to where they think it should be, then I think it might actually hurt them. If it's decently strong, it might keep people from going back to Bud or Bud Light seeing them as too flavorless. Then those people and others who normally wouldn’t try other beers will think “This is a good beer with more flavor.” Then they might want to see what else is out there and leave the Budweiser brand completely.

Regardless of what happens, I think the winners are us good beer drinkers because if it’s decent tasting, you know it will be carried at all the popular places so it might be a go-to drink if there’s nothing better like Sam or Guinness. If it's wildly successful, it might inspire other large breweries to go that route and try their hand at stronger, more flavorful beers. Again, I doubt there will be much of a dent put into the Budweiser empire as a result of this but it just helps the movement of good beer drinkers. Expect a review of the beer when it hits stores.