With Craft Beer on the Rise, Budweiser Admits Their Beer Has No Taste

January 13, 2013 // 3:49 pm // By: Charisma Madarang

budweiser

I know, I know. This isn’t news. Most of us know that Budweiser is akin to fizzy pond water and suitable to drink only in emergencies (as in you’re on a deserted island surrounded by sea water infested with man-eating sharks). So, Anheuser-Busch claiming, “Taste is making an entrance on 02.03.13,” with their new Budweiser Black Crown label garners a chuckle or two.

Come on, guys. We know you can do better than that. Yes, your beer tastes like aged cat piss, but you don’t have to admit it, then offer this “Black Crown” beer as an apology. It’s ok, it really, really is.

Although, we do understand that you’re trying to keep up with America’s increasing demand for delicious, mouth-watering craft beer. Craft brews now make up 5% of the nation’s total market share by volume and continue to grow as macro-brewery volumes are at a decline. Socially, it’s trendier to grab a drink of the local house ale than to ask the bartender for a pint of Coors or Bud. In fact, an increasing number of pubs are refusing to carry anything but brews from independent microbreweries and bartenders will often tsk tsk in disapproval if you ask for anything but. To put it plainly, craft beer is now en vogue to the point where owning your own home-brewing kit and a notebook dedicated to the subtleties of bitterness is chic. It’s a cultural change that’s forcing the top beer companies in the US to step it up.

black-crown

However, I digressed. The Black Crown was a yearlong project involving a challenge in which 12 “brewmasters” crafted six different beers and 25,000 customers sampled for their favorite pick. According to a company press release, the winning brew has “more body, color and hop character than the flagship lager” and has a 6% ABV compared to the 4.8% ABV of your standard Bud. The new amber lager features the same yeast used in Bud and comes from a strain used in 1876 by Adolphus Busch.

While the beer will be available in stores nationwide on January 21, Budweiser Black Crown will make its grand entrance on February 3 during Super Bowl XLVII with a 30-second ad. Here’s to cat piss and change.

Cheers!

H/T The Drink Nation

Charisma MadarangTwitterFacebook

Charisma has an undying love for gritty literature and drinks coffee like water. She also hails from Toronto, Canada and is a die-hard Maple Leafs fan, sigh.

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http://www.facebook.com/danielcloud11 Daniel Cloud Montgomery

All that matters is that it gets me drunk when I have 8 of them.

La

Drink a real craft beer, and reach that happy state you wish for in 3 – 4 beers.
Anonymous

if the drunk part is all you care about then stick to hard liquor. Beer has evolved past the high school level of “drink whatever gets me drunk” – its much more about the taste

Wally Cleever

I’ll try one out of curiosity, but I don’t have high expectations.
floridavet

I have been a fan of strong beer for years, especially the dark stuff such as Guinness or Beck’s Dark. German beers are great too, but one of my favorite specialty beers is Arrogant Bastard. (Hmm..something to do with my personality, perhaps?). In any case, as a beer-lover, I have shunned domestic beers because of their watery lack of taste. They’re probably not going to win me over with their newest entry.

Cleetus

Stone is domestic.
Hal Haladir

I’ll agree with you that mass-market domestic beers (“BudMillOors”) are universally terrible. That said, some of the best beers in the world are made in the US. They are made by small craft breweries with names like Harpoon, Saranac, Abita, Sierra Nevada, Saumuel Adams, Red Hook, the Brooklyn Brewery, Magic Hat, and scores of others. These craft breweries currently have about 6% of the market share, and are growing, while the mass-market tasteless swill of BudMillOors is shrinking. This is the market that this product is going after.

Won Word

Once you go Belgian, you’ll never go back.

Anonymous

i do love belgian beers but if you haven;t tried any new american craft beers, you’re really missing out

Marshall Cypress

All beer has taste, its just really bitter and sucks.
Hal Haladir

This is Budweiser’s second attempt at this. They produced a pretty decent “craft-like” beer called “Budweiser American Ale” for a few years, but I haven’t seen it recently. It tasted very much like a clone of Samuel Adams– which is to say pretty good, but not all that memorable.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Rusty-Shackelford/1434757800 Rusty Shackelford

I remember drinking a fair bit of that beer when it came out, and thinking the same thing. Don’t miss it, but if I saw it in the store I’d probably buy some. I mainly had it in bottles but it was VERY good when you could find it on tap, and I do remember that it paired pretty well with food.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Rusty-Shackelford/1434757800 Rusty Shackelford

I’ll be excited to try this, not because I think it’s going to be the next great craft beer, but because I’m curious as to what AB thinks a craft beer is supposed to taste like. I know that Budweiser and the like are seen as pisswater and all that, but they way I look at it is if it was good enough for my Dad and his Dad before him, it’s good enough for me. Yes, I love craft beers and that’s what I tend to drink, but sometimes an ice cold, watered down domestic lager just hits the spot.

http://twitter.com/NewTexianBrew NewTexian Brewery

Considering it’s using the exact same yeast as Bud, don’t expect too much difference in ‘flavor’ (or the lack thereof).

NismoNinja

You know how American beer and making love in a canoe are the same, right? They are both f*****g close to water.
jerry priddy

Beer with flavor is in – Anheuser-Busch is not … LOL
http://twitter.com/Mutiny32 Jones

I saw it in my local store today and was wondering what the story was behind the beer.
Won Word

Americans drink beery, water-flavored piss.

Canadians drink watery, beer-flavored piss.

Australians drink anything with alcohol in it.
Bo Darville

Oh come on. Not all beer should have to taste like you’re sucking on a tea bag. Many “craft” beers seem to be nothing more than liquefied hops. It’s like dousing your meal of worms with hot sauce and proclaiming it “good” because you like spicy food. There’s a place for all kinds of beers, Budweiser included.

Anonymous

…you work for Anheuser-Busch?

With Craft Beer on the Rise, Budweiser Admits Their Beer Has No Taste

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