Small Batch Budweiser

That's right, I said "Small Batch Budweiser." I just got a press release from Anheuser-Busch about "Project 12," a "friendly competition" in which brewmasters at A-B's twelve American facilities (rumors continue to float that one will actually be closing sometime in the near future, possibly the Newark, NJ brewery) brewed beers "using the proprietary yeast directly descended from the original Budweiser yeast culture used by Adolphus Busch in 1876 and still used by Budweiser today."

“The key to this project was the common yeast – which is a very important and often under-appreciated contributor to the flavor and aroma of beer,” said Jane Killebrew-Galeski, director of brewing, quality and innovation for Anheuser-Busch. “We are proud of all these beers – the variety and the quality – but we want consumer feedback. So, we’re looking forward to what we hear when we sample this summer. Our objective is to allow our brewmasters to show some creativity, but the beers must fit the hallmarks the Budweiser brand is respected for, such as quality and consistency, and have a very crisp and clean taste.”

Okay, it's Bud that isn't Bud. But they stayed fairly close to the farm. Each beer is a lager "using all-natural ingredients." Six were selected to be part of a national sampling program to pare it down to three that will be released in a sampler pack this fall.

The beers are named for the ZIP code of the breweries. Here's what they made, briefly.

• Budweiser Small Batch 91406 (Los Angeles):  A deep-amber lager with 6 percent ABV that uses four different types of hops.
  
• 63118 (St. Louis):  A deep-gold 5 percent ABV American lager that uses the same types of hops (Hallertau and Tettnang) commonly used at the St. Louis brewery during  the 19th century. 
• 43229 (Ohio): A light-amber lager using eight different types of hops with 6 percent ABV. 
• 23185 (Virginia): A light-amber all-malt bourbon cask lager aged on bourbon staves and vanilla beans and with an ABV of 5.5 percent.
  
• 13027 (New York): A bright-golden lager brewed with six imported and domestic hops and with an ABV of 7 percent.
  
• 80524 (Colorado): A deep-gold, filtered wheat beer with 5.2 percent ABV using lemon peel, orange peel and coriander.

Why do we care? "The six sampler beers also will be sampled during “Budweiser Made in America” over Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia. The two-day music festival benefits United Way." I never knew we were a big Budweiser town. Wait, we're not. So is it about our music scene? Probably not. Is it about our being the birthplace of America? Maybe... Is it about getting a lot of attention for Budweiser in a town where Yuengling Lager is kicking their ass? Maybe... To be clear, I'm not really sure what that's about.

But I don't see this being anymore of a wavemaking, attention-getting breakthrough for Budweiser than any of the other projects A-B has tried. People just don't seem to want craft beer called Budweiser (which Shocktop is not), no matter what is wrapped around it, and I don't expect this to be any different. I'd be happy to try some of these, and I suspect they'll probably be good (except maybe that bourbon cask thing...I'm suspicious, but maybe they learned something from Goose Island). But I don't see this being anything significant.

King of Beers now the duke?

Budweiser passed another milestone this week; on the way down. The iconic beer brand's 20+ year slide continued, and Coors Light passed it, headed up, moving into the #2 spot in American beer sales according to a story in Advertising Age. Budweiser hit its peak in 1988, selling 50 million barrels (50 million barrels! Of just Budweiser! All U.S. craft brewers' 2011 sales put together should be about 11 million barrels) and then sliding ever since, including a 4.6% slide in 2011...which actually represented a slowing in the rate of plummet. Total 2011 U.S. sales for Budweiser were 17.7 million barrels, an amazing decline since 1988. Of course, Bud Light's rise has pretty much made up for it, and 17.7 million barrels is still more than most of the world's breweries sell altogether...but wow.

What happened? Smarter people than I have guessed at that one. "Light beer!" is the usual answer offered, explaining it as Americans' desire to get into better shape. Well, maybe...only what's up with the boom in steakhouses, and sugary liquors, and...craft beer? As far as that goes, how the hell does "Light beer!" explain the huge growth of Yuengling Lager? Yuengling Lager, a "full-calorie premium" beer, will likely blow through 2 million barrels on its own this year, and is, if anything, accelerating. (Add'n: when I first wrote this, I forgot the other obvious example here: it's not Pabst Light the hipsters and bike messengers are drinking, it's Pabst.) "Light beer"? Bullshit.

Light beer has seen huge growth, but there are other factors here. I think some of the problem is fratricide. There has been cannibalistic action between brands in the A-B house, and Bud and Bud Light are not the only ones. When you have a number of large brands -- Budweiser, Bud Light, Bud Light Lime, Bud Select (several cases a year are still sold), Michelob Ultra, Busch, Busch Light, Natural Light, and so on -- that are this close together in taste and character (okay, granted: Bud Light Lime does taste a bit more different than the others), and require a huge expenditure on marketing merely to create an illusion of difference...success in one camp is more likely to mean failure in another. This is, I believe, a major weakness for the big brewers, and it's just now starting to crack wide open.

Does that explain how Coors Light is growing? Well, no! I'll have to cogitate on that...especially since it's one of the very few mainstream beers that is growing. Is it the blue mountains? Hey, maybe.

Bud Light Golden Wheat

That, believe it or not, is a Bud Light. The head didn't last too long (though I won't swear it was the beer's fault; I may have gotten a little grease on the inside of the glass), but it's cloudy, and it definitely smells of orange and a hint of fresh grassiness.

Okay, it's a Bud Light Golden Wheat. I got some samples, and I will give it the same shot I did the Miller Lite Craft beers. Gotta admit, I'm impressed with this more than with those already, just on the look and the aroma.

Well...there's not a lot here. Light body -- though not as thin as a Bud Light -- and they certainly didn't overdo the orange like Miller did; it's there, but it's unobtrusive to the point of understatement. It's not sweet, and that's good. It's not thin, it's not cloying, it's not really flawed.

And if that sounds like I'm damning with faint praise, well, I guess I am. BLGW fails in the classic manner of light beers: there's nothing wrong with it, but there's not a lot right, either. A beer's got to be something good, it's not enough to not be something bad. BLGW succeeds in one thing: it is easy to drink. Plain boiled white rice is easy to eat, but I don't often make a meal of it. I suspect I'll be having Bud Light Golden Wheat even less often.

What about the commerical prospects? I mean, I'm hardly the target market, and most of you aren't either, most likely. I think it's going to fall between the rails. It's too cloudy and heavy (too mouthy?) for light beer drinkers. Bud Light Lime has been a big success, but it's light and clear, where this isn't. What's more, this is another summertime kind of beer. Can't see this one working in the wintertime, which means even if it is successful, it's going to cannibalize BLL. And Blue Moon drinkers will kick it aside quickly as watery next to their tipple...though there may be some siphoning off of drinkers who are looking for a Blue Moon light. If that happens, well, how long do you think it's going to take Coors to do a Blue Moon Light, maybe a Half Moon? (I actually believe Coors is smart enough to let that go, and they should; it would deflate the brand's image.) I don't see this one working.

One other thing...it bothers me that the success of Blue Moon has led wannabe competitors to just class these beers as "wheat" beers. Guys, you're working for a brewery, one with world-wide connections and a huge staff of highly-trained brewers, and I've met and talked with some of them: you know damned well that there is more than one type of wheat beer. So why do you let the marketeers be stupid about this? It's not just a wheat beer, it's a --

Oh. My. God. It just hit me. Of course. It's a witbier-inspired beer...a Belgian-inspired beer. Is it that InBud doesn't want people making the Leuven connection, doesn't want to in-their-face American customers with the Belgian-based dark overlords of Budweiser? I don't know, but it is a consideration.

Still irks me.

Maia: maybe

I was at a wholesaler event last night in Bryn Mawr. Gretz Beer, one of the area A-B wholesalers, was launching the new Budweiser American Ale and 're-introducing' some of the other beers in their portfolio. I saw Michelob Pale Ale and Dunkel Weiss, Unita Punkin, Czechvar, Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Victory Festbier, Löwenbräu, and some others. It was an event for retailers, mostly off-premise folks, and they were reacting well to the Bud Ale, including Matt Capone, the Energizer Bunny of beer launches at Capone's in Norristown. He said to me, "Pretty good!" Keep in mind, of course, that he was surrounded by A-Bvolk at the time.

Had several good chats with the folks there, including Brian Quinn, an A-B draft guy I'd met last year at Markt for an A-B/InBev lovefest (that turned out to be a prelude to this year's goings-on). Some of it was heartening, proving that A-B and their wholesalers really do get what's going on in craft beer -- and some agreement that the brewmasters have a lot more input at the company than they did, say, five years ago. But I still heard things like "not bitter, like other bocks." You can't just give salespeople words when you expect them to make sales to people who actually know what the hell beers are, you have to make them understand what those words mean, and in what context they are meaningful. Otherwise, they clang like a broken bell.

Anyway, after I left the event, I headed back Lancaster Ave. towards the Blue Route, where I saw Maia. Now, Uncle Jack had gushed about it, and then the esteemed Craig LaBan gushed about it, so I think to myself, hey, maybe oughta stop in. So I did, and it impressed me with its design right away, as in, it was so designed that I couldn't tell if the damned place was open or not until someone walked out the door. Okay, that's me.

So I walked in, and the open plan (with map, as LaBan points out) drew me further in. Kind of reminded me of a place Steve and I went in Ghent, Brasserie Pakhuis (and that Frommer review I linked to really nails the similarity: "Although maybe too conscious of its own sense of style, Pakhuis...is all stocked up in matters of taste."), which is in a former warehouse, whereas Maia is in a former supermarket; similar spaces. Nice-looking beers on tap -- Maredsous, Victory Donnybrook, Goliath -- and a very good selection of spirits (top-heavy on vodkas, but that's a fact of life). Downcheck on the barstools: too high (and if they're too high for a guy who's 6'1"...) and looking like porch furniture.

Service was very quick, damned near immediate. I saw a Gaffel Kölsch tap in front of me, and thought, yeah, light, crisp, just the thing for one more before heading home. "A kölsch," I said, by way of a test, and he passed brilliantly. The pour? A small tulip glass -- downcheck on glass, amused upcheck on size of portion -- and set down with pride in front of me. I asked to run a tab; I saw someone enjoying some soup, which sounded right. Then I looked at the temporary check he set down. My Gaffel, which looked to be 10 oz. or less, was $7. Wow. Hey, I know bringing in low-volume imports ain't cheap. But that's the kind of price I'm used to paying for something like Chimay White, and while Gaffel Kölsch is good, it ain't Chimay White.

Whew. I decided I had to get another beer to see what was going on here. I ordered soup (a choice between gazpacho and French onion; I got the hot one, and it was very, very good) and got a Victory Donnybrook. It came in a 20 oz. dimple mug, and was $6.50. Well, that's better, for a 20 oz. pour. Again, the service was almost telepathic, but it was a good thing I'd checked the taps as I walked by. The chalkboard beerlist only gave the brewery names, in big letters. Victory makes a bunch of beers, guys; telling me you have "VICTORY" doesn't help a lot.

All that said, Maia has a good vibe. I've seen people complain that it's "confusing," that it takes too much work to figure out what you want and where to get it. I only concur so far as the beerlist. In short, grow up. This is a different idea, a different layout, and you need to have fun with that, not whine about it. Besides, with bar service like that, I'm willing to put up with some thinking (though not $7 mini-beers). If the rest of the food is up to the soup -- and LaBan emphatically says it is -- I'll probably bring Cathy by, and we'll have another look.

Budweiser American Ale (and Michelob Pale Ale): first notes

The long-awaited Budweiser American Ale is finally in my glass, after some of the same delivery problems Uncle Jack had (with the weird result that I didn't get the first shipment, but then got two more instead of one; it's okay, I'm sharing).

How about it? It’s bright and clear, it’s a deep ruddy amber, the foam is creamy and light parchment-colored. I smell sweet fresh malt, some caramel, and piney hop. The flavor has all that, in fact, it delivers on the aroma in an almost one-to-one ratio, although the caramel masks the hops to a degree. The ale is not overly full in the mouth, somewhat on the light side, but that’s not really a surprise; A-B was surely intending this as a drinking beer, not a sipper. The biggest surprise for me here is the finish: it’s relatively long, and bitter.

Passing it around here at Tucquan (I wrote this while rusticating on the Susquehanna again, no trip to Conestoga this time) gets some interesting reactions. "Oh, that’s good. I could drink that!" (from Cathy, who’s pretty demanding on beer, but does like a nice pale ale) "That doesn’t taste like beer, that tastes like rye bread!" (my mother, who’s currently drinking a Reading (which, bless her, she insists on calling "Old Reading"), so I’ll take that as a positive), and "It’s not that hoppy" (Uncle Don, who’s drinking Coors Light, but has had many a craft and import with me).

Don’s right, it’s not that hoppy…but for something with "Budweiser" on the label, it’s plenty hoppy. More importantly, for a pale ale, it’s fine, easily as hoppy as SNPA. Actually, turns out it's not...quite. It's about 28 IBU, SNPA is about 32-34. I'd call that ballpark, though.

Interesting to note two things. One, the cap is a pry-off, not a twist-off. A-B has noted that the craft market doesn’t trust twist-off caps. Two, the label is damned near unreadable on that dark red-ochre background. Intentional? Or a rare screw-up?

I had a bottle of Michelob Pale Ale sent to me last week as well, so I decided to do a side-by side. It was revealing.

Not sure, but I think this is another tweak on this beer, which has been around in one form or another, in varying markets, since the mid-1990s. It’s quite a bit lighter that the Bud Ale, more a reddish gold. The nose is restrained (i.e., there ain’t much), mostly a light piney Cascades aroma. It’s fairly creamy with malt, the hop comes through with a brittle edge, and it finishes up quite clean, with a lingering bitterness.

Side-by side? Clearly two different beers. The Bud’s caramel malt gives it a much heavier mouthfeel than the Michelob’s pale malt, while the hoppy edge of the Mich makes it cleaner, crisper. And no, I cannot believe I’m writing those words: "Bud’s caramel malt…much heavier mouthfeel…hoppy edge of the Mich…"

The question for both these beers remains the same as it has for over ten years. Can a beer that is brewed in a "craft" profile, but labeled with a mainstream brand…ever sell? Who’s going to buy it? Bud drinkers? To be blunt: not effin’ likely. Craft drinkers? Maybe, but most of them will not want to buy a beer from A-B (or InBev, for that matter). Sorry, guys, but for the majority of serious craft drinkers, who makes the beer is as important (or more so) as what the beer tastes like. Crossover drinkers? Maybe. If we could ever get a solid number on just how many people who regularly drink Blue Moon know it’s a MolsonCoors product…I could give you a better answer.

You want InBev/A-B analysis? Here you go.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Belgians Buy Budweiser
www.colbertnation.com
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Yeah, that's comedy. "That's a rude awakening." Thanks to the folks on BeerAdvocate for pointing this one out!

Something new under the sun

Thanks to James Arndorfer, the tireless soul of Miller Brewing's Brew Blog, I have this to show you:

Amazing, ain't it? "Budweiser American Ale." The cognitive dissonance is almost deafening.

I'll save your eyes: the main text says: “Budweiser American Ale defines a new style of ale – The American Ale – created by Anheuser-Busch brewmasters to deliver robust ale taste that’s full-bodied, but not too heavy nor too bitter.” The side text says "Carefully brewed with barley from America's heartland and Cascade hops from the Pacific Northwest, this rich, amber-colored ale has robust flavor, and a distinctive, hoppy finish."

Wow. Maybe. We'll find out if it's really "Wow" in October.