Schlitz

Schlitz pours a cyrstal clear, golden straw colow with a bubbly white head. The nose has a little malt joined by an aroma of corn. The body is short and clean, with a slight sweetness to it. The body has a decent amount of malt for a lager. There is not much of a finish however which is not bad since lagers do not usually pack a punch at the end. Overall, this is not bad. I actually think it is a better beer then Pabst Blue Ribbon which has recieved a good amount of hype among craft beer fans. While it is not amazing by any stretch of the means, it is a quality budget beer or suitable for washing down food at BBQ's, a definate step up over any of the huge macro lagers.

Budwesier American Ale

Lately it feels like you must do three things if you want to have a beer website, blog, or any online source of beer information.

1) You must love beer.

2) You must be somewhat knowledgeable about beer.

3) You must write a piece on Budweiser American Ale.

Just about every website that I read has written something about this new beer, partly because Budweiser sent out a beautiful promotional gift to most of the better beer writers in America. (I say most because mine must have gotten lost in the mail.) I guess it is hard not to generate this kind of buzz since it is the first time in the long storied history of Anheuser-Busch that they are putting the words "ale" and "Budweiser" together on a label. It is a signal that sales of Bud are flat and that they are jumping into the craft beer movement. Originally I was not going to post anything about this beer but after a call from Blogger that told me the American Committee of Beer Bloggers would revoke my beer blog if I did not, I figured it was best to throw something up. (I'm joking. I think.)

American Ale poured a clear, dark red color with a off white foam head that was the width of my thumb. The aroma gave off Cascade hops (if you couldn't smell it they make sure you know by printing it prominently on the label) and a little bit of malt. The body was a lighter style ale, but with some interesting things going on. The Pacific Northwest malt (thanks label) is prevalent up front but stays with the beer throughout. There is also a nice hop profile but tails off quickly until it pops back up in the finish. The finish is nothing to write home about but does the job. The beer left a small amount of hanging lace on the glass. The beer's body is what I found most interesting. Most of the ales that I enjoy are very well balanced, but this usually means a lot of malt up front and a lot of hops later with some intermingling going on in the body. This beer seems to give and take as it progresses on the palate without either the malts or hops being dominant on either end.

With all of this being said, this is not a bad beer. It is nothing special but I like it. I think that A-B making a decent product is hard to swallow for a lot of people and that this beer might not get it's fair due. A quick check of the reviews on this beer at Beer Advocate and i can find the quote "Well done AB, this proves that big brewers can make good beers." Really? It's that big of a shock that A-B knows how to make great beers? Look, A-B is filthy rich. They employ the best money can buy in everything. Marketing, Advertising, Human Resources and all the way down the line to brewers. They make less flavorful beer because it is profitable, not because they don't know how to do it. The only thing I am still curious about is exactly who the target market is for this product. I highly doubt that they will convert a large number of craft beer drinkers into fans (although I bet a few will). I think that Bud's regular drinkers might be tempted to try it, but I am not sure enough will. Only time (and sales reports) will tell.

Brewers Association's Definition of Craft Beer

There has been a lot of attention devoted to craft beer lately. Sales are on the rise (even during an poor economy) and has caused the big macro producers to take notice. MillerCoors tried to roll out a line of craft beers, but has shelved those plans for now. Budweiser's new American Ale will be hitting store shelves soon. I decided to link to the Brewers Association page that defines all things craft beer. This is a handy tool for all beer lovers, and will help distinguish true craft beer from all of the imitations that will be coming out from the big boys.

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