Beer of the Weekend #266: Bud Light

Except for the six-pack of Hefe“r”weizen my uncle asked me to bring, there was a lot of Miller Lite at the family reunion last weekend. After taking a sip of Hefe“r”weizen, a great cousin (this was my mom’s family, so my relation to everyone is insanely arcane) took a swig of his Miller Lite and said, “This stuff tastes like water now.” No shit.

The next installment of the Great Adjunct Adventure is the other side of the major macro light adjunct coin: Bud Light, brewed by Anheuser-Busch, Inc. of St. Louis, Missouri, a subsidiary of brewing conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V. of Leuven, Belgium.


Serving type: One 40-ounce bottle. The “born on date” is “08 JUL 11.”

Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is a pale straw that develops a chill haze. Three ringers of fluffy head dissipated immediately to leave a ring around the edge and a thin lacing.

Smell: It smells like canned corn that has been heated in a pot for supper. (Damn, mom! Add some salt or pepper or something. Jeez!) It also has the aroma of tap water. (Not that tap water is bad or anything. I love that stuff.)

Taste: There is flavor there, but not much. Cooked corn, a little barley, and maybe a hop pellet or two.

Drinkability: If you are judging superior drinkability with water as the benchmark, I suppose this is comparable. It is beer-flavored water. Perhaps that is too generous. Beer enriched water? Beer infused water?

Fun facts about Bud Light:

-Style: BA classifies it as “Light Lager.”

-Price: $2.99/40 at John’s Grocery in Iowa City.

-Serving temperature: Ice cold. Trust me.

-Alcohol content: 4.2 percent ABV.

-Food pairings: Like water, it probably pairs well with everything.

-Calories: 110 per 12-ounce bottle.

-Shamefully, Bud Light was born the same year I was: 1982.

-According to the Bud Light website (you won’t find any folk legends, à la Unibroue, there), Bud Light is the best selling beer in the United States and world.

-Two words: Spuds McKenzie. Ol’ Spuds was actually a bitch — literally. (Symbolically, it is actually fitting.) According to Wikipedia, her real name was Honey Tree Evil Eye and she died of kidney failure in 1993 at the age of nine. Also from the Wikipedia page is this:

In 1992, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, along with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, charged that Anheuser-Busch was pitching the dog to children. Although the Federal Trade Commission found no evidence to support that allegation, the ads were dropped.

Whether or not A-B was targeting children, the Spud McKenzie ads made a big impression on me, as I said. When I think of television commercials from the eighties, I think of My Buddy, Teddy Ruxbin, and Spuds McKenzie.

-I just received my newest issue of BeerAdvocate magazine and an article in the beer news section showcases the corporate agenda of A-B InBev:

On May 20th, Anheuser-Busch In Bev filed for federal trademarks of 14 different area codes as potential beer names. These filings come just a few months after ABI’s acquisition of Chicago-based Goose Island, which produces 312 Urban Wheat Ale, paying tribute to Chicago’s area code….

If approved, these trademarks could have several possible implications, but two seem to be the most likely. First, ABI could market more localized brews, akin to 312, in specific parts of the country. Additionally, this prevents other breweries from naming any other brew after a local area code. ABI has declined to comment on their exact intentions.

Wow. Trademarking area codes? That is just shameless.


The Quiet Man’s grade: D.

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