Hit the Road, Bud

Budweiser has been promoting its latest entry into the American Beer Market: Budweiser American Ale. From what I can tell through my research this is going to be a knock off of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the granddaddy of the craft brewing craze.

It makes me sick.

Brewers like Sierra Nevada and the Boston Beer Company took big risks when they invested heavily in their craft beers and expanded their markets. Today there are certainly better beers to be had than Sam Adams and SNPA but you have to honor the courage and influence those beers have had. Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi started off as home brewers who launched a micro brewery in 1979 and Jim Koch worked hard to establish his Samuel Adams brand derived from his grandfather’s recipe. Both beers are explosions of malt and hops that are so assertive most beer drinkers are taken aback. It’s just too much beer for some people, which is why craft brewers, in spite of their tremendous creativity, hold such a tiny share of the market. Their following is loyal, but the market segment is small.

Anheuser Busch is not hurting for money. They’ve dominated the global beer market for decades. There are simply more people who enjoy their bastardized pilsner than there are people who enjoy a complex ale. That’s fine. I’m not going to rage against popular opinion. But over the years AB has taken cheap shots at craft brewers, the art of making a good ale and now, since they can’t convince craft beer fans to come back to Bud, they’ve opted to invade the craft beer market with their own entry.

I haven’t tried this beer. I thought about it because I try to review beers on this site but I can’t. Anheuser Busch has done nothing to advance the art of brewing. They don’t encourage home brewing like the craft brewers do. Jim Koch so admires home brewing he invites people to submit their best recipes to the Boston Beer Company to have it bottled and distributed nationally. Other craft brewers, like Rogue, offer home brew kits online so you can replicate your favorites in your own home. That’s what craft brewing is all about. It’s about loving beer, and the people who brew it. It’s about respecting other craft brewers.

Anheuser Busch would gleefully destroy the craft brew market. And that’s what American Ale is all about. Maybe a few Budweiser fans will try it and like it but the real target are all those beer snobs who spend $10-15 a six pack on craft beers.

American Ale. As if they invented the concept. It’s long been understood the quintessential American ale is the more complex version of pale ale crafted by our best and brightest microbrewers. Nobody in that market has the audacity to claim it as an original style but along comes Anheuser Busch and its marketing team. Now they claim they’ve created a new style. Yeah, after taking 8 years to reverse engineer Sierra Nevada’s flagship beer.

I’m positive I would find this beer lacking. AB always has some corporate hack doing something to render a style impotent and this won’t be an exception. I won’t review this beer, however, because I don’t want to spend one thin dime on this product. It’s shameless. It’s just rude. Budweiser stands for everything that is wrong with beer and I refuse to take part in their attempt to undo everything good about it. I love craft brews and I won’t stand by and watch the likes of AB invade their niche.

Where was Budweiser back in 1980 when all of this started? Now that there a lot of great independent brewers make a decent living selling great beer you want to come sniffing around? No thanks, Bud. Take your bottles full of corporate swill somewhere else. You’re not welcome here. Not now, not ever.