American Idiot

I hate to admit that I actually tried Budweiser’s American Ale. I did it at the behest of a gentleman who works for one of my favorite brewing companies here in Ohio. He insisted that I need to understand just how bad that beer is. Apparently the consensus among craft brewers is that this beer won’t steal business away from them at all. If anything it might embolden a handful of Budweiser fans to try a real craft beer.

Having sampled American Ale, I find that hard to believe. I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as bad beer. I’ve been wrong. Somehow the brilliant minds at the AB corporate office managed to make a beer that’s truly awful. This beer won't coax regular Bud-drinkers into the craft beer arena. It's just not true enough to the form.

The good news is that it’s cheap. I bought a 24 ounce bottle for just $1.49. The bad news is that I poured half of it out and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin. Hopefully the marketing guys at Sierra Nevada don’t read this: a 24 ounce bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale retails for twice what American Ale goes for and it’s worth five times as much.

Mind you, SNPA is not the best pale ale on the market. It’s very good, but there are a number of beers I like better. I’d take both of Great Lakes Brewing Company’s offerings (Burning River and Commodore Perry IPA, or Columbus IPA over them) over SNPA any day of the week and twice on Sundays, but SNPA is a really good beer and it’s widely available. I really like all of Sierra Nevada’s beers but I’m not biased toward them at all. I make the comparison because I know that’s the beer the buffoons and Budweiser had in mind when they formulated American Ale. So when I tell you I’d take one 12 ounce bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale over a case of Budweiser American Ales, I’m not saying it because I’m beholden to the label. I have great respect for the company and what they've done, but I don't owe them anything...they just make a consistently good selection of craft beers that I can get my hands on easily.

American Ale is malty, but it’s not hopped very well. It tastes a bit like molasses and has a very flat finish. I’ve seen people publish tasting notes on this beer but I don’t know why. It’s not very inspired. It’s a little sweet and feels sticky. It was so un-enjoyable that I still wonder if I picked up a bad bottle. It just seemed like it wasn’t finished fermenting.

I knew this beer was going to be bad. I knew that AB would chicken out on the hops. When you compare what craft brewers put into their beers with the amount of hops commercial brewers use the difference is staggering. I’m sure bean counters and executive brewers thought that the recipe was off when they first looked at the hops bill and eventually the suits prevailed. The guys who were first contracted to come up with an American Ale probably walked off of the project.

Of course hops is only part of the problem. The beer lacks body as well. I don’t know if they used an abundance of corn and rice in this recipe and darkened the color with food dyes but it doesn’t seem like roasted barley was part of the process. I’ve got to believe that Budweiser’s take on American Ale came in with half the gravity of your typical craft-brewed pale ale.

The thing is I really made an effort to put my bias aside. I’ve made it clear that I have a beef with Budweiser but I left my grudges at the door when I tried this. It didn’t have to be lousy because I wasn’t going to drink it anyway. Even if, by some miracle, this beer tasted better than similar ales I still wouldn’t buy it. I support craft brewers because they are creative. I love trying new beers and craft brewers love to come up with more aggressive recipes. You’ve got to support that industry. It’s just a coincidence that the big commercial brewers can’t seem to concoct a good craft-like beer. I don’t have to hate them…they just make it so damned easy.

Coincidentally I sampled another mundane seasonal offering from AB. It was some sort of pumpkin spice beer that was on tap at a local bar. I tried a blind sample. I saw they had some sort of a pumpkin ale I’d not yet heard of so I tried it. It was watery and bland so I asked the bartender who made it and he confirmed my suspicions. AB tried to pull the same thing with a winter cask ale last year as well. If that beer actually saw the inside of a cask I’ll eat my shoes. I think they took Amber Bock and threw a pinch of nutmeg in it to make it seem Christmas-y. Maybe, just maybe, they threw some wood chips in the tanks that may or may not have been part of a cask at one time. I doubt they went that far.

So venture into this brave new world at your own risk. I’m quite certain that most of the people I know who read this blog won’t find American Ale the least bit drinkable but I’m sure you’ll try it just to see if it’s really that bad. Trust me, it is. I was surprised by how awful it was. Don’t spend money on it. See if your local bar will pour you a sample from the keg and minimize the misery. Then you can wash it down with something worthwhile. Of course, I fear that any bar that has this crap on tap probably won’t stock something redeeming. You might want to sneak a bottle of your own in. Don’t do it without protection. You won’t want this beer lingering on your palette any longer than it has to.