No love for American Adjunct Lagers?

Possibly they brewed an all-malt lager in the pre-Pro era, altho' a lot of old labels note the use of rice.

After Repeal, Coors marketed several "Coors" branded beers - a "Coors Golden" which was their "under 3.2 abw" beer (before full Repeal in Dec., 33), post-'34 ads for "Coors Golden" stated "Coors does not use corn or any other cheapening or bittering product." Of course, since rice is typically more expensive than corn or even barley malt, that statement does not discount the use of rice as an adjunct.

Other products included "Coors Export" - which claimed in ads it was "...one of the few American beers which contains no corn..." (but did not claim it was all-malt) and was described as a "golden Vienna beer", and by the mid-30's that was joined by "Coors Pilsener - an extra pale beer" and, briefly in the early 40s even a "Coors Light".​

As I understand it, it was the "Pilsener" beer that evolved into their current Coors Banquet flagship, which was brewed with rice into the 1970s or later (sometimes with "corn starch" or just "starch" added as an additional adjunct). Not sure when they switched to corn in the form of a syrup as an adjunct, but the current MC webpage for Coors Banquet says:

In the 1970s, Coors claimed the alcohol content was "3.6% by weight / 4.5% by volume" so any suggestion that the Coors Banquet recipe dates from the founding of the brewery in 1870s is nonsense, since the beer isn't even the same as the one brewed 40 years ago.

 

I enjoy a good AAL in summertime heat. I love Genny Cream when I can get it, and Schlitz, Yuengling Lord Chesterfield, Narragansett, and their ilk.

 

Very interesting stuff! Thanks for that!

 

Recently I have stopped drinking Naragansett Lager directly from the can and now drink it is a Pilsener glass. The quality of the experience is so much better. The beer drinks 'cleaner' and while not bold or exciting, it holds up very well both visually and in smell, taste and feel. As a cheap everyday beer I think it is incredible. Perfect for unwinding with a ballgame. I have been drinking this beer for 3 years now but I feel like drinking it from a glass is like drinking a totally different beer.

 

I too really enjoy Narragansett Lager as I posted previously, but strangely, have always drank it straight from the can. I will give my next one a pour into a pilsner glass and see how that goes!

 

An even better idea, Jack! Will do.

 

I haven't had it for at least ten or twelve years...I can't remember. But since then I have considered it one of the lesser lagers...

 

I know there are some amazing beer historians kicking around here, was AB's recipes any different pre-prohibition than they are now? I would imagine a company that made it through prohibition would still have all their recipes and such intact so was the beer less corn/rice pre-prohibition?

 

When they sold Carling Lager here a while ago the cans said it contained wheat along with barley malt. It tasted foul.

 

Thanks Jack! I will do so right now and now I want to get my sept copy in the mail!

 

The only two brands in AB's current portfolio that existed pre-Pro are Budweiser and Michelob (they've resurrected a few others temporarily over the past few decades, including their Faust [several times], Black & Tan and Munenchener labels).

Michelob famously was an all-malt, draught-only beer up until around 1960, when rice was added when the beer was first bottled and pasteurized. It reverted to all-malt 2007. Pre-pro AB ads suggest that Michelob used Saazer hops "exclusively" but today they only claim "European noble aroma hop varieties". AB owns their own German hop farm where they grow Hallertauer Mittelfrüh and Spalt Select, and they also used to buy Hallertauer Mittelfrüh from German growers.

Budweiser, too, famously used Saazer hops (stated right on the label in the pre-Pro era) in its hop schedule, but most sources today say the imported hops used include Hallertauer Mittelfrüh. The amount of hops and resulting IBUs has gone down dramatically over the years - Adolphus Busch claimed in court that the Budweiser he helped develop in the 1870s used "...about twenty to twenty-four ounces of (Saazer) hops per barrel...". Joseph Owades (creator of the "Light" beer process and creator/consultant for many craft beers [SABL, Pete's, New Amsterdam Amber Beer, etc]) claimed that Bud's IBU's rate was 20 in 1946 (so, higher than today's Michelob's 18 IBUs), 17 in the 1970s and 14 in the 1980s and ABTN says it then continued down from 12 in the '90s to 7-8 today. The Wall Street Journal in 2006 wrote that former AB brewmasters admitted the company "...quietly tinkered with its formula to make the beer less bitter and pungent...".

As for the malt-rice ratio, it's usually stated at around 30-40% rice for Bud, and 20-30% for the old adjunct-brewed Michelob. Those first batches of AB Budweiser were claimed to contain only 8 lbs of rice for every 5 bushels of malt.

Reported ABV of the two beers has actually gone up (suggesting they are more attenuated) - AB put them both at 5%. In the late 1970s, Michael Jackson put them both at 4.8% and during the pre-Repeal era when the new legal limit was being debated, August Busch Sr. claimed the pre-Pro Budweiser was "...4.5 to 4.7 per cent."

 

I realize this isn't necessarily a logical reaction, but I'm really turned off by the realization that many AAL's actually put corn syrup in the beer. I (naively) always thought they just threw corn kernels and/or rice grains in with the barley during the boil and figured "hey, it's all just starch turning to sugar so don't be too judgemental".

Using corn syrup just feels, I don't know, gauche?

 

Tongo, I agree w/ most of your posts, but DAB in pounders tastes like yesterday's moldy ass.
And the old heads at work were clowning on me for drinking it.

That is one bad dortmunder, IMO

 

ABEYANCE!!!

 

No, none at all.

 

The only AAL I've had that I actually thought was great was Jack's Abby's Framingham Lager. As for the rest, I am not above having one ice cold out of a cooler in the right setting and in the right mood, but I can't honestly sit here and say it tastes great. The craft beer explosion is essentially a backlash against that mindset. You can show people non-AAL styles and they are bound to like one example, whereas there are many people who always have and always will hate that AAL taste.