Goodbye, Michelob Original Lager.

I remember finding an old Michelob in my parent's fridge in the mid 2000s. It was probably 10-20 years old at that point. We poured it out and I think we drank some of it.

It was darker, like Guinness. So we called it "Guinnelob". That was a terrible experiment.

This sounds more like a High Life commercial than a Michelob commercial.

Kind of funny, you could recreate this timeless event even in these uncertain times...the only missing piece that would be difficult to acquire would be the Michelob.

 

True, but not a Diet Dr. Pepper add by any means. It was all real fun and learning and we knew it.

 

Hold in mind that for the macros and their customer base color is a primary marketing term. Dunkel means next to nothing but Dark implies robust/bigger/more.

Adding "Dark" to any macro label is nothing more than a marketing term for macro brewers.

That Michelob Dark is a reference standard is ironic in this context because if it is not universally available it can't be a standard reference. May as well reference my homebrew.

Cheers

 

That makes 0 sense. Michelob dark was a take on a German Dunkel. Universally available? I will take whatever your smoking- Macro brewers such as Sam Adams can't make a specific beer because they sell too much beer? Many Macro brewers are replicating old world styles. You might want to brush up on your beer history. it is really interesting-

 

You're not following or you are being intentional. Drop the snark junior.

You state that Michelob Dark is a Dunkel and therefore the term Dark is redundant. My point is that Dunkel is irrelevant to the marketing of the beer. It is not called Michelob Dunkel for a reason. Dunkel means next to nothing to their consumer. So it is branded Dark. Simple. This is not a controversial idea. Michelob Dark. Michelob Amber. etc. So, to be clear, your observation is obvious but also misguided.

I can't explain the irony of a reference standard for a beer that is not widely available, you're on your own there. Just, you know, I can't be more clear. ABI is not making Michelob Original Lager. That is the title of the thread. You can't easily obtain Michelob Dark, if at all. It can't be a reference standard if it's not available for reference. It defeats the purpose. Is this making sense?

I won't take your bait regarding my knowledge of beer history. My history degrees rarely win women, wagers or arguments.
Cheers

 

I suspect that Dunkel meant even less to most Americans in the twentieth-century than it does today. Most of the German-American population abandoned German after World War I, and most German immigrant communities integrated quickly into American society anyway. I'm not even going to get into how American craft Dunkels of today almost always miss the mark in terms of recreating a good Dunkel as it is in Germany. It is a shame, however, that the American Dark Lager is more or less now a dead style as the Macros have gone fully towards the Pilsner end of the spectrum.

If there is/was a Michelob Dark, where does Michelob Bock stand in the midst of all this?

 

Oh, Bock beer?
That's the beer from the bottom of the barrel. Everyone in America knows that and selling a beer branded Bock is tough.

American Bock is definitely in the same category of missing the mark.
Cheers.

 

Visiting family out in Tennessee, I've found several craft Bock beers in addition to readily-available cases of Mich Bock. There is of course also Shiner Bock, which has a loyal following in the South as well. It may somehow be a regional thing.

 

The only way Dreher was involved was thru more copy-catting by A-B. From Jackson:

 

Which all makes me want a Lammsbrau Dunkel even more. What a beautiful beer!

 

I, too, miss my Dunkels, especially as I can't visit the places where I can find them on draft. And really, finding them on draft is the most reliable way to get one, as neither in DC nor where my folks live can I get reliable, fresh shipments of Dunkel unless I get lucky with Hofbräu.

 

Well, he shouldn't have let his brewmaster give Wahl the Michelob yeast (who eventually gave it to Busch). According to The Wahl Handybook of the American Brewing Industry (1937).

Of course, in the very same book Wahl’s own first person story of the yeast quoted “Captain Adolphus Busch” as asking him:

As for Dreher, Jr in the US - the below story appeared in dozens of US newspapers in 1898 - have never tracked down what became of it. (Why'd he picked Milwaukee and not St. Louis... Hmmm....)

 

Dark was a common term back then; and not all dark lagers are Munich Dunkels. Beers like Becks Dark or Heineken Dark are more what Michelob was trying to emulate, not the Big 6 brews.

 

Agreed. I bet that they were also doing plenty of focus groups, which did lead to the diminishing IBUs in Budweiser as well as the bigger focus on Bud Light.

But yeah, they read the market for those generic Continental darks incorrectly. My own group went the other way, and used them as a stepping stone to bigger and better things, and I'm sure we weren't the only ones.

 

Right, Junior -- and he wasn't doing anything to help Michelob along -- as is obvious.

Wow -- $10 mil in 1898? What's that, $300 mil today? Wonder what happened?

 

All the more gain for Guinness; where those continental darks faded into obscurity, Guinness picked up and now it’s the association for most American drinkers when they think dark beer.

 

Michael, you would win that bet.

Below is from an article published in the Wall Street Journal in 2006 and discusses how Budweiser’s IBU’s decreased over time with customer feedback being an input.

“Mr. Muhleman, who is officially Anheuser's group vice president for brewing and technology, says the company didn't set out to make the beers less bitter. He calls the change "creep," the result of endlessly modifying the beer to allow for changes in ingredients, weather and consumer taste. "Through continuous feedback, listening to consumers, this is a change over 20, 30, 40 years," says Mr. Muhleman, gesturing toward the row of Budweiser cans. "Over time, there is a drift."

The five Budweiser cans in front of Mr. Busch, dating from 1982, 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003, were pulled off the production line shortly after they were brewed. They were cooled to minus-321 degrees Fahrenheit over 16 hours and stored at that temperature in a secret laboratory in the company's headquarters.

The sample cans demonstrate how "creep" works. The difference in taste between two beers brewed five years apart is indistinguishable. Yet the difference between the 1982 beer and the 2003 beer is distinct. "The bones are the same. It is the same structure," says Mr. Muhleman. Overall, however, "the beers have gotten a little less bitter."

Customers over time wanted beers with less taste (e.g., bitterness) and Anheuser-Busch catered to their demands.

Cheers!