Musings on Budweiser

Yes, that’s what I was lamenting, the fact that they could make any beer that they want, but they make what they do to please the public. I guess I’m more bummed out with my fellow American’s taste in beer than I am with Anheuser-Busch. I can’t blame them for giving people what they want.

 

In So. Cal. in the 90’s it seemed like all of the attractive girls drank Coors Light.

 

Budweiser is the king of beers. It says so right on the can. That’s how you know.

 

You have inspired me to drink a Michelob lager next to a German imported helles. To memory the michelob being the best beer of a big brewer is had at the time.

 

I'm a little surprised that my comments have inspired someone to try a Michelob. I haven't had one in about 50 years.

 

My thought process was if they could make anything close to a helles my memory serves michelob being all malt (?) maybe. And tasted much different than the other brands

 

Hopefully you can find some Michelob, I had a similar thought after reading about it on this site, but haven’t been able to find it. I probably had it back in the 90s, but I believe it was not all malt back then.
Just going off of the specs, Sapporo & Michelob are pretty similar, but I don’t know how that translates to taste.

 

I drink Sapporo regularly it’s an every day beer for me so funny you mention it. I like bud heavy a lot but I get a headache. Sapporo is very similar but no headache. That’s how that happened. My memory of michelob lager from a couple years ago is different from the Sapporo on my brain and I’ll simply just need to do a side by side

 

There was a thread that discussed that Michelob is discontinued.

If you ever find a Michelob please report back.

Cheers!

 

My memory of Michelob from even 35 yrs ago is that it was lightly bitter and dry. Am I correct? Anyways, I see Mic Amber Bock frequently here. I'd grab some Bud Dry if they released some again.

 

Hmm, 35 years ago would make it 1989. How good is my memory of a beer from 35 years ago?

Firstly, for multiple reasons I would not disagree with the assessment of "lightly bitter and dry". For the most part this is how I would feel about Macro lagers of that time frame. I was not a big consumer of Michelob beer from 'back in the day' but my recollection is that I personally did not see a big enough difference between a beer like Budweiser/Miller High Life/etc. vs. Michelob to justify the higher price of Michelob. Was it a 'smidge' better than the premium beers of that time frame? Maybe?

You might be interested in reading the below linked article (you will need to scroll down) since it includes quotes about Michelob from Michael Jackson of Michelob in 1982, James Robertson in 1978 and Michael Weiner 1977.

https://www.beeretseq.com/2021/07/

My personal preferences are for Michelob from the turn of the 20th Century. I annually homebrew a reconstruction of this beer which I brand as 1896 Michelob. I will be enjoying one of these beers later this evening.

You can read about this beer here:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Brewing_Original_Michelob_Recipe

Cheers!

 

So, back to Bud. Bud Dry. @Squire you must have had some of those.

 

Lots to think about. I can remember being invited to my Physics prof's home for a party in 1969 where he had a quarter keg of Michelob. My taste buds were attuned to the local lagers at the time, and I remember being underwhelmed by the draft Michelob. In about '74, my friends and I did a vertical blind taste test of Mich, Bud, and Busch Bavarian. We thought they weren't too much different, but generally preferred Busch, then Bud, and last Michelob (at home we generally were drinking Ballantine Ale to augment our extract homebrews, so that may have dulled our taste buds). All of that can be chalked up to personal tastes, so no vast conclusions.
That said, I think Gary (beeretseq.com/2021/07, and then scroll down to Michelob) hits the mark with his assessments. Modern brewers can, and do, brew all-malt beers that have a thinner body than some adjunct beers. Gary mentions the 2007 all malt Michelob as being wanting in body, even more deficient than some earlier extract Michelob. I was a fan of adjunct Pabst Andeker in the 70s. The packaging was revised, and the formula went to all malt with some fanfare in about '80 (?). I thought the new version was not as full bodied (and not nearly as good) as the earlier beer.

 

Below is a story I posted about Budweiser over a decade ago:

I should preface the below story by stating that I am a homebrewer and I do not generally drink Budweiser.

I got into the habit of brewing my homebrews to family gatherings and share my homebrewed beers. I have a sister who doesn’t like flavorful beers so she would bring her own beer (mostly Budweiser). For one family event which was my birthday my sister offered me a Budweiser which I accepted. My wife had a look of horror as I accepted this beer. When my sister was out of ear shot she asked: “You are not going to drink that are you?” I replied: “Yes I am”. It was offered to me as a present and I was not going to be ungracious and not accept it. I drank the can of Budweiser and I will readily admit that I would have preferred to be drinking one of my tasty homebrewed beers. A number of BA folks will describe Budweiser using terms of excrement: piss, shit, etc. I personally would not use those words to describe Budweiser (or any other BMC type beer). My biggest complaint with BMC type beers is that they are lacking in mouthfeel/flavor.

Cheers!

P.S. That very well could have been the last time I drank a Budweiser, just not a beer brand for me.

 

John, my guess is that Michelob was brewed with a lesser proportion of rice vs. Budweiser and if that guess is correct than it would be reasonable to expect a 'better' maltiness to the beer.

But was it $1.00 'better'? Well, not for me.

Cheers!

 

Do you have experience/recollections here? Did you personally prefer the circa 2007 Michelob better than previous versions?

Cheers!

P.S. I have zero idea if I ever drank an all malt Michelob. Probably?

 

I agree with your assessment that it tastes thin. It is. When I first tried Bud Dry, also thin in the flavor dept, I'd never had a beer with that kind of mouthfeel. It was exciting! So I was impressed. Like, it left an impression in my mind and it was a total crushing beer if there ever was one (nodding to Warsteiner Orig). At the time I was very accustomed to Bud being the main beer at social gatherings as there really wasn't much craft then aside from Sam Adams, Geary, Sierra Nevada and then some imports (I miss Heineken Dark!). Bud Dry was affordable and "different". Fast frwd to Bud today. Holy crap I dunno what they're thinking nor do I care. I would however re-vist Bud Dry for my own nostalgic reasons and give it a good shot. That'd be about it! There are succulent craft rice lagers here & there these days that I find to be dry and if I'm hankerin' for an AAL, well, there's loads here in lagerland. But if Bud is all there is, I gotta brush aside my beer geekiness and have a couple.