Budweiser's Reserve Black Lager

It is that time of year when I end up in my hometown. This beer will be sitting on the shelf at the local walmart and it will probably end up in my basket. I admit to liking the copper lager along with the Repeal that they did. Found both to be very easy drinking beers. The copper wasn't in your face bourbon barrel, but enough to make it interesting.

 

I'm no fan of Budweiser, but at least they're trying?

 

I don't recall having the Amber Lager, but I do belive they were different.

I doubt that, but then again, by the time I was of legal drinking age, this particular beer had just ceased production. If nothing else, I'd buy some Michelob if they brought back the classy 70s/80s bottles

Barrel-Aged Troeganator is an absolutely delightful beer. Might be my favorite from Tröegs.

Ramstein/High Point barrel-ages their Schwarzbier, Ink

 

I think unable to make a great beer offends my sensibilities more than being able to but choosing not to.

 

The Copper Lager was not great but had a detectable bourbon presence, not sure how anyone who drank it could have missed it. I found the base beer unsubstantial and not assertive to complement the barrel character.

Will definitely try this one, guess I'm not enough of a snob to be disgusted or make-believe outraged by the label.

 

Swooping in with corrections and justice at the drop of a hat.

 

This sounds like two different reviews. The first one I could see people reacting to, the other one seems like it would blend in with many others.

 

Might give it a go. Have to say i enjoyed the "amber" lager with Jim Beam a very much above average Vienna Lager..though negligible bourbon taste

 

TTB has a list of all recent rulings at https://www.ttb.gov/rulings

 

Why don't they just release Budweiser or Michelob to a 1950's recipe?

 

Not technically incapable, just culturally incapable.

 

My guess is that using staves instead of whole barrels speeds up the process by putting more of the surface area of the wood in contact with the beer. I'm sure you could get loads of bourbon character into a beer this way, and I'm sure that AB, uh... didn't.

 

I mean, do they have to?

They own so many craft breweries at this point.

 

Anytime i drink budweiser it taste like banana... Not complaining but does anyone else get that flavor?

 

I personally probably won't buy this, but I will say it is interesting seeing A-B doing these interesting new(-ish?) takes on Budweiser. Heck, maybe it will even get a few of your regular Bud drinkers into craft beer!

 

Final thought: Since the folks at AB-InBev have apparently seen fit to cast their lot with the douchebags at the Des Moines Register, I wouldn't touch this crap with a ten-foot pole. They can go piss up a rope.

I'm not buying any more BCBS, either.

 

That was the first one in the series and, so far, the only one I’ve enjoyed. I will keep trying singles of this series with tempered expectations.

 

Everything you need to know about what Bud and Jim Bean are doing together can be found here:
https://www.brewbound.com/news/beam-bud-bet-boilermakers

Looking at the Budweiser Reserve Collection more broadly, here's a timeline:

2017 - Budweiser 1933 Repeal Reserve Amber lager
2018 - Budweiser Freedom Reserve Red Lager
2018 - Budweiser / Jim Beam - Reserve Copper Lager
2019 - Budweiser Discovery Reserve American Red Lager
2019 - Budweiser Harvest Reserve Deep Golden Lager
2019 - Budweiser / Jim Beam - Reserve Black Lager

Practically each beer has had it's own thread on BA, and the press has covered every release. There was so much interest in the first release that people were hunting the beer down and stores were saying "We're sold out" like it was the craft beer scene from years ago. Subsequent releases in the collection managed to tap into the craft model of offering a tick for a new beer rather than repeating an old one. Creating a "collection" adds to the "collect them all" mindset. While the beer and bourbon shot approach of the stave beers is playing off of a non-craft concept, it still manages to piggyback off of the obvious craft BBA beer influence. The Jim Bean beers will not satisfy any BBA obsessed craft fan, but they don't need to as long as they satisfy a different audience. They can reach some of the boilermaker crowd as well as a non-craft buyer who wants to try one of those Bourbon beers. In this sense, "this route" has been a no-brainer.

In my case, I have looked at things in a narrower frame. I've tried 3 or 4 of the previous 4 wide release Bud Reserve beers. That was enough to make me avoid "insanity" and pass on trying this new Black Lager when I saw it in the store, despite the fact that AB-InBev produced my likely front runner for beer of the year - Goose Island's Obadiah Poundage (I know you're not considering beers like that). "Like to like" and all that, but I don't think your reasoning will do you a disservice.

 

I doubt it's that simple, because the outside surfaces of barrels are dirty as hell, and AB is for sure going to sterilize them before adding them to their beer. I've heard they boil the hell out of the beechwood strips they use to age Bud, to remove any flavor contribution from the wood. I'm sure they must boil the staves as well to kill any organisms on them. That must diminish the flavor contribution as well.