Bud

[mrt]

I only occasionally drink beer and I had never tried Bud till yesterday. Yesterday, while shopping with my wife, I happened to see Budweisers on the shelf, and having read about Bud on SB, I decided to try. I picked two bottled and drank one at home, at dinner.

Well, "ubiqutious and mundane" was what I read about Bud somewhere on SB, also mentioning that it was the favourite of many. Actually, I do not like beer so much, but really liked Bud. The characteristic bitter after taste of the beers I tasted before, simply didn't exist in this one and was replaced by a very smooth and sweet-like taste.

Many beer fans do not like beers that I like. However, if I'll drink beer, I think it will be Bud in the foreseeble future..

[Gillman]

In respect of beer, a very old drink with deep roots in parts of the Middle East and Africa, the main thing is the balance of flavors deriving from the fermented cereals (barley and often other grains such as rice and corn) and the hops.

Hops is a resinous climbing vine and it imparts floral and bitter qualities.

So you get in beer, to a greater or lesser degree, a bittersweet taste: the sweet cereal malts are saved from blandness or insipidity by the "seasoning" of the hops. (It is like adding salt and pepper to meat, say).

Hops originally were added to beer as a preservative because compounds in its cones tend to retard bacteriological degradation of beer including excessive oxidation (when beer acquires an unpleasant, damp paper-like smell).

Hops needed to be added in relatively large amounts in pre-refrigeration days. With time, many acquired a liking for a bitter, well-hopped beer. It is an acquired taste just as people acquire a taste for caviar, marron glace or other distinctive and unusual foods and drinks (I am paraphrasing here the great beer and whisky writer, Michael Jackson).

This does not mean that people have to like well-hopped, or any, beers but I find some people, when they know what beer is supposed to taste like, find in time they like and in fact prefer such drinks.

Budweiser as brewed by Anheuser-Busch is an excellent product and as a devotee of craft and traditional beers I have incurred my share of indignation from beer fans over this. Budweiser (also Carslberg and many other well-known international beers) was perfected in the post-refrigeration age when hops did not need to be added in huge quantity. Apart from that, it has a good formula, the interplay of tastes from the yeast, malts and hops used is very good.

Ironically perhaps, A/B is said to have made the taste more assertive recently, i.e., by adding more malt or hops. This was in response to a sales decline attributable by some to the increased liking for craft and European imported beers.

I had Budwesier on draft recently in Cincinnati and thought it was excellent. It happens to back a bourbon very well, too.

Gary

[OscarV]

Budweiser used to be a lot better.

Last spring they admitted that they cut back on the hops a few years ago because America's beer drinkers want a sweeter and tasteless beer, (tasteless is my word).

I remember when it had a little bite to it. I use to call it the Bud Bite.

[mrt]

BTW, Budweiser bottle's label here is "Bud" and not "Budweiser" as it is seen on their web. Do you have an idea about whether this is a regional branding strategy?

[Gillman]

I've never heard that, mrt. "Bud" here (North America) is used only in connection with the light version of Budweiser, Bud Light.

It sounds as if in some international markets there is an attempt to brand the beer by its familiar, shorter name.

Does the bottle state where this Bud is brewed?

I once had a draft Budweiser in Leeds (England) that was just superb.

Gary

[barturtle]

There is a long international battle over the name Budweiser between Anheuser-Busch and Brewery Budweiser Budvar in the Czech Republic. This has caused each to adopt slightly different names globally. In the USA the Czech stuff has become labeled Czechvar.

[Gillman]

Good point, that may explain the name Bud for the Turkish market.

By the way A/B has agreed to distribute the Czech Budweiser in some markets despite the long-standing dispute about trade marks and respective territories for their beers.

The parties have not agreed to settle as such that dispute, but have agreed to set it aside for future resolution and to cooperate in this other area, at least for now.

I read this recently in one of the consumer beer press, either All About Beer or Great Lakes Brewing.

Gary

[mrt]

I read on the bottle that it was produced by Stag Brewing Company, England.

Every detail on the bottle (born date, the 110 days statement, rice among ingredients) and the bottle design is the same as I see on "www.budweiser.com", but the brand is "Bud".

By the way, I found the pic. of the very same bottle branded "Bud" on "www.budbeer.gr". What am I drinking?

[Gillman]

I was not able to enter the site you mentioned, but the picture of the beer seems clearly to be (the U.S.-recipe) Budweiser.

I think you have an excellent version. The one I had in England had the trademark Budweiser taste (kind of appley and fresh biscuit-like). In fact, I preferred it to many Buds I've had in America.

The Canadian-brewed Budweiser is pretty good, but not the best.

Gary

[mrt]

Here comes the answer, from wikipedia:

(I'm impatient and rather curious )

"...

The existence of the Czech beer of the same name has caused problems in some markets. A long-standing agreement with the Czech brewer divided the rights to the name "Budweiser", so that the Anheuser-Busch product is marketed as "Bud" (in France and elsewhere) and "Anheuser-Busch B" (Germany), where the Czech beer has the rights to the name. Anheuser-Busch has made offers to buy out the Czech brewing company in order to secure global rights to the name "Budweiser" for both beers, but the Czech government has refused all such offers, considering keeping the Budweiser name Czech to be a matter of national pride.[citation needed]

The rights to use the name in the U.S. were purchased by founders of the company. They chose "Budweiser" because it was German-sounding and would appeal to other German immigrants, and it was easy for Americans to pronounce."

Now it's clear that my Bud is your Budweiser.

[Gillman]

Thank you. The choice of the name Budweiser by the founders of Anheuser-Busch is more than just the sound of the name; one of the founders had travelled in the former Czechoslovakia and was inspired by the beers of Bohemia when fine-tuning his American version. In fact, Michelob, another A/B beer, takes its name (at least, but probably more) from a town of the same name in Bohemia.

If you get the chance to try the Czech Budweiser (called Czechvar in some markets) you might enjoy it. When fresh it is very good indeed.

It may be of interest, as beer writer Michael Jackson has noted, that there is a "vestigial connection" between the U.S. Budweiser and the Czech original. The story gets complicated, because the company that makes the Czech Budweiser did not commence business until the 1890's, after U.S. Bud was devised, but probably the style it represented had antecedents in the Czech lands...

Gary

[Gillman]

I am now thinking that the draft Budweiser I had in England that was so good may have been the Czech Budweiser! I don't recall how the two are respectively marketed there. (In some places both beers are sold under the name Budweiser). I thought it was the U.S.-recipe one, which would have been brewed at Stag brewery, which used to be the famed Watney's brewery, I believe. Maybe in fact it was.

The point is, both beers are very good when served, as all beers should be, very fresh and through clean pipes in the pub. One is lighter than the other, but that sometimes has its place.

As for Bud Light, many people like it, I find it a good quencher, or a back for a whiskey again, but not much more.

There are so many good beers in the world, though, I would rarely have the same one all the time.

Gary

[Edward_call_me_Ed]

I had a drink of Bud at a New Year's Eve party a year ago. It had been given to an American friend of mine at the bar. Japanese people often assume that all Americans like Bud. My friend doesn't. Anyway, he asked my oppiuon and I said, "Nice taste, good hops. It is just awfully light, almost as if it had been cut with club soda."

Yesterday I bought one bottle of Bud and drank it at home. Very pale. Nice taste, but again, awfully light. The hops are nice, I just wish they used a lot more of them.

It isn't ever going to be a regular with me, but the next time someone offers me a Bud I will enjoy it. I can see it being a perfect beer on a hot summer day. The kind that are gone in two long swallows.

Ed

[mrt]

To the point! I just thought for a while today, about Bud in a hot summer day. That will really be very good. Just a few months ahead.

[ratcheer]

I've never had the Bohemian or British Budweiser's, but I have had American Budweiser fresh at the brewery. Let me tell you, it is delicious, that way!

The Germans have a saying - Beer is like bread, best when fresh.

Tim

[mrt]

Unfortunately Buds I have seen here so far are-though in the drinkable period-have already exceeded the "110 days". I'll keep searching for fresher ones.

[Gillman]

If you can abbreviate this period by 2 months or more I think you will notice quite a difference.

Gary

[boone]

I've never had the Bohemian or British Budweiser's, but I have had American Budweiser fresh at the brewery. Let me tell you, it is delicious, that way!

The Germans have a saying - Beer is like bread, best when fresh.

Tim

Yes, the tour is awesome :grin: :grin: We made a "weekend" trip to St. Louis, last summer. Visited Dane, stayed at the Millennium Hotel right smack in front of the "Gateway Arch" :grin: :grin: :grin: Beautiful nighttime atmosphere, open horse and carriage ride on a warm summer night allowed me to see the town without the hassle of driving--->really nice...Home of the St. Louis Cardinal's---a brand new "BUSH STADIUM" --- "2006 World Series Baseball Champs" :grin: A great little get away :grin: :grin: :grin:

Here's a few pictures of that trip and of the brewery, Arch, and Bush Stadium...I recommend it, to anyone who has interest in baseball, and beer :grin: :grin: It's a place where we "walked the streets at night" and felt safe---maybe that was country dumb but we did it every night we were there... The gateway arch, lit up at night was beautiful (sitting on the steps by the river was quite nice)...:grin: :grin: :grin: We watched (part) of the July 4th fireworks then walked to our hotel :grin: :grin:

Here's a few pictures of that trip :grin: :grin: :grin:

Bettye Jo

[cowdery]

The distribution deal between A-B and the Czech brewer has put this whole story in the press again. Here is a good story about it.

I didn't realize that, at least as between the two litigants, A-B used the name first.

The area around the old A-B plant in St. Louis is interesting. I never thought about St. Louis having an old French section of town, but it does and that is it.

[gr8erdane]

I think that has to do with the difference in marketing rights between the US and Europe. http://www.american.edu/ted/budweis.htm

We can buy the Czech version here under the label Czechvar.

[mier]

BTW, Budweiser bottle's label here is "Bud" and not "Budweiser" as it is seen on their web. Do you have an idea about whether this is a regional branding strategy?

Well the answer is easy ,in Europe the name Budweiser is a trademark of the Chech Budvar/Budweiser brewery.AnheuserB tried to buy this distillery after communism ceased to exist but the Chech republic regard the (original)Budweiser as a national heritage not to be sold to Bud U.S. because they feared that they would use the name to sell their American brand and honestly ,the Chechian Budweiser tastes much better... Eric.

[Joeluka]

but the Chech republic regard the (original)Budweiser

The A-B Budweiser was first. Not the Chech Budvar. And there are quite a few different copyright suits going on in the different European countries. There is no one law for all of Europe. Each country deals with the name differently.

[mier]

Actually the Chech was first only when the Chechoslowaks got their independance they renamed the town of Budweiser into Budvar and also the brand they also sold the name of Budweiser to AB.After the 2nd world war the name Budweiser was given yo the Chechs and not to AB as for the EEC they accept the rights of the European Budweiser so AB only is allowed to name it`s beer Bud and on the label only in small lettering budweiser.With the entry of the Chech republic into the EEC the name is only for the Chech,the turks have applied membership of the union so it logical that in Turkey the European name is standard.If there would be no problem with AB why would they try to buy a small brewery for a very high price?I hope they never succeed cos it`s a way better than the U.S. Bud!Joeluka no offence, Eric.