The Brew Guru tastes Budweiser American Ale, or, This must be what they wanted but I can't imagine why

When it comes to up-front declarations of beer snobbery, it doesn’t get any less subtle than a non-twist-off cap. The beer you deign to drink declares, before it has even graced your palate, that you require help consuming it. “Find an implement, caveman. Evolve or remain parched.”
It’s a pomposity that can be tolerated for a beers above a certain threshold – for The Brew Guru, it’s about $6 a six-pack, maybe $7. Anything below that – except brews way below, i.e. returnable bottles – reeks of false airs.

Today’s featured beer puts on a lot of airs: atop, outside and inside the bottle.

This week’s brew: Budweiser American Ale

Style: The Budmasters claim they’ve created an entirely new style, but if it looks like an amber ale, swims like an amber ale and quacks like an amber ale...

Brewed by: Anheuser-Busch Inc., St. Louis.

Availability: It’s a Bud. If the answer here isn’t “everywhere,” someone isn’t doing his job.

What it’s like: Samuel Adams Boston Lager if it were brewed by Bud.

Inside the glass: This foray into a microbrew style by America’s biggest macrobrewer is a significant departure from its Bud labelmates. It’s all malt, meaning it lacks adjuncts like corn or rice, and it boasts Cascade hops – the backbone of many great American pale ales. And it toes the line, appearance-wise: a lovely rusty, caramel-malt amber and a creamy head. But get closer to the glass and it falls flat. A thin aroma foreshadows a similarly thin flavor. There’s a fleeting ale bitterness, but it’s gone before anything really registers because it’s riding on a flimsy grain chassis. The macrobrewers clearly believe the benefit of watering down the malt body is drinkability, in terms of “less filling.” Never mind whether anyone will actually want to drink more.

Backwash: The Brew Guru doesn’t believe that the beer minds at Anheuser-Busch couldn’t make this beer what it purports to be. They could craft and mass-produce a beer to please microbrew fans, but at some point a compromise was made. It may have been to keep costs down. Or perhaps because they don’t really want the microbrew drinker, but instead the macro drinker who aspires to micros. If the latter is the case, it’s a misguided decision – for that consumer, American Ale is just a gateway beer to similar but better choices like Sam Adams or Goose Island Honker’s Ale. Either way, American Ale won’t fool any real microbrew fans.

1 mug (out of four)