Budweiser Select: If You Want a Bland Beer, Select This
Written: Apr 24 '05 (Updated Dec 14 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice label; Some fruit character from the yeast
Cons: Low carbs; Low taste
The Bottom Line: This beer is lame, but it isn't the weakest light beer I have ever tasted. It could be even worse.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Budweiser Select |
Anheuser- Busch is a huge brewing company that spends a fortune each year marketing its products around the world. Like most companies, it is always looking for new products to expand market share and to keep the public interested in its business. And, like most brewing companies, it is always ready to respond to the latest trends in brewing, producing whatever it thinks will sell at the time.
With A-B, new beer and other malt beverage products are introduced frequently, either the result of a new product offering/development or the result of an acquisition. The recent new addition to the lineup fits into the former category. It’s Budweiser Select, a low calorie and low- carb beer brewed with the health conscious consumer in mind.
Basic Characteristics of This Beer:
Budweiser Select pours from the bottle with a light yellowish body that is completely clear and has a light aroma that is cardboard- like and weak. There is practically no foam at all, and the small head disappears in a minute or two, leaving a thin coating of bubbles behind.
Flavors present in this beer include light, sweet grains like corn and a small amount of yeast character that is banana- like and almost like a German hefeweizen. Notice I said almost, because the fact is that the yeasty fruit character is very slight and it fades away quickly. The beer finishes with almost no bitterness at all, and there is virtually no aftertaste.
Anheuser- Busch brews this beer using two- row barley and other malts along with lager yeast. There are 3.1 grams of carbs and 99 calories per serving and the alcohol level by volume is 4.3 percent.
Food Compatibility:
This is a very light beer, and its taste is best suited for salty snacks and various other finger foods. It also makes an ok drink to serve with fish sticks and other cheap seafood. It’s light enough to go with many foods, but in most every instance, there is a better beer to serve than this one.
Final Thoughts:
Anheuser- Busch is at it again! The brewing behemoth is always looking for new products to keep its name in the spotlight; compete against other macro- breweries; and increase market share. This is nothing new for A-B or any other beer maker. These companies, regardless of the success rate of their core products, must devote resources to new product development. They have to have something new to keep the public interested.
With Budweiser Select, A-B has kowtowed (again!) to the pressures to create beer that is more tasteless, more bland, lighter bodied, low carb, and low calorie. It isn’t like A-B is lacking in this area. The company already has plenty of weak- tasting beer products. But, once again, they felt pressure to appeal to the dieting, health conscious consumer by creating a product that is light in body and low in calories, carbs, and other “bad” things. Reducing the calories and carbs might lead to some sales, but it also inevitably leads to reduced taste. But A-B and these other big brewers don’t seem to care. If it means making a buck and giving them the opportunity to assault the television, radio, and magazines with ads, then they are more than happy to continue making lame, forgettable products.
This beer is most certainly a weak product, and most will agree that it is crisp, clean, and not very filling. These attributes make it a good choice for those who are counting calories and prefer beer that doesn’t make one feel too bloated. And because the beer is so light, it makes a good choice for those who want something a little more refreshing for the dog days of summer. It refreshes like water, and this quality (along with the low calories and low carbs) will undoubtedly help this beer rack up the sales.
With this type of taste, Budweiser Select is very similar to other light beer products that are so commonplace on the market today. The only thing that makes this beer a little different (and saves it from receiving a one- star rating) is the taste imparted by the strain of yeast used in the brewing process. A-B chose a yeast that gives this beer a fruit flavor that combines banana with a little bit of green apples. The taste is only slight, but at least it’s something. Other light beer taste like grains and water, but Budweiser Select tastes a little different because of the yeasty flavors present.
Hop lovers will be very disappointed with this beer. Most large brewers already know that the vast majority of potential beer drinkers do not like the taste of bitter hops. And since these companies are very market driven, they usually make their beers almost free from any hop taste. Budweiser Select continues this trend, with almost no hop character at all. There is virtually no bitterness in the watery finish and the sweet aftertaste fades away very quickly.
Overall, this is a lame effort from the brewing giant known as Anheuser- Busch. New products are the lifeblood of any company, so it isn’t surprising that A-B would pull another product out of its hat. The problem is, this beer is very similar to other A-B products. It didn’t take much effort at all to brainstorm an idea like this one. There is almost no difference between it and other Anheuser- Busch light beers.
Chalk this up as another weak effort to expand the light beer product line and weaken beer to the point of nothingness. I like the sophisticated look of the bottle for this beer. But there is nothing remotely sophisticated about the taste. Try it, just to say you did, and then allocate Budweiser Select to the long- term memory storage section of your brain. There is nothing to get excited about from this same- old, same- old product from Anheuser- Busch.
Be sure to Click the Links Below to Read Reviews of Other Anheuser- Busch Products:
Budweiser:
Budweiser
Bud Light
Bud Ice
Bud Ice Light
Michelob Products:
Michelob
Michelob Light
Michelob Ultra
Michelob Amber Bock
Michelob Black & Tan
Michelob Honey Lager
Michelob Marzen
Michelob Pale Ale
Michelob Pumpkin Spice
Other Anheuser- Busch Beers:
Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale
Busch
Busch Light
Natural Light
Natural Ice
Anheuser World Select
Recommended:
No
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