Budweiser Project Twelve Batch No. 63118 Deep Gold Lager

This is part of Project Twelve from Budweiser. Budweiser had their brewmasters at all 12 of their U.S. breweries come up with a special recipe, but all had to use the same Budweiser proprietary yeast. They cut these twelve selections down to six internally, then down to the three in the Project 12 special release by public tastings over the summer: a deep gold lager, an amber lager, and a bourbon barrel aged lager. People can vote on which is their favorite, and I suspect we will then see a wider and more sustained release of that favorite. The batch numbers correspond to the zip code of the brewery that came up with the recipe. 63118 is St. Louis, Missouri; 23185 is Williamsburg, Virginia; and 91406 is Los Angeles, California.

This 6.0% ABV deep gold pilsner lager uses the same German  hop varieties as used in their 19th century recipe. The beer pours a very deep and dark golden yellow, they were right about that part. There is a tall head of pure white foam that dissipates fairly rapidly. The aroma is sweet, malty, vegetal. There is a faint crisp hoppiness, mostly indistinct. The taste is malty, cooked vegetables, some sweet potato, an almost herbal note (think Jagermeister with no anise), with a crisp bitterness that is fairly ruined by the bad aftertaste of the vegetal malt, and a slight sweetness quickly creeps back in. The mouthfeel is well carbonated and nicely tingly.

Anheuser-Busch products have a nice tingly, carbonated mouthfeel, it is the main credit I give them. This is no exception. Their main products suffer from lack of flavor. This has a big flavor, but unfortunately, it is bad flavor. Gross is the best word for this beer. I would never want to drink more than one (and in fact I have no desire to drink it again).