Budweiser Project 12 Beechwood Bock Batch 43229

This is part of the Second Edition of the Budweiser Project 12.  Budweiser has 12 breweries across the United States. In the first edition, 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. People can vote on which is their favorite. The batch numbers correspond to the zip code of the brewery that came up with the recipe. 43229 is Columbus, Ohio; 94534 is Fairfield, California (I took the tour at this one several years ago); and 23185 is Williamsburg, Virginia.

In the first edition, they had a deep gold lager from 63118, St. Louis, Missouri ; a light amber  aged on bourbon staves and vanilla beans from 23185, Williamsburg,Virginia; and a deep amber lagerfrom 91406, Los Angeles, California.  In a feat of originality, the Second Edition features a deep gold lager from 94534, Fairfield, California; a light amber aged on bourbon barrel staves and vanilla beans from, you guessed it, 23185, Williamsburg, Virginia; and a deep amber bock from 43229, Columbus, Ohio.  While the lineup is repetitive, the beers are much better this year than they were last year. The first edition was really bad tasting overall.

This 6.0% deep amber bock beer is from Columbus, Ohio. Like the original Budweiser, it is aged on beechwood chips. It is brewed with chocolate and caramel malts. The beer pours a dark copper and amber, to medium chestnut brown, with a hint of garnet. There is a short head of very light tan foam that dissipates rapidly. The aroma is malty, roasted, caramel, quite sweet. The taste is malt forward, caramel, light touch of sweet potato, roasted, very light touch of chocolate, sweet, yet dry on the finish. The taste is more pleasing than the aroma. It has a tingling carbonation and medium body. Not great craft, but far better than last years amber release. They are slowly getting the hang of this Project 12.