Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Busch Signature Copper Lager

What is the response of Anheuser-Busch/In-Bev to the growing market share of craft beer, while many of their brands suffer loss after loss in consumption?  To invent the "sub-premium" craft beer genre! This is a 5.7% ABV beer from Busch. (I've said this before, and I'll say it again, doesn't AB-Inbev have enough money to give this new beer its own website? The can says to go to www.busch.com which has no mention on it of this beer.)

The beer pours a very dark copper to medium brown. There is about an inch of off-white to very light tan head that dissipates fairly quickly. The aroma is roasted and toasted malt, a bit of caramel, strangely over roasted to where it approaches BO. The taste has the roasted and toasted caramel malt without the strange note in the aroma, thankfully. It is intensely carbonated, giving a burn to the throat, albeit a refreshing one. It is sweet without being too sweet, but I would prefer a bit of bitterness on the end.  It comes to a fairly abrupt and empty finish. This isn’t great, but it is actually better than I expected. It is drinkable, and it is way better than Budweiser, Black Crown, Bud Light Platinum or regular Busch. I still find making beers like this an odd way to try to get back market share from the still growing craft segment, but I guess some focus group (made up of whom?) keeps telling them to brew things like this.


No comments:

Post a Comment