Bud's New American Ale

Bud has released on tap (and in a few more days, in bottle) its first serious foray into "craft" beer with its American Ale. What are we to make of it?

Unlike other Anheuser-Busch products, this one appears to be true to respected brewing without adjuncts, etc. Good. But how will it taste? And should beer nuts/snobs give it a cold shoulder if it's actually a quality product?

Bud is marketing this as something that in blind taste tests is preferred by craft beer lovers over actual popular craft beer. That's hard to believe, but moving past arguing merits of claims for a moment I'll probably give it a try if I'm somewhere that they serve it.

Based on this map at the Bud American Ale website, that won't happen, at least until it gets a stronger distribution on tap in the area.

Anyway, this is an interesting and seemingly more frequent story of the beer macro going micro.

Some Basics

At present, this blog will have a fairly open format. What that means is that the focus will be on beer, but I may wander from time-to-time (see snowballs entry below).

Personally, I conduct most of my business west of the city. As much as I like downtown, it's a bit of a hike. Most of what is known to me is in the Ellicott/Columbia area. We can still discuss establishments around town and around the state (and even D.C., Pennsylvania, etc.), but I won't always hit them up immediately if at all. And, I have a bias towards avoiding crowds (except at sporting events). Don't ask. The more relaxed the place, the more positively I tend to respond to it.

In that same spirit, I tend to respond more positively to variety when it comes to beer. I have my favorite styles, but nothing is more damning to a beer nut than a row of taps with 90% Bud/Miller/Coors. Throw us a bone. A Sam Adams or Yuengling or Blue Moon is nice, but go crazy and throw in 2-3 unique pours if you can afford it. Same with your bottles.

Finally, it's a given that anything involving food/beer/wine will have an air of snobbery. I am not immune to this. Not everyone is in the same place when it comes to beer. I'll do my best to moderate such tones and make this place as accessible as possible to any and all people who enjoy beer and are willing to look beyond the stuff marketed to us on football Sundays.