Krausen Rising

I tried the new crafty beer by Budweiser a couple nights ago.  It’s been covered extensively elsewhere, but I still felt the need to check it out, and when I found single 12 ounce bottles at Berkeley Bowl, I decided to bite the bullet and splurge on a beer of such dubious heritage.  I went into the beer aware of what other reviewers were saying about it, but I made it a point to try to be open minded.  if it was a slightly more caramel-colored version of their flagship fermented rice beverage, I would be happy to say so.

The horridly named American Ale is amber in color and has a bit of a hop bouquet.   Smells like West Coast beer, or American hops at least.  Flavor-wise, it’s a little malty and a little hoppy.  The two are balanced nicely, though I’d rather there were more hops and more malt for a more full-flavored beer.  Thin-bodied, with some kind of almost acidic… feel?  flavor?  Whatever it is, I suspect it comes from Budweiser adding just a touch of crystal malt, probably something not too dark and a little caramely, to darken the beer and balance the hops.  I was surprised to find that the American Ale loses flavor as it warms up.  I’d read that in some other review, but it didn’t make sense to me.  In my experience, malty beers - even, say, the Weltenberger Helles - taste better as they warm up.  I even like a pilsener like Trumer as it warms.  But the American Ale falls apart as soon as it gains a few degrees of temperature.

I’d rate this beer under Blue Moon but above Michelob’s incredibly boring “dark bock” as far as US macrobeers go.  Skewed a bit toward the Michelob, rather than the Blue Moon, which is a decent whit except that it’s a bit too thin on flavor and body.  So, uh, on a five star scale, with, say, Old Milwaukee at one star, and Pliny the Elder at five, I’d say American Ale is a solid 2.3 stars, which ranks it about one full star higher than Budweiser’s worshipful ode to blandness, their rice lager.