I was honestly slightly excited when I first heard about this beer. I dig red/amber ales and lagers which is, more or less, what Black Crown is. I also partially hoped that Budweiser may do a decent enough job of making a high quality beer. Then I saw it was only sold in 6-packs and I was unwilling to commit to that. Then all those stupid voodoo super bowl commercials came out and my excitement began to wane significantly. Last week I was doing my normal beer shopping and stumbled upon this in a pick 6 area and figured, eh why the hell not.
Here is the PR blurb:
With a blend of two-row caramel malt and four types of domestic hops, Budweiser Black Crown is finished on a bed of Beechwood chips for a smooth, balanced taste. Incorporating the proprietary yeast directly descended from the original Budweiser yeast strain used by Adolphus Busch in 1876, Budweiser Black Crown retains the key characteristics of Budweiser with its clean taste and high drinkability. Featuring more body, color and hop character than the flagship lager, it also has a slightly higher alcohol content at 6% ABV.
Brewery: Anhesuer-Busch InBev
Beer: Budweiser Black Crown
Style: Amber Lager
ABV: 6%
Calories: ~180
The appearance is a tad lighter than I expected but does look promising. It’s got a nice orange/red hue topped with a thickish skim of off-white foam.
Very clean smell of grain with… little else.
Little bit of biscuit malt, minimal amount of hops, and a minuscule taste of alcohol.
Very crisp and light body with plenty of carbonation
Like all things Budweiser this is as unoffensive as possible. How do you make an unoffensive beer you ask? By reducing everything possible to a barely noticeable level. Don’t like hop bitterness? There isn’t any! Don’t like chocolate malts? we got rid of as much malt as we could! So this isn’t really a “bad” beer but it sure isn’t a good beer. Is this better than Bud or Bud light? For sure and without a doubt, though I will probably never have it again.
BrewMinds 