11/04/2004 Entry: "Budweiser's Exponentially Bad Beer vs. My Home Brew"
Posted by Maynard @ 10:20 AM MST

Budweiser's Exponentially Bad Beer vs. My Home Brew

Behold B^e, Budweiser's new beer. Fortunately, my home brew did not come out tasting like Budweiser cider. I was a little concerned. Pics below.

The beer was not carbonated - whether this is a result of not using enough priming tablets or letting the beer sit in the vat for too long (and starving the yeast to death by letting the consume all the sugars) I do not know. It tasted good enough to share among family (though not hand out to neighbors), and I am eager to try the other recipes Mr. Beer has on their website. With some improvements, of course.

Things I will be doing in the next batch:

• The homebrew websites and newsgroups say to use PrimeTab instead of table sugar to carbonate. I used them, but there was almost no carbonation. I might try table sugar next time, but it needs more research.
• The plastic bottles in the kit will be replaced with washed Sam Adams glass bottles, capped with red & white striped caps and star-spangled caps. This might have an improvement on the carbonation and almost certainly on the taste.
• The brewing newsgroups suggest using yeast that has been activated by sitting in warm water for 15 minutes. This could produce a much more alcoholic beer, since they would be more voracious in going after the sugars.

Some pics:

A sceptical brewer examines his crafting.

First taste - hmmm...

Not bad enough to make me grimace - definitely worth another shot.

Overall, I give the Mr. Beer kit an A+ for ease, C- for directions, and C+ for the included recipe. It could have been a lot worse, but this is woth a try if you want to brew at home - just make some improvements to their directions.

Replies: (1)

I partook of the Maynard-Family-Brewmeister-Label tonight, I'll share some thoughts.

It was a nice color, and not very wheaty. (That was good, usually homebrews have this awful wheat taste which I greatly dislike)

No, this came off more like a pale ale.
(A very stale pale ale) (The lack of carbonation bothered me.)

The taste didn't change much with temperature. I tried it both chilled and gradually as it approached Room temp. No real difference (That is also a good quality, but it suggests limited taste.)

I'd be happy to test another batch for you.
Please?

Posted by Jeremy @ 11/15/2004 10:37 PM MST

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