Visit the Cooking Lager site

Today I’m blogging about a very special beer in the world of Cooking lager. One beer sits alongside the eponymous Carling as the representation of all that the Pongy Ale enthusiasts dislike. It is disliked so much you’ll see it referred to by its amusing nickname “Dudweiser”. You’ve guessed it, it’s a bottle of Bud, or Budweiser to give it its due respect. Not that fake Czech Republic muck that parades itself as Budweiser, but the genuine article. American Bud. Brewed under contract in the EU of course., and the famous beer that replaced Coors in Smokey and the Bandit II. (Coors featured in the first, in the second Burt drank Bud)

Wiki has this beer as a 4.2% Pale lager, in the UK it’s brewed to 5%, and a fascinating bit of wiki it is too. Brewed from the choicest hops, rice and barley malt and aged in Beachwood. They are unaware of any beer that costs so much to make and believe that the best beer ought to be fresh and inform you of the date the beer was born. The general view of most of the beer world is that this beer is bland muck. Nothing could be further from the truth. That’s why I dedicate this post to my top mate Dicky English, a big fan of Dudweiser (though he would never say) I’m sure. (The personal abuse on the forum was referring to Ricky as Dicky as he didn’t like being called Ricky. Please don’t think for a moment that it was actually personal abuse, I’m not one for calling people rude names, especially not a top geezer like Dicky. Respect dude!)

The most distinct tasting note that comes from this beer is sweetness. An odd sucrose sweetness rather than a maltose of unfermented caramelised malt that may exist in a darker beer, or even a fructose which you can find from time to time in even the expensive grog others like to neck. Odd thing for a beer. Now I cannot say whether it is sweetened or not, but the first bottle is undeniably sweet. Not unpleasantly so, but enough to not fit in with my expectation of what lout ought to be. Now I poured the first one into a glass. A 1990 Middlesbrough CAMRA beer festival glass to appeal to any CAMRA members that read this tosh and as a gesture of beer brotherhood and sincere friendship. The glass was nicked, but that doesn’t alter the sentiment. I wanted to look at its colour as I was told that the main reason Bud was marketed as a bottled beer in the UK was that trials as a draught product informed the brewer that the UK punter was put off by its “piss like appearance” of light yellow. I cannot say it put me off, nor did it appear greatly different than any other lout flogged. Maybe that’s an urban myth, who’s to say?

Further bottles revelled dryness as my mouth became accustomed to the sweetness and the beer took on a more conventional appeal. I was never one for Bud; though a lover of lout it was never my cup of tea. This cheap six pack changed my mind in regard to Bud. I enjoyed it and enjoyed it tremendously. Nowt wrong with the grog. Whether 30% rice or not, its top lout. I eat Rice Krispies, so there is nothing wrong with rice. It’s a commodity grain like any other and if Inbev want to flog me dirt cheap Bud they are very welcome. More power to them and less power to those that dislike Bud. To slag off Bud is not to insult this fine beer but to insult the millions that drink and enjoy it worldwide, all of which I’m sure are discerning people. It’s a nice bottle of grog, top marks.




More...