Budweiser Select - Anheuser-Busch

karst

Missouri

2.68/5  rDev +30.1%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | feel: 2 | overall: 3

On its first day of release we selected a cold 6 pack of Budweiser Select from the fridge at Brown Derby in Springfield, Mo. It is mashed longer than the original, in order to produce a cleaner finish. Yellow-straw color with a 1-finger white head that fades before you can empty the bottle leaving minimal lace. A malt and rice aroma. Thin body cooked veggy (corn) and malt taste with high carbonation and like soda-water it finishes dry.
This low-carb beer with its multimillion dollar ads and packaging promise a "bolder" taste actually has little to offer me.
Drinkability for the macro croud is likely to be high. I am having a tough time finishing it.

Serving type: bottle

02-22-2005 04:36:32 | More by karst

Suds

Pennsylvania

2.25/5  rDev +9.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

I had a couple of these on tap, over dinner during a trip this week. With little else to choose from, I thought that this would be an interesting brew to try. The beer is extraordinarily light colored with a fizzy, soda-pop head. Not much in the aroma department: cereal grain and carbonic fizz…that’s about it. The beer is lighter and has less taste than traditional Budweiser. It’s like a grain flavored water. Some hops in the finish, which is watery and hollow. Serious disappointment.

Serving type: bottle

02-20-2005 19:32:00 | More by Suds

TinusTime

Virginia

1.65/5  rDev -19.9%
look: 2.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2

Pours a very very pale yellow with a decent snow white head. I mean this is a pale pale beer. Aroma-- still trying to find one. Maybe a bit of crispness but nothing jumps out . Taste is intially a light touch of maltiness, followed by a crisp dryness followed by nothing. Hey they did get of the aftertaste, and damn near succeeded in getting rid of the before and during taste as well. Mouthfeel is thin and watery. Honestly after a couple of sips you wonder if anything is there. My guess is that the "increase" in hops was just to let you know that you didnt pick up the bottle of seltzer instead. If you think Mich Ultra is insipid, at least it had the cojones to admit what it was. Budweiser Select makes one think its something special... which it definately is not

Serving type: bottle

02-14-2005 22:02:47 | More by TinusTime

Dubblebock

Texas

3.3/5  rDev +60.2%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

Ok, this one needs a little explanation. Budweiser Select is a test product, and I happen to be in one of the test markets. I had seen full-page print ads for this in the local newspaper, and I initially thought that it was a full-fledged new product from A-B. At first glance it has all of the trappings of success...the eye-catching packaging, the competitive pricing ($4.79 for a six-pack), the A-B pedigree to the max. Budweiser Select is actually another foray into the low-carb beer market. The packaging doesn't push this fact but the print ads do. The ads also promise a "bolder" taste, a supposed result of the looong brewing process used to create this beer.

So here's the stickler. Reviewed as a stand-alone beer, this isn't that good. Reviewed as a alternative to Rock Green Light or Michelob Ultra, it's a stand-out winner. I'm not sure if low-carb beers comprise a style yet, but I'll stick to the basic reviewing guidelines and review this against it's competition.

Select is unimpressive to look at. It didn't pour with much of a head. The color was all yellow-straw. Truly nothing to catch the eye going on here. Heavily filtered. Not a hint of anything floating around in the mug except for carbonation bubbles.

The nose was just as weak. No sense of hoppiness or anything, just a mild malt character.

The taste was....ok. Just ok. Compared to Ultra or Rock Green Light, it was great. There is a slightly more pronounced hop flavor than regular Budweiser. Bold? Not really. Definitely less sweet than regular Bud. Maybe a hint of bready malts, but nothing too much.

Mouthfeel was ok. Slight watery character. Mildly carbonated. Strictly average.

I'll score it high on drinkability relative to it's competition. It's WAY better than Ultra or Rock Green Light, for example. It might be a good summertime/lawnmower beer. It probably goes great with pretzels and a ballgame.

I'll give it the ol' "A" for effort. It's a definite step up from the low standards set by other low-carb beers. The splashy packaging and Anheiser-Busch pedigree will probably be enough to make this a market leader if it ever gets released into distribution. Judging by the half-full displays and cold cases, it's a brisk seller here in the Austin test-market.

Serving type: bottle

11-17-2004 19:20:09 | More by Dubblebock

Pegasus

Texas

2.53/5  rDev +22.8%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

Appearance: Clear light golden color with a moderately-sized snow-white head. There are moderate streams of fast-rising carbonation. The lacing is remarkably good, thick and glass coating.

Aroma: Decent light malt presence is spoiled by the dreaded cooked vegetable aroma, although this is not as pronounced as it might be. The herbal hop presence is a bit more noticeable than with Budweiser, although it is still quite understated.

Taste: Begins with slightly tart light malts, which dominate the taste throughout, towards the finish there are some very mild and slightly lingering herbal hops.

Mouthfeel: Quite watery and insubstantial, soft on the palette, with a bit of effervescent carbonation sting on the tongue at the finish.

Drinkability/notes: A low carbohydrate beer that is being test marketed in seven cities, including Austin, Texas, where I purchased this sample. This is in fact a stealth low carbohydrate beer; the packaging does not identify it as such, but according to the Anheuser-Busch it contains 3.1 grams of carbohydrates and ninety-nine calories. Although it is slightly better than other low carbohydrate beers I have tried, this offers no more to the beer connoisseur than other low carbohydrate beers. In my opinion, this is little more than a curiosity.

Packaged in a twelve-ounce brown glass twist-off longneck with black plastic labels and red and gold lettering.

Serving type: bottle

11-13-2004 04:52:42 | More by Pegasus