Budweiser Select 55 - Anheuser-Busch

biggred1

Indiana

1.6/5  rDev -3%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2

Clear urine yellow with a fizzy white head that burns off quickly. The nose on this beer is not offensive because there is none. Very light tasting, almost like a non-alcoholic beer with a sourness in the finish. Watery with seltzery carbonation. Another low alcohol diet beer with no flavor. Why bother?

Serving type: bottle

09-20-2009 19:56:24 | More by biggred1

vacax

California

3.2/5  rDev +93.9%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 4

12 oz. clear bottle, retrieved from the San Diego test market for further investigation. Interesting that the brand name they are pushing is Select instead of Budweiser. No hints of the ultralight alcohol content to match the 55 calorie label.

Pours out a decent straw color with a one-inch white head. Not bad, except then the head fizzles down to nothing like a can of cola. I just poured this and the head is all but gone.

The nose is stronger than I anticipated, but the nose has to be about three millimeters away from the surface of the beer. If I hold the glass to my lips and inhale I get nothing. When I really shove my nose into this thing it is very corny with a bit of plastic. No metallic notes, which is a good thing.

Well, it looks and smells like a fairly standard beer for what it is. Let's do this. My first thought it that this beer is ultra carbonated, there are so many bubbles splashing around I can hardly focus on the beer here. It foams when I move the liquid to swallow it. That is interesting. Is it because it is so light in body that the bubbles seem so forward? The main flavor is a very mild malt sweetness, not really corny, but faintly plastic tasting. No metallic notes. Really bubbly. The overall flavor is a little off for a beer, doesn't even have that typical adjunct flavor really, but it is so light and airy it is just easy to swallow it and not care. Weird plastic finish. Despite it being so bubbly and not having particularly good flavors, it all comes together to make this thing swallowable.

So there it is. Not particularly good, but particularly easy to ignore. Bubbly as all hell. Simple to drink, but who drinks lame beer to not get a buzz at 2.4%? I don't get it much. One scenario could be if you have to show up at a party with bad beer you can drink a number of these and then drive home a-ok. Though normally, if you want something fizzy and low in calories reach for a Diet Pepsi Max or a Coke Zero, those are pretty good.

Serving type: bottle

09-20-2009 10:44:07 | More by vacax

RomaniIteDomum

Florida

1.27/5  rDev -23%
look: 2.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1.5

Born 8/29/09

Gotta have more people rate this beer to make sure the results from the first two weren't coincidence. I couldn't let this beer suffer a bad reputation due to lack of tastings. Or maybe I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. This shit sells like Girl Scout Cookies in a frat house.

I actually bothered pouring this beer into a glass even though the bottle, like the beer, is perfectly transparent. Upon doing so a remarkably large head formed. Like pouring a soft drink. A soft drink resembling watery piss. It was entertaining, though, to watch the bubbles form where I was pouring. The mass amounts of carbonation formed by a simple pour were crazy. It looked like the pour was a solid mass of bubbles in the liquid. Strange. It even sounds like a soft drink. And that massive head lasts about 20 seconds then it is back to piss Coke. I gave it the extra 1/2 point for being entertaining.

Upon smelling this I have to give props to Bud for managing to make a Bud Light smell like Perrier. They weren't too effective, though, as I can detect a hop. That one lonely hop that will undoubtedly be the center of what is to come.

Dare I subject my taste buds to this? What have they done to me? Here goes. Oh, fuck that's bad. I was mostly kidding before when I compared it to Perrier with a hop, but that's ecaxtly what it tastes like. You could make this at home with 55 calories of Bud Select topped off with club soda. I'm going to man up and finish it, since it tastes mostly like nothing, but I'm not going to enjoy it.

In the mouth it feels like beer-flavored water. There is some syrupy feel in there from the "beer", but it's mostly an assault of caustic bubbles raping your tongue. I can't even taste what little taste there was to begin with anymore. And I'm about 1/4th of the way through the drink.

Even though this is the lightest malted barley beverage on the face of the earth I couldn't drink more than one. In a lifetime. At least not without monetary compensation. I must still take my hat off to Bud. Their marketing department is awesome. If they can get people to buy this they should use thair powers for good and maybe bring peace to the Middle East or get Lindsey Lohan to eat a damn sandwich. It does, however, get the extra 1/2 point because you could probably replace water with this stuff and still maintain life. Hell, it's more sanitary than most people's tap water.

Serving type: bottle

09-16-2009 04:44:55 | More by RomaniIteDomum

katan

Colorado

2.3/5  rDev +39.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 4.5

Hey someone had to be the 2nd

A - Pours a very light golden color. Lots of head formation, pearly white in color. Dissipating somewhat slowly. Very filtered, but with lots of apparent carbonation.

S - This beer is "scent optional" Nothing there but just the lightest hint of yeast/malt breadiness.

T - Starts off with the flavor of, well, nothing but water. Then, as if by miracle, some very light malt notes make an appearance through the midstream. No apparent hopping. Finishes with a strong flourish of...guess what....water! In the finishing notes some adjunct corny notes make a bit of an appearance.

M - Way too carbonated for anything I'd drink - thats the only way they are fooling people this beer is anything above dasani. Beer is itself just outright thin.

D - You could drink an army of these - plus more. Any BA that can't session 24 hours of these got distracted on the way to the cooler.

As much as I rag on this beer - sadly it does have a home in my beer rotation. On days where I'm watching my cals or just wanting an extreme session beer on my bike, i think 55 would get it done.

I call this beer the pacifier beer. When you want a real beer, but you just can't have it - stick this in your mouth and you'll shut up for a while.

Serving type: bottle

09-12-2009 03:07:54 | More by katan

jsh420

Illinois

1.38/5  rDev -16.4%
look: 2.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 2

hey someone had to be the 1st

born 8/10/09

pours a bright clear golden with a 2 finger head that fades fast and leaves no lacing

smells like beer but nothing but a little corn

taste - wow this is weak - it is almost just carbonated water - notes and i say notes of corn

mouthfeel - what can i say... its water carbonated water!!

drinkability - ?? i dont know how to rate this since it is easy drinking but i never want to drink it again?

i pray this beer never makes it out of the test markets - and i should be flogged for buying a sixer just to review it

Serving type: bottle

09-09-2009 03:26:26 | More by jsh420