Budweiser Select 55 - Anheuser-Busch

RonaldTheriot

Louisiana

1.8/5  rDev +9.1%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 1.5

Select 55 has a thick, yet quickly dissipating head and a clear, bubbly, yellow-golden appearance. The aroma is very slight, but some sweet graininess is picked up. Taste is quite dull and mineral water like. A little grain and not much more is detected. The overriding taste is tap water. Mouthfeel is super-light and watery, and the finish of Select 55 is like water finishes. So dull! Overall, this is poor, and I advise you to stay away.

RJT

Serving type: bottle

06-20-2011 23:42:08 | More by RonaldTheriot

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

Goliath

Illinois

1.85/5  rDev +12.1%
look: 2.5 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2

Had this today at the brewery after the tour.

Pours a familiar clear golden color and was presented with no head, although a bright white foam circled the edges of the glass.

The aroma was pathetic. There was basically nothing there. Very bland, but a bit of malt, and slightly sweet.

The taste was even worse. There was just nothing to it. With a lot of Macro beers there is at least a bad taste, this has no taste. I compare it to carbonated water. My fiancee said it's like when the fountain soda machine runs out of syrup.

Mouthfeel is thin, on the watery side with a high level carbonation using a very fine tingley bubble.

Drinkability depends how you look at it. The sessionability is ridiculous so in that regard yes it's drinkable. On the other han I like to consider the flavor profile and whether it brings me back for another sip. In that regard, this is easily the most boring beer I've ever had. I've found more enjoyment and flavor in nonalcoholic beer. Just really a bad gimic beer and it's sad to think that this will pass as beer to the masses.

Serving type: bottle

10-23-2009 21:43:13 | More by Goliath

orangesol

Pennsylvania

1.45/5  rDev -12.1%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1 | overall: 2

My buddy offered me a sip of this the other night, I think that was all I will need to review this one...

A - Pours pale straw yellow with a fizzy white half finger tall white head leaving no lacing down the glass.

S - Kinda stale. Very faint hops and lightly toasted malt. How do they get people to drink this stuff? It is terrible.

T - I guess people like drinking stuff that tastes this bad. VERY faint hops and light malt. All you can really taste is how watery it is, and that is not a good thing.

M - Light body and flavor with moderate carbonation. This feels like I am drinking flavored water. Terrible.

D - Not good. How do you make a terrible beer even worse? You make Budweiser Select 55.

Serving type: bottle

03-03-2011 17:09:25 | More by orangesol

Nerudamann

Arizona

3.25/5  rDev +97%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Look - lighter golden color. Two fingers of head that dissipated pretty quickly. Slow carbonation.

Smell - Not too much smell, but just a tiny whiff of the typical light lager smell: watered down hoppiness.

Taste - More balanced "blandness" than most light lagers. No strong tastes otherwise.

Mouthfeel - Pretty strong on the watery part of the texture scale.

Drinkability - As far as light lagers go, this is a very drinkable beer. It definitely is lacking in complexity, but helps you maintain a buzz after sampling other more "diverse" beers.

Serving type: bottle

09-27-2010 04:52:06 | More by Nerudamann

Bookseeb

Washington

2.68/5  rDev +62.4%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 2.5

Appearance seems no different than any other macro with light golden body and a thin crisp dissapating head. Smell is clean that has a light aroma of grainy adjuncts. Taste of light grain that is definably watered down that ends dry. Mouthfeel is light with good carbonation. I'd have to say that amongst the ultra's that I've tried so far, this aint to bad.

Serving type: bottle

05-22-2010 23:45:19 | More by Bookseeb

tjsdomer2

Illinois

3.08/5  rDev +86.7%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 2 | overall: 4

Appearance: Ok head retention. Almost no carbonation upon opening, although you do get a fair amount when you shake it a bit. Overall, it's ok, but not great.

Smell: Mostly a grainy beer smell. I can't really describe this as anything else. It doesn't smell bad or skunked by any means. I can dig this on a basical level.

Taste/Mouthfeel: This stuff does not taste bad. Clean corn-like cereal grain. Like the smell, the taste does not have any bad qualities. The mouthfeel, however, leaves much to be desired. Extremely watery. Not slimy though, so that keeps this from getting a bad grade in this area.

Drinkability: No offensive smell or taste. Smooth, watery finish. All of these qualities make this pretty easy to drink.

Overall: Not a world-class beer by any means. Yet I find some surprisingly pleasant qualities with this. It smells ok, tastes ok, and is very easy to drink, which I think is the point of this beer. On these grounds, I give Budweiser Select 55 a thumbs up as a decent, albeit not great, beer.

Serving type: bottle

09-07-2010 05:04:32 | More by tjsdomer2

Spikester

Oregon

2.23/5  rDev +35.2%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2

Pours clear pale gold with about one inch of bone white head, no lacing. Aroma is a hint of grain. Taste is clean crisp malt water. A tiny amount of bitterness is found from time to time. Mouthfeel was like a lower cabonated sparkling water. Some dryness in the finish. If they had a seperate style class for ultralight beer this would fare a bit better.

Serving type: bottle

08-15-2011 03:34:52 | More by Spikester

ericj551

British Columbia (Canada)

1.63/5  rDev -1.2%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2

Bud Select 55 pours a light pale yellow. The skunky aroma covers up anything else that might be there. The flavor is sulfery and slightly grainy. More proof that a clear bottle is a bad idea. This beer is about as close to water as it gets. Not worth it, if you're dieting, go for mixed drinks or go without.

Serving type: bottle

12-10-2009 21:01:31 | More by ericj551

match1112

Illinois

2.25/5  rDev +36.4%
look: 3 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

poured from can into a pint glass. body is a clear pale straw color with half a finger of white bubbly head that disappears rather quickly. smell and taste were almost none. was able to pick up on faint grains and a metallic tonic water flavor. beer goes down pretty clean with no hops flavor and too much carbonation. like drinking a glass of tonic, maybe i should of addded vodka and a lime.

Serving type: can

11-13-2011 12:58:20 | More by match1112

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

gmfessen

Michigan

2.53/5  rDev +53.3%
look: 3 | smell: 1 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 4

Had to buy this just to say I've had it. Poured from the bottle into a pilsner glass, beer is as it appears in the clear glass bottle; a very light golden yellow with lots of fizzy bubbles on the glass and comprising a large, foamy white head. The nose is virtually non-existent, what is there reminds me slightly of vomit. If AB was going for the absolute closest to water you can get and still call it a beer, they've hit the nail on the head. Goes down just like carbonated water with only a very slight whisper of Budweiser at the finish. Overall a very drinkable beer because again, how drinkable is water? Very! I'm sure this will get beat up bad just because it is an AB product, but honestly... could I get some beer with my beer???

Serving type: bottle

11-10-2009 01:01:49 | More by gmfessen

matjack85

Illinois

1.05/5  rDev -36.4%
look: 1 | smell: 1 | taste: 1 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1

I found a shopping cart full of these 12oz cans at the Foremost Liquor store in Glendale Heights, IL for 50¢ a can, so I grabbed one to try it. Born on date on the bottom of the can says 8/25/11 on it, so this can is about 5 months old.

The beer poured out a crystal clear pale gold color and made a ½-finger fizzy white head that dissipated to nothing within 5 seconds - not even a trace of film on top and absolutely no lacing whatsoever.

The rest of the review can be summed up thusly: This beer has no smell, no flavor, no taste, no body, and no reason to buy it. Go get yourself a glass of ice water and you've basically got the same thing.

It is carbonated, so maybe change that to selzer water and there you have it. Nothing offensive about it other than it masquerading itself as a beer, but hey, at this price it's even cheaper than bottled water, so it's got that going for it I guess.

2.4% alcohol, so go knock yourself out with a six-pack, but if if you really want to try a decent light beer go get a Sam Adams Light. This Bud Select 55 does nothing for me.

Serving type: can

01-18-2012 12:46:54 | More by matjack85

happygnome

Minnesota

1.48/5  rDev -10.3%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1 | overall: 1.5

a: pours a very pale yellow color maybe a millimeter of head that disappears extremely quickly leaving not even a slight trace of lace lots of carbonation bubbles rise to the top
s: very subdued sweet macro rice
t: water with a hint of sweetness towards the finish
m: light bodied beer with ample carbonation

overall, i will not be buying this one very bland

Serving type: bottle

12-12-2009 18:55:20 | More by happygnome

billybob

Massachusetts

1.18/5  rDev -28.5%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1

the best thing i can say about it is it looks like beer in the bottle. pours light gold color white head that quickly went flat and no lace. very weak cooked corn smell. its hard to describe the taste because there was none. watery weak mouthfeel and not enough alcohol to make to worth the price. don't waste your money if your looking for beer. its not.

Serving type: bottle

04-18-2011 18:14:38 | More by billybob

giblet

Ohio

1.15/5  rDev -30.3%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1

my father in law brought a sixer of this on a visit. we each opened one and kinda got silent as we drank it and he kept looking at the bottle. finally i asked what was wrong and he said the beer!

yellow pale color, faint grainy smell, light grain and metalic taste. this is not good on any level. 55 calories. if i want that i will drink water. poor poor poor.

giblet

Serving type: bottle

12-16-2009 12:41:55 | More by giblet

Wetpaperbag

Washington

1.63/5  rDev -1.2%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.5

Thanks for AKBelgianBeast for this one in that I lost the LNBA FF.

Alright so the Select variety of bud is supposed to be better then regular bud, at least that is the theory. Since I haven't had the regular Select version I don't know how this is supposed to be. But I'll give it a shot, and I'm stuck with two of them.

A- This looks like someone added a little bit of beer and poured water into it. My wife even asked if I watered down my beer.

S- Smells like barley tea and not much else. There is something sort of sweet smelling too.

T- Did someone accidentally put a touch of beer into my water? Wow this is weak sauce. Why even bother with this? I'm completely blown away on how much this is just carbinated water with a bit of beer in it. I wonder if the people at bud said, "Hey lets increase profit by taking our beer and cutting it down in half and selling it for the same as our regular line up." Well if people buy this beer on a regular basis they are stupid. Yeah you only get 55 calories, but you'll be drinking a case and a half before you get a buzz.

M- Thin as tonic water.

D- Yeah though a bong this would go down smooth.

Serving type: can

03-23-2010 03:57:19 | More by Wetpaperbag

gtermi

Texas

1.02/5  rDev -38.2%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1

This to me is one of the worst beers of all time. I grabbed this because it was on sale for 3 dollars (that should have screamed to me that it was terrible) and I poured it into a regular pint glass. The beer poured a boring piss yellow and the smell was just a tiny bit of something and water. The taste was not there, you get a little malt, but other than that not much at all. The mouthfeel is like highly carbonated water. I couldnt stand it so it went down the drain, as well as the other 5. Dont buy this beer, it is terrible.

Serving type: bottle

10-12-2011 05:47:38 | More by gtermi

TheKingofWichita

North Carolina

1.48/5  rDev -10.3%
look: 1 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.5

Alright, this beer is fairly pointless. An ABV of 2.4?
Pours straw yellow color kind of like the color of urine.
Smelled like booze.
Taste like water and bland barley.
Very, very thin mouthfeel.
Only drinkable for wimps and people who want to join in beer drinking with people who drink actual beer.

Serving type: bottle

10-05-2010 02:24:39 | More by TheKingofWichita

BeanBone

Texas

1.75/5  rDev +6.1%
look: 2.5 | smell: 1 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

Appearance: A perfectly clear golden-straw body capped by about a finger of white head that fizzles out quickly and leaves just a hint of sudsy lacing.

Aroma: A faint and watery mix of sweet grains and a hint of grassy hops.

Flavor: A twangy and sweetish rice body accompanied by some weak, almost-implied grassy bitterness. A crisp, clean, and damn-near flavorless aftertaste. Have you ever had Bud Light? How about water? Mix 'em up and this is pretty much what you get.

Mouthfeel: Light bodied with sharp carbonation.

Drinkability: Besides the fact that it's bland, industrial beer-water this is a highly drinkable summbitch.

Verdict: If you want a buzz without too many calories, Bud Light already exists. If you don't like the taste of beer, there are plenty of alternatives out there. If you want to cut the flavor, calorie count, and alcohol content off a Bud Light in half, potable tap water is available in almost all American households. So why the hell does this exist?

Serving type: bottle

12-23-2009 02:51:09 | More by BeanBone

Beastdog75

New Jersey

1.25/5  rDev -24.2%
look: 2 | smell: 1.5 | taste: 1 | feel: 1 | overall: 1.5

I thought regular Bud Select was already a light enough beer but apparently not. Bud Select 55 is a very lo-cal beer that is very low in the flavor department.

This beer pours a golden color with a fingers worth of fizzy foam that disappears in under 30 seconds. Tons of little fizzy bubbles race to the top of the class, indicating that this will be a very carbonated beer. The brew has that typical Bud Light smell of husky grains, and it also has a tiny bit of skunk for good measure no thanks to the clear glass bottle. The beer almost stings the tongue because of the sharp carbonation level. The beer is unsurprisingly bland and watery. There is a slight husky grain flavor present and a little bit of bitterness in the finish, but I would compare the flavor more to seltzer water than anything. Some dryness lingers on in the finish and the beer has no alcoholic warmth.

I think Coors Light might still be a more watery beer, but while Coors just lacks flavor for the most part, Bud Select 55 is almost a chore to drink. It felt like it took me a half hour to finish the bottle. I think the unpleasant mouthfeel really hindered this beer. This is definitely not recommended, even to people who like light beers.

Serving type: bottle

08-25-2011 20:18:45 | More by Beastdog75

afinepilsner

Iowa

1.68/5  rDev +1.8%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1 | overall: 2

12oz clear bottle

Select 55 was pale yellow in color with good clarity. It had a fizzy white head that disappeared instantly. The smell was very light and clean with a bit of cereal grain. The taste was water with a touch of grain thrown in. The mouthfeel was as close to water as you can get with light carbonation. Drinkability was poor. This is the wateriest beer that I have ever tried.

Serving type: bottle

03-12-2011 21:42:37 | More by afinepilsner

ChrisCage

Alberta (Canada)

2.6/5  rDev +57.6%
look: 2 | smell: 2 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 5

A- Well there's not much to say here but should there be? Surprisingly the color is more golden than I was expecting, being darker than the grassy yellow straw that I thought I'd get. That's where the good stops...lots of ginger ale like carbonation rising to the top and very little head initially, which quickly disappears to literally nothing. Also, there is no lacing to speak of, but I didn't have many expectations for the look of this one....

S- Not much to speak of here either, with the standard aromas available. Dry grassy straw, some raw grain and a little skunk sum this one up. No hop bitterness to speak of....just a slight metallic dryness...

T- While there is nothing impressive about the flavor of this beer, I have to admit that for a light beer with only 55 calories that the flavor is about as good as it can get! There is some very mild malt flavors but with a little skunk mixed in. Of course the finish is nothing special other than clean and a bit adjunct-ish.

M- Thin, watery body and with lots of carbonation, but what do you expect?! There isn't much else to say about this but it is crisp and clean which I guess is what it should be!

D- This is a very easy beer to slam back! It's light flavor and heavy carbonation would be killer as a patio beer, but I think it would be more effort than it's worth, having to use the toilet often and not getting the desired buzz effect. I'll stick to a standard macro before this but if I'm having a heavy meal, this might be a compromise. A notch below Bud Select but a notch above MGD 64!

Serving type: can

03-05-2011 04:41:26 | More by ChrisCage

TCgoalie

Michigan

1.3/5  rDev -21.2%
look: 1.5 | smell: 1 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1

A: After 5 minutes time, it is hard to know if I am drinking beer or apple juice.

S: The smell reminds me of skunk, plastic, and grapes all mixed together.

T: First taste is very watery and gives way to an extremly mild adjunct beer taste. I think I can achieve this flavor by mixing 2 parts water to 1 part Bud Light.

M: The mouthfeel seems lighter than tap water.

D: I could drink this all day long which should be reason for a score of 5. However, the fact that I would not be buzzed combined with the illusion that I'm drinking dirty water lowers the drinkabilty score to 1.

Serving type: bottle

11-04-2009 23:24:52 | More by TCgoalie

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