Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Czech beer also known as "Budweiser", please see Budweiser Budvar.
- "Bud Light" redirects here. For the oil lamp invented by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, please see Bude-Light
| Budweiser | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Brewery | Anheuser-Busch |
| Style | Pale lager |
| First Brewed | 1876 |
| Alc. vol. | 5.0% (Budweiser/Bud Dry) 4.2% (Bud Light) 5.5% (Bud Ice) 4.1% (Bud Ice Light) |
| Original Gravity | 1.045 (Budweiser) |
| Final Gravity | 1.009 (Budweiser) |
| IBU Scale | 11 (Budweiser) |
Budweiser, popularly referred to as Bud or sometimes Bud Heavy to distinguish it from Bud Light, is the primary brand of beer made by Anheuser-Busch. Budweiser is a pale lager made with a proportion of rice as a substitute adjunct for barley malt, for which it has received some criticism, though the company takes the position that the rice gives the beer a lighter taste. Bud is produced in various breweries located around the United States and the rest of the world. It is a filtered beer available in draught and packaged forms.
Contents |
[edit] Market share
Anheuser-Busch has a market share in the United States of about 50% for all beers sold. The company's 2005 annual report cites figures which demonstrate Budweiser brands are proving to be quite successful in three markets outside of the U.S.:
- in the People's Republic of China, where Anheuser-Busch has had a brewery in Wuhan since 1995, 3.4 million barrels of Budweiser were brewed in 2005.
- in Canada, where Labatt Brewing Company brews and packages Budweiser and Bud Light for the Canadian market; Budweiser has been the country's number one brand for two years.[1]
- in the United Kingdom, where Anheuser-Busch leases the Stag Brewery in Mortlake, Budweiser is the number one on-premise, premium packaged lager in bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants[citation needed].
Budweiser is also widely available in Mexico due to Anheuser-Busch's half-ownership of Grupo Modelo, through which Budweiser and Bud Light (introduced in 1982) are distributed. In Ireland, Budweiser is the one of the leading lager brands; it is brewed, marketed, and sold by Guinness. Budweiser is also available in Italy and Argentina because of partnerships Anheuser-Busch has with major brewers there.
[edit] Marketing
Budweiser is one of the major breweries that emphasizes humorous advertising campaigns, such as the "Real Men of Genius" radio commercials for Bud Light, recently moved to television. The spots feature an over-the-top, 1980s-style rock ballad sung by Dave Bickler, the former lead singer of "Survivor," describing ordinary activities as if they were heroic. The campaign originally was called "Real American Heroes," but the name was changed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Some Bud advertising campaigns have entered the popular culture in the United States. They include a long line of TV advertisements in the 1990s featuring three frogs named "Bud", "Weis", and "Er", and a campaign built around the phrase "Whassup?". The company is known for its sports sponsorships, video game sponsorship (Tapper), and (often) humorous advertisements. Advertising campaigns have also included a nude Ganymede grasping a beer bottle and borne aloft by a bald eagle[2], lizards impersonating the "Bud-weis-er" frogs, and Clydesdale horses. Budweiser is also the long time sponsor of NASCAR Driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Even in the early 1900s, the company was marketing through popular music; the company commissioned what a play-on-words number called Under the Anheuser Bush, which was recorded by several early phonograph companies. Currently, some of their commercials feature the song "Galvanize", by The Chemical Brothers.
Budweiser is an official partner and sponsor of Major League Soccer and the Los Angeles Galaxy Major League Soccer franchise, and was the headline sponsor of the British Basketball League in the 1990s, taking over from rival company Carlsberg.
[edit] Bottle
The Budweiser bottle is a familiar icon to most Americans. The bottle has remained relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1876.
The top label is red and currently reads "Budweiser King of Beers". The top of the main label is red with a white banner with a pledge on it, which has changed three times. Below the banner is a coat of arms of sorts, which once had the Conrad and Co. logo on it, and now features an Anheuser-Busch stylization. Below that is a large white box. In this box the words "Budweiser Lager (King of) Beer(s) Brewed by our original (all natural) (Budweiser) process from the Choicest Hops, Rice, and Best Barley (Malt)" (words in parentheses have been added or removed over time). Because of Budweiser's "King of Beers" mantra, Bud Light is sometimes known as the "Prince of Beers" or simply "The Prince" to its avid consumers.
The words "Anheuser Busch" and "St. Louis Mo" appear in this box as well.
| Era | Pledge | Logo | Beer title | Top label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1870s | 1 | C. Conrad and Co. | Budweiser Lager Beer | Original Budweiser |
| Early 1900s | 2 | C. Conrad and Co. | Budweiser Lager Beer | Budweiser Reg U.S. Pat Off |
| 1920s | 3 | Anheuser-Busch | Budweiser | Anheuser-Busch Budweiser St. Louis |
| 1940s | 2 | Anheuser-Busch | Budweiser Lager Beer | Budweiser Beer |
| 1950s | 4 | Anheuser-Busch | Budweiser Lager Beer | Budweiser Lager Beer |
| 1970s | 4 | Anheuser-Busch | Budweiser Lager Beer | Budweiser |
| 1980s | 4 | Anheuser-Busch | Budweiser Lager Beer | Budweiser |
| Today | 4 | Anheuser-Busch | Budweiser King of Beers | Budweiser King of Beers |
[edit] The Budweiser credo
The original Budweiser pledge reads "We guarantee that this beer is brewed especially for our own trade according to the Budweiser process of choicest hops, best barley and rice. This beer is brewed in St. Louis and warranted to keep in any climate. Take notice that all crowns are branded with our trade-mark." The last sentence was altered slightly in the early 1900s to read: "Take notice that all crowns bear our trade-mark."
It was altered again, albeit briefly to read as follows: "We guarantee that this beverage is healthful, refreshing, nutritious, free from bacteria, fully matured and aged, will keep in any climate, and fermented (?) in St. Louis. Take note that all crowns bear our "A" and "Eagle" trade mark". This pledge was reverted to the second pledge after only a few years.
The current pledge was placed on the bottle some time around the end of the Second World War. It reads: "This is the famous Budweiser beer. We know of no brand produced by any other brewer which costs so much to brew and age. Our exclusive Beechwood Aging produces a taste, a smoothness and drinkability you will find in no other beer at any price."
[edit] The name
- See also Budweiser Budvar.
With globalization of brands, the existence of the Czech beer of the same name has caused problems in some markets. A long-standing agreement with the Czech brewer divided the rights to the name "Budweiser", so that the Anheuser-Busch product is marketed as "Bud" (in France and elsewhere) and "Anheuser-Busch B" (Germany), where the Czech beer has the rights to the name. Anheuser-Busch has made offers to buy out the Czech brewing company in order to secure global rights to the name "Budweiser" for both beers, but the Czech government has refused all such offers, considering keeping the Budweiser name Czech to be a matter of national pride.[citation needed]
The rights to use the name in the U.S. were purchased by founders of the company. They chose "Budweiser" because it was German-sounding and would appeal to other German immigrants, and it was easy for Americans to pronounce.[citation needed]
[edit] The beer
Unlike most early beers, which used only barley, hops, yeast and water, Budweiser is brewed using rice and Beechwood chips in addition to the four major ingredients. The Beechwood chips, according to Budweiser, creates a smoother taste, while rice has since been known to the beer world to produce a "clean finish". Rice is an ingredient utilized by many brewers because it is a less expensive ingredient than malted barley, rye, or other grains. Anheuser-Busch was also one of the few breweries during Prohibition that had the resources and financial wherewithal to convert to "cereal beer" production - malt beverage made with non-fermentables such as rice and unmalted barley and rye, and able to stay under the 0.5% limit established by the Volstead Act. Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the major breweries continued to use unmalted cereal grains to provide the full body and mouthfeel of a "real" beer while keeping the alcohol content low.
Beechwood chips are used to simulate the effects of aging or "lagering" in hardwood barrels. Originally, American lagers were put into oak or beechwood barrels and stored in cool, dark locations through the summer - a process called lagering (this is one of the reasons why St. Louis was a popular location for European brewers - the caves). Continental Lagers, the style on which Budweiser is based, were brewed in Spring and allowed to lager through the Summer to be served in the Fall, earning them the name "Maerzen" for March, or Oktoberfest lager because of when they were served. Since modern brewing practices eschew the practice of lagering in order to get a beer to market as quickly as possible (and therefore earn back the return on investment), the beer is pressure soaked with beechwood chips to get the chemical compounds in the beechwood that would normally leech out slowly over several months, giving the beer a faux "beechwood aged" flavor.
As with most food products opinions differ regarding its taste. While some drinkers prefer the lightness of beers like Budweiser, and consume it as a refreshment<ref>Member Rating themanroom.com</ref>, some beer connoiseurs criticise it as being too bland.<ref>Hops to lighten your step beerhunter.com</ref><ref>A Bud by any other namerealbeer.com</ref>
Baseball broadcaster Harry Caray, who worked for the St. Louis Cardinals and later the Chicago Cubs, always championed the taste of Budweiser, even after he had been fired by the Busch company, which then owned the Cardinals. He said in interviews (such as a special that was produced by WGN-TV in the early 1990s) that he touted Bud because he thought it had the best flavor of any American beer.
[edit] Related Budweiser Products
Anheuser-Busch brews 6 different beers under the Budweiser brand.
- Budweiser
- Bud Light, introduced nationally in 1982
- Budweiser Select
- Bud Dry
- Bud Ice, introduced in 1994.
- Bud Ice Light, introduced in 1994
[edit] Budweiser in the news
- Due to an ongoing lawsuit with Budweiser Budvar, using the name Budweiser by Anheuser-Busch in Germany is prohibited.[citation needed] This has led to some problems for Anheuser-Busch, as they were the official beer sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany, a country known for its rich beer heritage. Therefore Anheuser-Busch's flagship beer - Budweiser - was sold under the name "Anheuser Bud".
- During the 2006 World Cup, around 1000 Dutch soccer fans were forced remove their lederhosen in order to gain access to the stadium. The pants had displayed on them the name of a competing beer, Bavaria. FIFA made the decision in order to secure the right of Budweiser, the official sponsor, to advertise exclusivly and to prevent "ambush marketing" by non sponsors.[3]
[edit] German views on Budweiser
Traditional brewers serve beer with only the four main ingredients (water, hops, yeast and barley). However, Budweiser is made with rice. Germans typically resist beer not produced according to the regulations of the "Reinheitsgebot". [citation needed]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
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