Happy Halloween! I hope you had a better day then me because I spent all of it at work.   At least I can finish off the day with a nice new beer right?

And before I get into it, don’t forget to check out day 3, I just edited the post not too long ago. 

For tonight, I have chosen the new Budweiser American Ale, which is Anheuser Busch’s first attempt at brewing an ale (under the bud name).  Considering the nature of this challenge, I could not pass this up because Anheuser Busch makes some of the most generic uninspired products on the market.  For them to try and rival the small (but growing) microbrew market is both laughable and laudable at the same time.  I admire their desire to make a beer with flavor, but I lack the confidence that they can do it without making it banal…

Let’s see what happens.

The pour was very impressive; this truly looked like a “real beer”.  It had a great full bodied appearance with a creamy head that lasted until I finished the beer.  The aroma was lacking though, a slight alcohol scent, not unlike a cheap lager.

The taste can be summed up like this: Extraordinarily impressive for Bud, but still pretty basic.  The beer had a nice malty sweetness with some caramel notes and a small hop bite.  A slight alcohol taste prevents it from being “good”, but the fact that it has flavor and some complexity keeps it from being “bad”.

Budweiser prides itself on drinkability, and this beer was no different, you could throw these back all day.

At the end of the day, American Ale is a decent effort at crafting an ale, but falls short due to an overall plainness.  This is a great beer to start off with if you are just getting into higher quality beers or trying to get one of your friends into better beer.  At six to seven dollars a six pack, this also makes American Ale a good choice for parties when you don’t feel like drinking shit.

Now if you remember from yesterday, I made a small reference to how Dos Equis has failed me in the past.  In fact, I would put it in my top 10 worst beers I have ever drank.  Because of how bad it tasted, I refused to even give its Amber counter part a try... until now.

When I was doing my beer selecting, I figured it was a perfect fit for my experiment because of how I felt about regular Dos Equis.  I also figured that since it was an amber lager, it should be a little better.  For those not in the know, the difference between the two is that an amber lager has a more malty backbone then a basic lager.  They are also a little heavier and have a stronger taste.   So I said, "what the hell, it could not possibly be worse”.

And I would have to say it was not that bad... not great, but not bad.

Dos Equis Amber had a nice light amber color to it with a pretty decent head.  It gave off a nice creamy malt aroma as I poured it, but it quickly faded away into nothing.

The taste was better than expected as it had a light creamy malt body with a slight grain sugar after taste.  The cheep lager grainy taste was present, but it was milder than Dos Equis regular (and Red Stripe for that matter).  As the beer started to warm I could taste a slight hop bitterness as well as some lingering alcohol notes.  Even with a few flaws, I still found the beer to be pretty drinkable.  While nothing was great, it certainly was not stomach churning.

Overall, Dos Equis Amber is a basic no thrills drinkable lager.  I will never go out of my way to buy this again, but I will never be opposed to drinking it if it becomes available to me.  It is also a good choice if want a beer to just drink while watching the game or hang out with friends.

Starting tomorrow for the next ten days, I will be attempting to try ten new beers that I normally would never have bought. The reasons:

1)      To try beers I normally scoff at: When it comes to beer, I am very elitist and it will do me some good to try some cheep beers.

2)      Expand my palette:  I intend on trying some beer in styles I normally do not enjoy, such as IPAs.

3)      To not judge a beer based on aesthetics: Some beer just looks like garbage due to its packaging; however it is unfair to judge because the contents may be golden.

Basically here are the rules for my taste test:

1)      I have never had the beer previously, beyond a sip or two.

2)      I must drink at least 8-12oz to get a taste for it, if the beer is awful I can dump it after that requirement is satisfied.

3)      Obviously, one beer a night for ten days

So what you can expect over the next few days is a short summery of each beer I have had.  I will try to leave all my previous notions behind and judge it constructively.