something happened to Becks

Becks used to be my favorite beer. I've been living in Vietnam for almost 2 years and haven't had access to it. On a recent trip to Singapore I bought a few bottles. It took me a while to realize it no longer has that nice aroma and flavor. It's basically been changes into a generic semi-sweet Heineken-like beer. I mentioned this to my sister who said "you know, I just had a becks a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed that it wasn't satisfying like before!" So, has anyone heard anything about InBev changing the formula?

On a side-note, I picked up a bottle of Stella Artois in Singapore and it now tastes more like I remember Becks tasting. Aromatic, crisp, not sweet.

You know, we've all been told In-Bev bought out Anheuser-Busch, but maybe it was the other way around and this is a by-product of dummying down brew...

something happened to Becks

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It stayed the same. You changed.

since inbev bought out AB, they stopped giving away free beer at busch gardens(tampa), a 50 + year tradition. claimed it was a family park and free beer was not appropriate. they still SELL beer, though! but not the same variety. AB was starting to have some fairly good varieties for a big commercial brewery.
we live a few blocks away and used to enjoy an afterwork beer and stroll through the gardens. they had a 2 per customer limit anyway. to get really drunk, you had to buy more beer.

I'm not sure Beck's has changed....but how fresh is the beer in Singapore....by the time it gets to the states is usually has the "shunkies".... probably the same or worse to Singapore.... I dunno...

I have found that many breweries have "different" beers depending on where you are in the World. They might be labeled the same, but they're different to appeal to the folks in that area. Also, many breweries license regional breweries to make their product. You might be detecting some differences from that. Or, as ollllo said, you've changed!

I suppose it's possible I've changed, and unfortunately I can't go back and compare me to myself in the past, but here's another reason I think it's changed, and also related to the "freshness" date possibly, as discussed above. I had shipped a bunch of Becks from the States to Vietnam which I was drinking regularly until it ran out early this year. While I still had some in stock, I came on a trip to Singapore last January and bought a Becks at the supermarket. As soon as I popped the cap I could smell (and later taste) that it was a bit better than the stuff I had in VN. The stuff in VN had gone past the expiration date, but this had not, which is what I attributed it to. I also realized, as mentioned here, that stuff is sometimes brewed differently depending on where it's going. The stuff on the shelves here in Singapore now has a 4/2010 expiration date which sounds reasonable for freshness, so I don't think that's the problem I'm running up against now.

One more note of interest: I bought a non-alcoholic Becks for my pregnant wife. Despite not having alcohol, the flavor seemed better than the regular Becks, not so sweet and had some flavor.

Oh well, I guess I'll never know for sure what happened, but for now I choose to believe the InBev ruined it!

if the NA Becks tasted better, I would probably just switch to that. But then I'm just a beer snob. I think ever beer mentioned in this thread is just as bad as Bud Light, and that PBR is the best beer you can possibly get for under $7 a six pack.

I bought a 6er of Becks Dark, because it was the only thing 'interesting' at the party store I was at at the time. Nasty, rotten skunky crap! I thought maybe the dark flavor would cover up the skunk stuff a bit, but it's even worse than the regular Becks!