Budweiser waters down its beer, lawsuit alleges

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/budweiser-waters-down-its-beer-lawsuit-alleges-1C8566405

Anyone seen this? Seems like this would be a fairly simple claim to test.

I just read that also and jumped on here to see what's up! What a litigation nation. I have empirical evidence from my bladder during college research that I'll withold because of the insanity that AB drinkers actually thought they were drinking beer. It's a Widely known fact that AB flavors all their water with barley.

I'm not an AB fan, but I'm not sure I buy this lawsuit. Although the beer that AB makes isn't good (in my opinion) they are very consistent. I'm pretty sure that this "watering down" of the beer is part of their process - they actually brew the beer at a high ABV and water it down at bottling so that they get more beer per unit volume of their brew house. So, for example, they brew 8% bud light but dilute it down to 4% at bottling.

I guess we'll see when/if AB provides more information.

have no idea what the label on the bottle/can/keg says the ABV is, but if it's different than what's inside, then the lawsuit has merit

mdgagne said:

I'm not an AB fan, but I'm not sure I buy this lawsuit. Although the beer that AB makes isn't good (in my opinion) they are very consistent. I'm pretty sure that this "watering down" of the beer is part of their process - they actually brew the beer at a high ABV and water it down at bottling so that they get more beer per unit volume of their brew house. So, for example, they brew 8% bud light but dilute it down to 4% at bottling.

I guess we'll see when/if AB provides more information.

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I remember hearing something like that before. I think it's part of their process and they just water it down to their target ABV before packaging and whoever is making this claim against them doesn't understand the process.

GrogNerd said:

have no idea what the label on the bottle/can/keg says the ABV is, but if it's different than what's inside, then the lawsuit has merit

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Exactly. And if that was the case, you would think it would have been reported in the news article.

"In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Boxer said he has evidence to corroborate the former employees' allegations, but stopped short of saying the beers had been independently tested."

Maybe this story is just in it's infancy so they dont have all the details. Or maybe they are gathering samples to do a full scale widespread testing from as many brewing locations as possible.

Heck for 35 bucks you can have White Labs test it for you:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...asuring/white-labs-alcohol-test-kit-plus.html

WesleyS said:

I remember hearing something like that before. I think it's part of their process and they just water it down to their target ABV before packaging and whoever is making this claim against them doesn't understand the process.

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I dont think this is the case. The article specifically mentions the fact that the ABV is not what is reported on the packaging. So they are saying that the beer is 3.5 or whatever, when the label says its 4%.

Its well known that the big brewers make their beer at a higher proof and add water at packaging. Fermentor space is at a premium, especially when you have such demand for your product.

Hey some of us homebrewers do the same thing honestly! I’ve fermented a 4 gallon batch in a corny and then added a gallon during the transfer to new keg. My motive was that it kept the krausen/blowoff under control.

kpr121 said:

I dont think this is the case. The article specifically mentions the fact that the ABV is not what is reported on the packaging. So they are saying that the beer is 3.5 or whatever, when the label says its 4%.

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this is, as I said, the key to the case

I wouldn't give a rat's rectum if they bottled water and sold it, as long as the label says 0.0% ABV

Hey hey hey. Kpr121 how did that 4gal corny fermentation work out? Is there a thread on this. I got two kegs with stripped posts that I can't bare see become planters.

old-pasture-brew said:

Hey hey hey. Kpr121 how did that 4gal corny fermentation work out? Is there a thread on this. I got two kegs with stripped posts that I can't bare see become planters.

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I am currently fermenting 2 lagers in corny kegs right now. PM me if you want details

Worked out good. I got the idea from the “Closed System Pressurized Ferment” thread…
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/closed-system-pressurized-fermentation-technique-44344/

Its effective for most normal gravity brews, where the increased OG in 4 gallons isn’t enough to stress or affect the yeast too much. You basically calculate out your recipe like you are brewing 5 or 5.5 gallons, and just ‘forget’ to put the last gallon in until after the ferment is done. Make sure you boil the water, not only to eliminate contamination but also to get rid of any oxygen that could cause the beer to go stale.

Ahhh yah. This weekend just got interesting. Project time! Thanks to both for helping.

Thread theft terminated....

old-pasture-brew said:

Ahhh yah. This weekend just got interesting. Project time! Thanks to both for helping.

Thread theft terminated....

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Not a problem, this is a duplicate thread anyhow. I didn’t see the other one when I created this (sorry mods). At least someone got something beneficial out of it!

Holy thread derailment, batman!

How hard is it to send a sample to a 3rd party lab to test the alcohol content? The whole suit seems to be based off of hearsay of a former AB employee. Is it possible that the law firm is withholding public information about a alcohol confirming lab test, because it is the main piece of evidence in their case? All seems kinda fishy to me, most likely a PR firm working against AB creating a media frenzy to knock AB down from it 39% market share!