"It takes 30 days to brew Bud"

Budweiser's new ad line is, "It takes 30 days to brew Budweiser, but one taste to appreciate it." 30 days from grinding to drinking? Possible?

Is that a source of pride?

Not only possible, but quite plausible. They pitch a very healthy dose of yeast, so it ferments quickly and cleanly. A diacetyl rest doesn't take long and may not even be necessary with the large amount of corn/rice. Filtering does wonders to clean the flavor profile, and the "beechwood aging" only lasts a couple of weeks.

Do you want to make a good beer or only a mediocre one? 30 days for a mediocre one is no problem, but for a good one.....

avidhomebrewer said:

Do you want to make a good beer or only a mediocre one? 30 days for a mediocre one is no problem, but for a good one.....

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that's not always the case. i have a friend that made a vienna lager on a 5 gallon scale in 30 days to try and emulate commercial brew setups. it was fantastic. a LOT of commercial brewers speed up the process.

anchor makes their steam beer in 7 days.

4 days fermentation, 2 days in the bright tank, continuing to ferment and natural carbonation, filtered and in bottles on the 7th day.

i've experimented a bit with filtering and it's really how they get it done.

I went on the Budweiser tour when I was in St.Louis this spring. I was surprised when the tour guide said they went from grain to shipping in as little as 28 days.

It seems that culturally customers now want the freshest of anything: food, drink, plants,....

This makes sense with the beers since they try to brag about having the "freshest" beer on the market.

Unfortunately, this negatively influences the new beer drinker into thinking the beer is fine no matter how it is tasting at the time.

Patience is a virtue and an opportunity to try something the right way.

This also supports all of the "born on dates" I have heard about but cared little for.

What's funny is that I'm not sure if they're trying to say that it's ONLY 30 days or "we put 30 days of work into every bottle". They probably just figure whichever one the consumer thinks is better is how they'll take it.

avidhomebrewer said:

Do you want to make a good beer or only a mediocre one? 30 days for a mediocre one is no problem, but for a good one.....

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I can make a good one in 6 days.

ChrisKennedy said:

I can make a good one in 6 days.

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Put Up Or Shut Up!

We want a recipe and methodology here!....Pictures would be good too

yeah its possible....a month is a decent amount of time for a beer i think. I say 2 weeks in primary. And 2 weeks in beachwood aging tank

30 days would be terrific, if I could keep my brewing up to speed. My best brew ever sat in a secondary bucket for a month. Patience really is key here folks. A month for an ale might be great. But, for a lager?... I've never lagered. But all of the information I've read would suggest that this is really minimal time. I suppose with the light grain bill that goes into Budweiser a month is a decent time period. If you want good beer, wait. A month in secondary does wonders for anything I'd assume.

To make a lager that clean in 30 days is actually phenomenal. But AB has taken brewing science to a new level in order to make more beer faster (profits). Using science and technology, they've manipulated each step in brewing down to the most minute detail to save literally minutes in the completion of a batch of beer. This is great in a business sense, but if they're beer took 30 months to make and tasted the same, I still wouldn't drink it.

ive noticed all my beers get better with age. why do commercial beers have "best if drank by" or expiration dates?

bkov said:

ive noticed all my beers get better with age. why do commercial beers have "best if drank by" or expiration dates?

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Because they are dead beers so they have a short shelf life. Homebrew still have live yeast in them and get better with age.

so if i get into kegging and use a beergun to bottle some forced carbed brew, those bottles will have limited life?

No, homebrews, even crystal clear, still have live yeast suspended in them.

your saying forced carbed homebrew has yeast in it?

Of course it does, unless it is filtered. The stuff that didn't floc takes a very very long time to drop out of solution. A crystal clear homebrew though has pretty negligible amounts of yeast in suspension.

bkov said:

your saying forced carbed homebrew has yeast in it?

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yes.........

ah, your right, i wasnt thinking at all

The "beechwood aging" helps Bud out a lot. The beechwood (which is steam-sanitized beyond having ANY residual flavor at all) gives a TON of surface area at the bottom of the fermenter, so that the settled yeast can go to town on the beer and clean it up. It's quite clever, actually; effectively, the surface area of where the beer is exposed to yeast is probably doubled or tripled, so the clean-up process is quick and effective. Say what you will about Bud, it's clean.

EDIT: The proper response to Bud's slogal remains, however, "Big ****ing deal!"