Soon I'll be making a lawnmower beer that is supposed to shame Budweiser. Part of the appeal is the green apple aroma so familiar to drinkers of the scourge of St. Louis. Can I get that with W-34/70, or do I have to resort to wet yeast?
Getting Green Apple Aroma on Purpose
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Back when I used to brew this stuff, I followed the advice of White Labs. They said WLP840, American lager yeast, would produce a fruity taste. Now I'm reading that Bud uses beechwood chips to get this flavor.
This from an AB website. Other places say the beechwood doesn't impart any flavor so maybe the yeast just need it to get that result?
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Hi, I'm Bryan Derr, a brewmaster at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis Brewery. Today we're sending one of our 6,000-barrel fermentors of Budweiser to our beechwood chip tanks to begin maturation. Beechwood is a very fibrous material that provides a nice comfortable resting place for the yeast as it finishes the work of creating Budweiser. Nurturing our yeast is critical to ensure we have just the right flavor for Budweiser, so the beechwood is like the lawn-chair for yeast after a nice day at work. Twenty-one more days and this beer will be ready to be enjoyed by a group of friends!
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Hi, I'm Bryan Derr, a brewmaster at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis Brewery. Today we're sending one of our 6,000-barrel fermentors of Budweiser to our beechwood chip tanks to begin maturation. Beechwood is a very fibrous material that provides a nice comfortable resting place for the yeast as it finishes the work of creating Budweiser. Nurturing our yeast is critical to ensure we have just the right flavor for Budweiser, so the beechwood is like the lawn-chair for yeast after a nice day at work. Twenty-one more days and this beer will be ready to be enjoyed by a group of friends!
Sounds like a whole lot of marketing speak.
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The homebrew judging poobahs produced some literature claiming beech wood produced the apple flavor. Don't know what the truth is, since White Labs and the High Homebrew Panjandrums seem to disagree.
I haven't had a bud in decades, but I don't remember ever tasting anything remotely like green apple.
You could try squirting in a few drops of this:
You could try squirting in a few drops of this:
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Someone should get these guys to debate.
Bud doesn't taste like green apple to me. If you want green apple, throw a couple of green Jolly Ranchers into your boil. Easy peasy.
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I want the classic green apple smell Bud is known for. It's the main thing that sets it apart from carbonated dishwater.
I have never heard that description of Budweiser nor have I ever tasted or smelled it in any anheuser-Busch product. The smell and taste of green apple (Acetaldehyde) is generally considered an off-flavor and a flaw in finished beer that many people and breweries try very hard to avoid.
White Labs seems to advertise WLP840 to produce that profile, so use it if that’s the result you’re after.
White Labs seems to advertise WLP840 to produce that profile, so use it if that’s the result you’re after.
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It's well known.
And yet, totally unheard of.
Interesting discussion. Acetaldehyde is expected in preprohibition lagers. WLP840 is a good choice to achieve that. One of my all time favorite beers is preprohibition lagers. I admit that I haven't tasted a pudweiser in over 40 yrs and don't recall it exhibiting an apple aroma nor flavor. In my youth I recall AB beers as guaranteed head aches. In my experience brewing I have achieved the apple notes from the addition on flaked maise, pilsner malt and WLP840 yeast. I plan on brewing another batch in March to have it ready by Father's Day.
In my case, this is because if I drank one I drank a dozen.
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Look around you before drawing conclusions. You could find it on the web if you actually tried.
Coincidencely I'm enjoying a Mexican Lager from Good People Brewing in BHam and acetaldehyde is all over the place in this beer. Green apple on the nose and crisp malty apple notes in the flavor. Good job Good People. We are fortunate to have several good breweries in Alabama. And Good People has never disappointed me.
From Mark Dredge, whoever he is:
Acetaldehyde smells and tastes like fresh green apples in beer. Open a bottle of Budweiser to taste it as Bud contains a little acetaldehyde which adds a fresh, crisp flavour. If it’s present in stronger beers or in higher volumes then it might smell like bruised old apples, solvent or paint.
I've never noticed this so now I have to go buy a d****d Budweiser!
Acetaldehyde smells and tastes like fresh green apples in beer. Open a bottle of Budweiser to taste it as Bud contains a little acetaldehyde which adds a fresh, crisp flavour. If it’s present in stronger beers or in higher volumes then it might smell like bruised old apples, solvent or paint.
I've never noticed this so now I have to go buy a d****d Budweiser!
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Take one for the team, let us know what you find out!
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I hope I will not be responsible for making anyone think he has to drink Bud. I think it's mostly an aroma. Bud smells way better than it tastes.
My advice is to serve it really cold to kill the flavor and chase it fast with a homebrew.
My advice is to serve it really cold to kill the flavor and chase it fast with a homebrew.
I did try and I didn't find it. Didn't go past the first page of search results, though.
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I don't care if anyone Googles it, but I don't think people should assume I made something up. This recipe is from 2004, and back then, sources on the web were talking about Bud and green apples. I didn't pull it out of thin air. Maybe some people can't smell it or taste it. Hey, some people can't tell when their pee smells like asparagus, either. No big deal.
Never got asparagus from Budweiser either. Pee on the other hand...
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Putting Budweiser and pee in the same paragraph will just confuse people.
OK we've been bashing Bud here but, if you have ever been to one of AB Brewing Plants and sampled it fresh at the end of the tour you have a solid respect for the beer they produce. Yes there are apples noticeable as are slight hops with minimal malt flavor with high carbonation. I have toured the plants in Tampa and St Louis and the beer was the same at both breweries. It was very clean, mild flavored and well balanced and went down easy. There are reasons it's the number one seller world wide. Consistency, mild flavor, low alcohol and availability are but a few examples. Still not running out to have a Dud now days, but giving credit where credit is due.
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I think of it as a corner-cutting beer made by cynical people.
My dad was AB's labor attorney. He said they told him Busch, Bud, and Michelob were the same thing. They aged the Michelob a certain amount and bottled it. The Bud was aged less. The Busch came straight from the fermenter. Don't know if this is true now. He got his tour about 50 years back.
My dad was AB's labor attorney. He said they told him Busch, Bud, and Michelob were the same thing. They aged the Michelob a certain amount and bottled it. The Bud was aged less. The Busch came straight from the fermenter. Don't know if this is true now. He got his tour about 50 years back.
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Only difference between bud and Busch (or coors and keystone) is the can. Literally just different markets.
I have all the respect in the world for what AB does. Brewing those beers at that scale in multiple plants with that consistency is just mind-bogglingly difficult. I think I've done a half-decent job at a Belgian or an IPA on occasion, but I could never in a million years reproduce Budweiser. None of that means that I care for it.
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