How exactly do Bud/Miller/Coors brew such consistent beers??

[AshtrayDinner]

I think the claim that BMC brands have near perfect consistency and Sam Adams does not is somewhat dubious.
I work for a BMC brand and often attend professional sensory panels. I can tell you with confidence that there abslutely are variations between batches, though they tend to be quite minor.

Try organizing a group of tasters to do a sensory panel. Taste 5 of the same BMC brand with different package codes. Then taste 5 Sam Adams with different package codes. This is the only real way to confirm that one is more consistent than the other.

 

[quadmx08]

quadmx08, do you happen to remember the name of the show on Netflix?

CNBC originals: Budweiser, beer wars is also a good one.

 

[grndslm]

Chill a Sam Adams down to American Light Pilsner drinking temps and see how much of a flavor difference you can detect.

Why can't I just drink my Budweiser warm??

I think the claim that BMC brands have near perfect consistency and Sam Adams does not is somewhat dubious.
I work for a BMC brand and often attend professional sensory panels. I can tell you with confidence that there abslutely are variations between batches, though they tend to be quite minor.

Try organizing a group of tasters to do a sensory panel. Taste 5 of the same BMC brand with different package codes. Then taste 5 Sam Adams with different package codes. This is the only real way to confirm that one is more consistent than the other.

I'd be willing to bet that 100% of the people would be able to taste a greater difference between various package codes of Sam Adams than those of Budweiser.

Any day. Namely, for reasons stated herein... such as the contract brewing bit and the part where Anheuser-Busch can afford to toss a slightly off-tasting batch. That explains quite a bit, really. Perhaps they have a tad bit more understanding of their yeasties, but I dunno. I guess.

 

[wubears71]

A coworker put it to me this way. Consider all the microbiological processes involved in creating certain prescription drugs. It's a miracle that pharma companies aren't killing people left and right. That sort of makes BMC producing consistent beer look like child's play IMHO.

That's the truth. I'm a chemical engineer and I'm not going to name the medicine nor the manufacturer other than its something found on shelves everywhere. I did a lot of work in one of the facilities that make it and what always amazed me was that so many of the raw materials would kill one in very small dose, yet when combined together and letting the chemical reaction take place, the final active ingredient is very helpful to us.

Ironically, most chemical/pharma manufacturers seem I do work in have less stringent QC regulations than the ones at AB.

 

[sweetcell]

it's probably been mentioned before, but it's easy to have consistent taste when there is little taste to start off with. i'm not knocking BMC beers, part of their popularity comes from the fact that they don't hit you over the head with hops and yeast.

i'm much more impressed when belgian beers taste relatively consistent.

 

[bb239605]

it's probably been mentioned before, but it's easy to have consistent taste when there is little taste to start off with. i'm not knocking BMC beers, part of their popularity comes from the fact that they don't hit you over the head with hops and yeast.

i'm much more impressed when belgian beers taste relatively consistent.

that is false. Because it has so little flavor it is harder to make it identical each time. You can't hide any off flavors in a bud light. You can't even hide much taste in bmc.

That said I'm impressed by bmc and what they do.

 

[TheGreatReverend]

The homebrew club where I used to live had a brew day at the LHBS where everyone made the "same" RIS. They fermented it on premise and blended them all in two oak barrels for aging.
My dad did a lot of work for local wineries and I would get tours by the owners when I could. Most blended their batches to try and match the previous season's wine.
I'd say blending is the law of large numbers for brewing, vintning, and the like. It masks quite a lot of inconsistencies.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Why can't I just drink my Budweiser warm??

Post a video of it when you do.

 

[IrregularPulse]

"I'm a new brewer what should my next brew be?"
two more of the last batch.

I suppose, if your main reason for getting into brewing was to brew one beer

My question is...

What is Samual Adams' excuse for not being as consistent as BMC? What equipment could BMC have that Sam Adams doesn't.

I'm not even talking about homebrewers.

I'm talking about Sam Adams. What is preventing Sam Adams from brewing a beer that tastes the same in 2 bottles. I have bought hundreds of bottles of Sam Adams and they ALL taste different.

Again... what's Sam Adam's excuse, considering they ARE using the same recipe over and over again?

Sam Adams is a large Craft brewery, yes. They are not a large brewery in comparision to BMC. Not even close. You cannot compare them. They don't have nearly the capitol to be throwin at technology, research and QC.

that is false. Because it has so little flavor it is harder to make it identical each time. You can't hide any off flavors in a bud light. You can't even hide much taste in bmc.

That said I'm impressed by bmc and what they do.

This.

 

[kaz4121]

Bud also blends together several HUGE batches of beer when they are done fermenting, ensuring that if there was a slight difference in batch no. 1,987,198,482,192, it would be diluted by is sister batches.

 

[bcgpete]

The professional brewers at Bud, Miller, and Coors are very good at what they do—turning out a light beer, decade after decade, that tastes exactly the same. Though come to think of it, bottled water companies do that too...
-John Palmer

 

[spearko520]

The professional brewers at Bud, Miller, and Coors are very good at what they do—turning out a light beer, decade after decade, that tastes exactly the same. Though come to think of it, bottled water companies do that too...
-John Palmer

bottled water companies make light beer?? this has got to have something to do with obama.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Every batch gets blended and compared to a previous batch.

Even with insane amount of computer controls they cannot get it right each and every time, yeast is stubborn that way.

 

[Kate00]

Why can't I just drink my Budweiser warm??

Cuz you'll projectile vomit

 

[david_42]

Even smaller breweries do a great deal of testing. Widmer's main bittering hop (alchemy) is actually a mix of hops that varies from year-to-year, but the level of each bittering component in the final mix is always the same.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

it's probably been mentioned before, but it's easy to have consistent taste when there is little taste to start off with. i'm not knocking BMC beers, part of their popularity comes from the fact that they don't hit you over the head with hops and yeast.

i'm much more impressed when belgian beers taste relatively consistent.

This is untrue.

i'm much more impressed when belgian beers taste relatively consistent.

Many Belgian companies blend too.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Bud has a master taster just for their shipments of rice. The train rolls in, he creates a sample of it and tastes it. If it differs from the accepted the WHOLE ENTIRE train cart of rice goes back. That is quality control

They do this with their water too. I saw it on modern marvels. They showed a bit about how in depth they go for consistency in all their ingredients.

 

[petep1980]

For the pharmacy people, isn't it true many drugs manufactured under a certain name are not always manufactured by the same people? It's not like there is one huge viagra plant somewhere making every blue little pill is there?

 

[18thstatebrew]

I have a degree in process technology. Every manufacturing plant requires precision quality control to make their product consistent. Temperature, pressure, flow rate, level, and every other factor is controlled and gauged to an exact measurement every time. If one number is off, then the whole process is off.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

For the pharmacy people, isn't it true many drugs manufactured under a certain name are not always manufactured by the same people? It's not like there is one huge viagra plant somewhere making every blue little pill is there?

Viagara is a trademark. And is produced by a specific pharmeceutical company.

However, the compound used may be trademarked under different names by varied companies aka Revatio.

 

[petep1980]

Viagara is a trademark. And is produced by a specific pharmeceutical company.

However, the compound used may be trademarked under different names by varied companies aka Revatio.

Pfizer may not own all the labs that make Viagra though (as an example). I bet AHB owns everything about Bud Light....

Disclaimer, I know jack what I'm talking about.

 

[paulster2626]

i heard it comes from the exact same penis of the exact same horse... everytime

Hahahahahahaha GOLD!!!

 

[PapsD]

I have a degree in process technology. Every manufacturing plant requires precision quality control to make their product consistent. Temperature, pressure, flow rate, level, and every other factor is controlled and gauged to an exact measurement every time. If one number is off, then the whole process is off.

This is most likely why. I have a degree in automated manufacturing and studied qaulity control and factory automation. AB most likely uses a PLC to automate their breweries and have all their brweries on some sort of central network to monitor every plant and collect data 24/7. They also most likely compare statistics of all their plants against each other. They've also been doing it long enough with exact records to predict issues before they're present and can design a brewery for consistency. I'm also pretty sure their suppliers also must provide statistical data on their products and have their processes certified by AB in a way not much different from the automotive or aerospace industry. They're also most likely practicing six sigma and using statistical process control.

But you don't need a trillion dollars to practice good quality control or use sound problem solving methods. You can produce consistent results on a homebrew level. You just need to keep good records and baseline your process and tweak it in from there and be as precise as you can be or care to be.

 

[scottab]

Why can't I just drink my Budweiser warm??

Why would you want to?

 

[Homebrewtastic]

Was thinking about how different beers from my kitchen are, even in the same batch, quite different from one another when bottled. Then I realized that Abita, Lazy Magnolia, and even Sam Adams have variations from bottle to bottle.

So... how EXACTLY does, Anheuser-Busch make every single Budweiser take the EXACT same???

edit: somebody already made the horse pee joke.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I think the comments about the raw ingredients lends an important point. BMC have enough scale to be able to have produce grown to their specifications, maltster malting to their specifications, etc. Everybody else, from craft brewery to homebrewer, generally gets the leftovers of their requirements. That adds a lot of opportunity for variance because Sierra Nevada can't say, "well these hops aren't right so **** it, take it back and bring us another truckload" like AB Inbev can.

To the comment earlier about Sam Adams, I think there's some overall poor QC going on at BBC and it's magnified by all the contract brewing. There's really no other reasonable explanation why so much varied (and sometimes bad) product is released. I used to actually enjoy several SA beers but in the past couple of years they have gone from good to horrible. I can't remember the last time I even bought their products. I realize my palate has improved over those two years but that shouldn't have made that much of a difference because there are several popular beers I used to like and still find taste good.

 

[petep1980]

I used to love Sam Adam's Oktoberfest, and I know my tastes may change over the course of a year between their seasonal releases, but I find that beer disgusting now.

 

[SkipperNC]

Bud has a master taster just for their shipments of rice. The train rolls in, he creates a sample of it and tastes it. If it differs from the accepted the WHOLE ENTIRE train cart of rice goes back. That is quality control

They do this with their water too. I saw it on modern marvels. They showed a bit about how in depth they go for consistency in all their ingredients.

I know a farmer who does contract growing of grain for AB, he's told me stories of them rejecting an entire crop just due to a fraction of a percent of protein in the grains. He detests doing contract growing for them but said it pays extremely well if they accept it.

Yes, they do quality control at that level. And since it's contract, they have little loss if they don't like the quality of the contracted items.

 

[ajbram]

Not only do they have quality control at an extreme level, but they also make HUGE batches and that volume tends to average out any inconsistencies. If one of us has a 5lb bag of pale malt that isn't 100% perfect, our whole batch will suffer. The likelihood of 10000 lb of pale malt being off and still being used is pretty low, so that 5lb inconsistency is swallowed up by the sheer size of the brew.

 

[g-star]

I work for a company that is an indirect supplier for one of the big boys, and got a chance to work on a project with them for an issue that that were trying to correct.

Believe me, they have an army of PhD's and the latest and greatest analytical equipment, along with insane QC at every step and a very sophisticated tasting panel.

They are not ****ing around, and the consistency of their product in a very difficult style to brew is kind of amazing, whether you like the product or what the company represents, or not.