Request: Bud Light Clone Recipe

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My 2 cents for the OP. @BobOki

I'll attach an image of a Helles I made that is probably one of the lightest best lagers I made that the BMC couldn't stay away from. Also I will post a recipe I just tried its in the fridge now that I think will be pretty close to a BMC beer also...

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP840 - American Lager
Yeast Starter: 3 tubes in a gallon starter
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1060
Final Gravity:1006
IBU: 35.8
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 3.17
Malts
9lb Pilsner Malt (Bries)
3lb Flaked Corn
1lb Rice Hulls

Mash @ 150

Hops
1 oz Hallertau @ 60 min
1 oz Motueka @ 30 min
1 oz Motueka @ flame out
1 oz Czech Saaz @ flame out

image.png
 
douglasbarbin said:
Right, it uses lager yeast. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's lagered. It might be (I said I don't think it is; that isn't an absolute). At any rate, it isn't lagered long if it is lagered at all. Do you guys have any idea how fast they turn around a batch of Bud Light?
Click to expand...

Ok, but do you also know that large scale breweries can reach FG in 3 days? Or that you can actually do a lagering process that takes...2 weeks instead of 3 months?
 
TexasDroughtBrewery said:
My 2 cents for the OP. @BobOki

I'll attach an image of a Helles I made that is probably one of the lightest best lagers I made that the BMC couldn't stay away from. Also I will post a recipe I just tried its in the fridge now that I think will be pretty close to a BMC beer also...

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP840 - American Lager
Yeast Starter: 3 tubes in a gallon starter
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1060
Final Gravity:1006
IBU: 35.8
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 3.17
Malts
9lb Pilsner Malt (Bries)
3lb Flaked Corn
1lb Rice Hulls

Mash @ 150

Hops
1 oz Hallertau @ 60 min
1 oz Motueka @ 30 min
1 oz Motueka @ flame out
1 oz Czech Saaz @ flame out
Click to expand...

OP is looking specifically for a Bud Light clone. 35 IBUs? Come on, man...
 
Ozarks_Mountain_Brew said:
I saw a writeup somewhere or a video I don't remember but I herd they use as little ingredients as possible but they mash all day to get as much sugar out as possible making it taste much lighter than bud but still get the correct alcohol like 3.2 or so
Click to expand...

They make a "chip beer" and water that down to the correct ABV.
 
If anyone is interested I can post any of the following recipes from an old 90's brew shop:

Carlsberg Light, Coors Light, Blue Light, Molson Light, Canadian Light, Bud Dry. They use dextrose as part of the fermentables in almost every recipe. Apparently people who liked these beers were happy with them. Sorry, no Bud Light though..
 
I just found this thread and read about half of it before jumping to the end so if I repeat something somebody said my apologies but I'm running out of time.

So I respect anybody brewing a light beer. As mentioned, you can't hide behind anything! That's why I recommend it. I have have brewed a pre prohibition bud several times now and it's well received, even by the brewmaster at AB. He even ran it through the lab for me.

So I don't know the exact recipe for Bud Light as it's not watered down Bud. They are both "high gravity" brewed. I believe Bud is 7% originally and then taken down to 5% with blending water, which is awesome to drink by itself!

Bud Light is brewed at an even higher gravity and blended down to 4.2%. It has roughly 30% rice and they do a "cereal mash" with some 6-row malt. This is added to the rest of the 6-row and 2-row that is sitting at a protein rest to bring it to 149 degrees.

So to do a Bud light I would make it a 4.2% beer. Do a cereal mash with chopped rice. I run mine through a blender in chop mode. 1/16" to 1/8" pieces works well. Do research on cereal mashes to get better procedures. Otherwise use rice flakes if you have to.

Bud Light is only 6 or 7 IBU's today. Bud is 9. Use a variety of hops at 60, 20 and flame out. Willamette, Hallertau and Saaz are all good candidates.

Be very sanitary after the boil!!!

Use Wyeast American Lager yeast, I've forgotten the number. Ferment at 52 degrees for three weeks. Lager for a week at 33 degrees. Carbonate and serve.

Beachwood has been boiled and rinsed so many times it produces no flavor at all, it's just a home for the yeast to speed up fermentation and to act as a filter.
 
tootal said:
I just found this thread and read about half of it before jumping to the end so if I repeat something somebody said my apologies but I'm running out of time.

So I respect anybody brewing a light beer. As mentioned, you can't hide behind anything! That's why I recommend it. I have have brewed a pre prohibition bud several times now and it's well received, even by the brewmaster at AB. He even ran it through the lab for me.

So I don't know the exact recipe for Bud Light as it's not watered down Bud. They are both "high gravity" brewed. I believe Bud is 7% originally and then taken down to 5% with blending water, which is awesome to drink by itself!

Bud Light is brewed at an even higher gravity and blended down to 4.2%. It has roughly 30% rice and they do a "cereal mash" with some 6-row malt. This is added to the rest of the 6-row and 2-row that is sitting at a protein rest to bring it to 149 degrees.

So to do a Bud light I would make it a 4.2% beer. Do a cereal mash with chopped rice. I run mine through a blender in chop mode. 1/16" to 1/8" pieces works well. Do research on cereal mashes to get better procedures. Otherwise use rice flakes if you have to.

Bud Light is only 6 or 7 IBU's today. Bud is 9. Use a variety of hops at 60, 20 and flame out. Willamette, Hallertau and Saaz are all good candidates.

Be very sanitary after the boil!!!

Use Wyeast American Lager yeast, I've forgotten the number. Ferment at 52 degrees for three weeks. Lager for a week at 33 degrees. Carbonate and serve.

Beachwood has been boiled and rinsed so many times it produces no flavor at all, it's just a home for the yeast to speed up fermentation and to act as a filter.
Click to expand...


I heard Mitch Steele talk about his days at AB in some podcast way back and he gave a summarized rundown on BUD and from what I recall, all this info is pretty spot on. I was thinking BUD was brewed to 8% before watering down, but I'm not positive on that.

I can get a full keg (1/2 barrel) of BL for $120 locally. You need a new bottle shop to give your biz to.
 
During an international beer symposium the heads of A-B, Coors, Miller, and Paulaner go out to lunch together.

The waitress takes their drink orders.

A-B says I'll have the King of Beers,

Coors orders a Silver Bullet.

Miller asks for a MGD.

Paulaner states he'll just have a glass of water.

The other heads laugh at him and ask why aren't you drinking a beer with your meal?

Paulaner says, I figured if you guys weren't drinking beer, neither should I.

:rockin::mug:
 
Forgive me if I missed this in the thread and am repeating.

You know to brew an "American" light beer means you also need to break down the beta-glucans. In order to do so you'll need Beta-Glucanase which represents a group of carbohydrate enzymes which break down glycosidic bonds within beta-glucan. These are starches that regular ol' beer yeast can't do. That helps reduce the carbs by breaking them down to etoh. CO2, and other products of fermentation.

That's only if you're really trying to impress the guy, otherwise you must convert him into drinking home made extra special beer that only you can brew. Maybe try naming it after him since AB-INBEV is all about the marketing, and we both know Bud light sucks. :)
 
douglasbarbin said:
Right, it uses lager yeast. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's lagered. It might be (I said I don't think it is; that isn't an absolute). At any rate, it isn't lagered long if it is lagered at all. Do you guys have any idea how fast they turn around a batch of Bud Light?
Click to expand...

As far as I've heard AB can turn Budweiser and BL faster than most of us can a simple ale.

I also do not think it is lagered in the traditional sense of the word.
 
I'd just go with 80/20 2 row and flaked rice, Hallertau at the boil for 10 ibu, 34/70 for a neutral yeast for 2 weeks at 50, lager for 3 weeks, and call it done.
 
Natdavis777 said:
The main thing I took away from that episode was to never live in Utah...:tank:
Click to expand...

It really isn't bad. We can get high point beer but we have to buy it at the liquor store rather than the grocery store. The biggest downside to living here is that we can't get high point beers on tap.
 
Peruvian802 said:
Oh and be sure to blind triangle test him. I'll bet he chooses the homebrew.
Click to expand...

CBelli said:
I think it will be easier to teach your father-in-law to enjoy other beers, than to attempt a BL clone..
Click to expand...

So with these two thoughts I think besides having him try yours blindly against a bud. I would also blindly have him tasts Coors Light, Bud Light, and Miller Lite and see if he can pick them out correctly. If not then you can leverage that knowledge for him to consider other beers.

Also maybe we are going about this wrong. Don't try to make something close to what he likes, try to find something so far from it that he also likes, like a sour RIS braggot?
 
I've also been thinking about this, as I know plenty of people who prefer the lights, and having tasted bud, coors, and miller light recently at a wedding where those were the only choices…

It got me thinking how I would do it.

And a recent tour of Surly's brewery and how they raise the ABV of Furious without adding to the malt profile got me thinking of a different way to do it.

Lite beers here are all 3.2%. Not sure if that's industry standard or local. But that would be my end product goal.

My first attempt, I would use 80/20 2 row/rice to get a OG of 1.020. Then I would use corn sugar to raise the gravity up 1.034

Then depending on his preference scale the malt to corn sugar ratio up or down based on his preference to a blind taste test.
 
NinjaBear said:
I've also been thinking about this, as I know plenty of people who prefer the lights, and having tasted bud, coors, and miller light recently at a wedding where those were the only choices…

It got me thinking how I would do it.

And a recent tour of Surly's brewery and how they raise the ABV of Furious without adding to the malt profile got me thinking of a different way to do it.

Lite beers here are all 3.2%. Not sure if that's industry standard or local. But that would be my end product goal.

My first attempt, I would use 80/20 2 row/rice to get a OG of 1.020. Then I would use corn sugar to raise the gravity up 1.034

Then depending on his preference scale the malt to corn sugar ratio up or down based on his preference to a blind taste test.
Click to expand...

Not sure where "here" is for you, but I am in Utah and the beer (sold in grocery stores and on tap) is 3.2%ABW, which equals 4%ABV.

No one in the alcohol industry uses ABW that I know of. Everything is in ABV.

The only time I ever here the ABW scale used is when people complain about how weak the beer is, and they compare 3.2%ABW to other beers using the ABV scale.
 
He is a recipe I have used many times and it is as close as it gets.

10 gal batch

12 lbs 2-row
6 lbs minuet rice
6oz acid malt

mash @150 for 90 mins

1 oz Centennial or Cascade @ 55 mins

Nottingham Ale or SA05 (re-hydrated seems to work best)

That's it, very simple and cheep. My friends have a hard time telling the difference.
Oh and cold crash/gelatin to make it crystal clear.
 
Something else critical i haven't seen anyone else mention is that you'll need to run it through a really tight filter to strip out some of the flavor and leave it brilliantly clear. Then after you bottle it you'll need to pasteurize it to further reduce the flavor.
 
My 2 cents as I've been making something that I call a "Bud Light" clone for some years now. Making something tasteless is difficult. It's more about the process and less about the recipe. Just getting the right ingredients does very little to help you make a Bud Light clone.

Go with 80% North American 2-row and 20% rice.
Target 10-12 IBU. A single 60 min addition with a clean noble hop. Bud supposedly used to Saaz or Hallertau. Today it's probably a clean extract (CO2 extracted resin). You want to boil the snot out of it and only impart bitterness, very little flavour.
Mashing low is critical. I tend to target about 4.0% ABV (Bud Light's actually 4.2% ABV) with gravities going from 1.034 to 1.003. You want it *DRY*. So do what it takes to do that on your setup.
If you single infusion, do 148F for 120 mins or so. If you can step mash that's better, something from low 140's for ~120 mins to high 140's for ~90 mins then mid 150's for 30-60 mins, then mashout to 168-170F. That's what I usually do. Bud light uses a 4 hour step mash but I'm not sure what their schedule is, but it's complicated a bit because they make a high ABV wort.
Get your mash to 5.2 pH (when measured at mash temp).
The water should indeed be soft (not much minerals in it). I tend to go with Mosher's ideal pale lager: Ca=21, Mg=5, Na=18, Cl=16, So4=21 (just enough ions to acidify the mash)
WLP840 American Lager yeast or WLP940 Mexican Lager both work well. Pitch a lot. You want at least 2-3 vials per 5 gallons and you want to pitch with the wort at 50F and already very well aerated (pure O2 recommended), then ferment at 52F (wort temp) until done.
Once fermentation is 100% done (hasn't moved in 1 week) I fine with gelatin for ~2 days, keg immediately and then store it at 32F for at least 1 month. 2 months is better. Carb to ~2.5 volumes or possibly even higher.

The results look like this:

IMG_2845_728.jpg


Perfectly clear, good head (this one's settled a bit). It's actually a premium lager (not a light lager) but you get the idea. You can't tell the difference in photos. ;)

So again, it's less about the recipe but more about the process.

Note: If you really want to mimic Bud Light you'd have to actually ferment a higher ABV wort (probably around 1.080) and then dilute with 50-60% water at packaging time.

Kal
 
Tiber_Brew said:
WLP840 is said to be the AB strain. Any reason you didn't use that one, OP?
Click to expand...

According to Charlie Papazian, his Cry Havoc yeast (WLP 862) was originally cultured from a keg of Budweiser. I've never used either, and I wonder if they produce similar results. Their attenuation/temp. numbers are a little different though, according to White Labs.
 
kal said:
My 2 cents

Kal
Click to expand...

@Kal

I agree. Your target IBU of ~12 is better than my initial suggestion of ~20.

I tend to follow convention and report mash pH at room temperature, not mash temperature. I measure at RT. I think we are singing from the same hymn sheet there. RT 5.4 being comparable to mash temp 5.2 perhaps.

Not suggesting there is anything wrong with reporting at mash temperatures of course. I should have specified earlier what temp I was reporting/planning mash pH at.

Nice pic of your beer and brewery. Not to be out done. :D here are a couple of recent light lagers of my own.

Pilsners
attachment.php
attachment.php


@Tiber_brew
Thanks for the information on the AB strain of yeast. I didn't know that.
 
Gerry_P said:
According to Charlie Papazian, his Cry Havoc yeast (WLP 862) was originally cultured from a keg of Budweiser. I've never used either, and I wonder if they produce similar results. Their attenuation/temp. numbers are a little different though, according to White Labs.
Click to expand...
That may be true; I don't know much about the Cry Havoc strain. However, Jamil lists Chris White's source of the WLP840 American Lager strain as Budweiser. The description even matches the character of Budweiser. If I were to set my mind to cloning Bud products, I'd start with WLP840.
 
Gavin C said:
I tend to follow convention and report mash pH at room temperature, not mash temperature. I measure at RT. I think we are singing from the same hymn sheet there. RT 5.4 being comparable to mash temp 5.2 perhaps.
Click to expand...
Yup! It is... just wanted to make sure it was clear. I don't think there's any convention actually so that's what often causes confusion. Historically it was always room temp because the samples had to go to the brewery labs but today it's often done inline at mash temp so the two wouldn't agree. It's confusing (and I'm getting off topic). ;)

Nice pic of your beer and brewery. Not to be out done. :D here are a couple of recent light lagers of my own.
Click to expand...
Nice! You guys and pics are making me thirsty. Even though it's "only" a light lager. ;)

Kal
 
I am going to blame Bud Light for my brewing career. Back in college, every party we had featured at least one keg of BL, probably more. It was fairly cheap in those days compared to canned or bottled beers.

But as the years rolled on, BL kegs got more and more expensive. A cost comparison showed cans on sale were cheaper by ounce than kegged BL. But I had a commercial BevAir kegerator and really wanted kegged beer.

My home brewing career began as I refused to pay extorted prices for crappy beer. I began specializing in Light European Pilsners and have steadily been working on my own recipes and tweaking them to create styles suited for my palate. I am going to paraphrase one of my online brew friends, Gavin, who eloquently said he has made many light beers none of which resembled BL as "my" beers had flavor and aroma. Classic Gavin!

The other day my wife and I had wings at a local pub who's beer offering was very limited. We chose a BL which I quickly determined is among the poorest beers out there. Not bad skunky or anything like that...its basically nothing.
 

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