Budweiser Crown Amber Lager

Budweiser Crown Amber Lager 6.0%

Full gold in a glass with a big and somewhat resilient head of off-white foam. The aroma was Budweiser-like (barely malty and lightly hopped, sometimes a tiny bit skunky) but with more malt and a touch of the promised caramel malt. Generally a distinctly lager-like aroma.

Malty and with more tastes of caramelization than a typical international lager though a bit skunky still. A bitter touch and just a hint of the slightly higher alcohol. Budweiser Crown has a sweet, nearly sugary, finish that is roasty with hints of caramel. A nicer mouthfeel than the typical Budweiser product.

Overall this is a decent effort by AB-InBev. It is quite a bit better than Budweiser and, although it certainly isn't the tastiest amber lager I have had, it is quite acceptable.

Bud Light Platinum 6.0%

Bud Light Platinum 6.0%

Super pale in a glass with a foamy quick fading head. Now when I say Bud Light Platinum is pale in a glass I mean really pale, unnaturally pale. There are plenty of white wines darker than this beer. It's the colour of watered down draft. A lightly malty, white bread, barely hopped aroma with just a touch of alcohol.

What a weird flavour: it's pretty sweet but only barely, barely malty and in way that reminds me again of white bread. The alcohol comes through quite clearly and makes this taste even less like a beer. It honestly reminds me quite a bit of a vodka cooler, you know those wobbly pops that has 6 or 7% alcohol content and are a mixture of food colouring  fruit flavours and vodka? Bud Light Platinum drinks like a non-alcoholic beer that somebody spiked with liquor.

As bad as this beer is (and in case I wasn't clear enough above, I do think it is bad) it's is entirely what I expected. They're starting with Bud Light after all and as the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out. I'm just glad I was able to buy a 355 ml single instead of having to buy a six pack. While I am not a fan of it either, even Budweiser Shot is better than Bud Light Platinum because it has a least a little bit of flavour to carry the higher alcohol content a little better. If forced to choose between Bud Light and Bud Light Platinum I might choose Bud Light Platinum in the hopes that the higher alcohol would numb me to the lousy flavour. All that being said Bud Light Platinum is not undrinkable but there are SO many better beers out there why bother with this one?

On a positive note, I like the aluminum bottle for a number of reasons: it protects the beer completely from light, it is lighter than a glass bottle, it is more easily recycled than glass, I see no particular reason the bottle couldn't be reused for homebrew and no more crying over spilt beer if you drop a six pack on the way out of the store although with Bud Light Platinum not drinking it wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Budweiser Shot 7.0%

Budweiser Shot 7.0%

It looks like Bud (gold in a glass), smells like bud (slightly skunky, vaguely malty) and tastes like Bud (sweet, a little skunky, malty; maybe a little more malty) but with an alcohol burn. It comes in a four-pack of mini-cans.

Interestingly, to me anyway, there is actually less total alcohol in a 236 ml can of Budweiser Shot (16.52 ml pure alcohol) than there is in regular 355 ml 5% Budweiser (17.75 ml pure alcohol). Though you can still drink this stuff much more quickly and therefore get drunker. Also they seem designed to sneak into places being pocket-sized and sporting a sharp looking black colour scheme. All in all, if you are a Bud fan and want to get wasted... well, this Bud's for you.