Do me a favor and don’t let this get around. But when I
was young (18 young to be precise), I used to drink Busch. In fact, I
used to buy the stuff by the caseload.
My early beer drinking career was quite interesting, indeed. Six months
after I turned eighteen, Rhode Island raised the drinking age to 19. Which
meant I was smart enough to know how to handle the stuff from 18 to 18 ½,
when I suddenly wasn’t. This pattern continued year by year until I reached
21.
Busch, unfortunately, didn’t make it to 19 with me. By the time I was
temporarily legal again, I had moved on to beers like Beck's and St. Pauli
Girl. Even in those days, I was always scoping out something
different.
Of course, Busch is bargain priced, one of the reasons it is popular. You
can’t argue with $1.19 for a 22 or $4.99 for a six-pack of 16-ounce cans.
Well, you can’t argue if you’re not really concerned about flavor that is.
That’s because…
Busch pours to a pale yellow golden color with a thick foamy head
formation and a rather unpleasant nose that smells more of corn than barley
malt. The palate is watery with just a tinge of malt flavor, which has to
compete with the distraction of vegetal corn flavor.
And in the finish? I still get more adjunct than malt, and no real hops to
speak of. The finish isn’t really sweet or bitter. Rather, it’s balanced
enough to make it very drinkable. Like water. Other than that, there isn’t
much to really speak of here.
Even among boring, mainstream macros like Budweiser and Miller, this really isn’t a very good beer. Life is just too short to
drink cheap beer, and honestly, you deserve better. In fact, Busch is now
nothing more than an Anheuser-Busch bargain brand.
That said, I still remember coming home with ice-cold cases of Busch in my
youth. But we all know that with age comes wisdom, and today I’d rather have
a single bottle of Thomas Hardy’s than a case of Busch any time.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft