Why does budweiser have rice in it?!
Why does budweiser have rice in it?
Yesterday I bought 8 Grolsch (￡5) and 20 Budweiser (￡7.49). They taste pretty similar, both 5% abv. Grolsch contains water barley and hops. Bud has water, rice barley and hops.
Rice seems an odd thing to brew with. I think Grolsch has more depth but Bud is more drinkable.
I can't decide which one I like more.
Answers:
All Adjunct lagers are brewed with rice or corn. Budweiser, Miller, and Coors, and almost everything they make are adjunct lagers. By using adjuncts like corn and rice, the breweries can make a beer with very limited flavor. They can mass produce the beer and keep the flavor, or lack there of, the same for every batch. Also, adjuncts are cheaper than barley. Those big companys are all about making the lowest quality product and making a killing off it. Check out my link to learn all you ever need to know about beer.
Source(s):
http://www.beeradvocate.com
so you can drink it with chopsticks, duhh, i thought everyone knew that!
ice-cold Budweiser every time mate? just tipping one back now..mmmmmmmmmmm gorgeous think ill get another?
Drink them all. After the 19th Bud, you won't care which one is more drinkable. lol
Budweiser brews with rice as their main grain, as this is the cheapest. It's kind of a cheap, "filler" grain, and is suitable for mass brewing. This is very common in the larger breweries like Anhauser Busch...especially in the US.
You are right about the Grolsch. They use finer, more expensive grains, so therefore the price is higher but the beer is fuller and better tasting to many people.
It is widely held that the finest beers are brewed only using malted barley, hops, yeast and of course water. The germans have this enshrined in law known as (excuse the spelling) rhineheinsgabot. Some beers contain additional other cereals including rice and wheat flakes. These are known as adjuncts and work in the same way as malt in that the starches turn to sugar when heated which in turn get converted to alcohol by the yeast. These are usually inferior beers lacking in the richness that malt alone gives a quality beer. These adjuncts are of course much cheaper than malt and therefore increase the profit margins of the brewers.
You will find rice being used in a lot of the American mass produced beers which are by and large awful concoctions. Cheap as chips in the states but sold at premium prices over here because, I am sorry to say, we Brits are easlily conned by the advertisers who sell us labels rather than a quality product. Remember also that most of the so called continental lagers sold over here are actually made over here under licence from the brand name holder. I spent some time in the Navy and travelled all over Europe. I have drunk all the big name beers in their native countries - Carlsberg, Stella, Grolsch etc. They are all excellent and if you put them up against their British brewed counterparts you would realise that we are again being sold a far inferior product even though the label on the can is the same.
We seem to be brand obsessed in Britain but unable to distinguish quality from rubbish. The rest of the world must see us as an easy touch for extracting cash without question.
Brewers use maize or rice to give a more fuller body to beer.
Rice is not their "main" grain but it is cheaper than barley. They buy cheaper 6-row barely which has a high enough enzyme content to convert all the corn to fermentable sugars in the mash. I'd guess it's about 20-40% rice. It also produces clear sugars which lighten the beer color, and is highly fermentable so not many sugars remain and it's very low on body and easy to drink.
Rice is cheaper than barley and makes a lighter beer which for some unkown reason most Americans seem to prefer. This American prefers a beer with some body, that's why I started brewing my own.