Bud Ice Review

Brewery: Anheuser-Busch, Inc. | Beer: Bud Ice
Style: American Adjunct Lager | ABV: 5.5% | IBUs: ~10
Serving Method: 12 oz. bottle poured into Pilsener glass

Ah, the North American ice beer. Unlike their bigger German cousins, American and Canadian ice beers are essentially just your typical crappy adjunct lager frozen to remove some of the water and boost the alcohol content a bit. The problem is, when you filter that water out, you end up filtering out yeast cells and protein particles as well, resulting in a more potent, yet less flavorful beer.

Introduced in 1994, Bud Ice is one of the most popular ice beers out there. While it lacks a little of the punch found in the competition, it's claimed to have more flavor. Despite all this, Bud Ice is best known for those "duby duby doo" penguin ads.

Also, for some unknown reason, there's also a light version of Bud Ice. If anyone can explain that one to me, I'll buy you a beer.

Anyway, with the temperature above 100 in Houston today, the ice-shaped bottle is enticing. Let's get to it.

Appearance: A crystal-clear, paler-than-pale straw body with a bubbly white head that burns out rapidly and leaves no lacing.

Aroma: Sweet, grainy malt with the barest hints of hops. Clean and thin.

Taste: It's all grainy, ricey, and slightly sweet malt up front. Then... there's really nothing to back it up. If you go looking for it, you may be able to pick out some grassy hops towards the end, just don't bet on it. The aftertaste is grainy and rather short-lived.

Mouthfeel: Light bodied and watery with lots of fizzy carbonation.

Drinkability: The only thing holding you back is the utter blandness of it all.

Verdict: Let's do a mental exercise. I want you to imagine a bottle of Bud Light with a percent more alcohol and perhaps a little more grainy malt. Can you see it? There, now I've saved you from ever bothering to try this. Bleh.

Grade: D-