Like Drinking from a Polluted Stream
Written: Aug 22 '02 (Updated Dec 14 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good for dissolving stains in your kitchen sink
Cons: Nasty flavor; bad smell
The Bottom Line: Bud Ice Light is a contradiction in terms- an ice beer turned into a light beer to appeal to calorie counting folk. It's a repulsive beer!
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Bud Ice |
Hello, fellow Epinionators! This is my third entry in a six- part series, titled “For the Love of Bad Brew”. I have selected six horrible malt beverages for the purpose of this solo write- off, which I will present, one miserable brew at a time, over the next several days. Cheers!
Ice beer is a style that I have never developed a taste for. If you have ever tried any ice- brewed beer, then you know that the flavor is usually more alcoholic and more bitter than regular versions of the same beer. Brewers accomplish this feat by lowering the temperature of the brew below the freezing point so that ice crystals form. Then, the ice is removed which means that the remaining beer will have slightly less water and, hence, a higher concentration of alcohol.
I have tried a few ice- brewed beers in my lifetime and I found most of them to be barely drinkable at best, although I admit that some are at least bearable. One ice beer that’s not easy to imbibe is Bud Ice Light, an ice- brewed beer produced by malt beverage giant Anheuser- Busch that’s specially brewed for the calorie- conscious among us.
Basic Characteristics of This Beer:
Most of the initial appearance of Bud Ice Light is typical of what you expect in an Anheuser- Busch product. It has a light straw color, a low amount of foam, and crystal- clear clarity. The aroma is also typical of A-B beer: pungent and nasty, reminding me of grain and alcohol mixed with household cleaner.
Describing the flavor of Bud Ice Light isn’t so easy. It doesn’t really have any of the attributes that you normally look for in beer, like yeasty flavors, hop character, sweet malt, etc. Instead, it tastes rather weak, with just a slight flavor of barley and the snappy, crisp taste of rice. The finish of the beer is bitter, with a chemical- like quality that quickly goes away. There is no lingering aftertaste.
Even though this beer is ice- brewed, it isn’t strong in alcohol at all. It weighs in at 4.1 percent alcohol by volume and there are 110 calories in a 12 oz. serving. These numbers are almost identical to Bud Light and they are about 25 percent lower than regular Bud Ice, which has 148 calories per 12 oz. serving and 5.5 percent alcohol by volume.
Food Compatibility:
With its emphasis toward the bitter end of the scale, this product would go well with salty snacks, like pretzels, tortilla chips, etc. I can’t recommend drinking it with many other food products. It was designed as a beer to drink solo.
Final Thoughts:
Bud Ice Light is a nasty- tasting beer. It has a flavor that is difficult to describe, falling somewhere between a dirty river and the leakage from a chemical plant. I didn’t know whether I should continue to drink it, or pour some on the walls of my bathtub to remove the hard water stains.
This beer is brewed in the tradition of an ice beer, but at the same time, it’s a light beer. It’s a contradiction in terms, if you think about it. Ice beer is supposed to be stronger, but Bud Ice Light contains only 4.1 percent alcohol by volume. I assume that the brewers at Budweiser created this product by freezing the brew, removing the ice crystals (so that they could legally label it as ice beer), and then adding more water back to the brew to make it light. Or, they started with a mixture that had a lower specific gravity to begin with, let it freeze, and then filtered out the ice and left it like that. With a lower initial gravity, there would be less fermentable ingredients, which means that the final product would be a little weaker, therefore qualifying it as a light beer.
The bottle of Bud Ice Light tries to capture the imagination, but falls short. It is covered with many small, flat surfaces to give the impression of a broken piece of ice. The bottle is clear, which is also bad because it means that the beer is more susceptible to spoilage. And with a taste that is already pretty bad, you wouldn’t want to take a chance on allowing the beer to deteriorate even more! You need to keep it protected from light, so it remains at a peak (LOL!) amount of flavor.
Overall, Bud Ice Light is a bad beer product from beginning to end, featuring a light color, watery body, pungent odor, and the taste of chemicals and unwashed grain. It claims to be an ice beer, but the fact that it’s also a light beer (just as light as Bud Light) shows just how far the marketing people at Anheuser- Busch will go to make a sale. Avoid this beer, at all costs.
Be sure to Click the Links Below to Read Reviews of Other Anheuser- Busch Products:
Budweiser:
Budweiser
Bud Light
Bud Ice
Budweiser Select
Michelob Products:
Michelob
Michelob Light
Michelob Ultra
Michelob Amber Bock
Michelob Black & Tan
Michelob Honey Lager
Michelob Marzen
Michelob Pale Ale
Michelob Pumpkin Spice
Other Anheuser- Busch Beers:
Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale
Busch
Busch Light
Natural Light
Natural Ice
Anheuser World Select
Recommended:
No
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