One of Anheuser-Busch's Better Beers
Written: Oct 23 '00 (Updated May 11 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: interesting change of pace, a good tasting beer
Cons: maybe too sweet and too light; there are better beers for the money
The Bottom Line: May be hard to find, but worth a try.
|
|
|
| 4-1-1's Full Review: Michelob Amber Bock |
Michelob has long been marketed by Anheuser-Busch as a premium beer, but a simple taste will not leave you very impressed and you’ll scratch your head wondering what makes it different from Budweiser.
Michelob Amber Bock, however, is a different beer altogether. Like other A-B products, it contains a measure of rice, but it also contains a dark-roasted barley malt.
This dark lager beer is smooth drinking, with a sweet taste and a long-lasting head. This beer has a deep caramel color -- like Coca-Cola™. It is also freshness dated.
Bock Beer is a style identified with a strong German lager. It is usually dark in color, but color ranges from amber-through-red-through brown. Typically, bock beers have at least 6.25% alcohol by volume, and double bock has 7% alcohol or more. Michelob “Amber Bock” does not taste as strong as a typical bock beer, and I suspect that its alcohol content is closer to 5 or 5-1/2%.
I don’t see this beer on my grocer’s shelves very often, so one could say that it is fairly hard to find and produced in limited batches. The beer is sold in a 4-pack of 16 oz. cans and sells for $4.99 per 4-pack. The marketing folks at A-B are good at their jobs, and this beer’s can is designed in a way to give the buyer the impression that they are buying something really special: the can is all-black with gold lettering having a ruby-red drop-shadow and the cans are boxed in a 4-pack carton to give the whole package a look like Guinness Stout. So, to see it on your grocer’s shelf, you think you are getting something like the famous pub beer... at a slightly lower price.
There are a thousand micro-brews out there that taste better, but this effort by A-B is not bad and I welcome it as a refreshing change of pace. I give this beer a solid 3 rating.
If you care to pair it with food, I suggest avoiding salty snacks and trying it with some grilled sausages, Hungarian Paprika chicken, or something spicy like Kung-pao chicken. It also goes great with baloney sandwiches if you are cooking for yourself.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
4-1-1
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Member: Tom Carr
Location: Southern California
Reviews written: 1090
Trusted by: 690 members
About Me:
Go U.S.C.!!!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.