Saturday, June 23, 2012

Head for the Mountains

I collect "retro" and vintage beer glassware. My most recent purchase replaced a Hamm's pilsner sham that got knocked over and broke into pieces. The new glass (pictured) promotes Busch Bavarian, an old Anheuser-Busch product (now Inter-Bud-Ambev or whatever) that was recently re-packaged into cans with a retro label from just after the time when the "Bavarian" part of the name got dropped. As you can see, the can says "Clear and Bright as Mountain Air" and "Busch Classic." The can says the beer was introduced in 1955 as Busch Bavarian. Wikipedia adds that it changed to just Busch in 1979. I'm guessing that real Bavarians were appalled by the original name and made Bud change it.

This beer has a bubblegummy and slightly fruity smell laced with a sort of medicinal aroma.It tastes very watery and light for its 4.7 percent alcohol by volume, with a bit of bubblegummy sweetness and a dryish, but slightly sweet finish. It's definitely light, but with a fairly inoffensive amount of corn. This stuff initially formed a bit of a rocky head (which I missed in the photo) and which I haven't been able to replicate since, which makes me think it was my imagination. Budweiser has always equaled Wonder Bread. They brew the Wonder Bread of beer and in this sense, Busch doesn't disappoint. That said, it seems like the kind of beer that just doesn't get you drunk, it makes you stupid and maybe a nasty, old, hillbilly. Oh, and if you're still interested, I paid a little about a buck for the big can and I noticed it's $3.40 a six-pack, definitely qualifying as cheap.

Well, what else can I say...it was time to head for the mountains.