Pickled Eggs & Cold Beer: Episode 2: Bud Light with Brendan Roche

Friday, July 13, 2018

Episode 2: Bud Light with Brendan Roche

Clayman doesn't like Bud Light.

I. Introduction

It is the best-selling beer in the United States, the third best-selling on Earth, a yellow beverage that is so ubiquitous that the only thing as large as its presence on supermarket and convenience store shelves is its advertising presence. The great cold war between multinational beer corporations rages on, in its fourth decade at least, as alliances and corporations grow ever larger, consolidating resources, developing intensive and extensive logistics systems, data analysis mechanisms, but the leading weapons are not intercontinental weapons or aircraft carriers, but inexpensive adjunct lagers that promise palatable low caloric costs with sufficiently high alcoholic content, packaged in an inoffensive form. What is amazing is the scale and consistent quality of this undertaking – today’s beer alone generates around half a billion US dollars a year, in no small part because it is nearly always of the same essential quality no matter where or when one buys it – a miracle of technology and planning whose history mirrors that of modernization itself.

Today on Pickled Eggs & Cold Beer we raise our glasses and consider the imperial behest of arguably the greatest of corporate mascots of the 1980s, the late, the great, Spuds McKenzie.

Today, we’re talking about Bud Light.

Today's theme - Clara Smith's "Deep Sea Blues," recorded in 1924 with saxophone and piano accompaniment

II. Our Treasured Guest, Brendan Roche, Esq.

Dr. Smith, Mr. Clayman, Squire Roche, Champ Flair

III. Rubric

BeerAdvocate: 1.86 of 5

RateBeer: 1.23 of 5

Untappd: 2.26 of 5

ABV: 4.2%

Origin: Breweries around the world, including thirteen breweries in the United States in St. Louis, Missouri; Newark, New Jersey; Van Nuys, California; Tampa, Florida; Houston, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Jacksonville, Florida; Merrimack, New Hampshire; Williamsburg, Virginia; Fairfield, California; Baldwinsville, New York; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Cartersville, Georgia

Ingredients: beer is made from water, barley malt, rice, yeast and hops

Cost: $;between $10 and $13 for a 12-pack

IV. Our Reviews and Talking Points

Appearance: Pale yellow, bubbly, full white head that recedes fairly quickly

Aroma: very little

Flavor: Inoffensive, watery, beer with all dramatic notes shaven off

Mouthfeel: Watery, bubbly

Authenticity, Marketing, and Other Factors: So ubiquitous it seems to lack a real sense of self; great marketing but so much that it is overwhelming.

Overall: Mr. Roche gave it 2-Stars; Mr. Clayman gave it 1-Star; and Dr. Smith gave it 2-Stars. Overall? 1.67 Stars

V. Plugs

As always, please support local breweries, eateries, artists and music - also, please check out :