There has been a lot of hoopla about this Budweiser / ImBev business recently, huh? Yeah. Great. As this Captain has said before, I care little for who owns Bud. Or any huge brewery, really. Keep Sam Adams and Yuengling and certain others under the same ownership, I implore you, but for the mega fellahs? Meh. I do find it amusing though, that this new pseudo-craft offering arrogantly titled “American Ale” hit the shelves at about the same time as the ownership of the brewery jumped across the pond to Belgium (a country that knows its beer, at least).

I have mixed feelings about big breweries riding the coat tails of the craft and micro breweries into the world of fine beer-making. The Big Guys almost killed good beer, dammit! But still, I have resolved to keep this review as objective as possible, focusing on the beer and not the brewer.

OK. So. It’s ruddy brown in color. It was a lighter shade than I expected and semi-translucent. The head was thick enough and white. I looked at it for a while. Then I sniffed at it some. Lightly sweet malt notes and… lightly sweet malt notes. Barely any aroma hops to speak of. After pacing for a bit, I took a big sip and swished it around, pacing again. My palate was awash in deep deliberation as I swallowed the beer and sought additional notes in the finish. Which did show up in the form of a some bittering hops. All cascade hops in this beer. (Good American grown plants. And American barley, too. Hoo-ah.)

So here’s the deal: it’s OK. It’s not a bad beer. I enjoyed it even. But it is extremely simple. It’s Ale 101: malt flavor balanced by hop flavor; medium-bodied mouthfeel and calm carbonation. There is nothing distinct about this beer. So I take some issue with its authoritative name American Ale. There are many, MANY examples of beer that are distinctly American, very much ale and very much unique and excellent. This is… drinkable. It’s beer for people who don’t much care about beer but for some reason want to look like they do at the moment when they select this brew. So while it ain’t bad, I think I’ve purchased my last Budweiser American Ale. Unless there’s some wickedpissah sale.

Free beer is welcome arms flung wide open.