PHILADELPHIA -- Along with an eclectic roster of more than two dozen musical acts personally selected by JAY Z, 12 of Budweiser's top U.S. brewmasters will gather Labor Day weekendin Philadelphia at Budweiser Made in America festival to sample for festival-goers six limited-edition Budweiser experimental beers they collaborated on to create. Based on consumer feedback, three of these beers will be available later this year in a variety package.
The brewmasters represent all 12 of Budweiser's geographically dispersed breweries and will be staffing a special "Project 12" section of the festival.
"These brewmasters are the best in the world," said Rob McCarthy, vice president of Budweiser. "Like the music at the festival, they are world class. Budweiser is a difficult beer style to brew, so it takes a lot of expertise to ensure the quality and consistency that our beer drinkers expect. The brewmasters' new 'Project 12' beers were inspired by Budweiser and have a range of colors and flavors, but all are refreshing beers with a relatively low bitterness and with Bud's crisp and clean taste."
Brewmasters attending are James Bicklein from St. Louis, Michael Anderson from Jacksonville, Fla., David Cohen, Houston; Tiago Darocha, Newark, N.J.; Daniel S. Kahn, Cartersville, Ga.; Otto Kuhn, Merrimack, N.H.; Nickolas A Mills, Baldwinsville, N.Y.; Katie M Rippel, Fort Collins, Colo.; Bryan Sullivan, Los Angeles; Scott K. Ungermann, Fairfield, Calif.; Daniel Westmoreland, Williamsburg, Va.; and Travis Burge, Columbus, Ohio.
Jane Killebrew-Galeski, director of brewing, quality and innovation for Anheuser-Busch, also will be on the scene gathering feedback from consumers about which beers they like best.
"We like all these beers, but we want to know what consumers think," she said. "We're here to celebrate some of the best music America has to offer with some of America's most talented brewmasters joining in on the fun."
Earlier this year, the brewmasters at Budweiser's 12 geographically dispersed breweries worked together to create their own "tribute" beers to fit the Budweiser brand's reputation for quality and consistency. The assignment pays homage to Budweiser's "clean and crisp" taste by using the proprietary yeast directly descended from the original Budweiser yeast culture used by Adolphus Busch in 1876 and still used by Budweiser today.
Through internal tasting and analysis, the 12 small-batch beers--each a lager using all-natural ingredients--were pared to six to take part in a summer-long, nationwide sampling effort. Consumer feedback is now helping Budweiser narrow the six beers to three for inclusion in a limited-edition sampler pack, available for purchase this fall.
Each Budweiser tribute beer is distinguished by the ZIP code where the beer is brewed. Among the six beers being sampled at Budweiser Made in America and the brewmaster collaboration teams behind them:
- Budweiser 91406 (Los Angeles): A deep-amber lager with 6% alcohol by volume (ABV) that uses four different types of hops. Brewmaster collaboration team: Sullivan, Ungermann and Cohen.
- Budweiser 63118 (St. Louis): A deep-gold 5% ABV American lager that uses the same types of hops (Hallertau and Tettnang) commonly used at the St. Louis brewery during the 19th century. Brewmaster collaboration team: Bicklein and Rippel.
- Budweiser 43229 (Ohio): A light-amber lager using eight different types of hops with 6% ABV. Brewmaster collaboration team: Burge, Kevin Lee and Tyler Hunter.
- Budweiser 23185 (Virginia): A light-amber all-malt bourbon cask lager aged on bourbon staves and vanilla beans and with an ABV of 5.5%. Brewmaster collaboration team: Westmoreland, Anderson and Dan Kahn.
- Budweiser 13027 (New York): A bright-golden lager brewed with six imported and domestic hops and with an ABV of 7%. Brewmaster collaboration team: Mills and general manager Steve McCormick.
- Budweiser Small Batch 80524 (Colorado): A deep-gold, filtered wheat beer with 5.2% ABV using lemon peel, orange peel and coriander. Brewmaster collaboration team: Rippel Mills, Kuhn and Darocha.
The two-day music festival benefits United Way and is the culmination of a summer-long series of music parties in cities all across America in which Budweiser invited its Facebook fans to experience talented local bands and artists and sample some of these news beers along with local food in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Nashville, Miami, Boston and New York.
Based in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch brews Budweiser and Bud Light, among other brands. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.