Bud Light Lime in a blind tasting

[SteelbackGuy]

At a recent tasting that I attended, Bud Light Lime was thrown into the mix. We were told all beers were from American Craft Brewers.

Bud Light Lime was passed off as a "Citrus Wheat" in the filtered American style of wheats.

7 beers were tastes, among Grasshopper, Hacker Wheat, Schnider Weisse, Sam Adams Summer Ale and more.

Bud Light Lime came in second place amongst a group of what I would consider seasoned tasters. Interesting how that works.

[notdan]

Wow, that's messed. I finally tried it at a bar the other night. Five of us had trouble finishing one bottle.

This reminds me a bit of a story on BA where in someone's blind wheat tasting, Rickard's White came in first. Not quite as bad as Bud Light Lime coming in second, but still interesting.

[tupalev]

I had a can of it while working in my Dad's barn in Eastern Ontario last weekend and it was fine - I recall saying it was better than having a Coors light - it was a thirst quencher with lots of artificial but not all together unpleasant lime. Exactly as advertised. Much more drinkable than a Bud Light on its own. I have not tried it from the scary clear bottles mind you.

I'm curious as to whether the tremendous summer sales for it (it was sold out everywhere around the Quinte area) are actually taking away from Coors Light and others, or if they are the result of an expanded market, mainly female drinkers (taking away from coolers and such).

[Bobsy]

Wow, that's messed. I finally tried it at a bar the other night. Five of us had trouble finishing one bottle.

This reminds me a bit of a story on BA where in someone's blind wheat tasting, Rickard's White came in first. Not quite as bad as Bud Light Lime coming in second, but still interesting.

Yeah - that was a tasting I did over at my place, and in my defense I had Rickard's White nowhere near the top!

[sstackho]

But was your tasting blind, Sir Bobsy??

[markaberrant]

Most wheat beers have to be uber fresh to be decent, so I think it would be very hard to do a legitimate taste test.

And comparing american wheat, hefeweizen and fruit beer is pretty arbitrary.

And I know lots of seasoned tasters who don't know shit from shinola.

[matt7215]

Most wheat beers have to be uber fresh to be decent, so I think it would be very hard to do a legitimate taste test.

And comparing american wheat, hefeweizen and fruit beer is pretty arbitrary.

And I know lots of seasoned tasters who don't know shit from shinola.

any beer that is availible for retail sale should be judged regardless of age. the only exception would be if a consumer purposely aged a beer that is not meant to be aged.

if len had product that wasnt fresh it certainly wasnt because he aged it. if a product is sitting on a shelf in less then optimal condition its the fault of the producer, distributer or retailor, not that of the comsumer. at least we know the bud light lime was fresh because no one can keep it on the shelf for more then a week.

also i think a blind tasting with multiple styles is totally fine. sometime its better just to judge something as a "beer" rather then pick apart 7 different hefeweizens.

[midlife crisis]

had a can of it while working in my Dad's barn in Eastern Ontario last weekend and it was fine - I recall saying it was better than having a Coors light - it was a thirst quencher with lots of artificial but not all together unpleasant lime. Exactly as advertised. Much more drinkable than a Bud Light on its own.

That's pretty well how I felt too. I wouldn't actually buy any, given the choice, and I'm not sure I'd even call it beer, exactly, but it was an OK carbonated beverage. Better than a Coors or Bud Light to be sure. I was a bit amazed by some of the rabidly negative reaction to it in the other thread. I didn't think it was that bad and wonder if people hate it because they want to hate it.

[Belgian]

had a can of it while working in my Dad's barn in Eastern Ontario last weekend and it was fine - I recall saying it was better than having a Coors light - it was a thirst quencher with lots of artificial but not all together unpleasant lime. Exactly as advertised. Much more drinkable than a Bud Light on its own.

That's pretty well how I felt too. I wouldn't actually buy any, given the choice, and I'm not sure I'd even call it beer, exactly, but it was an OK carbonated beverage. Better than a Coors or Bud Light to be sure. I was a bit amazed by some of the rabidly negative reaction to it in the other thread. I didn't think it was that bad and wonder if people hate it because they want to hate it.

+1. I was impressed with the product development genius that went into the success of Bud Light Lime.

In the first place, it's blandly sweet and inoffensive and nothing like beer. Secondly, it has a near-perfect balancing note of tame, inoffensive lime flavor. The product succeeds on the merit of having nothing to object to if you aren't really into beer. There are a LOT of people who don't like a real Pils or Pale or Porter. Bud Light Lime is a product that succeeds by a general lack of consumer resistance and, frankly, I found it sort of refreshingly drinkable despite having very little resemblance to beer.

[Ralphus]

In the first place, it's blandly sweet and inoffensive and nothing like beer. Secondly, it has a near-perfect balancing note of tame, inoffensive lime flavor. The product succeeds on the merit of having nothing to object to if you aren't really into beer. There are a LOT of people who don't like a real Pils or Pale or Porter. Bud Light Lime is a product that succeeds by a general lack of consumer resistance and, frankly, I found it sort of refreshingly drinkable despite having very little resemblance to beer.

Ok, who hacked Belgian's account?

[JesseM]

You'd have to expect the beer geek community to hate this for being what it is, myself included. I think a lot of us just take it as an insult to beer, which it is. But the points made above have merit of course. Everything has its own context (some contexts just suck is all ).

Personally, I felt it had that awful garbage-vegetable macro flavour in the aftertaste that makes me feel genuinely sick (and not just from bad drunken experiences coming to mind ). If given a choice (with a gun to my head) I would take a Corona which I find to be watery and inoffensive.

[Belgian]

Ok, who hacked Belgian's account?

OK, who would actually work that hard for no good reason?

[A]

had a can of it while working in my Dad's barn in Eastern Ontario last weekend and it was fine - I recall saying it was better than having a Coors light - it was a thirst quencher with lots of artificial but not all together unpleasant lime. Exactly as advertised. Much more drinkable than a Bud Light on its own.

That's pretty well how I felt too. I wouldn't actually buy any, given the choice, and I'm not sure I'd even call it beer, exactly, but it was an OK carbonated beverage. Better than a Coors or Bud Light to be sure. I was a bit amazed by some of the rabidly negative reaction to it in the other thread. I didn't think it was that bad and wonder if people hate it because they want to hate it.

+1. I was impressed with the product development genius that went into the success of Bud Light Lime.

In the first place, it's blandly sweet and inoffensive and nothing like beer. Secondly, it has a near-perfect balancing note of tame, inoffensive lime flavor. The product succeeds on the merit of having nothing to object to if you aren't really into beer. There are a LOT of people who don't like a real Pils or Pale or Porter. Bud Light Lime is a product that succeeds by a general lack of consumer resistance and, frankly, I found it sort of refreshingly drinkable despite having very little resemblance to beer.

Putting aside whether or not it tastes like beer, IMO the flavor in it tastes nothing like friggin lime! I actually quite enjoy a corona with a real lime in it, and if the flavor tasted anything like lime in this one it might not be so bad.

Lemon Lime soda tastes more like lime. About the only product I have ever tasted that tastes less like lime is the Perrier lime flavored water - that water tastes like Pledge

[markaberrant]

any beer that is availible for retail sale should be judged regardless of age.

How can that be possible when age is a huge factor in the character of every beer?

All I'm saying is that a fresh BLL could easily taste a lot better than a year old bottle of Schneider weiss that has been sitting under the lights at room temp, but to me, that is not a fair comparison.

also i think a blind tasting with multiple styles is totally fine. sometime its better just to judge something as a "beer" rather then pick apart 7 different hefeweizens.

It may in fact be a "better" approach, but it is a lot harder to judge when there are fewer similarities. It's the whole apples to oranges debate.

[JesseM]

any beer that is availible for retail sale should be judged regardless of age.

How can that be possible when age is a huge factor in the character of every beer?

All I'm saying is that a fresh BLL could easily taste a lot better than a year old bottle of Schneider weiss that has been sitting under the lights at room temp, but to me, that is not a fair comparison.

also i think a blind tasting with multiple styles is totally fine. sometime its better just to judge something as a "beer" rather then pick apart 7 different hefeweizens.

It may in fact be a "better" approach, but it is a lot harder to judge when there are fewer similarities. It's the whole apples to oranges debate.

Actually, I'd take the Schneider. I'd rather have something that might still be a shell of decency.

Of course age matters, but I think Matt's point was that anything you've paid your money for you have the right to judge whatever way you want. It's yours, and although there's many factors beyond their control, the producer is responsible for the product they've put out there to be purchased.

And in a tasting with different styles, at least in my experiences, I never compare different beers of different styles to each other as that's just stupid (the only way I would compare them would be in terms of respective enjoyment). So yes you're right, apples and oranges (personally I like apples better ).