Anheuser-Busch waters down beers?

[757Hokie83]

Watered down beer: Anheuser-Busch accused of watering down beers - chicagotribune.com

 

[Darkstone42]

Watered down beer: Anheuser-Busch accused of watering down beers - chicagotribune.com

That was exactly my reaction. I thought watering down was a well-known component of their brewing process.

 

[huskers1217]

mind you this group did no testing of the beer itself

 

[Darkstone42]

mind you this group did no testing of the beer itself

It probably wouldn't be all that difficult, and I'm sure the suit will go nowhere without random samples first going through a lab.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

This is the equivalent of discovering that Olive Garden doesn't really employ Sicilian chefs in all their restaurants.

 

[HammerDown]

This is the equivalent of discovering that Olive Garden doesn't really employ Sicilian chefs in all their restaurants.

 

[ugafan6612]

This is the equivalent of discovering that Olive Garden doesn't really employ Sicilian chefs in all their restaurants.

seriously, next they'll be telling us that Chef Lorena Garcia doesn't cook all of the Taco Bell I eat

 

[wartyOne]

This actually is a fairly common practice in brewing. What you do is start off with a ton of high Plato (Specific Gravity) extract from the mash, then blend with water to the appropriate degree Plato. This saves on energy costs because one brew can fill many fermenters instead of brewing with the appropriate Plato and only filling one fermenter.

I can further explain that if it wasn't clear.

I wouldn't consider this "watering down" the beer per se. Don't get me wrong, I'm not standing up for Budweiser, but I think that article is pretty ignorant of actual brewing practices.

 

[757Hokie83]

This actually is a fairly common practice in brewing. What you do is start off with a ton of high Plato (Specific Gravity) extract from the mash, then blend with water to the appropriate degree Plato. This saves on energy costs because one brew can fill many fermenters instead of brewing with the appropriate Plato and only filling one fermenter.

I can further explain that if it wasn't clear.

I wouldn't consider this "watering down" the beer per se. Don't get me wrong, I'm not standing up for Budweiser, but I think that article is pretty ignorant of actual brewing practices.

from my read, it doesnt sound like the same thing

 

[wildturkey]

The real news headline would have been if they discovered that Bud Light was actually beer.

 

[Darkstone42]

This actually is a fairly common practice in brewing. What you do is start off with a ton of high Plato (Specific Gravity) extract from the mash, then blend with water to the appropriate degree Plato. This saves on energy costs because one brew can fill many fermenters instead of brewing with the appropriate Plato and only filling one fermenter.

I can further explain that if it wasn't clear.

I wouldn't consider this "watering down" the beer per se. Don't get me wrong, I'm not standing up for Budweiser, but I think that article is pretty ignorant of actual brewing practices.

I think the claim is that they're watering down the fermented product right before bottling so they get more bottles out of the same batch.

Regardless, I thought it was understood that this was done.

 

[thecrow124]

The only way this suit will hold up regardless of their practices is if they are sending beer out of the plantwith a lower than advertised ABV. Likely what is happening is that they are sending beer with a slightly higher ABV out of their tank and then adding a small amount of water to get it down to the advertised ABV. Sounds more to me like some scorned former employees.

 

[wartyOne]

The only way this suit will hold up regardless of their practices is if they are sending beer out of the plantwith a lower than advertised ABV. 1.Likely what is happening is that they are sending beer with a slightly higher ABV out of their tank and then adding a small amount of water to get it down to the advertised ABV. 2.Sounds more to me like some scorned former employees.

1. This is exactly correct, and is a practice many big breweries utilize.

2. Scorned former employees who don't know shit about the brewing process.

These lawsuits have no legal ground to stand on.