Mission #1: The King Of Beer Missions

VS Who Will Take The Challenge?

I've been thinking for a while about what our first beer mission should be. My first impulse was to start with a mission based around some variation of stout. But alas as we find ourselves baking in the late June weather, I have to acquiesce that this is not the ideal time to sit and consume those heavy drinking, sweet sipping brews.

So instead, I have come up with a more summer suitable mission: The King Of Beer Missions. Now before you cringe at the mere allusion to Budweiser, please read on.

For many of us Budweiser was one of the first, if not the first, beers we ever had so maybe this isn't a bad place to start. Let's face it, Budweiser is incredibly popular yet it takes a beating on almost any beer tasting website, garnering a mere D+ on Beeradvocate and an overall score of 0 on Ratebeer. Have we fans of craft and import brews been too hard on one of America's oldest beers? Could so many Budweiser fans be wrong?

The Mission

So here is my challenge: over the next month or two let's pit Budweiser against other American made lagers. We'll each review a glass of Budweiser and then we'll sample and rate at least two other American made lagers. Obviously it would be best to review as many brews as possible so if you have the time and money, have at it.

Now technically Budweiser is an adjunct lager, but as Budweiser calls their brew "The Great American Lager", I feel that they open the door for us to compare them to any other American made lager. Let's select our comparison brews from Beeradvocate's American Lager category. Sorry gang, this will rule out Sam Adam's Boston Lager as it is really a Euro Pale Lager.

The goal here isn't to find the best adjunct or the best American lager but rather to give Budweiser a chance to defend its claims as "The Great American Lager".

Mission Parameters

1) Let's make sure to only review from a glass, so no drinking from the bottle.

2) Let's keep this to Budweiser, so skip Bud Light, Dry, Ice and any other variation.

3) Try to give Budweiser a "fair shake". Review it like this is the first time you've had it.

4) When you do your last review for this mission:

a. You don't need to declare a winner, but give a brief description about how
you thought Budweiser stacked up against the other lagers you sampled.

b. Give your opinion of this mission. Did you enjoy it or did you just suffer
through?

Personally, I think this will be interesting as I haven't really drank lager beers on a regular basis in more than a decade.

So how about it, is Budweiser The Great American Lager? Or did this mission just confirm your reasons for moving on from the beer of our youth?