Anheuser-Busch watered down beer ?

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

They said the same about milk years ago when farmers would add water to get a higher yield. Now there are analysis methods to check the water content, and if it's too high the batch gets rejected and you can be fined.

I don't know if the same system can be used for alcohol since it has a much lower freezing point but it can be analysed.

There should be no added water in milk, unless it's marketed as milk (a milk by-product) that's been made from the condensed milk or the milk powder.

When it comes to beer, my understanding is that the regulation only specifies the contents, not the recipe or how it should be made (the sequence of the production process; sure, there are product safety guidelines, but that's not it).

And as the defence, has already said:

Our beers are in full compliance with all alcohol labeling laws

So, if you look at the label of a beer bottle, under the ingredients it will say: water, malted barley, hops.

The judge will throw away this case as soon as the process starts. There's no substance. And not one consumer has been duped.

[Xilo]

There's no way in hell those beers are 5% ABV.

[Burned]

I know one of our local breweries (Molson) would brew the beer to double strength then cut it with water to double the volume needed to meet the demand. It was too costly to increase the size of the brewery.

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

I know one of our local breweries (Molson) would brew the beer to double strength then cut it with water to double the volume needed to meet the demand. It was too costly to increase the size of the brewery.

Of course, all the corporations are greedy by definition and they will do anything to maximize the profits and decrease the costs.

As for the water, the law doesn't say when it should be added, the sequence of the production process. It just allows for certain ingredients in certain amounts to be there so the final product can be called beer.

[Burned]

The ingredients do not have to be displayed. When they state it contains water, barley, and hops, they are just boasting they follow the Reinheitsgebot (Bavarian Purity law of 1516).

Alcoholic beverages must contain the alcohol content by volume in percentage or proof.

[theyarecomingforyou]

If it's advertised as containing 5% ABV then that's what it should contain, within a reasonable margin of error. The issue seems to be what margin of error is acceptable and whether people have been misled. If the alcohol content is out by 8%, as alleged, then that would mean a 5% ABV beer would only contain 4.6% ABV. This is where it depends on the regulations per country - in the EU the margin of error for beers not exceeding 5.5% ABV is 0.5%, so it would be within that margin; in Australia the labelling must be accurate to within 0.3%, so it would be outside that margin.

Providing it complies with the US regulations of alcohol labelling it's a perfectly valid business practice. When you consider the scale that these businesses operate on a small percentage can make a big difference to the profitability of a product. That said, deliberately aiming for the bottom end of the legally allowed margin of error is ethnically wrong as the regulations weren't intended to allow manufacturers to deliberately supply under the amount they advertise, so it's perfectly understandable that people are annoyed.

[ricodico]

Mass produced beer is garbage.

There are very few companies who actually put out a brew worth buying once in a while... but not very often.

I used to drink Labatt Blue then moved on to Alexander Keiths... and then it was Cold Shots... Then I found out about dark beer, and i've never looked back.. pale ale/ anything yellow is borderline disgusting... minus Corona..

Holsten Maibock is pretty damn good... dark and blonde varieties.

Guinness tastes like water to me, but maybe i'm doing it wrong.

[Torolol]

i wonder if it possible to make something like redoxon beer,

just throw a (or two) tablets into a glass of water,

and those water will miracleously became beer.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

Since it was sold to a foreign entity I drink Coors.

[techbeck]

Mass produced beer is garbage.

There are very few companies who actually put out a brew worth buying once in a while... but not very often.

I used to drink Labatt Blue then moved on to Alexander Keiths... and then it was Cold Shots... Then I found out about dark beer, and i've never looked back.. pale ale/ anything yellow is borderline disgusting... minus Corona..

Holsten Maibock is pretty damn good... dark and blonde varieties.

Guinness tastes like water to me, but maybe i'm doing it wrong.

There are a lot of good pale ales out there. Try the micro brews and imports. Lots to choose from. And Corona is crap beer, IMO.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Nothing beats an authentic Belgian or an Imperial IPA.

[Hum]

^ It's the Belgians who took over A-B :s

[Growled Member]

All taste like **** to me, even the stuff some of you claim is "real beer".

It tastes like that to me too, which is why I prefer whiskey.

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

Since the discussion here has sort of shifted to the exchange of personal beer preferences, I'd like to invite everyone to participate in Neowin's Beer Mega Poll!

[DocM]

I drink nothing but micro-brews; local & regional small breweries that make some great beers. Michigan has several, as do some New England states, California and other midwestern states.

In this area -

Arbor Brewing Company (Ann Arbor)

Grizzly Peak Brewing Company (Ann Arbor)

Corner Brewery (Ypsilanti - in the Depot Town area)

Atwater Block Brewery (Detroit)

Detroit Beer Company (Detroit)

Great Baraboo Brewing Company (Clinton Twp)

[Solid Knight]

It is amusing that the basis of the lawsuit is being cheated out of ABV.