Anheuser World Select

Just about twenty years ago, the Boston Beer Company exhorted beer lovers across America to “declare their independence from foreign beer.” This was part of a very successful advertising campaign that suggested American beer drinkers finally had an alternative to mass market mega-brewed beers and costly imports. That alternative was Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and today that beer has helped propel the Boston Beer Company to its current position as one of the nation’s largest brewers.

Despite this, Boston Beer’s share of the domestic market still pales compared to that of industry giant Anheuser-Busch, the world’s largest brewing concern. Still, the success of Samuel Adams beers has been impressive, and though a bit late to the party Anheuser-Busch has decided to launch its own foray after the dollars of imported beer drinkers with the introduction of Anheuser World Select. This pilsner-style lager beer is an obvious challenge to such imported brews as Corona, Beck’s, and most likely Heineken.

It was probably inevitable that Anheuser-Busch would launch such a beer. Having captured the lion’s share of the domestic beer market, AB faces a point of diminishing returns in the categories it dominates already: the American light lager, premium lager, and light beer styles. With Anheuser World Select, AB can increase sales at the expense of its foreign rivals in a previously untapped category.

Anheuser-Busch has always been an aggressive marketer and competitor. The recent rollout of Michelob Ultra is a classic example of the company’s determination to be innovative and insistent in its quest to continually expand its share of the domestic beer market. Although Michelob Ultra was simply a light beer with about the same carbohydrate content as existing light brews, AB promoted the low carbohydrate content of Michelob Ultra as the beer’s primary selling point. The result: impressive sales to those consumers attempting to limit their intake of carbohydrates.

AB seems no less aggressive in promoting Anheuser World Select. The company has taken out full-page ads promoting the beer in major newspapers and splashed its image on billboards and posters. Radio and TV ads seem sure to follow, and it is likely the beer will be as successful as Michelob Ultra has been in capturing the attention of upscale beer consumers.

The beer’s packaging is obviously designed to do just that. Anheuser World Select is sold in short, painted-label green glass bottles embossed with elegant gold lettering. The bottle is obviously meant to convey an air of status and discrimination to the drinker.

Anheuser-Busch has not stopped with just the packaging, however. The company touts the fact that it tapped the talents of brewers from ten different nations to come up with Anheuser World Select. Brewmasters from China, The United States, Britain, Argentina, Korea, Japan, Spain, Canada, Italy, and Ireland all provided input for the formulation of Anheuser World Select.

Here is what August A. Busch IV has to say about his company’s new beer:

We challenged our top brewmasters representing 10 countries around the globe to collaborate and create something extraordinary. The result is Anheuser, a world class beer brewed fresh in America.

Obviously, all of this hype sets some rather grand expectations. So how does the beer actually stack up? When I decanted a bottle of World Select, it poured to a pale gold color with a light fizzy head and a faint malt nose. The palate is rather clean and light bodied, lighter than I would have expected in fact. There is some biscuity malt flavor and, thankfully, no unpleasant adjunct character. It is slightly sweet but becomes balanced in the finish by a slightly grassy, subtly bitter kiss of hops.

Overall, this is a step up from Budweiser or Michelob. I was a little disappointed, though, that it didn’t have a bit more malt and hop character. With ten brewmasters involved from around the world, I expected more. At $6.99 a six-pack, there are much better pilsners on the market, and I would take a Pilsner Urquell or a Warsteiner over Anheuser World Select any day. My beloved Barbara however, a Michelob drinker by habit, found World Select to be very agreeable.

For now, Anheuser World Select is only available in the following areas: Atlanta, Georgia (where I bought it); Denver, Colorado; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, California; New York City; Hawaii; Jersey Shore, NJ; Newport, Rhode Island; London and Hong Kong.

My final recommendation? Give World Select a try and form your own opinion. Mind you, it probably won’t live up to the hype. But it is definitely a step in the right direction.



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