That Budweiser Ad

You probably saw the Budweiser ad, if not during the Superbowl, then online. For the purposes of making this post stand on its own, or in case you've been living under a rock, here it is:

Aside from the fact that it smacks of desperation, it also shows that the folks over at Anheuser-Busch InBev really just aren't paying attention.

I bemoaned last week's announcement of AB-InBev's plans to acquire Elysian Brewing, but it's particularly funny given the ad's shot at the "fabricated, ludicrous flavor combination of pumpkin peach ale". You see, Elysian just brewed a pumpkin peach ale called "Gourdia On My Mind". They're making fun of the very thing they bought. Elysian's founders are not pleased, to say the least. This isn't the only thing in the ad that is tone-deaf. Paste has a pretty good takedown of the ad.

My favorite #TIL related to this is that while they do technically "beechwood age" their beer, meaning beechwood chips are added to the massive stainless steel lagering tanks where the beer cold-conditions, this doesn't appear to actually do anything to the flavor. In fact, they do everything they can to prevent it from affecting the flavor. From Wikipedia:

...there is little to no flavor contribution from the wood, mainly because they are boiled in sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) for seven hours for the very purpose of removing any flavor from the wood.

I guess if it actually did anything, we might have to "fuss over" it.

Craft beer fans have already fired back with their own parody ad:

The rest of the craft beer and related homebrewing worlds are reacting as you would expect when someone spends tens of millions of dollars trying to make fun of the competition that's poised to eat their lunch: with humor. Northern Brewer immediately put together a kit called "Peach Of Resistance", billed as "A beer to be fussed over".

"Sip away pretense with this fabricated, ludicrous flavor combination of succulent peach and earthy pumpkin. The Peach of Resistance is brewed the right way, with pure malted barley, the subtle bittering of All-American Magnum hops and just a touch of nonconformity."

Watching a business model flail around as it realizes its best days are behind it is kind of sad. But it can also be pretty funny.

Update: Austin Homebrew has a kit now too. "The Pumpkin Peach Ale is exactly what you think it is and It's fun to brew, not hard! It also doesn't mock the people it wishes would drink it." Oooh, burn.

Update 2: MillerCoors fires a shot.

Update 3: Ninkasi wants in on the action:

Update 4: Abita: