Beer Ingredients
Glossary of Beer Terms
Find out what is IN Beer
Nutritional Information on A-B products
Beer is only as good as the ingredients used to brew it. At Anheuser-Busch, we use only the finest, natural ingredients, which we carefully inspect to ensure the quality of all of our products.
Anheuser-Busch uses a selected combination of six ingredients to brew our beer: barley malt, rice, corn, hops, brewer's yeast and water. Our brewmasters select the varieties of ingredients we believe are best suited for the various beers we are brewing.
The choice of ingredients is critical. Thanks to the conscientious quality control efforts by brewers such as Anheuser-Busch, beer drinkers can be assured that their brew is pure and that the taste will remain consistent beer after beer.
Barley Malt
Malt is the "soul" of all great beers. That's why Anheuser-Busch develops its own barley varieties through a barley breeding program. Anheuser-Busch is currently the largest private breeder of high-quality malting varieties in the United States. Our barley is bred specifically to provide the right balance of flavors for brewing. Most brewers simply purchase commercially available barley that can be used in a variety of ways. Our barley experts personally visit more than 2,500 barley fields to hand select the barley to be used in brewing Budweiser. The barley operations representatives personally walk the fields, randomly taking samples to assess each crop for properties such as color, texture, taste and general health and quality.
There are two basic types of malting barley. One produces two rows of kernels on each stalk, and the other yields six rows on each stalk. The flavor of the two varieties differs. Two-row barley malt produces a smoother, sweeter-tasting beer, and six-row barley produces a crisper, snappier flavor. The combination is adjusted by brewmasters to produce the right balance for Anheuser-Busch beers.
In a carefully controlled malting process, barley is cleaned and water is added allowing the barley to germinate (the barley is actually tricked into thinking it's spring and time to grow a plant). This germination of the barley begins the process of developing the enzymes required for the plant to use its store of carbohydrates for plant growth, but which we will use in the process of brewing beer. The germinated barley is kilned (heated in a controlled manner) to stop the germination process and to develop flavors which contribute to the taste of Anheuser-Busch beers.
Anheuser-Busch is one of the few breweries in the world which continues the time-honored tradition of malting much of its own barley. We operate three malt houses, in Idaho Falls, Idaho; Manitowoc, Wisconsin; and Moorhead, Minnesota, in the heart of America's barley growing regions.
Adjunct Grains
Barley malt is the only grain necessary in the brewing process. However, most American beers are supplemented with a percentage of unmalted cereal grains or grain-derived syrups, called adjuncts. Using adjuncts produces a paler-colored and lighter-bodied beer than can be achieved with all malt. Also, using adjuncts tends to increase the stability of beer after packaging.
Three principal adjuncts commonly used in the brewing process are milled rice, corn grits or syrups. Many brewers use equal amounts of adjuncts and malt in their brewing to reduce the cost of their products. The type and amounts of adjuncts used are governed by the desired flavor of the beer. Each grain contributes a different flavor to beer. Therefore, beer brewed with a corn adjunct generally contains a sweeter taste than one brewed with rice. Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob, Michelob Light and Michelob Dry are brewed with rice. Busch and Natural Light are brewed with a corn adjunct. Rice provides Budweiser with its characteristic lightness, crispness and refreshing taste. It provides a balance necessary to Budweiser's trademark "drinkability." It is an extra and more expensive part of the brewing process than using malt alone.
Hops
Hops, the cone-shaped clusters of blossoms from the vine-like hop plant, are the "spice" of beer, imparting their own special aroma, flavor, and character. At Anheuser-Busch, we use only the choicest imported and domestic hops, hand selected from the world's finest fields in Europe, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Our commitment to quality hops is demonstrated by our ownership of hop farms in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and in the world-renowned Hallertau region of Germany.
Throughout history, many spices have been used to flavor beer. But hops had a natural preservative quality. Beers made with hops tasted fresher and lasted longer. Because beers flavored with other spices tended to spoil, eventually hops became the overwhelmingly preferred "spice" of beer. Hops also provide beer with its characteristic bitterness. Many brewers buy hops based solely on their bitterness characteristics.
Anheuser-Busch selects its hop varieties based additionally on the other flavor and aroma characteristics of the hops. Selecting hops in this way is more expensive. Anheuser-Busch brewmasters hand blend as many as 15 types of hops to achieve the distinct flavors and aromas of each beer brand. In the case of Budweiser, as many as 10 varieties are blended to contribute to its flavor.
In brewing Budweiser and most of Anheuser-Busch's beers, only natural whole hop blossoms are used. They are hand blended into each brewkettle. This traditional method allows brewmasters to evaluate the quality of the all-natural hop blossoms at the time o f brewing. Many brewers use commercially produced processed hop products.
Brewer's Yeast
Yeast is probably the most important and least understood ingredient in American lager beers. The brewer's yeast used in Budweiser and all Anheuser-Busch beers has been protected over decades. Each of the company's 12 local breweries is supplied from one carefully maintained, pure-culture system to provide consistency and quality.
Yeast is a living organism that ferments the brew of grains and water into an elegantly flavored beer. When added to unfermented brew, yeast uses natural sugars, proteins and other nutrients -- produced by grains and water in the brewing process -- to pro duce unique flavor components as well as alcohol and natural carbonation. The unique and delicate flavors imparted by high-quality yeast, balanced with the attributes of other natural ingredients, provide Budweiser with its crisp and clean taste and aroma . Some heavier beers brewed without the benefit of our yeast must rely more on the overpowering taste attributes of various other ingredients.
The fermentation process additionally produces more identical yeast. Over many "generations," yeast can evolve just as people and other living things do. Eventually the flavors produced could therefore change. Our pure-culture system allows us to maintain the purity and integrity of the yeast... keeping it essentially identical to the original yeast culture from which it came. To maintain this integrity, Anheuser-Busch stores its culture yeast in liquid nitrogen at -320° Fahrenheit. To maintain quality an d consistency of Budweiser throughout the world, a fresh supply of this culture yeast is flown to each of our 12 local breweries on a weekly basis.
The yeast used in Budweiser and other Anheuser-Busch beers today is directly descended from the original Budweiser yeast culture used before the turn of the century by Adolphus Busch.
Water
Water is, by far, the largest component of finished beer -- approximately 92 percent.
At each Anheuser-Busch brewery, water is highly filtered to remove any hint of impurities or flavors that may be present even in the highest-quality water supplies. These filtration systems vary with the quality and flavor of locally available water.
Anheuser-Busch brewmasters hold water "tastings" daily to assure the quality of water used in brewing. In fact, the brewmasters taste almost as much water as they do finished beer. Even water used in rinsing bottles and cans is tasted, tested and analyzed , and must meet Anheuser-Busch's quality standards.