What hops does Budweiser use?
I was going to guess “maybe Cascade”, but then I did find these:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/1ycvv3/what_hops_yeast_stains_are_used_in_commercial/
“When I was on the Bud brewery tour I asked what kind of hops they use in Budweiser, the person giving the tour said Saaz.”
“Adolphus Busch in 1876 was… trying to make a high quality beer (as proved by Budweiser’s use of expensive Saaz hops)”
The real answer though in the 21st century is probably closer to “isomerized hop extract”, from who-cares-what hop. Whatever’s cheapest. I would think that’s the reality. Then, if given the choice of which iso extract they use, if they are all equally inexpensive, then maybe it’s Saaz. Maybe.
Actually, I think they blend something like 27 varieties, so get a homogeneous product that doesn’t change batch to batch. They have huge hop farms.
Yeah, that’s consistent with my thinking. The Saaz thing might in fact apply to the original recipe only, from 1876. The year now is, well, much later than that. Times change.
I have read it is more like 12 varaieties. That changes with time, they used to buy a bunch of Willamette, but stopped around 2008/2009.
The Elk Mountain hop farm in Idaho is big, around 1800 acres. What I have read recently is that much of that has gone to American aroma varieties for the captive excraft breweries.
AB used to use a lot of willamette and cascade. Then went to oil with the whole inbev thing.
But I was told by a grower in OR (circa 2014) that they are getting back into whole leaf.
I asked a Budweiser brewer that question once, back in the 1990s, and he told me they used 11 varieties.
Best thing I’ve seen in a while…
“captive excraft breweries”
I was told that they wave a ho cone in front of the kettle and if the shadow of the hop falls on it, that’s enough
I’m working on a “double” version of a bud type beer for a piece I’m working on for Zymurgy. I went ahead and just used a blend of liberty and hersbrucker to 30 IBUs.
Does the ho pimp know what the ho cone is doing?