Caffeinated Beer Becomes a Reality

Cylar writes "CNN is reporting that Anheuser-Bush has developed a sweet, caffeinated beer they are dubbing B(E). Intended to compete with the trendy sweet concotions popular on the club scenes (such as Smirnoff Ice), it will contain caffeine, guarana, and ginseng." Not sure how I feel about ginseng in my brew, so I'll have to study this with a few cases.

Comments

New taste to acquire

[mirko]

Coffee is an acquired taste, so is beer, I guess one will have to learn to enjoy this beverage...

Re:New taste to acquire

[Handbrewer]

Beer might be an acquired taste. But please, do not brew a beer like this, id hate to see a new generation grow up thinking beer is like this. You can probably guess from my nick i appreciate a good, and often homebrewn, beer. It has taken me many years to taste my way through just a small portion of the beer spectrum, and its very enjoyable. But its not commercially viable to brew to so many tastes, so the big breweries just brew some variation of the Pilsner og light lager. Very booring, no wonder young people would rather have a Smirnoff Ice. But how about a good Brown Ale? Or IPA, or a well served Belgian Wit, like Hoegaarden? That beats anything, anyday, anytime :).

Heres hopeing that the next generation still drinks beer!

B(E)?

[Speare]

B(E)? The geek in me reads that as "B of E" and then turns that phonetically into BFE, a vulgar initialism for "bum f* egypt," meaning the middle of nowhere.

How do companies decide to call things by stupid unpronounceable names? Pentax *istD Olympus m:robe

Then you have the stupid names which are just too close to derogatory names. I'm not talking about creative stretches of normal words like "Back Orifice" or "Internet Exploder." I'm talking about nonsense turned into the nearest possible normal words. Olympus eVolt sounds revolting.

Re:Not a new thing...

[RupW]

Also, Dark Star Espresso Stout:

Specially blended and ground
espresso coffee beans are
added to the copper along with
the late hops to produce this
dark, rich stout.

I had a half of this at CAMRA's 2004 beer festival in London and it was pretty good. (But there were hundreds of beers to try.)

Re:Americans and Beer

[NeoSkandranon]

The big brands make what people like to drink, simply.

The majority of beer drinkers here in the states want something weak and tasteless that they can knock back ASAP and reach for another, thus accellerating their progression towards getting totally pissed (or at least pleasantly buzzed). Or at least this is what my friends and roommates have infromed me after asking how the hell they stand to drink the tan water that passes for beer here.

Now granted, I can see the reasnong behind wanting a not-strong/overpowering beer perhaps with food...but my idea of that is Harp or Newcastle, not Bud piss -in-a-bottle Light

(Disclaimer: I'm a college student)
(Disclaimer 2: I drink imported, microbrew, or nothing)

Re:Americans and Beer

[Creepy]

There's more to it than that.

US law prohibited small breweries before 1977. In 1977 that law was overturned (or repealed or something of that sort) and microbreweries and brewing in the home was permitted for the first time since pre-prohibition. That meant large breweries (the only ones allowed) had ~50 years to change US tastes to a cheap, bitter, rice-based wheat lager in a market they basically had a monopoly over (you had several choices from some core breweries, but they all were basically the same).

Microbreweries didn't take off until the mid-to-late 1980s and the reputation was their beers were bad - and to American US mass brewery tastes, they were right.

Most drinkers start in late high school or early college. Because those are generally lean times financially, the cheapest swill that does the job is chosen. That, of course, is usually the stuff put out by the largest breweries. Even after college, it's hard to turn down 2-for-1 taps for $1 when imports and microbrews go for $5 or more each at the same bar.

Incidentally, and ironically in a way, the custom-brewed beers (in my case, Leinenkeugel's Red) put out by major breweries were my gateway to imports and other quality beers (though I did have a Pete's Wicked Ale long before that, but nobody, including me, liked it). I also no longer like wheat lagers at all... ok, I admit there's a German wheat lager I like (it's like drinking bread), but that's it.

Re:Buzz Beer

[Creepy]

Guarana isn't an asian vegetable, though - it's a South American stimulant that is traditionally used to boost the sex drive.

Ginseng, native to Asia and North America both is reputably also an aphrodesiac (and promote well being, yada, yada yada).
I found a great quote here -

Don't take Ginseng and Ginseng mixtures with Coffee as it will accelerate the caffine effects on the body and can cause diarrhea.

So basically, they want you to get drunk, buzzing, and horny all at once. I would recommend against this one for most geeks, but you probably would match up well with someone drinking it ;)