Walking point

Curious about the Budweiser foray into ale? Don "Joe Sixpack" Russell can give you the lowdown on this beer due to get pushed in September by bartenders whose employers went out on a limb and put it on tap.

After some searing commentary regarding the brew's liner notes, Don's blog entry gets down to brass tacks and tells you how it tastes. (We won't spoil it, just read it for yourself.)

But our prediction: Budweiser American Ale will be DOA. Why? Just based on a comment made to us at a party over the weekend when we offered some Climax ESB for tasting: "No thanks, I don't do dark beers."

Neither do Bud and Coors drinkers, nor fans of skunky Heineken. They're like Tareyton smokers (would rather fight than switch). And people already drinking craft beer, who may be slightly curious about the new kid, aren't switching, either. They've got far richer landscapes to explore from sources far more reliable than one they've been looking at with disdain for better than a decade now.

Plus in the modern business world, new owners who financed a $50 billion acquisition are probably going to really trim the bottom line and clean up the balance sheet by concentrating on core brands and quickly kill the marginal performers in the portfolio. Budweiser American Ale has that sword hanging over its foamy head, we suspect.