Budweiser is brewed using rice, barley malt, water, hops and yeast. It is lagered with beechwood chips in the aging vessel, which, according to Budweiser, creates a smoother taste. While rice will produce a "clean finish", it is an ingredient utilized by many brewers because it is a less expensive ingredient than malted barley, rye, or other grains. Anheuser-Busch was also one of the few breweries during Prohibition that had the resources and financial wherewithal to convert to "cereal beer" production - malt beverage made with non-fermentables such as rice and unmalted barley and rye, and able to stay under the 0.5% limit established by the Volstead Act. Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the major breweries continued to use unmalted cereal grains to provide the full body and mouthfeel of a "real" beer while keeping the alcohol content low. Budweiser and Bud Light are vegan beers, in that their ingredients and conditioning do not use animal byproducts. However they are sponsors of some rodeos, causing some vegans and vegetarians to boycott the beer anyway.

Beechwood chips are used to simulate the effects of aging or "lagering" in hardwood barrels. Originally, American lagers were put into oak or beechwood barrels and stored in cool, dark locations through the summer - a process called lagering (this is one of the reasons why St. Louis was a popular location for European brewers - the caves). Continental Lagers, the style on which Budweiser is based, were brewed in Spring and allowed to lager through the Summer to be served in the Fall, earning them the name "Maerzen" for March, or Oktoberfest lager because of when they were served. Since modern brewing practices eschew the practice of lagering in order to get a beer to market as quickly as possible (and therefore earn back the return on investment), the beer is pressure soaked with beechwood chips to get the chemical compounds in the beechwood that would normally leech out slowly over several months, giving the beer a faux "beechwood aged" flavor.


рис и опилки)))