Whatever Happened To Budweiser's Bud Dry Beer?

If anyone knows mass market beer, it's Anheuser-Busch. There's Bud, Bud Light, but Bud Dry doesn't come to mind when thinking of popular options. Designed to be a fresh take on the already established global sensation, Budweiser's Bud Dry was undoubtedly meant to make a lasting impression in the beer market. And if anything it would have been a better Budweiser option for making budget-friendly beer cheese dips. Ironically, the beer's original tagline, "comes on strong, then it's gone" proved prophetic rather than memorable.

The 80s were a major decade for the Budweiser with the brand kicking off the decade having produced 50-million-barrels. That same decade saw the inception of Bud Light and after the success of fellow Anheuser-Busch brand Michelob Dry in 1988, the Budweiser brand took a stab at its own dry beer. Bud Dry went out to select test markets in the spring of 1989, by April of the following year it was launched nationally. What separated Bud Dry from the rest of the Budweiser lineup was its total time spent fermenting via its signature DryBrew method. To give the beer a drier taste as its name would suggest, the fermentation process was drawn out giving the yeast more time to burn through the sugars in the malt and rice. The more sugar converted to alcohol or carbon dioxide, the drier the beer.

Bud Dry so far has been Budweiser's only venture into dry, more bitter beers. Bud and Bud Light have a lingering sweetness to them that coincide with the citrus and apple notes that linger on the palate. All common tasting notes in the greater light beer category. Unfortunately, 2010 saw the end of Bud Dry after years of profit decline and overshadowing from flashier releases like Budweiser Ice — which was released nationwide in 1994, just four short years after the nationwide rollout of Bud Dry — designed to be a stronger beer, featuring a higher alcohol content. Budweiser's goal for segmented marketing (multiple products, spanning different price points) with Bud Dry was meant to mimic the effectiveness of Bud Light competing with Michelob Light.

It appears that inter-brand segmented marketing between Bud Dry and Bud Ice was not the key to success they were hoping for, with too many competing Budweiser specific beers. Bud Ice was also discontinued in 2010, also for drooping profits. There's an online petition circulating for the return of Bud Dry, but Anheuser-Busch has not responded to the petition.