Review: Budweiser Prohibition Brew Non-alcoholic beer



As of July 2020, Prohibition has been discontinued in favour of Budweiser Zero. Click here for my review of Zero

"Cody, why the hell are you reviewing an Anheuser Busch InBev product? And why the hell are you reviewing a non-alcoholic 'beer' at that? You sure seem like a sellout to me." Eff that. The point of this Cranky Beer Blogger's blog in the first place is to try anything new that I get my hands on. In cases like AB-InBev products, usually I'd relegate them to Skunksworth's Barleyslime. However, this is the very first non-alcoholic beer I've reviewed since AB InBev's O'Doul's Amber beer. I feel like non-alcoholic or extremely low alcoholic beers will be more commonplace in the next few years seeing that breweries are constantly trying to innovate and test something new.

Today, I'm taking on Budweiser's Prohibition Beer. Apparently Budweiser's Prohibition is currently only available in Canada through Labatt, so time will tell if this will hit Anheuser Busch's home market in the States if this does well here in Canada. Prohibition is rated as being 0.0% ABV, so not a hint of alcohol at all, but I'm not sure how they're able to make it completely alcohol free as most other non-alcoholic beers top out at a max of 1.0%

Appearance: To me, this looks like your typical Budweiser beer. It's a crisp, yellow straw beer with a lot of micro-carbonation, a thin amount of white creamy head, just like a regular Bud.

Aroma: First thing I notice is a bit of a sweet corn aroma with a bit of mashed barley, a bit grassy, a light malt hint in the background. For the most part, they were able to replicate the Budweiser recipe to a great extent, sans-alcohol. Hint of bubble gum.

Taste: What I'm finding here is that there's a sweet creamed corn taste to it, a hint of bubble gum, grassy, grainy barley, no noticeable hop presence. The creamed corn taste seems to linger around for a very long time, eventually turning into an annoying metallic/cream corn after taste (leaving behind a bit of a film on my tongue). A bit sweeter than your typical Budweiser.

Overall Thoughts: What surprises me is how much it tastes like an actual can of Budweiser, so serious props to the folks over at Labatt, if someone poured this in a glass only to tell me it's a Bud, I wouldn't have thought it was anything else. That said, Budweiser sucks. I do recommend those for those who do like the taste of Budweiser. Seeing that Labatt's products are nearly on every single tap in every bar and restaurant in Canada, I'm expecting to see this available on tap in the near future. It's priced identically to their alcoholic version at $2.61 per 473mL can so that's a bit excessive. $9.69 per 6-pack of 355mL cans, so only 40ish cents cheaper than a 6-pack of Labatt Extra Dry.

Budweiser Prohibition availability as of 2019: Budweiser Prohibition is easy to find throughout Canada. It's available at just about every liquor/beer store that carries Budweiser/Labatt products. You can find it at Manitoba Liquor Marts, LCBO, etc. Also, Budweiser Prohibition is easy to find at your local supermarket in either the non-alcoholic section or near the soda section. Many sporting venues serve the beer and you can find Prohibition either on tap or in can at restaurants, bars and pubs throughout Canada. 

If you're looking for other non-alcoholic beers, I did a quick review of two others.

Ingredients: De-alcoholized beer, malt extract, natural flavours, hop extract, phosphoric acid. 

200 calories per 473mL serving - twice the amount of calories Molson 67 for those who want to diet and still drink beer. 

http://budweiser.ca/en/prohibitionbrew

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12 comments:

Unknown said...

I might just try Bud Prohibition. If they managed to give it a flavor similar to some German NA brews (Krombacher, Erdinger, Clausthaler, Warsteiner) which are surprisingly accurate in pilsner flavor and a more-than-decent option to a full brew,I'll have no complaints.

(I don't know what sorcery goes on at the aforementioned breweries,but they truly do 0% abv justice, with only small hints of vegetable soup or mineral water to detract from an otherwise pleasant quaffable.)

Ultra said...

Why does the government let them get away with not telling us what the ingredients of dealcoholized beer are? If you analyze it in a lab for sure you will find that it has corn fructose in it because each can has 2 grams of sugar in it. This is a scam. It has more calories than a soft drink. I will keep drinking my 0.00% alcohol no sugar 60 calorie Becks dealcoholized beer from Germany.

Vincent Meloche said...

With those comments in mind I'll recommend to my non alcool drinking girlfriend to try the Beck before the Bud.

Unknown said...

Terrific, if you like a Bud you will enjoy this, good job and chip chip as we say in jolly old E.

The Halal Gourmet said...

Vacuum distillation can remove alchol to 0.0% also not fermenting the ingredients. There are quite a few (mainly wine) products using this method. Most notably dry gourmet in the US, Kevser Tabak in the UK and some company in Spain.

K Blocksdorf said...

My husband has health problems so no alcohol for him. He's dying for a beer, poor man. Def going to check this out. Thanks for your review.

Unknown said...

I had a Beck's NA not too long ago as we were out for dinner and I was driving. I sent the first bottle back as I literally thought it was skunky. Alas, the second bottle wasn't much better. I do drink regular Beck's occasionally so I am not unfamiliar with the taste. I am going to try this and see if I can stand it. I'm hoping I can because it would be a great option. Luckily the local bar that I frequent is very friendly and if I say I'm driving they are quite happy to give me ice water, if this doesn't pan out.

Hopeful said...

Personally, I would love to see a non-alcohol beer that tastes like the real thing, as I love the taste of beer, but have a liver problem, so therefore cannot drink the real thing, so I would be very happy to see Budweiser or Coors come out with one in Canada!

Hopeful said...

Personally, I would love to see a non-alcohol beer that tastes like the real thing, as I love the taste of beer, but have a liver problem, so therefore cannot drink the real thing, so I would be very happy to see Budweiser or Coors come out with one in Canada!

Cody Lobreau said...

@Hopeful - I also reviewed a few other Non-alcoholic beers available in Canada not long after this: http://www.beercrank.ca/2016/08/three-non-alcoholic-beers-worth.html My favourite was the Krombacher!

canuckken said...

I am surprised you say it actually taste like regular Budweiser. I can drink regular Budweiser but I cannot drink this stuff and I am not a fussy beer drinker. I only had one other near beer a few years ago (the brand escapes my memory) but I believe it tasted more like beer than the Budweiser.

Unknown said...

Much too sweet for me won't be drinking it again