New Bud Light Platinum to Have More Alcohol Than Regular Budweiser

Come January, you may finally be able to get drunk off Bud Light.

I like cheap beer. I’ll go to a bar with a friend who has a mature palate and watch him scan a three-page beer list and pop questions to the bartender about hops and nutty undertones before eventually ordering something I’ve never heard of, such as an Allagash Tripel. Then, after no deliberation at all, I’ll lean over the bar and ask for a BL Lime. I know it’s like announcing, “Nice to meet you, I’m a redneck,” but I’m okay with that. I like what I like.

But besides giving myself away as a necker, drinking Bud Light products (Bud Light Chelada also makes the rotation) poses another challenge: I have to drink about twice as fast as my friends—sometimes faster—to keep up with their buzz. In the case of Allagash Tripel, which boasts a 9% ABV, I actually have to drink more than double-speed. That’s the thing about Bud Light—with only 4.2% ABV, you have to virtually chug the stuff to feel any favorable effects. With that kind of pressure, the 110 “light” calories add up fast.

Come January, Anheuser-Busch InBev will introduce a new product to help solve these pesky problems—Bud Light Platinum, a beer with a 6% ABV and 137 calories. It’s more alcoholic than regular Bud Light and Budweiser (5%), and falls midway calorically (Budweiser has 145 cals).

According to L.A. Times, Anheuser-Busch may be responding to beer-drinkers’ evolving tastes:

Some beer enthusiasts suggest that Platinum is Anheuser-Busch’s attempt to take advantage of growing interest in craft beers, whose popularity has also sparked a recent boom in beer gardens and micro-breweries.

As overall U.S. beer sales by volume slipped 1% last year, the craft beer industry grew by 11%, according to the Brewers Assn. trade group.

As a Bud Light drinker, I’m intrigued by the new Bud Light Platinum, which promises to get me almost as drunk as my friends without having to pee every 13 minutes.

My hope: that it still tastes like slightly flavored, mildly carbonated water like the old Budweiser products. I’d hate to see the King of Beers sacrifice their poor though familiar quality in their efforts to stay on top.