Black Crown was actually the winning beer of the 2012 Budweiser Project Twelve experimental series and was originally known as Batch No. 91406 (named after a Los Angeles zip code). The head brewmaster at the Los Angeles brewery, Bryan Sullivan, lead the development team for this winning beer. After choosing this recipe, Anheuser-Busch (a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch/InBev) spent a fair amount of time and money to brand, package, and roll out the Black Crown, to much fanfare. This beer's success is questionable, however, and it remains to be seen if it will remain on the market, long term.
Available in 12-oz. and 24-oz bottles, cans of various sizes, and on draft, this beer is an attempt by Anheuser-Busch to re-present and re-image malt liquors, as their Hurricane and King Cobra malt liquor brands are seen, incorrectly, as low-grade offerings, from the company. The original Budweiser malt liquor, Budweiser Malt Liquor, of the 1970s, was an all-malt beer (with no rice or corn adjuncts) and was presented as a higher-level or more polished extra-strong beer, and in its heyday enjoyed strong advertising attention. Although Black Crown television and radio commercials are now rarely seen, one will still encounter a fair amount of point-of-sale materials at beer outlets.
Brewed with a blend of two-row barley malt, four types of American hops, and rice, Black Crown, like all of the Budweiser family, is aged on beechwood chips.
Drinkers looking for an extra-strong beer, with the renowned Budweiser quality assurance, may find Budweiser Black Crown to be a good malt liquor option.
