Budweiser Chill Chamber

The concept here is to serve good ole' Budweiser products (Bud, Bud Lite, Bud Select) at a temperature below usual freezing temperature - so your beer is more than ice cold. The creators (Anheuser-Busch and Hussman Refrigeration) say chilling the beer to 22F (-5.5C) is possible through a new "sophisticated cooling system". I don't know enough about physics to figure out how this happens, but I do know that this is the first time I've been able to drink a 22 ouncer and not have it taste like warm yak spit by the time I'm finished. On first opening, the beer really is noticeably colder and crisper. Those of you with sensitive teeth will feel some pain. Also, slamming one of these does result in a mild ice-cream headache. Fortunately, the can isn't cold enough to freeze your lips to the mouth of the bottle when you drink (though, I have to admit, I tried to get that result.) The local bar with this setup charges $6 a bottle for this, so the economy is good (they charge $4 for a 12 oz bud). All in all I think this is a "good" thing.

Postscript: About 3 months after I originally wrote the above words, I ran into a rather drunk Anheuser-Busch sales rep hovering around the Chill Chamber. He told me rather frankly that "It's all a big marketing gimmick." - Basically a response to the Coors "cold bottle turns blue" thing. He elaborated by saying that "any major American Brewery is gonna admit that their beer tastes like crap at anything above 40F. This helps... but its still all just branding." Interesting. Still, I give this a "good" because I like Budweiser... and if I can save some coin by buying a larger bottle without ending up drinking 10 ounces of warm backwash at the end, I'm happy.

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