As the "Brewmaster", I have an opinion about the Budweiser dust up about adding water to their beer. Remember that 95% of beer is water. When and where the water is added is only the business of the "brewmaster". He is the cook. If the drinker does not like the beer, buy some other brand. Here is what I think happened.
It is difficult to hit the percentage of alcohol on the button in the brewing process. Like most brewers, they have tight spec's on the amount of alcohol. If they error on the side of too little alcohol, there is no way to correct the problem and beer has to be dumped. If the beer is too high in alcohol you can add water to bring the percentage of alcohol down to spec's. What would you do under this situation? Try to hit it right on or shoot a little high. Seems like a simple decision to me.
There is another side to this too. As an engineer, I would recommend that they brew strong beer and then add water at the end. Look at it this way. You have a lot of mashing and fermenting tanks that have a limited capacity. Rather than purchasing more capacity, it would seem logical to brew a stronger beer and then thin it down at the end. This is what they do with your "fresh" Orange juice. They squeeze the Oranges and then remove much of the water so that they do not need so many storage tanks or trucks to deliver the juice. Florida Orange juice goes to Chicago by tank truck where it is thinned down with water and bottled for your local store. Seems logical to me and it has been done this way for years and no lawyers got into the picture.
I went to a local distiller who made Gin and Vodka. It came out of the still at 95% or 190 proof. It was then thinned down with water to make it 40% or 80 proof. Do you hear anyone complaining?
You have to use your brain when the talking heads speak on TV.
