Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Friendsgiving + Budweiser Project 12.


“I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Millennial Central for Budweiser. I received a product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.”

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, our supper club threw our first Friendsgiving! It was such a hit, that I'm pretty sure it will turn into an annual thing. A turkey was fried, plenty of sides were made, and even though there probably wasn't any room left in our bellies, dessert was gobbled up. 
Don't you love the cute plate settings Emily made??
 
While everyone was arriving, I set up a little beer tasting that I received from Budweiser in exchange to review their new set of special edition Project 12 beers! Millenial Central provided me with a 12-pack of the beers, tasting glasses, burlap coasters, and a chalk serving board! The perfect set up!
 

The second edition of Project 12 all started in early spring last year. Twelve brewmasters crafted their own special recipes of a beer they thought would be worthy of the Budweiser name. From there, six of the beers were chosen to move on to a summer-long national sampling by 25,000 people.The three beers that received the highest ratings were named after their zip codes that they were originally brewed in. 

They were:

Budweiser Batch No. 43229 (Columbus, Ohio) - Beechwood Bock:
"A deep amber lager brewed with chocolate and caramel malts and finished on beechwood chips."

Budweiser Batch No. 94534 (Fairfield, California) - North Pacific Lager:  
"A bold lager brewed with a unique blend of north pacific hop varieties."

Budweiser Batch No. 23185 (Williamsburg, Virginia) Vanilla Bourbon Cask: 
 "A light-amber all-malt bourbon cask lager aged on bourbon staves and vanilla beans and with an ABV of 5.5 percent."

I asked everyone what their favorite beer out of the sampler was and kept track with tally marks. My favorite was the vanilla bourbon cask, which I had a feeling it would be. I love a flavored beer. My least favorite was the north pacific lager - never been a fan of the hoppy beers, but as predicted, it was my dad's favorite! Beechwood bock was definitely the crowd favorite, and a close runner up for me. The darker beers that don't exactly taste dark and heavy to me, are always winners in my book.

 These three beers can now be found in a 12-pack sampler!

Have you seen this sampler pack in your stores?
Which one is your favorite??

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9 comments :

  1. Friendsgivings are so fun! Such a great tradition to start.

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  2. I hadn't seen these but I'll have to look out for them - I'm glad big companies are beginning to see the popularity in craft brews.
    Also, that food looks delish!
    - Catherine

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  3. Vanilla bourbon cask?? YUM! What a super fun idea to have the beer tasting and the Friendsgiving all in one. Looks like there was a TON of yummy food!

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  4. My mom made the same placemats! Love them! I haven't heard of the 12 pack sampler, but have to let Brian know about it. He'd love it!

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  5. How fun is this!? I love the chalkboard platter they sent!

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  6. This is TOO much fun! We host a friendsgiving each year, but a beer tasting?! A perfect addition! :)

    wordsaboutwaverly.blogspot.com

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  7. free beer? sign me up! This is a super fun idea

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  8. The table and food look SO good. Not huge on beer these days, but those burlap coasters would look nice under my stemless Pinot :)

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