Tap Handle #843: Anheuser-Busch

November 12, 2024

Tap Handle #843: Anheuser-Busch - American Hop Ale

Tap size: 10.75"

Rarity: beer retired, readily available

Mounting: 3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

Back in 2012, profile #65 featured Anheuser-Busch's Faust tap handle. I talked about how in 1995, Anheuser-Busch decided to bring back some old recipes for a limited run...they called this series the "American Originals". The first beer was called Black and Tan, and the tap featured a lion fighting a bear (which will be profiled here soon). The second was Faust. The third was Muenchener, which had a tap featuring a large eagle and a medallion (that will be profiled here in the near future as well). The fourth and final beer in the American Originals series was American Hop Ale, and is the subject of this post. I found my American Hop Ale tap in an antique store in Seattle for a great price. At the top of the tap is a large red "A" with a star above it and an eagle flying through the letter. This is the A-B symbol. Below that is a sign bearing the name of the beer. The rest of the tap is made up of bronze-colored hops, hop vines, hop leaves, and stalks of barley. A red, white and blue ribbon circles the tap, above the hops but behind the sign.

I get what the designers were going for here - a classic, patriotic look with a focus on the A-B symbol and the red, white & blue ribbon - but they really didn't do themselves any favors. The essence of tap design is to make a tap stand out from other taps. While the the A-B symbol and the ribbon somewhat accomplish this, the bronze-colored parts of the tap are a muddled, indistinct mess unless you are up close to the tap and can see the fine detail. This makes it hard to determine what you are looking at, and keeps the tap from really standing out. The hops should have been painted green and the barley a golden yellow - a repaint using this color scheme was on the list for Museum Restoration Expert Kelly to work his magic on, but sadly he never got to it. From a manufacturing perspective, it's certainly cheaper to use a 4 color palette (and faster to paint as well), and again I understand the "vintage" look...I just don't agree with it. When placed alongside the other American Originals taps, it is easily my least favorite, but I still like the tap and it's cool to have all 4 in the collection. I should mention there's a plain, non-figural version as well. The figural tap has seen wild swings in price, from a low of $10 (in 2018) to a high of $140 (in 2015). The most recent sales have been in the $30-$45 range, and several can easily be found on the secondary market for purchase.

Anheuser-Busch's American Hop Ale was the last of the American Originals beers brewed by A-B's Specialty Brewing Group. It was a deep amber/brown ale, malty, but not sweet, with an intense hop bitterness and floral, spicy hop aroma. Made with American 2-Row malt, 40 dL Briess Caramel malt, Briess Black Patent Malt (just enough to give the beer some color depth), and Cluster and American Fuggle hops (the only American hops that were available in the 1890’s), it was dry hopped with more American Fuggles.