5 million dollar lawsuit against an Anheuser Busch:

[Hop Bomb]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21600953

"Beer drinkers in the US have filed a $5m (£3.3m) lawsuit accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its beer.

The lawsuits, filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states, claim consumers have been cheated out of the alcohol content stated on beer labels.

The suit involves 10 Anheuser-Busch beers including Budweiser and Michelob.

Anheuser-Busch InBev have called the claims "completely false", and said in a statement "our beers are in full compliance with labelling laws".

[Eoin]

It should be easy enough to prove with a spectrometer.

[Hop Bomb]

Anyone who has drank it can testify that it is watery piss. No need for tests haha

[loftybush]

It should be easy enough to prove with a spectrometer.

I was thinking exactly this, can any members with access to a spectrometer do a bit of research?

[Hop Bomb]

Ive got one but Ive no bud though.

(got a cheap one on dx.com - its deadly!)

http://dx.com/p/portable-refractometer-black-961125251

edit:  Are spectrometers &  refractometers similar/same?

[Eoin]

Ive got one but Ive no bud though.

(got a cheap one on dx.com - its deadly!)

http://dx.com/p/portable-refractometer-black-961125251

edit:  Are spectrometers &  refractometers similar/same?

No, not at all.

A spectrometer works at the level of the chemical makeup.
Basically they shoot a light through the material being scanned and can tell you extremely accuratly what the makeup of the material is, percetages to a very high degree of accuracy. Your average spectrometer is probably about half the size of your car.

[Saruman (Reuben Gray)]

We can't really test it, none of ours are brewed in the US AFAIK.

[Hop Bomb]

No, not at all.

A spectrometer works at the level of the chemical makeup.
Basically they shoot a light through the material being scanned and can tell you extremely accuratly what the makeup of the material is, percetages to a very high degree of accuracy. Your average spectrometer is probably about half the size of your car.

Ill get me coat. 

[Eoin]

High gravity brewing? Watering down is par for the course?

Yeah, but they are watering it down lower than the values on the labels, so they really are watering it down.

The idea of high gravity brewing is not touched upon at all, although that's probably what makes it so easy to do, just dilute past the stated levels...kerching, with their volumes 0.2-0.3% would make a large difference to their margins.