I had it only one time before I quit drinking, and I agree with Sully… It’s pure piss.
American beers remain somewhat bland and tasteless because that’s what sells. It doesn’t mean they are bad, it just means you don’t like them, obviously many, many people do like them, otherwise they wouldn’t sell so well.
Personally I prefer hoppier beers, most people I know don’t like the same kind of beers, since they are bitter to the taste. Strong IPAs and English bitters styles are favorites. However, you give me a choice between a $2 Bud Lite and a $5 Heineken, what do you think I am going to drink? Damn straight. Give me the Bud Light.
When you compare American beers to other examples of the classic Czech pilsners, they don’t taste too different, either.
You can blame the government and prohibition for this state. Pre-prohibition, there were 18 breweries in the area where I live alone, and an astronomical number of breweries nationwide, all banging out their favorite beers. You didn’t get Bud Light, you got Schneller’s Pale Ale, or Smitty’s Dark.
If you don’t like the American style pilsners, then drink something else, you have the choice. There is no reason to drink a beer you don’t like, unless you don’t have the cash.
However, I will stand by my original statement beer = good. It’s an ancient and time honored drink, and a favorite of peasants and Emperor’s alike.
And, opinions on beer cannot be formulated by a non-beer drinker. Like wine tasting, the art of beer tasting takes years of experience, not to mention it’s extraordinarily subjective.
I’m curious, what do you guys drink? I rarely ever drink beer(I much prefer rum) but when I do its purely to be social and it usually is one of the beers(or blands of piss if you prefer) you guys are striking down. So I’m curious as to what you guys drink(maybe I’m missing something). And please don’t say beer flavored coffee(aka Guinness) b/c I waved bye to that long ago.
Sorry, meant to also ask this: what exactly is the nutritional value of alcohol? Now I know that sounded stupid but let me explain. Some of my friends always wonder what alcohol does nutrition wise and I tell them it has 7 calories per gram but what I would like to know is what are its chances to being converted into bodyfat once its in the body? Is it like eating alot of carbs and fat and causes a huge insulin spike and stores the calories present as fat or is it even worse? It certainly seems to cause fat gain but I’m not certain of anything. Thanks guys.
Shaf-
“American beers remain somewhat bland and tasteless because that’s what sells. It doesn’t mean they are bad, it just means you don’t like them, obviously many, many people do like them, otherwise they wouldn’t sell so well.”
No, not really. You see, there are well crafted beers and there are beers that are poorly crafted. The mass produced American beers are bad. Not because I don’t like the taste of them, but because they can use various preservatives, low quality adjuncts, etc. in their beers. It’s like saying a Yugo is just as good as a BMW, it’s just a matter of preference. Prohibition, the depression, and WWII destroyed the smaller breweries, and the ones that survived were simply the “biggest game in town” so to speak. Because people buy them certainly does not mean that they are good, for the better part of this century there had been no other alternatives. CAMRA wasn’t former because the mass produced beers were great, or even good, quite the opposite.
The fact that you choose Heineken, perhaps Hollands shittiest import, as your example of a foreign beer is funny. You can’t possibly think I was talking about Heineken.
If you can’t tell the different between , say, a Bud light and a Golden Pheasant, you would either have to be dead or in a coma.
At this years Boston Beer Summit, there was a reason why beers such as Bud and Coors were not there, and why Spaten, for example, was and it’s not a coincidence.
Who said I am not a beer drinker? In fact, if you look on my bay window sill right now you will see 159 empty bottles of some of the finest beers in the world. I am certainly a beer drinker, and have lived in Germany, as well as spending time in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, the Czech Republic, etc. exploring the numerous breweries and brew pubs in these places.
KJohnson-
I drink a wide variety of beers, some of them are kinda esoteric, but here are a few:
-Pripps Carnegie Porter
-Samichlaus
-Schneider Weissen Edel-Weis
-Rochefort 10
-Orval
-Golden Pheasant
-George Gale’s Proze Old Ale
-Fuller’s Vintage Ale (1999 preferably)
-Ayinger Celebrator
-Jever
-Duvel
-Aventinus
-Westvleteren Abt 12
-Lion Stout
Ok, I’d better stop, I’ll be here all night.
I am not an accomplished beer drinker by any stretch, admittedly, but I know piss when I taste it.
Domestically, and somewhat cheaply, I like Yuengling and Rolling Rock (Rolling Rock is a lot better from a keg than it is from the bottle, though).
Pabst at $10 for a 30 pack cannot be beat. It is piss, make no mistake, but cheap piss. Sometimes, that’s all you’re after.
I was in Ireland a couple of years ago. The old timers were drinking, you guessed it, Guinness pints. The youg folks were drinking Budweiser. Kind of hard to believe.
I’m entirely with Sully. Especially on Duvel.
The one nice thing about the NW are all the micro brews available. My god, there are soooooo many goooooood beers here that a “wonder what that Michelob tastes like” NEVER comes to mind. Why would it?
BTW: if you’re gonna drink a goddamn beer, drink a goddamn beer. And that Michelob ain’t a goddamn beer, it’s piss water.
I personally drink a variety of summit seasonal mixes, from pale ale to maybach to octoberfest.
Don’t drink the mass market stuff, or at least haven’t since college when my goal was only to have a few too many…
Last time I visited the US, I visited some breweries. I was shaocked to find they didn’t actually brew the beer.
They actually filled troughs with Fosters and put Budweiser buckets under the camels that were drikning from it.
Oddly, we did the same thing with Tooheys to get Fosters…
The only thing worse than a beer snob is a coffee snob.
I know what a “premium” import is. I have several friends who are craft brewers, so I know what a “premium” homebrew is.
Heineken was simply the first reference that came to mind. I have spent extensive amounts of time in Belgium and the Netherlands, and the Belgiums take their beer very seriously indeed.
sierra nevada pale ale is a great beer. nice and hoppy. same with anchor steam.
but for lower calorie drinks, forget beer and have some vodka w/crystal lite or diet tonic. vodka gets me drunk faster and u dont have to have as many.