I’ll step up to the plate for Queuing and say that he’s right, most American beers suck. But in the vernacular we’re speaking we’re talking by volume, not by label. So by volume (how millions of barrels?) American beer is defined as the Budweisers and Millers and other horrendous trash. If you want to talk “by label” then a quick trip to the local brewpub indicates that most American beer is good in fact. But it’s not universally available, and by sheer volume it sucks.
But you know what? Beer companies are exceptionally good (meaning profitable) at selling their beer. The sheer volume is a result of demand for this swill. We don’t have American beer companies (well, Miller is South African now) anxiously trying to play catchup to the Japanese import beers. They’ve pegged their market and they know what their customers want. We’ve seen the enemy, and the enemy is us!
You know, in the USA I buy purely Labatt Blue by the keg (and some bottled micros). It’s one of the beers that “defines” Canadian beer to us Americans. But did you know that if you go to The Beer Store anywhere in Ontario you can obtain wonderful Canadian beers that make Blue seem American? But by volume Blue is what defines “all” Canadian beers.
Sadly, Corona is what defines all Mexican beers. The same company produces Modelo Especial which is vastly superior but most of us have no idea what it is. And even that’s not the best mass-produced Mexican beer.
Indeed it does. It’s called Miller High Life. Seriously, go to one of the marts that allow to you mix and match your own six pack out of loose beers. Get any four decent beers that you like, and get one each of High Life and Corona. Have someone pour each into a seperate, but identical glass. Give them the old blind taste test. I defy you to be able to tell one from the other.
I wouldn’t even have to taste them, I could tell the difference by the aroma. And I might not have to go that far, it’s quite possible I could tell them apart by sight.
I already mentioned this in the footnote to my first post in this thread, where I said, “Unless you’re speaking only of volume, not of styles, brands, breweries, or any other measure, in which case ‘most’ of the beer produced elsewhere in the world ain’t that hot either. Been to Japan, Canada, Mexico, or France lately?”
I’ve got to disagree with the “not universally available” statement. In my experience all over this country (the U.S., that is), there are very, very few stores that sell beer that don’t sell some good and some bad. The local grocery store here has a refrigerated section for beer that’s probably 24 feet long. Half of it is tasteless or near-tasteless lager (Bud, Miller, Coors, various light beers, Moosehead, Corona, Sapporo…) and the other half is “real” beer, much of it American (Sierra Nevada, Moose Drool, Fat Tire, Anchor, Troutslayer, Full Sail, Redhook, Pyramid…).
It really doesn’t take much looking to find good American beer. This is a town of only 2,300 people, and you can find at least a dozen tasty American craft-brewed beers on draft, and another couple of dozen in bottles.
Depends on the liquor store, of course, and in general, most supermarkets with a liquor section won’t allow you to do this (at least most that I’ve seen), but the local liquor stores often have mix-and-match deals.
I know you can do it at both Dominicks (big local chain supermarket for those outside Chicagoland) in Schaumburg, and at the Dominicks in Aurora on New York St.
It’s not all that great. I think it’s $7.50 for the six, but you can’t have more than 2 of any one kind of bottle, and the selection available doesn’t make this the greatest deal in the world. My girlfriend likes it when she doesn’t know what she wants. The selection runs mostly toward sugar drinks like Mike’s and cheap skunks like St. Pauli Girl
Then you’re a better man than I, and most that I’ve pulled this one on. I’ve converted a fair share of Corona drinkers to the much cheaper High Life With Lime.
Negro Modelo is made by the same company I think. It is one of the greatest “light” dark beers I’ve ever had. Special memories for me because my wife and I drank a lot of it on our honeymoon in Saipan.
Ahhm supermarkets with beer. Here with have things called “The Beer Store” where all you can get is beer, only in set 6 packs (or 12s or 24s). No liquor.
We also have Liquor Stores, but they are called LCBO’s. Here you can get liqour and beer, but the beer has very limited selection, and you can’t get more then a 6-pack. You can buy multiple 6 packs though. Supposedly the LCBO is the world’s largest purchaser of Liquor in the world (sorry no cite, something I have read in the newspaper when the bi-annual arguement about whether to privatize it).
Both of these establishments are government owned.
Since we have already hijacked this thread, I would like to further hijack it and ask; Is it easy to make beer using one of those home brew kits? As well, how is the beer that comes from these things?
Depends. The BEER MACHINE is pretty easy. Easy as buying milk in a bag:D (gotta get my Kanada joke in).
The problem is, making beer from a kit is usually expensive. More expensive than just buying it. And there is sometimes no way of knowing how old the ingredients are. Old stock makes for crappy brew.
If you’re going to home brew, buy a real kit and use fresh ingredients. It’s still pricey, but it tastes better.
No there is worse. In Siberia the I saw beer that was sold in large 2 litre plastic bottles. I didn’t try it but my dad did. He said it was bleedin’ horrible (but that didn’t stop him drinking it most nights).
As mentioned, this is another area where if you are going to do it, do it right. You can get a basic homebrewing set-up for $75 or so, and there are some very good ingredient kits out there these days. If what you are looking to brew is light lager, it’s a waste of money and time…you can buy better cheaper. OTOH, if Imperial Stouts are your game, brew your own. I made a Raspberry Imperial Stout once that was pure silk.
It is indeed made by the same company, and it was the precise beer I was referring to when I mentioned that Model Especial wasn’t their best! An excellent example of a lighter style Vienna lager. I’m salivating right now, and it’s only 10:30 in the mornin’.
I’m not sure I follow you. The reason cheap beer is cheap is because it uses cheap ingredients. And you don’t like the beer made with cheap ingredients. Perhaps 20 years ago the cheap beers were simply not as cheap as they are today?
Actually, adjusted for inflation and with less built in “sin taxes” cheap beer was less expensive. And while it was in fact made with cheaper ingredients, it certainly could have been made with as much corn as they use today, and actually had some bitterness to them.I think the brewers are now making these “soda pop” type beers because it’s much easier to down a whole bunch of them.
When I first turned 18 (legal drinking age at the time) a case of cheap brew was $1.77 plus bottle deposit. Adjusted for inflation that’s $5.39 in todays money. Tell me where to get an entire case of beer that doesn’t taste like pure corn syrup for $5.39 and I’ll be happy!
I had the same questions and concerns in February of last year. A few days after I posted my question, I just decided to take the plunge and buy the supplies and materials for my first extract brew. The start-up materials cost about $100 for me (I got some extras that weren’t absolutely necessary, like a secondary fermenter [6-gallon glass carboy], a new brewpot, etc…) My first batch of beer cost about $35 in ingredients and produced about 50 12-oz bottle of beer.
It tasted fantastic. And now I just can’t stop brewing beer. I have a porter going right now.
In the end, it’s not about saving money, although brewing your own is certainly cheaper than buying microbrews. I normally spend about $7-$10 for six packs of beer (sometimes a lot more for double IPAs and specialty brews). So, with extract brewing, I think a good figure is about 75 cents per beer. You can get it lower than this, but I tend to make my beers in the 7% abv range, and I use White Labs yeasts. Once you go all-grain, you’ll need to make a couple more investments (wort chiller, grain mill, etc…) but you can get your costs down to the 50 cent range quite easily.
But, yeah, it’s easy to make good beer at home. Charlie Papazian is your guru and this is your bible should the homebrewing bug bite you.
Nonetheless, I will continue my efforts to dissuade Corona drinkers everywhere.