By ‘locally’, do you by chance mean Tel Aviv? That’s where I was when I drank the Heinekin and the Carlsberg, which were both much better than here in the US, now that I think about it.
Yeah Newcastle tastes like something that passed through mammal’s urethra. I’m not really an expert on blown ales though.
I tend to shy away from stouts and porters. I can enjoy a dark beer with a meal but not really on its own. Guinness is ok if poured correctly. Mackeson triple stout is horrible…ugh
IPAs: yuck, too much hops.
rauchbier: never tried any
Maybe Heineken is good in Tel Aviv and Germany but it’s not once arriving here.
I actually enjoy many wheat brews, witbiers, and hefeweissens, etc. but not Blue Moon…I’ll take Hoegaarden or Sam Adams Summer Ale instead
I can tolerate a Corona or a Rolling Rock if someone offers one to me but I won’t waste my own money on either one.
I’m kinda indifferent on the American macrobrews that feel the need to rely on ubiquitous advertising in order to convince people to drink their beer.
But, at the very bottom of the totem pole is Steel Reserve 211 (does that even count as a beer?) along with Samuel Adams’ Cranberry Lambic eventhough I usually like wheat brew. Some of the other SA brews are excellent but not the cranberry lambic. Just thinking about these makes me want to spit.
Bud. i’ve drunk my share of Schmidt, Schaeffer, Milwakee;s Best, Blatz, ad nauseum. I prefer them all to Bud. Not sure why, but Bud is plain nasty to me.
My version of hell is being on a 16 hour flight with only Bud to drink.
It’s hard to think of a beer I don’t like.
I like pilsners, stouts, wheat beers, shandygaffs, microbrews and macrobrews, and just about every style and brand that’s been mentioned.
Of all bad beers, anything ‘Ice’ usually is the worst. But you don’t see ‘Ice’ too much anymore. Also dislike Mickey’s big mouths something terrible, and Stroh’s (they don’t still make it, do they?) always tasted skunked to me.
As to respected beers, or more broadly, beer styles, I have to say I’ve never been a fan of brown ales. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is that I don’t like about them, I’m just not too enthralled with 'em. I love the dark beers, love the light and amber ales, but am indifferent towards brown ales. I’ll drink a brown ale, but I will never order for myself.
I think the brewery is somewhere near Ashdod - we’re talking about an hour’s drive from here, tops.
Rat Piss = PBR. I will never understand how this beer got so popular or why people continue to slurp this swill.
I love beer. I brew beer. I read about beer obsessively. I love-- almost-- all kinds of beers.
What the American Macros make isn’t really beer; it’s part beer and part sake. Rice doesn’t belong in beer; it belongs in junmai daiginjo-shu. Even worse is corn. Corn doesn’t belong in beer either. Corn liquor belings in antifreeze.
The reason Irish stouts like Guinness are lower in calories is that they use quite a bit of roasted barley malts that have little or no sugar in them that can be converted to alcohol. So they’re low alcohol as well as low calorie. AFAIC they’re the best alternative to all that “lite” crap out there, but I’m a big dark beer drinker and I know taste varies.
At a tasting one year I had an authentic Gueze (basically, an aged lambic with no fruit). The tasting notes described “horse blanket, earthy, barnyard.” Basically it was like drinking a bottle full of fermented pony sweat. Good Lord that stuff was awful, and I’ve tasted some “awful” in my time (did I mention I brew my own?) I don’t mind developing a palate for something, but you’d have to pay me some serious wages to develop one for this piss.
There’s only one time in my life I poured a beer out because it was so horrible I couldn’t drink it. It was a Pilsner Urquell, I believe, and I think it had gone bad since it was in my fridge for a long time.
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Can someone explain “skunk” to me? I know you will want to say “you know it when you taste it,” but I want to know what the taste is. Can you compare it to something?
I am more of a wine drinker but in the summer I will grab a six-pack of whatever, and at a bar I’ll drink what everyone else is having. Most of the time I don’t notice much about the taste, but on rare occasions I’ll think “hey, that’s good.”
Like right now, I’m drinking a Corona. I don’t notice it being particularly bad or particularly good. It’s just…beer.
Any help?
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“Skunk” is aptly named - the beer smells like skunk spray (and tastes like it smells).
Often caused by exposure to light, brown bottles can prevent this from happening.
Happened to a homebrew of mine once.
Ahhh! Someone else who hates Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic! It’s tastes like ass! No, wait, it tastes worse than ass. It tastes like they made the lambic, realized they didn’t make enough, diluted it with regular Sam Adams, then fed it to several elephants who then vomited it through their trunks to fill the bottles.
Wet cardboard. Get a Corona. Let it sit on your dashboard for an hour in the sun. Chill and taste. That’s skunked.
I love gueuze, but it is quite the acquired taste. The best way I’ve come to describe it is like sparkling carbonated cabbage/pickle juice. It’s beautifully refreshing on a hot summer’s day, but understandable if that doesn’t appeal to you. 
Thank you, I think. :dubious: The problem with the term is that I have never tasted a skunk, nor do I recall ever having smelled one, so it is not as obvious an answer as Bobotheoptimist might think.
Have you ever smelled (commercially prepared) natural gas? Butane or propane, perhaps? The chemical added to the gases to make it easier to detect leaks by smell is a mercaptan, and closely related to the skunk-scent mercaptan compound. Skunk smell is very similar to the gas scent, but a bit less sharp and more bitter.
I have also likened it to the smell that might come from trying to extinguish a burning car with old coffee–burnt rubber and plastic, burnt coffee, and a trace of ozone.
Yeah, I didn’t think I’d be alone with that opinion at least among who have actually dared to try it. The cranberry lambic is only available in the Winter Classics seasonal variety set (I think) so people don’t have to suffer year round trying it out. I actually poured the rest of it out after the first couple tastes. I didn’t even feel comfortable giving it away to a friend.
I recently tasted a new really bad local beer with a name that says it all: Horse Piss. I admire the honesty at least.
Just say O V
Add an L, add an E and you’ve got LOVE
Love Oo-oo Vee-eee
Love that Old Vienna lager
Old Vienna lager beer
There’s a reason it’s so pleasin’
It’s great Canadian beeeeeeer
Good God, where did that come from?
I can’t think of a beer style that I don’t enjoy, I used to dislike hefeweizen beers, but now they are among my favorites.
Rauchbier can definitely be over the top, but a well balanced one has it’s time and place.
I love drinking Gueze with a proper English-style fish and chips, the vinegary flavors meld with the malt vinegar on the food, yum!
The only thing I hate is the green bottles. One of my favorite beers is DAB, but it takes about 3 seconds of exposure to light to skunk it, so I drink the Dortmunder Gold from Great Lakes instead because I can buy a 6 pack and get to drink the whole thing.
As part of my job I had to go through taste training and actually had my tastebuds/nose calibrated, as to how low of a level of different off-flavors and aromas I can detect, and it has ruined me for any beer that is flawed. My first taste of any beer I automatically look for flaws and if I detect any it’s all I can taste for the rest of the beer.
[QUOTE=mojave66]
I love beer. I brew beer. I read about beer obsessively. I love-- almost-- all kinds of beers.
What the American Macros make isn’t really beer; it’s part beer and part sake. Rice doesn’t belong in beer; it belongs in junmai daiginjo-shu. Even worse is corn. Corn doesn’t belong in beer either. Corn liquor belings in antifreeze.
IANABE (beer expert), but I think you’re painting with a pretty broad brush.
Come to Portland sometime and sample the craft beers available here. You may be in for a very pleasant surprise. This is one of my favorites: Lucky Lab
Newcastle (someone else mentioned it too, I think). Once in a bar, a friend ordered Newcastle and I ordered a Guinness. I knew I was accidentally drinking his when my “Guinness” tasted like it had been regurgitated.
Heinekin in a bottle, for the same reason listed in the last post. It’s in a green bottle and gets skunked very easily. So I get the keg-cans. And for some reason, it’s really good with Bagel Bites.
I was also at an Ale Fest once (where you can sample from dozens of beers). Everyone I was with agreed to stay away from Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale.