That’s not a very fair comparison, good American beer, and there is a lot of it, is every bit as good as good German beer.
Yes, but apparently ol’ ShibbOleth dosen’t think my taste in American beer is worthy of his doubtless lofty standards.
I have spent considerable time in Northern California, Portland and Seattle, and Front Range Colorado (Boulder-Ft. Collins-Denver) all places at the very forefront of the American Craftbeer Renaissance starting back in the early 1990’s, and have enjoyed more than my fair share of tasty American microbrews.
These days, my tastes run towards lighter pilsner-style brews, and I have no problem ordering a draught Bud, when all the rest of my tribe are drinking microbrews from exotic locales such as Tucson or Eau Claire.
Thing is, I don’t feel the need to belittle others tastes in such matters, as it is none of my concern what anyone else enjoys, and it dosen’t make me feel better about my beer to denegrate someone else’s beverage of choice…
Euro beers never seemed to have the fizziness of American commercial beers, which is a plus. American beers like Bud, Miller, etc., give me the hiccups something awful, while Euro beers (and American micro-brews) don’t.
Many American “beers” are carbonated, like sodas.:o
As are many European beers.
Is that in addition to any natural carbonation?
Describe German beer? Impossible - there are so many styles, brands and varients that the phrase has no meaning.
I loves me some German beer. Of course, there are nasty German brews - what were they drinking in the show? It makes all the difference.
To my taste, one of the best German beers is Schneider Adventinus, a dark wheat beer. It is the only thing that make this agnostic potentially believe in the existence of God - its that good.
The best German beer I ever had was a no-name local hefeweizen I had in a beer garden in a tiny village overlooking the Neckar river in Germany. It was June, a beautiful day and that beer was FANTASTIC.
Also, no hating on American beers! The USA has one of the most varied beer selection of any country - sure, there are some stinkers but many of the local and microbrews are excellent!
To me, mass-market American beer (Budweiser, Miller, Old Style, Hamm’s, Blatz, etc.) tastes “wet” and watery; it’s the stuff you drink because you’re thirsty. It’s great on a hot day after you’ve done a lot of yardwork or painting or something.
However, beer from almost everywhere else replace a lot of the “wet” with flavor; it’s the stuff you savour.
Imagine a store where you could only find variations of white bread. That section of the grocery store that has Wonderbread and a few similar types. That would be American beer not so long ago. Fortunately that is no longer the case.
Then imagine a store that carries all kinds of breads - White bread, pumpernickel, rye, crusty French bread, light rolls, thick hearty black breads, that sort of thing. That would be the world of German beer.
Not everybody likes all those kinds of beer and there is no “good” or “bad” in that sense. It would be easy to select a beer that would be nasty to someone who doesn’t appreciate that sort of thing.
Yes. Many large scale breweries around the world force carbonate. There’s nothing wrong with this. Also, Budweiser is apparently naturally carbonated. There’s nothing inherently wrong with force carbonation, as any homebrewer with a corny keg could tell you.
This is not true.
It’s briefly addressed in the first response to this thread.
I did read that, and thank you. I just thought a real live English person living in England should chime in and help to dispel the ignorance! As has also been mentioned, various beverages under the loose heading “beer” may be served ice cold, chilled, or cellar temperature; but this image of actual warm beer riles me. Never once, in many years of drinking in pubs, bars, inns and hotels all over the UK, have I been served beer which wasn’t at least cool. Ugh. Warm beer. Ugh.
The difference is that American “beer” cannot be eaten with a fork.
Yeah, it irritates me, too. I’m not entirely sure where the idea that it’s served warm comes from. There was one small brewpub out here in the suburbs, which actually did serve a British-style cask-conditioned ESB at room temperature. I’m talking around 22-24C. The server warned me it was going to be room temperature, but I just assumed she was confused and meant cellar temp like every other cask-conditioned beer in the city: maybe 11-13C. Nope. Literally room temperature. I’ve never had a beer served like that before or since.
That’s just nasty.
Ah, German beer. I spent quite a bit of time in Munich, and the beer there was sooooooo good, it is hard to describe. The best I could come up with is… imagine the difference between eating bread right out of the oven, and eating it the next day. In Germany, you get the the former. In the US, we get the latter.
Or, imagine the difference between grocery store ice cream and Steve’s ice cream.
I suppose that I should have said that “I’ve always heard that beer was served warm in England.” Having always heard it, I had no reason to think that it was just an inaccurate sterotype and not the truth.
Ignorance fought.
If you’ll read what I wrote, I was comparing the American beers mentioned to German beers. A weak German beer, like Becks, would be a good American beer. There are of course now many, many good American beers. I just wouldn’t put Bud in their ranks, and the last time I had an Old Style or Rolling Rock, they were okay but I’d still pick about any German pils before them.
As reference, I spent 180 days in Germany last year and 185 in the US and I have developed a strong preference for the beers I get in Germany. Not that you can’t find a bad beer in Germany, but you generally have to try a lot harder.
Maybe it was 1.040… what I do remember is being shocked at how low that the OG was, relative to most imported, microbrewed and homebrewed beers.
I did see an exception to what I wrote earlier though; wheat beers.
I can totally see how someone used to Bud or Miller, or for that matter any beer with very low yeast character, might find themselves kind of disgusted, amazed and shocked at the clovey/bubblegum/banana flavors in a properly made hefeweizen. I’m not fond of them myself, truth be told. They’re just kind of bizarre and don’t really fit into my mental box of what beer is.