But that just pushes the question one step further back which is that concern with calories also seems like a anti-conservative value. Like, you would expect conservatives to anti-identify with things like light sour cream or fat free salad dressing as like, something for the womenfolk and not real men but somehow when it comes to light beer, all of a sudden they’re watching their figure?
I’m still questioning the entire premise. Why do you all think there is any affiliation between conservatives and light beer?
A fair question; i wonder if the truth is that there is a correlation between light beer consumption and lower-to-middle class suburban and rural American men (which, as described above, was fostered by long-running ad campaigns by the major breweries), and it so happens that those men also tend to be conservative.
The entire conservative meltdown over Bud Light/Coors Light not being “their brands” any more? Why else would conservatives care so much if it wasn’t what they were drinking?
A. I have seen almost exclusively reaction to the so-called meltdown (“Conservatives are ENRAGED by this beer…”) not any meltdown directly. When I see exclusively reaction to the reaction I find it usually means the original reaction probably consisted of a few people on Twitter making absurd statements. So I question that there was any meltdown to speak of.
B. Even if the meltdown actually happened, if I drink Budweiser and a Bud-Light advertising campaign offends me, it’s rational for me to be upset even if I never touched Bud-Light in my life
C. You seriously think reactionary right-wing America needs to have actually been consuming a product to be angry about the political proclivities of the maker?
I can’t help but think that the whole shooting of beer was very much a threatened identity sort of thing- they’re not only protesting the Bud Light ad campaign, they’re protesting trans awareness AND making some sort of half-cocked gun point as well. And probably some sort of less coherent point about being country because they have the space out in the sticks to actually shoot up full beer cans (something most shooting ranges wouldn’t allow).
It feels to me like there was an element of these folks being personally threatened- if they didn’t pitch a fit and kept drinking Bud Light, that’s like somehow making them gay and condoning trans people.
At any rate, if it was just offensive, and conservatives called for a boycott, that would be one thing. They’re supposedly boycotting a lot of stuff- Hershey’s chocolate, Ulta cosmetics, and a whole list of companies.
But I’d be willing to bet that the majority of those are more or less academic boycotts- they’re boycotting on principle, and the boycotts are hot air and for show.
Meanwhile, the Bud Light one hit home, and they’re taking it seriously because they feel threatened. Bud Light sales are down something like 24% compared to a year ago. That’s not the sort of thing that happens due to theoretical offense and outrage; that’s actual offense and threatened identity.
Well, remember, in a proper fascist state, capitalism is supposed to support the state, not the other way 'round. They can make their profits and everything, just so long as they do what they’re told while they’re at it.
Well, there was a massive drop in Bud Light sales just after all this started:
So, they’re not the only ones drinking it, but it’s clear that butt-hurt conservatives and butt-hurt conservative supporters make up a pretty big segment of their market.
As I’m sure you know, hubs brews beer. I have watched him make any number of IPA’s, it can be done using a big pot and a sealable bucket. (Of course he has outgrown that long ago and now has a room full of pots and buckets.)
The thing I have never understood is why the beer had to be transported to begin with. Why did they not transport (or grow) their own barley and hops and make their own beer in India?
Out here in the wild west, Coors light is the favorite of wannabe cowboys. Bud light is favored by race car fans.
Plus, its cheap and cheap beer is always highly popular with the lower income folks who live in very rural areas.
The “grow” half of that is apparently that the climate in India doesn’t lend itself well to growing hops, and barley apparently doesn’t fare much better there, either.
Barley is a possibility, but hops tend to grow best in a latitude range well north of most of India.
As for transporting hops directly, they don’t tend to react well to long stretches of high humidity or temperature. This would have been problematic for the ~half-year transit time when IPAs were initially produced (sailing around the horn of Africa). It may have been possible later in the 19th century when steamships and the Suez Canal brought that down to a couple weeks.
Thank you, that makes sense.
However, dried grains are much easier to ship than full casks of beer.
OK, so that explains that and explains why the hubs carefully vacuum seals his hops…no vacuum sealers back then.
Good info, thanks!
My BFF does a highway clean up twice a year and will be doing another next week. She was very entertained to learn that the 30 pack of Bud light she paid over 30 bucks for 6 months ago was selling for 21 bucks this week.
Yup. They tend to mold otherwise.
Plus people who’d rather not give their butt-hurt conservative neighbor an excuse to hassle you from the next table…
Certainly gives a vibe that AB got their market studies horribly wrong. Then again, 24%??? That’s wack. I suppose as with other “outrages” a lot of them will renormalize in due time once the blood cools.
Most mass-market beers are in the 4% to 5% ABV range. Above 5% you start getting into “ice” beers and above that you’re right back into the fancy expensive craft beers.
I don’t know if there is much of a political bent to it, beyond a SDMB stereotype of conservatives as “dumb” and “classless” and “thinking anything expensive or of high quality as ‘faggy’ and ‘pretentious’”. But in college, we largely chose our beer by a) cost and b) ability to drink in mass quantity. So light beers were a common choice because they were cheap and you could chug a pitcher or shotgun a can of it without getting as bloated (Natty Light being a…well “favorite” doesn’t seem right). But we were just as likely to buy cases of Schlitz, Black Label, generic cans that say “Beer” on the side or whatever was on special.
Plus, the East India Company had a tight clamp on pretty much all trade.
I mean, this was an article on Fox News 7 hours ago:
It’s got less to do with men or seeming feminine and more to do with trying to attract Gen Z/Millennials who aren’t into the idea of “dieting” the way their parents/grandparents were. The focus is on the lack of sugar (as opposed to the negative idea of going on a diet) which is spun as a positive health impact and is something that demographic generally looks for (even if soda isn’t particularly healthy to begin with).
If this helps any, I am about the most conservative, radical liberal, and my tastes have been pretty conjuctive. I used to like Union Red Ale, now I go for ubiquitous high proof lager, generally Ice process. My brand is Natty Daddy, as embarassing as it sounds. Union.
I am honestly not sure what you mean by this description of yourself; it seems to be a contradiction in terms.