That much was obvious from the start.
Then I envy you. I’ve been in Tokyo the past few years and I am sick to death of Japanese beers. For me at least, they’re a step up from Budweiser and Coors, but a significant step below Bass or Sam Adams and a far cry from the American microbrews I’ve liked. And the vast majority of drinking establishments have only a single brew on tap (goddamn exclusivity arrangements) and maybe a handful of bottled beers. All expensive, of course. Other people tell me they prefer, say, Asahi to Kirin or Yebisu, but they all taste the same to me.
Admittedly, although I enjoy beer I know next to nothing about it. I just know which brands I like.
No argument there. A bit of an oxymoron though.
Pot meet kettle.
The so-called “mass produced” stuff like Bud Miller etc is utter crap.
If you’ll excuse a non-drinker for chiming in for a moment…
Where is it written that beer all over the world must taste the same? Or even be of the same strength/potency? It makes sense that it’s brewed according to the local palates.
I often find that expats here in Thailand raise the same objection to pretty much any western food item that is made here. “Why can’t they make mayonnaise here? It’s so gawd-awful sweet like cake frosting!” The answer is, of course, that they make it that way here because that’s they way they like it here. And if I don’t like it, it’s up to me to go find an import store and pay $6 for a jar of Hellmann’s.
I currently drink Bud Light, because it is inexpensive and gets the job done (ie: a nice buzz). If I had more money, I would drink micro-brews. If I had lots more money. I would travel to Europe and drink the local brew. Beer is good. All beer. Everyone who considers themself to be a beer snob really needs to lighten up. Most people defend their beer choice based on economics, not on taste.
I’ll stick with drinking what I think tastes good, thanks.
Not all beer is equal, and if I can’t afford the good stuff, I’ll drink something else. Luckily, price doesn’t always factor into it - most of the time the price is dependent on the pub, rather than the individual beer, and there’s no guarantee that the pricier beer is the better one. Blue Moon costs more than Abbot, and you couldn’t pay me to drink the former.
If that makes me a snob, then polish my monocle and call me Viscount Poshbreeches.
Sorry–I completely misunderstood where you were going with that.
I don’t like drinking any of them, but I gotta disagree.
They’re “crap” in the same sense a McDonald’s hamburger is “crap”. That is to say, it’s not a particularly good product and made cheaply from cheap ingredients. But it’s remarkably consistent across thousands of markets and you’re getting exactly what you expect at a low price.
Why else does Budweiser (or even McDonald’s) sell in Europe at all, much less sell so much?
Back in 1996, for two months I worked as a kitchen porter in a Michelin starred restaurant on the west coast of Scotland. One night, after we finished up, the head chef and sous chef go out for a beer run. They ask me what I like. I said, oh, Caledonian 80 will be fine, or maybe something from McEwan’s (in case they wanted something a little lighter). They look at me funny. “I thought all you Yanks drank Budweiser. That’s what we were going to get.” I said, oh, yeah, that’s fine. And, sure enough, it was no joke. They drank Buds.
I once spent a week in Columbus OH getting used to Columbus Pale Ale (well, not really getting used to it, I liked it from the first time). The last day of our stay we were invited by some people, we had had dealings with, to go out and have some beer. Pitchers of said ale were bought plus one pitcher of Bud Light as there was one person who preferred it. In the end it turned out that one of them was going to leave the company so we all had a toast for him. Unfortunately all that was left at that moment was the Bud and I must say that it didn’t come out as a winner in a comparison.
Why is this thread still going? It’s a false premise.
If I started a thread and said “Why is all Australian beer shit? Foster’s is horrible!” I’d be laughed out of the room.
American breweries have the most creative brewers in the world working for them, as proof I simply point to the number of beer styles that were judged at the Great American Beer Festival in say, 1990, versus the number in 2011.
Styles like Imperial IPA, Smoked Porter, Rye beer, American Brown Ale, Bourbon-barrel aged beers, etc., these things didn’t exist until they were created and expanded upon here.
Chuckled, maybe. But not laughed. Besides, the thread gives us a chance to show off our beer cred and maybe get a lead or two on something we haven’t tried yet. If the thread leads but one person to Pliny the Elder, it’s worth all the pain.
But that means less PtE for me!
For 5 years I worked with the pilot brewery at one of the Big 3 (now Big 2) breweries in the US, and the range of amazing beers that they created and the different ingredients that they worked with would never have entered the mind of the most outrageous Belgian brewer.
Just because those beers never make it to market doesn’t mean they can’t make them, it just means they need to make sure they can sell it when they fill a 1500 barrel fermenter with it.
Ask and you shall receive.
I figure a beer must be great when my father-in-law’s beer buddies are fighting over who gets the free Pliny t-shirt he left at my house. (He has one already.)
And where is it written here? ie who is saying that? No one that I see.
Not quite. People defend their CHEAP beer choice based on economics. Also people who can’t tell the diff between crap beer and good beer.
Quite a few beers are not good. That’s why they sell for $12/case. Nobody in their right mind would pay more. And not everyone drinks beer just for a “buzz.”
In fairness, this is true (although price is a pretty good rule of thumb). I’ve had expensive/highly-touted beers I thought sucked and less expensive ones that were respectable.
Yeah. crap. 
Except one thing that I’ve noticed happening is that the “flagship” brands by the big breweries are getting more expensive, while some of the mass-marketed craft beers are getting cheaper. Bud, Coors, and MGD is usually in the same general price range as Sam Adams or Sierra Nevada. I could see justifying a Busch, Pabst or High Life habit on price, but not any beer that advertises during the Superbowl.
It took me a while to get used to it, but the more I drank the more I started to like it. Suntory Premium Malts is probably the best. You know the difference between beer and happoshu, right?
If you’re in Tokyo, you’re in luck, because it has the best beer bars in the country. Off the top of my head I can recommend Ant 'n Bee in Roppongi with a great selection of Japanese microbrews and Popeye in Ryogoku which just has an excellent selection, period.
? Where do you live that this is happening cuz it’s not here.