Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Reschke on February 18, 2011, 09:37:05 AM
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A squaddie on our squadron boards got me to thinking about this so here is my mini rant.
I have had it with people trying to force these "high gravity" and "craft brews" on me. I can't stand 99% of the ones I have tasted and I like to think that I have tried beer in its various forms and flavors just to make an informed opinion. In these alleged good beers I find that all these micro-brewers and craft breweries tend to load up a beverage with so much hops that you can't get the rest of the flavors out of a beer that you should. Beer should have a nice refreshing, cooling, flavorful taste in your mouth and not make you feel like you just drank liquid horse crap; like 99% of the North American.....no USA brewers which overload beer with hops. They need to look at what makes the beers in Europe and many Canadian brews taste good...less hops and preservatives and greater flavors.
With that said I have found a couple that I can drink and like even though I still think they are loaded with more hops than they should have...at least compared to the similar style beverages I have had from Europe.
Brother Thelonious by North Coast Brewery, Dogfish Head Midas Touch, Leinenkugels Summer Shandy...heck just about anything that Leinenkugels brews and lastly the only Sam Adams I can tolerate Noble Pils.
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So basically you like to drink water. I get it, but others prefer to have their palate tempted by fuller flavors. It's really a matter of preference.
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you may have a point when it comes to something besides a dark beer...but then i don't generally drink anything besides a bock or ale.
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So basically you like to drink water. I get it, but others prefer to have their palate tempted by fuller flavors. It's really a matter of preference.
Nope Dragon I just can't stand the crap that breweries in general in the USA try to pawn off on consumers as beer. Most times in the case of Buttweiser and others like them its nothing more than butt taste in a bottle/can.
As I mentioned above you can find decent good quality beers with good flavors but you honestly have to settle more than than not for something that just sucks.
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So name these great European and Canadian beers.
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India Pale Ale
(http://www.united-nations-of-beer.com/images/hop-ocalypse-ipa-21354517.jpg)
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India Pale Ale
(http://www.united-nations-of-beer.com/images/hop-ocalypse-ipa-21354517.jpg)
Hahaha. I love that label.
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(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSag0P1g-yTHPbI-JGOH_rtfg80pZwJsVZRJFQUGE8F8_YZ0pH03w&t=1)
Mouth watering goodness
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Nope Dragon I just can't stand the crap that breweries in general in the USA try to pawn off on consumers as beer. Most times in the case of Buttweiser and others like them its nothing more than butt taste in a bottle/can.
As I mentioned above you can find decent good quality beers with good flavors but you honestly have to settle more than than not for something that just sucks.
They brew what they brew because people drink it. Just because your taste buds dont consider it beer, doesnt mean that others don't. No brewery expects everyone to enjoy their product.
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People around here don't drink beer for it's taste. That's why they go with the $13.95/case Natty Light lo
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Was down in San Diego last spring and had the opportunity to have dinner at the Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, it has a very wide selection of delicious brews, and the food is pretty good as well. Am heading there again in a couple months. :cheers:
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So name these great European and Canadian beers.
Well lets see from Germany you get a bunch....
Spaten, The original Lowenbrau...not the crap that gets sent outside of Germany, Eibauer, Braustolz, Bischoff, Warsteiner....that you get in Germany (its ok here but not the same as there), Franziskaner Weissbier, Charly Bräu, Scherdel, Hornecker, Wildbrau, Klosterhof, Hacker-Pschorr; I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.
Canadian brewers....still a pretty good list...
Banff, Big Rock, Roughneck, Alexander Keith's, Highlander Brew, Bushwakker, Yukon Brewing.
Anyone that ever tries to get you to drink this crap from Canada from Dead Frog Breweries needs a solid beat down. Its just as bad, of not worse than most of the crap "craft brews" here in the states.
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Alexander Keith's, hehe.
http://beeradvocate.com/lists/bottom
Drink the beer you like. But to make a statement that Craft Beer sucks in the USA is a ridiculously narrow-minded statement.
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Alexander Keith's, hehe.
http://beeradvocate.com/lists/bottom
Drink the beer you like. But to make a statement that Craft Beer sucks in the USA is a ridiculously narrow-minded statement.
this was the point I was trying to make. :aok
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Alexander Keith's, hehe.
http://beeradvocate.com/lists/bottom
Drink the beer you like. But to make a statement that Craft Beer sucks in the USA is a ridiculously narrow-minded statement.
The vast majority of people in the US and the big brewers in the US wouldn't know a good beer even if someone gave it to them with a sign saying "This is good beer!".
As for my tastes...yep I drink crap beer...when its free and I talk about how crappy it is then too. Alexander Keith's is not something that you can get easily here in the US...but it might be and then I bet it gets lowered to crap mass produced status for us south of the border people.
And while my statement might be considered narrow minded by you Bug its dead on 100% true!
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Keep in mind also that most craft beers tend to sit around for much longer than is good for them, this does contribute to off-kilter flavors. I notice a difference between filling my growler at Great Lakes and buying a six-pack of it at the corner store.
I'm not saying that ALL craft beers are good, there have been several that I have been unable to finish, but to say the bad ones outnumber the good or even great ones, it really a stretch IMHO.
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I've heard there are not only people that CAN stomach oriental "food", some even claim to LIKE the taste of it!
Supposedly, some people willingly pay money for it!
No surprises as far as beer drinkers go.
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lol Beer Elitism
Here's to you Reschke, :cheers:
(http://www.ratewall.com/cpics/Milwaukees_Best_Light.jpg)
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People have different tastes or this would never exist...
(http://www.nypress.com/images/chelada%20style.JPG)
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I actually enjoy this monstrosity.
http://www.eriebrewingco.com/OlRed.html (http://www.eriebrewingco.com/OlRed.html)
In moderation, of course.
:cheers:
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They brew what they brew because people drink it. Just because your taste buds dont consider it beer, doesnt mean that others don't. No brewery expects everyone to enjoy their product.
Ahh good point. Therefore, McDonald's burgers must be really good burgers made with real quality meat and excellent taste, since so many people eat them :aok What other explanation could there possibly be
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Ahh good point. Therefore, McDonald's burgers must be really good burgers made with real quality meat and excellent taste, since so many people eat them :aok What other explanation could there possibly be
Nope..try again.
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Nope Dragon I just can't stand the crap that breweries in general in the USA try to pawn off on consumers as beer. Most times in the case of Buttweiser and others like them its nothing more than butt taste in a bottle/can.
As I mentioned above you can find decent good quality beers with good flavors but you honestly have to settle more than than not for something that just sucks.
Of course that is just your opinion.
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Ahh good point. Therefore, McDonald's burgers must be really good burgers made with real quality meat and excellent taste, since so many people eat them :aok What other explanation could there possibly be
It's not really a discussion of mass produced beer, which fits more into the McDonald level. It's more like someone trying a couple burger joints in a few different cities in the US, not liking them and then coming to the conclusion that all burgers in the US must be crappily made. It is really just a matter of opinion, as Shuffler mentioned, but you could hardly state it as fact since there are so many critically acclaimed craft beers in the US.
Hoppy beer is a big hit in the US, our IPAs are much more hoppy than a traditional British IPA. Enough of the people like the flavor, they target that market ( I believe that is what Norm meant). Having a hoppy beer is no indication of its quality.
But as I said in the end drink what you like, there are so many out there you are bound to find something that suits you. I have had many beers that I think taste lousy, but not just because I think they are poorly made, they just don't suit my taste.
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A squaddie on our squadron boards got me to thinking about this so here is my mini rant.
I have had it with people trying to force these "high gravity" and "craft brews" on me. I can't stand 99% of the ones I have tasted and I like to think that I have tried beer in its various forms and flavors just to make an informed opinion. In these alleged good beers I find that all these micro-brewers and craft breweries tend to load up a beverage with so much hops that you can't get the rest of the flavors out of a beer that you should. Beer should have a nice refreshing, cooling, flavorful taste in your mouth and not make you feel like you just drank liquid horse crap; like 99% of the North American.....no USA brewers which overload beer with hops. They need to look at what makes the beers in Europe and many Canadian brews taste good...less hops and preservatives and greater flavors.
With that said I have found a couple that I can drink and like even though I still think they are loaded with more hops than they should have...at least compared to the similar style beverages I have had from Europe.
Brother Thelonious by North Coast Brewery, Dogfish Head Midas Touch, Leinenkugels Summer Shandy...heck just about anything that Leinenkugels brews and lastly the only Sam Adams I can tolerate Noble Pils.
You have to consider the style of craft beer that you are choosing to try and judge it by the brewers intent. Beer is typically judged by : Appearance, Flavor, Aroma, mouthfeel and the overall impression. http://www.bjcp.org/index.php (http://www.bjcp.org/index.php)
If it is an IPA, Pale Ale, English Bitter, etc it is going to biatch-slap you with hops in the entire flavor profile. From the bitter taste, the tangy-citrus flavor in the aftertaste and the hop aroma in the nose. If you are not a fan of hops, that is not your kind of beer. Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA is a great example of using the entire profile of the hops. It is hopped through the entire 60 minute boil. When they first started out, they used the old "vibrating" football game, filled it with all the hops, put it on a slant and let it buzz. (BTW, hops ARE preservatives) It takes a bit if getting used-to to appreciate an IPA and train your taste buds
Hacker-Pschoor, paulaner or any hefeweizen style beer, the hops are almost nonexistant. What you will taste, however is the yeast and the esters of the yeast which could have a flavor resembling a few things from banana to bubble-gum to cloves.
Most lager style beers will have a nice balance of malt AND hops with a crisp finish and no fruity esters of an ale. They are fermented at lower temperatures with diactyl rests and are aged longer (hence the German word lager meaning "to store"
Ales are more fruity in taste and fermented at higher temperatures.
Stouts (also an ale) get their flavor from roasted barley.
Bocks and dopplebocks (anything ending in "ator" such as Spaten Optimator) is all about the malt (and are typically lagers) and are full-bodied with a rich malt profile with usually only a bittering hop addition small enough from making the brew cloyingly sweet. They use a lot of dark Munich, Vienna or chocolate malts.
Real pilsners are supposed to come from the Pilsen region in the Czech republic which is famous for the properties of it's water.
Your typical Bud, Coors, Miller are all for drinking and refreshment. They are a light lager brewed with very pale pilsner malts (and lots of corn, rice or other adjuncts) which ferment more easily, leave less unfermentable sugars after the mashing process (which, in turn, leaves less calories in the finished product) and are much cheaper to purchase. It's actually quite difficult for a craft or home brewer to make these kinds of beer as any mistake in the recipe is grossly evident in the final product (too much hops, wrong yeast, too much malt, etc)
You were asked which beers you liked. You named breweries, not beers :)
I wouldn't make the blanket statement that craft beers in the USA suck. What would be more accurate, perhaps is that you are not trying beers in the style(s) that you prefer :aok
That being said, there ARE some craft brews out there that suck.
Perhaps you can be the next one that gets the Jolly Rogers book that I got from Shifty. Although I'm not allowed to send beer in the mail, I could do for you what I did for TheBug and send you some live yeast cultures suspended in their native sub-strata :devil
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Brew your own beer, nothing will taste as good.
ack-ack
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India Pale Ale
:aok
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i would not say that Beer from USA sucks,
its different, just a different taste,
i live close to the black forrest in germany, we have two main breweries here (Rothaus & Waldhaus),
that i call a very good Beer, but i also like a good Guinness from time to time, or thanks to the Internet
i buy Beer from around the world just to taste it. When on Holidays in another country i only drink
the local beers, not the export stuff, i like to taste the world, its fun!
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I wish we had a local brewery here. There are none as far as I know. :rolleyes:
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VonMessa I can appreciate what you are saying there but on the whole I will try all types of beer in every place that I go and I try to like them. I honestly do but other than some really decent home brew that friends of mine have made I would much prefer a pils from either Bavaria or the Czech Republic to one that is made here in the USA; as for an IPA I like some but the vast majority just aren't for me.
And as I said...I drink beer all the time from all over this country and world and think I have a pretty good understanding of what great beer is and how it tastes. The German company I used to work for would pack kegs and cases of different beers and cases of liquor and liqueurs from Europe into our shipping containers and send them over to us.
For an IPA I do like the Deuchars IPA when I am in England or Denmark...you can't get it over here or at least I have never been able to find it here.
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dont they make shiner bock in Texas
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We, in the Des Moines area are a bit spoiled. We're lucky enough to have "The Raccoon River Brewing Co." right downtown. They do a little bit of everything, but their IPA is outstanding. Some of their seasonal brews are also some of my favorites. One really cool thing is that they also run a restaurant that serves gourmet meals based on what goes well with their brews (varies seasonally). Add to that, live music and a top-shelf pool/billiards area...
"Is this heaven?"
"No, it's Iowa."
:D
EDIT: A link for those in Iowa, or that are just passing through.
http://www.raccoonbrew.com/index.html
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I'm mostly an IPA guy, myself. I don't like the hefeweizens or the fruity beers but I can still appreciate the quality of them when it's there.
I was a little thrown off by the extreme dislike of hops stated in the OP followed by a tolerance of Noble Pils. It's obviously more about the style of beer for you than the ingredients. Doesn't mean you have to knock the more robust brews, just drink what you like.
I'm staying sober at the moment though so this is making my mouth water a little. Heh. :aok