I agree with Daniel Davies. Budweiser is great. I used to drink fancy beers. Indeed, I still drink a fancy hefeweizen now and again. But a Bud is a solid choice and most microbrew stuff is crap. I was recently told, though, that the Miller family of beers are union-made and I should drink them instead.
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Confessions of a Former Beer Snob
11 May 2007 09:24 am
Comments (109)
Well, there's no way in hell I'm reading a post that long about Budweiser, though I was surprised to see that Daniel Davies spent time growing up in Oklahoma.
I can only assume that all of you pro-Bud people are non-tasters.
One should be a beer snob within the cheap beer genre.
When you're drinking cheap, you should choose Pabst for reasons of both style and taste.
(Unless you live in Pennsylvania, of course, in which case Iron City Beer rocks, or unless you live in SoCal where Mexican brews get very cheap.)
Fancy beers are nice, of course. Anything Samuel Smith makes tends to be outrageously yummy.
There is nothing more insufferable than listening to a bunch of pretentious European grad students go on and on about how terrible American beer is. This is something I suffered through back in the early 90's. Maybe they aren't so insufferable any more.
My dad even goes for a beer that is cheaper than bud: old milwaukee. Its actually not that bad.
Having said that, I personally prefer stronger stuff, like Pale Ales and IPAs. The best I've found is Smuttynose (made in NH). It is amazingly good. Warning: it does have a high alcohol content.
If you ever swing by Texas: Lone Star is one of the best cheap beers...
And there is always PBR.
Speaking personally I'd rather you drank water or juice.
Word. A tall, frosty Hi Life is a delicious and refreshing treat on a warm summer's day. Also, those domestics are only like 8 or 9 bucks for a twelve pack. That's an evening of alright for you and a buddy on a budget.
Anheuser-Busch constantly adjustes its beer according to changing consumer tastes, and the Bud of today actually has a stronger, more 'beer-like' taste than it did a few years ago. The WSJ had a good article on this a few months ago...
Petey's first sentence is an immutable truth. And Budweiser is teh suck.
As for Pabst, while I can get down with it from time to time, I find it to be a relic of hipsters trying to hold on to the glory days of hipsterism (say, three years ago) before being a hipster itself went mainstream. Pabst is almost passé now. Anyway, I prefer something regional, e.g., Old Style.
My brand is Old Style so me hating Budweiser has nothing to do with snobbery. Budweiser is just bad beer. The only thing Daniel has right is that it's not right to call it piss, Corona has the lock on that designation.
See, I'm really NOT a beer lover. I mean, I put down more than my share, but the qualities beer lovers seek from their libations--body, hoppiness, aftertaste, etc--are the ones I avoid. Bud's good stuff to my uncouth palate, as are PBR, Dixie, Lone Star, Rolling Rock, etc.
I honestly don't like Miller--goes back to when they were a subsidiary of Phillup Morgues. But, really, I think it's soapy-tasting.
Ummm, Bud tastes like it was passed through a horse. If you're looking for good beer reading, pick up "From the Brewmaster's Table". The guys that drink Budweiser are the same guys that only ate hotdogs and Mac & Cheese when they were kids.
Due to financial circumstances, I have had to cut my budget WAY back, so I can no longer afford microbrews, of which, btw, Smuttynose IPA was a fave. To my surprise, however, I have found a number of inexpensive alternatives here in the Northeast. Yuengling, out of PA, has a number of nice brews. I esp. like the Black & Tan. Another good choice, though not as cheap as Bud, is Saranac. I still can't abide Bud, even though I have a soft spot for anything brewed in Newark, where it has a hulking brewery next to the airport.
Miller is a better beer. Or course how domestic is a beer produced by a company based in South Africa is anyone's guess. But it is union made. And as long as you avoid anything done by Coors, well you've done your share.
Soapy? Nah. It's the Champagne of Beers.
Seriously, folks, I think it's kind of like haute cuisine vs. comfort food. For me, Miller is comfort beer.
I think it's important to separate out the questions of whether beer snobs are annoying and whether Budweiser is great. Beer snobs are annoying. Budweiser is not great. Budweiser is really, really bad.
That there are also bad microbrews is really neither here nor there. Daniel Davies' extremely long-winded exegesis on the history of beer is neither here not there. Bud tastes shitty.
De gustibus non est disputandum and all that, but seriously. I happen to like hoppy, bitter beers, so of course I'm not going to be partial to Bud. But even within the shitty beer category, Bud seems to me to be pretty grim stuff. How about PBR? MGD? Any of the Mexican party beers?
Petey, PBR is passé. It's all about Rheingold now, as far as hip cheap bears go.
All of these American-made cheap beers are just inexpensive lagers. If you're into lager, then great, but I just don't enjoy them that much.
If you're willing to drink Budweiser, you might as well follow the logic to its natural conclusion: King Kobra and Natural Light.
*King Cobra, rather.
One can acknowledge the supremacy of certain European beers without being a douche I think. Budweiser is always a solid choice. On a hot summer day, nothing beats a Bud. But if your looking for a classic union-made beer (says it right on the can or 40oz.), look no further than Ballantine Ale; cheap, delicious and reminds you of good old granddad. As for PBR, doesn't anyone else think this is the first choice of a-hole hipsters trying to "slum."? Perhaps this is a question for NY'ers since that is my experience.
I was recently told, though, that the Miller family of beers are union-made and I should drink them instead.
My understanding is that Anheuser-Busch is a Teamster shop, so drink your Bud in peace if that's your preference.
As for PBR, doesn't anyone else think this is the first choice of a-hole hipsters trying to "slum."? Perhaps this is a question for NY'ers since that is my experience.
Yeah, it's shit, and then they have a few and you have to hear their Dennis Hopper impersonation from Blue Velvet.
"Petey, PBR is passé. It's all about Rheingold now, as far as hip cheap bears go."
PBR is so passe that it's hip.
-----
"If you're willing to drink Budweiser, you might as well follow the logic to its natural conclusion: King Kobra and Natural Light."
Olde English 800, yeah, that's my brand.
I'll drink it in a bottle, 40 ounce, or can.
From the wiki article:
Olde English can be used to make the beer cocktail known as Brass Monkey or Ghetto Sunrise. Typically, the first quarter to third of a 40 ounce bottle is consumed, and then topped off with Sunny Delight.
Olde English can also be used to make you Lickasic, popularized by Gangsta rap Brotha Lynch Hung. Again the first quarter to third of a 40 ounce bottle is consumed, and then topped off with Gin.
Olde English can be used to make the beer cocktail known as a Black Eight. The 40oz bottle is consumed down to the label and then topped off with a 12 oz Guiness Stout. This was popularized by the Tha Alkaholiks.
Olde English can also be used to make Blood Juice. Once consumed, the first quarter to third of the 40 ounce bottle is topped off with Thunderbird or Night Train and a packet of Kool-Aid.
Jhupp: You have Rheigold confused with PBR. The former was the ironic beer of choice in tha 212 and 718 a few years back. The latter has been coasting on its Blue Velvet/Frank Booth cred for two decades.
Petey: Arn Citty isn't widely available in Eastern PA. The best local cheap brew is Stegmaier. When I was a kid, Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre brewed Gibbons and Stegmaier--both were the stuff we used to boost from our fathers' garages. Nowadays, Lion brews for others labels, as well as packaging their own traditional brands. They've tried to go upmarket with Steg--like Yeungling has done of late. But I suspect the effort to gentrify Steg will have to succceed extra-regionally, since Steg and Gibbons were the stuff we drank when Schmidt's and Genessee were too expensive.
A plague on the houses of those who scoff at Budweiser. Indeed, it is one of the few beer which taste better in a can. Obviously, you folks haven't been to Georgia, because if you had ... you'd see me sitting on my back porch in the summer with a cold can of Budweiser.
Miller High Life is good as well. As is Schlitz (it's the beer that made Milwaukee famous).
I've always felt as if PBR is a bit overrated, however.
Re "Unless you live in Pennsylvania, of course, in which case Iron City Beer rocks"
--------
I really like Yuengling. I think it has a class label -- picture of an eagle with it's foot on a keg of beer and a "don't fuck with me" expression.
And, by the way, bonus points to Hank for bringing both Thunderbird and Night Train to this discussion.
Anyone have any MD 20/20?
Natty Bo, hon.
"Steg and Gibbons were the stuff we drank when Schmidt's and Genessee were too expensive."
Mmmm... Genessee Cream Ale...
Bravo for those who are willing to stand up to us snobs. It always bothers me when I hear other beer snobs go on and on about all the various objective reasons why Budweiser (or Miller, or whatever) is inherently inferior to their favorite microbrew.
The fact is, the only thing wrong with Bud is that it's not my cup of tea. Like many American beer drinkers who have also smoked a lot of pot (not sure why this seems to correlate, but it does), I prefer a very bitter, heavily hopped beer. Budweiser doesn't offer that; nor does Heineken or Red Stripe or any other "regular" beer you might name. If you want that you have to go to an American micro.
If you like Bud, you should drink it. There's nothing inherently better about Alpha King or Hop Pocket or Green Flash Imperial Pale Ale or any of the stuff potheads drink.
There are few things quite so obnoxious as people who try to come up with reasons why their tastes demonstrate some inherent superiority in their character. People like what they like, and they shouldn't be made to feel bad about it.
APS
Doesn't some of the snobbishness toward Bud come from marketing as well? Aside from being possibly the most advertised brand, they have been known to produce incredibly annoying pop culture references (I'm thinking of the "Wassup!?" ads, and there are probably at least a few more that thankfully don't come to mind). Their humor ads in general seem to be pretty juvenile. Not that other beers aren't, but Budweiser seems to have carved out a special niche, although maybe that's just my impression. I'm sure their marketing is very successful, but it might also drive away the decidedly non-core demographic of twenty something hipsters before they give the beer itself a fair shake.
Man, this comment thread is filling up quickly.
PBR is about as kewl as Stussy wear now (and both are making a comeback among Gen Y's younger sib echo). But if you likes your beer like you likes your women--cool, pale, bubbly, and ready to pass out--the $2.25/draft PBR pints at Rudy's in Hell's Kitchen are divine.
i don't know, my mom told me to drink miller lite because its lowest in carbs. but that was during the atkins craze.
personally, i will take bud light, but if there is something cheaper (natty lite, keystone, busch, etc. etc.) i'll take it. luckily in the seattle area there are some cheaper, higher quality options (weinhards, redhook, etc). but now that i know miller is union-made that might make the decision a little bit harder.
as i've been drinking scotch tonite, i will defer judgment. i'm currently locked down in sydney and beer here prides itself on its bitterness (luckily liquor companies are healthy world competitors, while budweiser and the like are around $20 for a six pack) .
i am now jealous of you statesiders with your broad options of drunkeness.
"There are few things quite so obnoxious as people who try to come up with reasons why their tastes demonstrate some inherent superiority in their character."
Quite true.
However, bringing Alpha King or Hop Pocket or Green Flash Imperial Pale Ale into the conversation demonstrates some inherent deficiency of character...
Anyone have any MD 20/20?
No, but I remember shopping for my great-grandmother when she got too old to drive and she kept wanting me to pick up a bottle of wine for her. She said "I like a sweet wine", so I shop around. Keep bringing back bottles, it's not what she wants. Finally she remembers what she drinks "I think it's Morgan-Davis". So I'm looking and looking and one day I'm sipping on a bottle of Mad Dog and see Mogan-David wineries on the bottle. I took her a bottle of Strawberry Mad Dog: mystery solved.
Well, at least you really do like Budweiser. Usually when I see a hipster kid drinking Bud or PBR, it seems like they're pulling the same ironic shit they pull with their t-shirts or their musical "taste." I don't remember which book or article it was from, but I remember reading Chuck Klosterman say something like, "of course I really like [Kiss or Billy Joel or whoever]. Why would I listen to something I don't really like?"
Appears we have a hop-hater in our midst. Stone him!
APS
I really couldn't disagree more. Budweiser tastes so much different than a good IPA that it might as well be considered a different drink. So the modern microbrewery isn't "traditional"? I don't care, their beer often tastes very good.
Speaking of cheap beer, I think we can all agree that David Stern has gone too far: the league told Don Nelson he can't bring his can of Bud Light into the press room anymore.
Since DD pushes Bud to go with your rice crispies, I suppose this is the "View from your breakfast" post for today.
Guinness is of course the beer of choice, both for breakfast and otherwise.
Like many American beer drinkers who have also smoked a lot of pot (not sure why this seems to correlate, but it does), I prefer a very bitter, heavily hopped beer. - Ape Man
I haven't noticed the correlation myself, but it does stand to reason; IIRC, cannabis and hops are in the same family.
Actually, you can get hemp flavored beer and wine. They are quite pleasant.
1) Speaking of beer labels, One of the greatest strokes of genius I've even seen came to my notice a few years ago in a local shop that sells 100 beers from around the world.
One of the brands had labels with beautiful women on them. You could scratch the label and the woman's breasts would be revealed.
2) I've never understood why that idea didn't catch on -- it seems so obvious. Plus, if you went with full frontal nudity, you could add a "scratch and sniff" feature.
Wow. Strawberry Mad Dog ... man, it feels like college all over again.
I've also always been pretty partial to Schaefer's. You gotta admire a company which is bold enough to say 'screw it, we putting together a 15-pack' and then charge something absurd, like $6.99 for it.
Of course, I've run the gamut of cheap beer. When you tailgate in Athens, Ga., you get pretty used to finding the least pricey selection out there.
I can't stand Bud, but I drink Miller Lite regularly.
jeebus matt, i warned you last week to stick to politics or foreign policy for credibility's sake, it is proper, i suppose, for someone who doesn't know about burritos of has never heard of kit carson to be a bud drinker. you must try to take a hint from the old adage about when the hole gets too deep it is time to stop digging. maybe there's a 12 step program for a culture lite abuser.
Actually, on a hot day, Coors Light isn't bad-- it's like drinking barley-flavored iced tea!
The problem is that taste buds can't taste Bud. Rice doesn't belong in beer.
Yes, but did Dsquared send you a picture of a Bud for The View From His Breakfast? That's my favorite detail in the piece -- that he drinks Bud for breakfast.
Also, all you people talking about the glory days of hipsterism being a couple years ago are clearly youngins'. It's 2007. Urban-hipster chic was already going out of style by '01/'02 after peaking in '99/'00. The rest of y'all are just latecomers.
But given that this '99/'00 peak were the PBR years and Rheingold came afterwards, I would have to argue that Petey is probably correct. PBR has gone from ironic kitsch hip to passé to ironic retro/campy hip ("dude, I'm such a late-90s hipster, I'm drinking PBR!").
I still remember my first beer - an ice cold Natural Light that I drank with my dad after I finished mowing the lawn on a 95 degree summer day. I was 12 years old and it was the best tasting beer ever!
My dad always seems to have a sixer in the fridge whenever I am there and those things still taste mighty fine on a hot summer day.
I cannot stand Bud though - I can smell it across the room when someone opens a bottle...
One important distinction that I find useful is to think about the origins of American pilsners like Bud. Early on, these beers gained a significant amount of sales from vendors marketing an ice-cold beverage in situations like baseball games and outdoor events. Here, the premium was on a light drink that was best served ice cold. Alot of the characteristics of American pilsners were formed just prior to prohibition. European beers prior to pilsners were made to not require refridgeration and could be served at room temperature. It wasn't until the ability of makers, shippers, and retailers to consistently keep a beverage cool that pilsners really took off. So, saying American beer is bad might be a valid statement of subjective opinion, it might also confuse one use of beer (sitting in a pub drinking heavier pints) with another (drinking an ice cold drink at a hot ballpartk) where the desired characteristics may be quite different. That said, why one would sit in a pub and drink a Bud rather than a pint of bitter is quite beyond me.
If you really want to get down with some cheap beer in Western PA, you should pick up a case of "American Beer" at your local distributor. Manufactured by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company but without the Iron City brand. It's a little more watery and less flavorful. Pittsburgh brewing company also makes some lager that I think is called "Old German Beer" with a picture of a stereotypical Teutonic gentleman. That one's pretty good.
The thing that sucks most about Budweiser (and Miller, and Coors) is that it's not even cheap. I don't buy it often, but it's up to, what, 5 bucks a 6-pack? I can go to Costco and get a 24-pack of Bass Ale for $20, so it's the same damn price. And trust me, I'll drink all 24.
I'm waiting on Matt's spirited defense of Schlitz, "The beer that made Milwaukee famous". Honestly, I can appreciate the anti-intellectualism common to beer drinkers. Beer snobs and slobs alike suffer the disdain of wine drinkers.
Screw the contrarianism and the "I'm-just-a-regular-guy" posing -- Budweiser is not good beer. If it's ice cold and there's nothing else in the cooler or fridge, then maybe, but otherwise no. Sure there are worse beers, and some that cost more, but there are also many beers at about Bud's price range or not much more -- such as Yuengling (at least available through much of the mid-Atlantic)-- that are better. For a litte bit more than Bud, go for a reliable Canadian like Labatts or a Molson.
Good local (metro DC) and relatively inexpensive brew: Dominion Ale (not too fond of their lager and hate their Belgian ale).
If I'm not concerned about price, and they're available, I like a real pilsner, like Warsteiner, Bitburger, or an Urquell. Or if I'm having a decent meal, and not just drinking, then maybe an Anchor Steam.
Shiner bach is the best cheap beer, you idiot yankees.
Holy crap...after reading through these comments, I may have to stop reading this blog. Matthew, I had such high opinions of you until now.
Liver cells are too valuable to waste on piss from a can. If you're east of the Mississippi, find yourself an Abita; Turbodog is good for the uninitiated, Purple Haze for the hoppier set. Rockies-side, find yourself a fat tire or a Widmer Hefeweizen. Next time you're in Colorado, get a Hazed and Infused from the Boulder Beer Co. Your taste buds will thank you.
There are few things quite so obnoxious as people who try to come up with reasons why their tastes demonstrate some inherent superiority in their character. People like what they like, and they shouldn't be made to feel bad about it.
Fair enough, but one can complain about taste cultures which in effect constricts the beers that get distributed and served. My big complaint about American beer culture is that it forces a choice between watery/underwhelming flavor and overly alcoholic/overwhelming flavor. We're the only country that seems unwilling to produce a decent lager (Yeungling is the closest I've encountered). And the attempts to mimic the more storied beers of Belgium, Germany, and England end up turning into pumped up facsimiles of what the original, subtle flavor is supposed to be. Mind you, I like a nice American microbrew on a hearty winter night, but European beer traditions do actually offer something different and in my eye superior.
It's a lot like the chocolate problem, really. You either get waxy fake stuff or hit-over-the-head gourmet.
Hoppingator
As a completely unrepentant beer snob (you can't move from Canada to the US and not be one), I would go with Shiner Bock or Yuenling in the local swill genre. But I can enjoy the Bud/Coors/PBR stuff by not even thinking of it as beer (differentiating there is a real 'shades of black' kind of thing -- none of them have enough taste to really do it). I'm thirsty and I want some water with a little bite. It tastes great.
Michelob is my favorite American Style Lager. Lone Star is good. Shiner is good. At Mickey's in Madison, WI, Shiner and PBR are the cheap tap beers which was nice for a displaced southern man. For the Anheiser family of beers, I go with Michelob or Zeigenbock. For the Miller family of beers, I'll go with Lone Star or PBR.
LOL...cheap beer? Back in the 70's when I was a teen, yep I'm a relic now, we (me and the buddies) used to Burlingame State Park in RI during the summer for a week at a time. We were fully stocked with grass, hash, coke along with any other illegal and illicit drugs we could get our hands on. That didn't leave much money for beer (which although we were only 17 we could easily get because the people who sold booze back then didn't care if some 17 year-olds had a few beers while camping). So with our lack of money being what it was we ended up generic beer, which we stumbled upon...it was in a completely white can except for the word "BEER" printed in big black letters on the can. And the shit was not only VERY cheap it was good!!! Long live generic beer, lol!!!!
Though we did love Genessee Cream Ale when we actually hadn't spent our money on grass...
I'm not a big fan of the Fat Tire. It tastes like the malts are over-roasted -- burned, even. Like Starbucks does with their coffee beans. Alaskan Amber is a much better Amber Ale.
Amen. At 50 cents a can beer is cheaper, and probably safer, than bottled water.
Of course, I drink beer as a chaser for hand-rolled cigarettes that are the equivalent of the darkest Belgium ale. If you're still in the 'gourmet' stage of pretentious youth, you might want to save your taste buds for finer things.
Like eating out.
Although I'm somewhat of a beer snob (I drink mostly microbeers (e.g. Boont, Fat Tire) and belgian imports (e.g. Leffe) and I homebrew), I gotta agree that Bud really isn't bad. It's certainly not good, but it's inoffensive. Definitely Yuengling is a much better cheap alternative if you have it around. However, Bud is worlds better than PBR which is a foul and disgusting beverage, whose drinkers should be ashamed of themselves. People who drink PBR instead of Budweiser are doing it entirely for hipster herding reasons and have no taste.
My beef with Budweiser, Miller, et al. is the low alcohol content. I drink New Belgium (Tripel, mostly) in part because it has like 9% as opposed to Budweiser's what, 3.2?
Look, whatever floats your boat. I think the best idea so far was that scratch-and-sniff label idea.
But the fact is, if you haven't made your own beer, you don't know much about beer.
You can make legally 200 gallons a year at home, and it will normally run about 9-10% alcohol, so that should be plenty. The ingredients are so cheap that if you don't like what you brewed, well, throw it out and try again.
Beer, bread and yeast- the Holy Trinity- and doooon't you forget it!
Jason's comment reminds me: never, ever drink beer that you could buy in Utah.
I've also always been pretty partial to Schaefer's. You gotta admire a company which is bold enough to say 'screw it, we putting together a 15-pack' and then charge something absurd, like $6.99 for it.
Exactly. Also, back in my day, they had the most honest slogan of any mass-market Gringolandian beer: "The one beer to have when you're having more than one." In other words, it tastes like piss, but if you're just going to get pounded you might as well go with the cheap brand.
When I lived in the Mission back in the early '80s, the local Walgreens had a perpetual sale on Schaeffer--$2.99/12 pack. We discovered that you could buy a 12 of Schaefer and a quart of Sheaf Stout, put an ounce or two of Sheaf Stout in a glass and top it off with a can of Schaeffer, and get a pretty decent semi-dark beer for a fraction of what it would otherwise cost.
That said, Budweiser and all other mass-market American beer is complete crap, an historical accident of a) Prohibition (which decimated a thriving and diverse brewery industry) and b) WWII (in which soldiers got used to 3.2 beer, so they had a taste for weak-ass flavorless pisswater when they came home).
My big complaint about American beer culture is that it forces a choice between watery/underwhelming flavor and overly alcoholic/overwhelming flavor.
Well, I'll grant you that. I haven't really experienced that for two reasons - one, I mostly drink American beers, and two, I have only ever lived in East Coast urban centers where you can basically get anything. I've never lived in a city that didn't have at least two or three pubs with 15+ taps, and with that kind of variety just about anybody should be able to find something they like.
APS
Um, did Petey just say, "Mmmm, Gennessee Cream Ale"? Wow. I thought I could get through my whole day without hearing that, but obviously I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Has anyone else noticed that his/her local grocery store is not carrying sixes of Foster's anymore? Did I miss something? It seems sudden, and somewhat odd.
I like lager, so Bud is fine by me. Pretty much most American beer that's not in "Beast" class (ugh, college cheapness), and not Coors. I have some party-leftover Yeungling in my fridge.
I think I'll go home and drink one tonight! Mmmm. Balcony, book, beer!
The quality of a beer is inverse to the amount of its advertising spend. Every dollar that goes to the Bud Bowl comes out of your pocket or off your palate.
Matt most microbrews may be crap, but there are still hundreds of them that are good. If you are going to Portland, You should leave behind the micro brews are crap attitude behind. Not only does Portland have more breweries than any other city in the nation, it is the only city that sells more micro,s than traditional domestics.
A few weeks ago, you said... "More to the point, as select friends are aware I'm constantly claiming that I'm going to relocate to Portland, Oregon. I barely know anything about Portland, but everything I hear sounds good."
Among other things, Portland is the microbrew capital.
http://www.travelportland.com/media/mbmedkit/mb_brew_guide.html
map: http://oregonbeer.org/mapport2006.html
Well, Chicago is obviously well represented here with multiple mentions of Old Style.
Old Style is clearly the highest quality cheap beer.
Much of this debate comes down to weather. The hotter it is, the colder I want my beer. And if you're drinking a chilly brew, then you're not going to be able to taste a lot of it anyway.
All of your opinions are colored by your location. Your're in DC, the capitol of shitty beer--and the place where Citron is considered a good bar, Uni has good sushi, and Clyde's good burgers. Brickskeller's offers a variety of good imports, but if you want real microcrews (and this is coming from someone that used to dislike beer), move to the Northwest.
Exactly. Also, back in my day, they had the most honest slogan of any mass-market Gringolandian beer: "The one beer to have when you're having more than one." In other words, it tastes like piss, but if you're just going to get pounded you might as well go with the cheap brand.
Remember the Haffenreffer "Green Grenades"? Up to 40 oz of Malt Liquor not intended to please the palette, only to get you fall down, puke all over yourself drunk...lol.
I rarely drink beer anymore. When I'm out and about, it's vodka on the rocks, with a wedge of lemon or lime. Skyy vodka, if the bar has it -- made in America, tastes fine, usually cheaper than the fancy imports.
Benefits of drinking vodka over beer:
1) You can catch a buzz, if you're so inclined, without having to take a leak three times to piss out a gallon or two of beer. BTW, this is especially helpful if you are at a sporting event or concert and want to minimize time away from the action.
2) You can enjoy a drink without taking in a loaf of bread's worth of calories and carbs.
3) If you are driving home afterwards, you won't smell like you've been drinking, as opposed to smelling like you just left a keg party.
If I'm drinking with my honey, then we drink Cava, which is Spain's dirt-cheap take on champagne. We found one rated 85 by the Wine Spectator that sells for $8 per bottle.
Cheap beer snobbery is the new beer snobbery since like 2002, hipster.
Vodka? I'm of the opinion that clear liquor shouldn't be consumed by men after dark.
Bud is a solid choice and most microbrew stuff is crap.
Now that is one of the dumbest fucking things I've ever read anywhere. If you truly believe that Bud is "solid" and microbrews are "crap" then you simply do not like beer very much.
So much talk of beer, so little talk of alcohol. People don't just drink beer because they like the taste, many people drink because they like the feeling. In my experience, Bud is a fine way to go to slip into the warm embrace of alcohol while minimizing cost, hangover, and tearing up the digestive tract. It has certain, um, economies of scale not enjoyed by finer tasting beers.
As far as snobbery is concerned, I reserve mine for people who refuse to acknowledge that the popularity of alcohol throughout the ages has been driven by how it makes us feel, not how it tastes. Ok... that and people who order top shelf vodka and tonics.
Porn Stone Owner Dude,
I remember drinking 40 oz. Heffenreffers as an accompaniment to Southern Comfort before high school dances. A really hallucegenic drunk, one that did not enhance your decision making abilities. Colt 45 served as a poor substitute for the Heffs. Best done when it was about 20 degrees outside and the gym where the dance was had attained temperatures of about 95.
I don't like beer snobbery, but I'm afraid I tend to like snobby beers. Don't get me wrong --I literally will drink anything - Bud, Miller, Corona, PBR, even Milwaukee's Best (never Coors though - old habits die hard), but I really like darker richer beers, porters, stouts and the like -- Boddington's Pub Ale, anything brewed by Samuel Smith, Guinness. I find that in certain settings, I'm embarrassed to order what I really like, because I don't want to be perceived as the beer snob. Which sucks, because you really ought to be able to drink what you like.
I remember drinking 40 oz. Heffenreffers as an accompaniment to Southern Comfort before high school dances. A really hallucegenic drunk, one that did not enhance your decision making abilities. Colt 45 served as a poor substitute for the Heffs. Best done when it was about 20 degrees outside and the gym where the dance was had attained temperatures of about 95.
LOL...that experience sounds vaguely familiar. I say "vaguely familiar" because there were nights like that I still have no recollection of. Except with me it was occasionally Yukon Jack (or Yack as we used to call it) with the Heff's instead of SoCo, we tried to keep things mixed up.
Alas, thanks to Type 2 Diabetes no more booze for me now. :-(
That being said I am still not even close to being a "tea totaler"...praise be to Mother Earth and the hallucinogenic bounty that is naturally provided to mankind. ;-)
If MY is so wrong about beer, maybe he's wrong about trade too! No, just kidding. Personal taste is a mysterious thing. And the democratic part is a big tent.
I'm less of a beer snob than I used to be but I still think that to limit your beer consumption to weak lagers is to miss out on the best beer has to offer. And if you are going to drink lager, you can do better than bud (my father and I have converged on Yuengling, representing an important warming of intergenerational relations).
On the other hand, I'm still not sure what I think about trade, even after reading that great TAP article yesterday.
Ever taste a Bud that wasn't cold ... i.e., when you could actually taste it? Betcha won't like it. People who claim warm beer tastes terrible have never had a drinkable beer their entire life!
Enjoy!!
Schlenkerla Rauchbier. It's aged in smoked wood barrels. Imagine: The great taste of ham ... in a beer.
Back a few years, I had Sunday after-church brunch at Die Brauerie Schlenkerla in Bamburg, Bavaria. Them huns get down on their swine. Big time. I'm mostly veg. The house special that day was Kesselfleisch, which translates roughly to stewed meat. In my halting German, I asked a neighbor at one the long tables at which we were seated, a stunning ash blonde in her early 40s, what we were eating. She said in equally halting English, "It is, how you say, freshly slaughtered pig. From Thursday, I think!" Like the recent vintage of the late Sir Oinksalot somehow made it more appetizing....
So I had a few smoked beers, some dark bread with mustard, and later ate some crap I had bought the day before at the Banhof Wurzburg vendomats. Did I say the huns dig their swine? They call junk food, "Schweinereine," or pig slop.
Schlenkerla Rauchbier is available in few spots in the US. Try it once, just to say you did.
"But a Bud is a solid choice and most microbrew stuff is crap."
Sort of like how David Broder is afirst rate reporter and most bloggers are know-nothing dirty fucking hippies sitting around in their pajamas. Good one.
Sort of like how David Broder is afirst rate reporter and most bloggers are know-nothing dirty fucking hippies sitting around in their pajamas. Good one.
That was excellent.
Brickskeller's offers a variety of good imports
This is not really accurate. As far as I can tell, the Brickskeller's menu lists a variety of good beers. Actually available for purchase, however, are a few beers easily available on tap in New York or Seattle that have been sitting in the fridge since the Carter administration.
There is only one rule of beer drinking... try lots of different beers and stick with the ones you like. Snobbery and reverse snobbery be damned. If you like it, drink it.
I happen to think the folks who drink Budweiser are crazy. But if that's your drug of choice, more power to ya.
I agree with LaFollette Progressive, and not just because I went to the La Follette School of Public Affairs. Beer can be a wonderful thing. I haven't had a Bud in seven years and it's been slightly longer since I've have an MGD, but I don't find fault with people who choose those. I like Belhaven, Boddington's, Bootlegger Brown, the Anchor family of beers and the heavenly combination of Guiness and Newcastle. I'll often drink Lone Star when I want a lager because it tastes better to me than the alternatives. A bucket of Schlitz at the Alamo Drafthouse is pretty sweet too.
A recipe.
Go to Connecticut and buy a quart bottle of grain alcohol.
Buy 2 gallons of water at the local supermarket.
Buy yellow or amber food coloring at your local supermarket.
At a homebrew/wine store, buy a small vial of hop extract. If you want body in the final product, buy a one lb. bag of malto-dextrins (these are nonfermentable sugars that aren't sweet).
Combine the alcohol and water in a sufficiently large stainless steel pot. Stir in 2 cups
of the malto-dextrins. Add 6 drops of the hop extract. Add 8 drops of the food coloring.
Stir all ingredients well and pour the mixture
into a soda keg. Close the keg and attach your CO2 line to it. Place the contents under 25 psi
for 8 hours (this forces CO2 into the liquid).
Congratulations, you just made Bud Lite.
If you have a bag of rice in the pantry when you do this, you have made regular Bud.
It is appropriate to skimp on the above ingredients.
The purpose of Bud is profit and nothing else.
Hmmm. I brew almost all the beer I drink, but here are a few thoughts on commercial brews:
Ultra cheap beer: Monster Brau... I mean, Meister Brau. I don't drink this one anymore, but in college it rocked. It was like 3 bucks a 6 pack.
Everyday beer: Sam Adams lager or Yuengling.
Microbrew: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (maybe they're too big to be considered microbrew, but I live in the sticks and it's as close as we get around here). I haven't in fact smoked a lot of pot, but I still really dig the hoppy stuff.
Regional favorites: Point Special Beer from Stevens Point, WI (I used to own a t-shirt with a picture of a beer mug and the slogan "Point Special Beer - It's not just for breakfast anymore!). Also Shiner Bock, which is cheap and really good.
Getting back to the homebrew thing, between about February and mid-April I had drunk nothing but various sorts of homebrew (including a keg of hard cider... good but very strong), and then went to a social event where they were serving... Coors light. It tasted almost exactly like soda water. Given that we had been playing a bunch of weird outdoor games and the weather was pretty warm, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Wouldn't want to drink it every day, though.
The only thing Daniel has right is that it's not right to call it piss, Corona has the lock on that designation.
Corona Light is piss that results from drinking too many Coronas.
Budweiser is terrible. You wouldn't think that needed saying, but apparently it does.
Five of my favorite beers (or breweries rather) are Rogue, Deschutes, Caldera, Bridgeport and Widmer. O
I guess I'm still a beer snob -- I have to disagree with ya here. Anyhoo ... what happened to your Belfast and the ME post? I've a thing or two to say about that ...
Posted by DAS | May 11, 2007 9:48 AM