Are American beers gaining recognition?

It seems to always come up in conversations while enjoying an afternoon at the beer garden, proud Germans touting their superior beer and asking if I miss Budweiser now that I'm drinking "real" beer. Well, I never drank Bud except maybe a few times in the Army when my roommate bought the crap. In the States I never buy/drink beer from the major brewers. There are so many good micro brews making excellent varieties I have no reason to subject myself to colored water. However, it seems most Europeans believe we all drink Budweiser or Miller and we have no quality beers that can stand up against a good German or Belgian beer. I beg to differ. Not only do we have it, we have something rarely offered in Germany; Variety!

Don't get me wrong here (as people love to do in trolling fashion on TT), I do like German beers and especially love Belgian beers, but I also know when I go home I can pickup something that will be just as good or offer me something completely unique.

Interesting article here (and reason for me posting).

Not to mention that Germans couldn't make a tasty cocktail to save their lives.

Don't go upsetting the apple cart.

and not all german beer is good, Holsten for instance

Some people are unaware that America does make some good beer, but I think the name Micro Brewery gives a clue to what the Average American drinks. I've had some good beer in the States but you have to know where to find it, a bit like Real Ale in Britain. In my limited experience of the States the vast majority drink crap like Bud, because mostly that's all there is. Incidently a lot of people drink crap like Bud in Britain too, advertising is a powerful thing.

It's not only the Germans who don't realise that America has a thriving brewing scene; many Americans haven't clicked either. The same is depressingly true in Britain: most Brits simply have no idea that we are one of the great beer-brewing nations.

And yeah, don't get me started on variety. Or beer that's less than 5% alcohol, a particularly relevant point today as I sit here with a pounding head after only five beers last night.

That doesn't seem to stop an awful lot of TTers drinking them in large amounts.

^{I wouldn't know if they are good or not as I am neither a women nor gay.}

I think the point is that most beer drank in Germany is better than most beer drank in the US. I'm sure there are plenty of good beers in the US, but the most well known ones are crap.

Yeah, valid point. Luckily all but one of my friends drink quality beer. We can't seem to convert the one friend who insists on drinking Miller Lite, to something worth expelling the energy to open. Last time I was home we went to a bar that features a large variety of independent brews in addition to the major stuff, so of course when I ask him what he wants he says "Miller Lite". So when the bartender came 'round I ordered him a water. He wasn't amused.

Or most beer drank in: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Italy, Russia, etc...

The old, "What have (Insert American brew/ English lager) and sex in a canoe got in common?" joke*

^{*In case you don't know the answer it's "They're both f***ing close to water!"}

Not a single reference to Czech beer? wtf?

1) Microbreweries are a relatively new thing across America. There was a time that Bud was actually the best beer you could get (against Miller, PBR, Coors, Schlitz, etc.) in most of the country.
2) A six pack of anything good for $10 or more is still too expensive compared to here.
3) It wasn't until the early '90s that my local store on campus even sold decent imported beer from south of the border and I am not talking Red Stripe or Corona.

@Luvlein: The Czech breweries have mostly been bought up by international corporations like SABMiller or InBev. There's still some good beer in the Czech Republic, but it's of the Helles/Dunkles variety, rather than the ales being brewed in Belgium, Britain and America.

Many moons ago I was in Canada and there was a beer strike on, striking used to be a national hobby in Canada in the 70/80s, we were forced to drink imported beer, which meant American. It made a lot of people realise that Canadian beer was ok really!

America has always had good beers... usually the locals just horde them for themselves though

There are some nice ones but why does it have to be cooled to the point you need gloves to drink it?

Because it has to be colder than the air conditioned room you are in.

I actually was thinking of Czech beers too but I only know of a couple that I really like and don't know that they brew enough varieties to be a major player. Not saying they don't have good beers. In the Chicagoland area there are alot of microbrews and beer choices. Lots of brewery/restaurant combinations too like Rock Bottom, Goose Island, Hopcats, and Taylor St. Brewing Company. Rock Bottom makes a pretty good Weizen although they always want to put a lemon in it.

Not really; there were some good beers before Prohibition, but after that the big conglomerates controlled the beer scene. As Eurovol says, the micro-brewery revolution dates back no further than the 1970s.

Last time I was in the States I found a bottled lager called Olde English , and it actually wasn't too bad, but stuff like Budweiser and Coors is awful fucking shite.

Another point now that I think of it... Budweiser is plastered everywhere back home. They sponsor so much junk, see their name on everything and they produce some awesome commercials. Yet I don't know anyone that likes, buys or drinks the beer. And when I'm out and about I don't notice many people drinking it either. Where is their beer selling and who is buying it? Only thing I can think of is they are in so many stadiums and events that this is where they sell most of their beer because fans don't have a choice.

Bud/miller/coors etc., is consumed en masse at sporting events, tailgate parties, BBQs, beaches, parks, lake houses, road trips, college bars, etc. But other than at mass consumption events, they are not nearly as popular as microbrews or imports. Unless it's a dive bar, there'll usually be an import/microbrew to mass-produced beer ratio of 3:1 on tap.

Olde English is malt liquor. 40 oz. corner juice.

Well that's certainly not my experience, maybe I only go in dive bars!

Could you translate the last bit into English, because I can't understand gibberish!

seriously i wonder where in the US some of you are from/have been that 'micro brewers' are not known, hard to get, or unpopular. You can go into any bar where i live and have a selection of beer with, most likely, a proportional mix of the bigger US beers, micros, and imports. Also, many micros are not that much more than some of the bigger ones.

I'm not even going to get into the debate regarding which of the more mass-produced beers is more popular. Many of the micro brews are up there and the if you take micros out of the equation then i honestly think it depends on the region of the country you are in. You can go by 'awards' won, but those should probably not be taken too seriously.

No problem. Olde English is malt liquor, which has an alcohol content around 8% or so (twice that of a normal beer). Gets you drunk quickly and it's dirt cheap. St. Ides is another popular one. Take one of these, put it in a brown paper bag, and put it in the hand of a man standing on the corner and BINGO: urban America.

Olde English is actually brewed by Miller, much to FristCitizen's chagrin, I'm sure.

As for US brews, I miss Redhook ESB and Mirror Pond by Deschutes the most.

Budweiser gaining recognition as a beer, even if only in the title of this thread, is pretty amazing.

my grandad came to visit just after the strike was over and they had huge stock piles of the stuff they needed to get rid of and couldn't. So he goes into a liquor store and sees this massive quantity of beer on sale thinks this is grand and buys a whole bunch and brings it home to my dad. My dad had to explain to him that this was the undrinkable swill from south of the border that they imported during the strike. My granddad actually spit it out when he tried it.

American beer can be great and american beer can be crap. While doing a lot of american beer drinking over there a while ago I spent about a month without having had a german beer. We ended up going to this german restaurant and I had a hofbrauhaus beer. It was heaven. I think americans do a lot of nice beers, import a lot of great beer and have a fabulous variety of beer types. This being said however they produce a lot of shit and they still can't brew or don't brew a really good helles.

Funny in America I drank Corona and if I am not having a Kolsch here.. I am still drinking Corona..

I hate Coors, BUD and MGD!! what crap! There is this Microbrew called Alien Ale, I really liked that! and One called Rye in the sky.

My favorite still has to be the Bottle ( singular) of Becks that introduced me to Cota!! Have not had it since but best bottle of beer I have ever had hands down.. but I doubt that was the beer!

when speaking of the america classics:
Let us not forget about the incrediably popular drink of the high class street Bum Thunderbird!!

If you liked Old English might I reccomend another fine beverage - Mad Dog 20/20..

Seriously though, cold shit american beer is quite allright on a day when its 100 degrees out and your outdoors, and 90% of bars that aren't hillbilly shitholes will have some microbrews.. Plus, its cheap and plentiful, and you can bring cans in the water..

I'll take Bud over the Astra or Becks everyone drinks up here any day (I think I got screwed when it came to the part of germany with good beer)

On Budweiser in the US :


Yeah, but I don't know anyone that voted for George Bush - yet clearly fucking loads of people did.

If you think Budweiser is shite, go to England and try some Carling Black Label, or pretty much any lager you see being snatched up by the 12 pack by hordes of English idiots for their summer "barbeque"*

*Had to write barbeque in little quote marks there - not too sure that cremating a pack of tesco value sausages really falls into the internationally accepted definition of the word.

EDIT:


Awesome stuff. Nobody should go through puberty without it.

Maybe I shouldn't be allowed to speak on the subject having started my early days of drinking by hanging with friends at the local White Hen Pantry (7-Eleven equivalent) trying to get someone to buy us a case of Schlitz cause it was the cheapest and came in 30 packs instead of 24. What you didn't finish you could use as weed killer.

From the larger breweries I don't think Sam Adams is too bad. Leinenkugel is pretty good too but probably only available in the midwest (Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Wisconsin).

My local in Houston has plaques behind the bar, exactly on eye level and prominently placed: "Only amateurs ask for frosted glasses"
Back in 1999 an English (well, British by birth and English by the grace of God, according to him) friend of mine and I toured California South to North (San Diego to Napa Valley) and managed not to have a single Bud, Miller etc. Instead we drank Chinese beer, Indian beer, Mexican beer, Brazilian beer and various micro-brews. The supermarkets were well stocked with non-Bud etc., several of these commercial beers were brewed according to German standards and tasted great out of the ice-box in the back yard.
We agreed that although we had never had worse beer (meaning Helles, Pils is a cat of a different color) in Germany most of the micro-brews could easily pass a blind test as to taste, quality and non-hangoverness.

Schlitz? Snob.. we grew up on keystone - 1.99 for a 6 pack of tall boys.

sarabyrd: I was there last friday

There's only one malt liquor that'll get your head hummin'. Coldcock's the one you never see comin'.



I have yet to see the man that could drink a whole can.

Keystone-----"Bottled beer taste in a can" what a reach for greatness!

@ lilplatinum - Do you have a plate on the wall yet?

Yeah, I lived near there for a year so it was inevitable... Incidentally they make you drink the non alcoholic beers to get it..

I liked Blue Moon somewhat, and i was in a bar in Maryland that served some microbrews who were decent.

Last time I was over a couple of young ladies promoting beer extremely well put us on to the Blue Moon. Very nice it was.

Ah, Thunderbird (blue and red), I can feel my head starting to ache just thinking about it.

Other things I have had either the misfortune or the good luck to try depening on how you see it.

Newcastle Brown Ale - drank by lots of poeple and the bottle doubles as a club should things (and they often do) get a bit nasty.

Ace Larger - at one point 6 cans of this stuff cost less than a two litre bottle of white lightning.

White lighting - had diesel made out of this stuff (half cider, half lager, shot of blackcurrent juice) - one of the biggest headaches i have ever had (post my thunferbird days).

That beer i couldnt give a xxxx if i never see it again.

Bottle of white label vodka bought in a corner shop in sunderland, cost 5 pounds for a litre bottle - back of label - contents - ethanol - vodka flavouring (plus some other stuff). The next day will for every be burned into my memory as the most ill I have been in my entire life outside a serious medical condition.

Thunderbird and the white lightning diesel gave me a bad hangover, this stuff just made me feel ill - I could not move of the sofa for the entire day. The others in the house (we bought more than one bottle) did not make it past the bucket by their beds.

Some 2.5% beer in the US, various sorts - got full, stopped drinking, laughed at my drunk american mates.

However in a small bar somewhere in chicargo I was able to try quite a few very nice beers from the states. So nice I cannot remember what they were called. Towards the end of the evening they were just known as 'that one please'...

2.5% beer? Why were you in one of those states? Shit even bud light is 4.2%

Are American beers gaining recognition?

Nope.

Not really the same question as are American beers any good.

Could it have been Delilah's? Although they are known as an awesome whiskey bar, they have an equally impressive beer selection. Loved the place for the atmosphere and beers! If you're ever in the city, I recommend a visit (then when you're nice and drunk make your way over to The Wiener's Circle - The verbal abuse they offer is free

@Lil - got them a cardboard case type thing from some kind of shop in Normal - Illonis. 24 330ml cans to a case.

As I said, long after my american mates were hammered I just got full.

@L8knight - I cannot remember the name of the beers, the name of the place - no chance. It was my first and last time there and I was taken by a friend. I remember him saying it was on the boarder if the suberbs and the city. It was darkish inside but thats all I can remember.

Was a great bar, when the barman found out I was English and hadnt tried any of the beer before he gave me a shot of each one to see which one I liked best.

You wouldn't get that happening in many places in rhe UK.

Dont blame americans, blame Illionis... Only a few backwater places in the country force places to sell watered down beer... I don't get drunk off very much at all of amstel light and thats 3.7%, i can't imagine 2.5 would do anything... stupid baptists.

How does anyone manage to actually say what they're doing whilst consuming this stuff?
"What's up Billy-Ray?"
"Ahh, nuttin' Cletus...just chugging some coldcock"


I think there are definitely a few men of the more fairy variety that could chug 6 coldcocks in an evening.

Rednecks aren't the stereotypical malt liquor drinkers.. its a traditionally urban drink.. Billy-Ray and Cletus would be drinking schlitz, natty, miller high life (self proclaimed "the champagne of beers") or milwaukees best.. nothing like the beast.

Timmeh you sure know alot about coldcocks

I thought all American's were called Cletus, Randy, Chuck or Billy Ray...well I'll be