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American Beer: Love It or Hate It?

Since I'm from Ohio I've began enjoying Great Lakes Brewing, and I just recently had Columbus Brewing which wasn't bad. I prefer the local stuff over big name brands but really haven't experimented with too many different kinds. I do have one Pilsner Urquell in the fridge currently which I randomly bought :)
 
northy124 said:
American beer is yucky, European beer is the best.
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Thanks for clearing that up - I suppose that settles the debate!

:p


atszyman said:
I don't know if I'd go so far as to say anything Leinenkugels, they have quite a variety and while I've tried most, some are definitely surprising if you're not prepared.
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I agree, but the poster didn't specify any kind.

I think in general the Sunset Wheat is their flagship beer.


OutThere said:
As far as good American beer goes...I'm partial to Magic Hat, I'm not sure of its availability outside of the northeast, however.
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Though purchased Pyramid Brewery out of WA state this year to increase their West Coast distribution, so hopefully we'll be seeing it up and down the coast before long...


Surely said:
Cheers. Right on man. Thanks for organizing.
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You're welcome ;)


Jaffa Cake said:
Which brings me on to my second point – look past the likes of Budweiser and Coors and there are some lovely American beers out there, more often than not from smaller, independent breweries. Unfortunately, not many manage to work their way over here but if you know where to look you can find some interesting and delicious beers. San Francisco's Anchor Brewery and the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co are two companies who have managed to get their wares available over here, and they have some very nice beers in their ranges. Hopefully we'll see more breweries following their example.
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The former's Anchor Steam and the latter's Pale Ale are two excellent examples of good beers that can be found nationally, for around $7 or 8 a six-pack.

So there. No excuse to drink Bud.


question fear said:
When I lived in Boston a few years ago I had some friends go nuts while we were in NJ for a wedding...they stocked up on Yuengling like there was no tomorrow. And apparently Yuengling is big in Key West, I was there on vacation and the bars proudly advertised it. Yuengling. The pitchers we buy cheap at rugby socials. People actually get excited about it.

There's no accounting for what people want when they can't have it.
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Yuengling is the new Coors.
 
mkrishnan said:
I think it's a Florida-related thing... I'd heard of it in the Midwest, but in Florida, it's almost impossible to find a bar that does not have Yuengling on tap or in a bottled drink special.
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I'm pretty sure it's from Pennsylvania but I think there's some very definitive borders that dictate what parts of the country you can and can't find it in.

So much like Coors back in the day, you have a beer that's a plain jane where it's at and a sought after exotic where it's not.

Honestly, I don't mind it, but in my opinion it's not even as good as a basic Sam Adams Boston Lager, much less some of the great craft beers mentioned in this thread.
 
Unspeaked said:
I'm pretty sure it's from Pennsylvania but I think there's some very definitive borders that dictate what parts of the country you can and can't find it in.
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No, no, it is. I mean for some reason, they're obsessed with it in FL. :eek:

And agreed... it's not the worst beer that I've ever had, but I wouldn't drink it preferentially.

I think my basic worst beer I'll drink by choice is Amstel Light (which is Dutch). :eek:
 
Unspeaked said:
You can't expect 100% of America to be full of great bars, just like you can't expect 100% of Europe to be.

Good luck finding a decent beer in the majority of Spain or Italy - import or domestic.
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I'm not asking for 100% of pubs to be good. What I'm saying is that when you walk into a bar or pub in America, it's really a crapshoot in terms of whether a good beer is available, and the good beers that people mentioned aren't widely available.

The one good beer that's widely available and a good beer to go back to is Sam Adams. It's definitely not a bad option.

Surely said:
I think the problem is availability. I have no doubt that some of the American microbrews and smaller breweries' beers that have been named are good, but they are difficult to find because they are not nationally available. These beers are typically only available regionally.

In Canada, you can walk into almost any bar/pub or even a restaurant with a limited bar and ask for an Alexander Keith's Pale Ale, a Creemore Springs, and a Sleeman's Cream Ale or Honey Brown, and you can be sure that they'll have at least one of them. Both on tap and bottled. I don't think that's possible in the U.S.
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For all the Canadians who mentioned Alexander Keiths IPA as a good Canadian beer, that's only half true. It's the world's s***tiest IPA. It's downright disgusting. However, if you ignore the "IPA" part of the label and treat it as any regular old lager, it's not bad. :) It's something I don't mind ordering from a pub, although I'd rather have a Creemore Springs. Creemore Springs is something you can proudly order, while Alexander Keiths is something you'd have to explain to someone who was expecting an IPA, but got...."that". :p


I mean, not to say that Moosehead is a good Canadian beer, but the American version of it is far worse than the Canadian version of it. When I was in Chicago, we bought it, and thought it tasted different, and then noticed that it was bottled by one of the big American three in the U.S. (I don't remember which one).

For better or worse, Budweiser, Miller and Coors dominate the market, and when people think of American beers, that's what comes to mind.
\
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To be fair, most Canadian bars have Labatt Blue, Molson Canadian, Export, and a few other beers, all of which are crap. Moosehead also isn't the best. ;) I just like how a pub will usually serve a number of half-decent beers, and there aren't too many bars to avoid because they only serve undrinkable crap.
 
Abstract said:
For all the Canadians who mentioned Alexander Keiths IPA as a good Canadian beer, that's only half true. It's the world's s***tiest IPA. It's downright disgusting. However, if you ignore the "IPA" part of the label and treat it as any regular old lager, it's not bad. :) It's something I don't mind ordering from a pub, although I'd rather have a Creemore Springs. Creemore Springs is something you can proudly order, while Alexander Keiths is something you'd have to explain to someone who was expecting an IPA, but got...."that". :p
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really? because of this thread i actually went and bought some Creemore Springs, and i though it was really bad, it has a horrible (burnt food kinda) aftertaste, not for me i guess... will take a Keiths anyday
 
Well I've always felt that American beer is mostly crap, but I must admit that I don't even remember where I got that idea from :p, so I guess I could be a lot more objective if I wanted to.

I've only tried Bud and Bud Light (mostly crap, but passable) and Sam Adams. Mr. Adams does have some good stuff going on.
 
@juanster: Really? That's surprising, because I've never ordered a Creemore that had a burnt aftertaste. I'll have to try it again soon. I'm not proclaiming it to be the world's greatest beer, but it was quite good if I remember correctly. I haven't had it in years, although I have an excuse.......I've been out of the country. :p

But then again, I've had bad Guinness (once), which was surprising considering how I was living in England, which is well closer to the source than, say, Canada. It was a "Guinness Cold" though, on tap. Who the heck drinks dark beers while they're freezing cold? They should be served a bit cool.

And yeah, Keiths. Good compared to most lagers, but a horrible IPA (which is what it's supposed to be). It actually has no attributes of an IPA except the 3 letters on the label. :p It's still the beer I'll most likely order at a bar or pub though, seeing as how it's very widely available, and better than Labatt Blue or Molson Canadian, or any mega-distributed national beer for that matter.



Had a Belle-vue Kriek on the weekend. Not American, but mmmmmmm........
 
Badandy said:
The best beer I've ever had is a microbrew from New Glarus, Wisconsin named "Spotted Cow". I believe it was voted the number one microbrew in the country in 2004 by an established competition committee. I don't think they export, but if you can get your hands on it (those of you in Chicago are not far from Wisconsin) I highly recommend it.
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I'll agree with you on that one. I had Spotted Cow when I was in Madison earlier this year and it's one of the best I've had too. I wish I could get some here in St. Louis.

Boulevard, which is brewed in Kansas City and available in Missouri (and I think most of the midwest) has great beer too. I would recommend their wheat beer.
 
mkrishnan said:
I thought we were talking about Cognac now. French people don't really have clans. :D

Unlike Lee, I really love beer. Like Lee, I really love cognac. :)
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Oh no no... we weren't talking about Cognac -- at least I wasn't. I was going on about Scotch Whisky which has been matured in ex-Cognac barrels.

I will resist the temptation to insert gratuitous Franco-slam insult here.:D pour encourager les autres, if nothing else.
 
gilkisson said:
Oh no no... we weren't talking about Cognac -- at least I wasn't. I was going on about Scotch Whisky which has been matured in ex-Cognac barrels.
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Oh, wow, see, now I don't drink Scotch, so I don't know anything about how it's made, really. I didn't know they did that! I bought a bottle of Scotch as a thank you present for a friend who let me stay at his house during an interview, and I really was afraid of embarrassing myself with my complete lack of knowledge on the topic. :eek:
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Very few actually do – for example, one of my favourite beers is Deuchars IPA which is quite fantastic in both cask and bottled form, but an authentic IPA it most certainly isn't.
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I had Deuchars IPA out of the cask in Edinburgh last week.....absolutely amazing. Best beer(s) I've had in a long while.
 
mkrishnan said:
Oh, wow, see, now I don't drink Scotch, so I don't know anything about how it's made, really. I didn't know they did that! I bought a bottle of Scotch as a thank you present for a friend who let me stay at his house during an interview, and I really was afraid of embarrassing myself with my complete lack of knowledge on the topic. :eek:
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Not a lot to know, really. (now I've just irked any Scotchophiles out there). Either you like it or you do not. I recommend tasting a decent single malt, like The Glenlivet or Glenfiddich (no reason paying for the really good stuff yet), and a decent blend, like Famous Grouse. Drink one small glass of each, then repeat that a few times. If you're still having fun, you like it.:D

Seriously, in a good scotch you can have fun detecting faint floral flavors, hints of oak, fruits, the malted roasted whole grains, etc. It can be very complex.

I drink mine neat, or with an ice cube or two (more blasphemy, I know), but YMMV.

And here I reveal my ignorance: Cognac. I know nothing of it. tried Hennessey once. Meh.
 
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