Beer snobs must worse than wine snobs

[alkemyst]

Marketing is the key. Americans have AB ads shoved down their throats for their entire lives so of course they are more likely to go for one of these brands. One example, when you go to a sports game, all you can really get are ML and BL. However, I have seen some progress in this area... recently I went to a Caps game and they had an international beer stand with many different types of good imports. I think more and more stadiums are adding better selection but it also depends on the target audience. Breaking out of the "cold, cheap shtty beer (Coors/BL/ML) is best" mentality takes some effort that many Americans are too lazy to do.

Americans demand quality. Look at wine. There is almost no marketing and yet our masses have cried out that many very good brands be carried at the local grocery store.

It's the same with beer. If the beer wasn't good, then advertising wouldn't matter.

What's happened is now the new GEN EMO has to have everything be 'trendy', it's gone to beer now.

They feel manly drinking it, but want it to be OMIGODSNORGLES!...so they come up with these frooty concoctions or amp up the alcohol. Of course, places are going to carry the crap now. Last thing they want is some irate crazy at the front of a beer line running and taking a jump off the edge of the stadium over not having Hello Kitty's Marvelous Pale Ale.

Beer is designed to be a lazy thing.

 

[SP33Demon]

Americans demand quality. Look at wine. There is almost no marketing and yet our masses have cried out that many very good brands be carried at the local grocery store.

It's the same with beer. If the beer wasn't good, then advertising wouldn't matter.

What's happened is now the new GEN EMO has to have everything be 'trendy', it's gone to beer now.

They feel manly drinking it, but want it to be OMIGODSNORGLES!...so they come up with these frooty concoctions or amp up the alcohol. Of course, places are going to carry the crap now. Last thing they want is some irate crazy at the front of a beer line running and taking a jump off the edge of the stadium over not having Hello Kitty's Marvelous Pale Ale.

Beer is designed to be a lazy thing.

Well my point is that most stadiums don't have good imports yet and even if they do, it's only at one place in the stadium/arena.

The American masses have been trained by advertising that BL/ML is good beer when in fact it's watered down piss in a cup. The only reason you cannot taste that it's piss is because it's always ice cold which further masks its taste. Americans scowl at the fact that other countries don't drink their beer ice cold when in fact the joke is on them.

 

[vi edit]

The American masses have been trained by advertising that BL/ML is good beer when in fact it's watered down piss in a cup. The only reason you cannot taste that it's piss is because it's always ice cold which further masks its taste. Americans scowl at the fact that other countries don't drink their beer ice cold when in fact the joke is on them.

I just think you confuse marketing with simple conditioning. We're conditioned by family/peers/regional tastes to like things a particular way. And with a long enough exposure to that conditioning it's just what we come to expect and enjoy.

My family has one of the blandest palates of anyone I know. Ketchup is one step away from being spicy for most of them and anything can be fixed with more salt. That's just what they know and how they like it.

Same thing with beer. You just grow up drinking or seeing your family drink something and that's just what you are used to. Marketing has nothing to do with it. It's just what you are comfortable with.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I just think you confuse marketing with simple conditioning. We're conditioned by family/peers/regional tastes to like things a particular way. And with a long enough exposure to that conditioning it's just what we come to expect and enjoy.

My family has one of the blandest palates of anyone I know. Ketchup is one step away from being spicy for most of them and anything can be fixed with more salt. That's just what they know and how they like it.

Same thing with beer. You just grow up drinking or seeing your family drink something and that's just what you are used to. Marketing has nothing to do with it. It's just what you are comfortable with.

Hahaha ... everybody in my family except for myself and my brother are that same way.... nothing spicier than ketchup and putting a ton of salt on everything...

I guess we are the rejects of the family since I love anything hot, and rarely add salt to anything...

 

[vi edit]

I guess we are the rejects of the family since I love anything hot, and rarely add salt to anything...

I'm the same way. I've got almost an entire shelf dedicated to various types of spicey stuff...jalapeno sauces, hot salsas, ground hatch chili powder, scotch bonnet sauces, habanero sauce, Sriracha sauce, ect. My Dad would probably stroke out just smelling some of those.

It really makes cooking for him, my Mom and my sister tough if we get together for a big family meal. I like flavor and heat. They don't. I can't stand salt either. I can't eat a lot of soups because it tastes like a bowl full of brine. Bleh.

At least I got him introduced to darker beers. He really digs porters and dark ales. Which is a big change from what he only drank when I was a kid.

 

[alkemyst]

Well my point is that most stadiums don't have good imports yet and even if they do, it's only at one place in the stadium/arena.

The American masses have been trained by advertising that BL/ML is good beer when in fact it's watered down piss in a cup. The only reason you cannot taste that it's piss is because it's always ice cold which further masks its taste. Americans scowl at the fact that other countries don't drink their beer ice cold when in fact the joke is on them.

It's not like that at all. It's regional 'taste'...much like Coke is different all over the world.

Americans prefer a light tasting beer. It suits the types of foods we eat.

The heavier beers have long been available in the US as any real beer and wine store.

The whole beer and wine craze has prompted all these 'queer beers' as I like to call them and the social outrage one does when TGIFriday's doesn't happen to have Joe the Pirate's Lemon Party Beer on the menu. I have seen asshats go postal because they only have some wierd one in a bottle but not on tap as if they should have had it ready just for them.

I love beer...I like it simple. I like it light. Drinking Guiness Stout out on the boat in 90F temps is a bit much. I used to drink it all the time.

American beers are no more terrible than any other regions when you compare them as a whole.

 

[vi edit]

It's not like that at all. It's regional 'taste'...much like Coke is different all over the world. Americans prefer a light tasting beer. It suits the types of foods we eat. The heavier beers have long been available in the US as any real beer and wine store.

I'd argue that a traditional wheat beer is even lighter/easier drinking and more flavorful than a macro-brew light beer. But many of them are bottle conditioned and unfiltered and that freaks people out.

 

[BZeto]

I used to think Shocktop was amazing. Lately I've been drinking some finer beers such as Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA and I can confidently compare Shocktop closer to water at this point. That said I'd go broke drinking Dogfish all the time and still like a Shocktop every now and then.

I'm still hoping I can find Bitches Brew one of these days.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I'm the same way. I've got almost an entire shelf dedicated to various types of spicey stuff...jalapeno sauces, hot salsas, ground hatch chili powder, scotch bonnet sauces, habanero sauce, Sriracha sauce, ect. My Dad would probably stroke out just smelling some of those.

It really makes cooking for him, my Mom and my sister tough if we get together for a big family meal. I like flavor and heat. They don't. I can't stand salt either. I can't eat a lot of soups because it tastes like a bowl full of brine. Bleh.

At least I got him introduced to darker beers. He really digs porters and dark ales. Which is a big change from what he only drank when I was a kid.

Hahaha, I took my dad to the annual beer tasting at one of my favorite brew shops, and I swear, he raved about how miller light was better than all the beers that he tasted there and how great miller lite was.

I don't have quite that selection of hot stuff, just a bottle of Sriracha, and a bottle of daves insanity sauce, and some Blanes after death sauce, and then some dried chillis, and then always have jar of sport peppers and giardinara and usually fresh serrano's or jalepeno's in the frige...

Anyhow ... if I'm cooking for my family, usually I can grill a turkey outside covered with bacon, and it's a big hit, or I just make a big batch of chilli, but make it extra mild... (1 or 2 jalepeno's for the whole crock pot ... I can add some hot sauce to my own after it's done) ... Also, they like my beer can chicken, and, I am an expert at ordering pizza's... hehehe

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

BZeto,

I view shocktop as a better tasting budweiser. And it only costs about $1 more than budweiser. It's win-win!

I had a 12% Digfish brew that tasted like a boiler maker. I want the 120 minute IPA but have yet to find it available.

 

[Arkaign]

I'm a live and let live kind of beer fan. If you like Milwaukee's Best or Chimay or what-the-eff ever, it doesn't bother me. I prefer a few types like Shiner, Becks, Old Rasputin, Belhaven, etc, but I won't throw a fit if I have to drink something else or someone is kind enough to offer me an MGD or whatever. Why so serious?

 

[Sukhoi]

BZeto,

I view shocktop as a better tasting budweiser. And it only costs about $1 more than budweiser. It's win-win!

I had a 12% Digfish brew that tasted like a boiler maker. I want the 120 minute IPA but have yet to find it available.

Check out Squall if you can find it anywhere. It's an unfiltered 120 min with a bit of other stuff tossed in. Quite good.

 

[xSauronx]

also in case anyone hasnt had it (since dogfish head is the topic of the moment) their india brown ale is not bad, im not wild about the hops in it, but its still a good beer.

wolavers brown ale is similar, but the hops are milder and whatever the varietal difference may be, if any, i think it tastes quite a bit better.

 

[Ninjahedge]

This is a tough one because it delves into the emotional state that people have with their own knowledge and preferences.

It was like the whole Ford thing in the 80's/90's. A company that "prided" itself on "Toughness" started cutting corners to make more $$ and ended up ruining a name that took 50 years to make.

Of course, that ruining took time, and in the meantime Ford fans kept extoling the virtues of their vehicles over those "Asian plastic cars" and the like.

Similar with things like beer. You can like whatever you have been raised on, but saying that Sprite is "better" than SanPelligrino Limonata is just plain stupid. Saying you LIKE it better is fine.

There are people that take beer a bit too seriously. They are entitled to their opinion, but when they get snooty and insulting to others out-of-hand, that is where the line starts to be drawn. The same can be said in reverse. People call others that drink stuff that they know is probably a better quality than the cheap stuff they like, so they insult them so that they do not feel that they are inferior.

All of it is rather stupid. You like a cheap cigar? Fine, but you also admit that it IS a cheap cigar. That you do not have a taste for a lot of the "finer influences" and it is just not worth paying the extra $$ to get something you really do not care for.

As for AB. I have no respect. You get even a simple Budvar rather than Budwieser and you start to taste the difference. Rice simply adds alcohol and carbonation, it does little for flavor and it shows when you get a rather flat, watery, bitter beer with an aftertaste (Bud has one of the worst lingering aftertastes of all the "blue collar" specials. There are MANY that are smoother with a clean finish that kick bud's over-advertised butt.)

Now you get a bunch of premium swill coming out. The Macrobreweries trying to come up with something better. Undeniably they are better than their base model, but for the prices their greedy corporate body tries to charge for them, it is again simply NOT worth it.

Yueng kicks Bud's butt up and down, and it was never really considered a premium beer. It just was not pisswater. On tap even the Lager is fuller, has a NICE almost almond like aftertaste, and is still dirt cheap ($14 a case, in the 'burbs!). Although their dallyance into things like "bock" really is not worth it. (Watery, rather thin, and at $24 a case, you can find better for less).

As for the uber snooty, there were always ones hiding in the wings.

Hop Stoopid kicks 120's butt. Racer X and Hop Rod Rye as well. They are also a few bucks cheaper per 22. Brooklyn used to sell its Monster Ale and Black Chocolate Stout for only slightly more thana typical ale, but the Barleywine 11%-12% usually snuck up on you (the 10% BCS was REALLY sneaky. I never knew it was that strong!).

But now many have discovered them and they are profiting from their great brews... I feel happy for them, but sad for my own spoiled tastes....

One quick side, CostCo had a special on a triple bottle selection. I think it was Rare Vos, Omegang and Three Philosophers, with a glass, for $18. I bought 3, one is still sitting around waiting for a delayed Xmas gifting.....!

Now, as for other topics here? NY pizza is one of the best in the world.

ONE OF.

You go to a "decent" place in NYC and it will kick ANY chain's pie right out the door and across the street. It still amazes me at how many will order a dominoes over a local pie. Hell, Hoblken has about a DOZEN pizzarias, many delivering, and they still have a Dominoes doing just fine!

Does that mean flat is better than Deep Dish? No more than Porter is better than Heffeweisen. But I guarantee a genuine Chicago DD or simple NY cheese is better than Uno/Dominos/Pizza Hut or, god forbid, Cali Pizza (It surprises me on that one. It is like saying Arizona Lobster, or NJ Clam Chowder, the two do not FIT. If you have had pizza in a "regular"place in cali, you may know what I am talking about... Cali kicked the CRAP out of the 'burban asian food I was brought up on, but pizza?).



After all that long schpiel, the bottom line is simple. It is not the liking or disliking of a beer that makes a snob or a cretin. It is the way they treat other people.

 

[Ninjahedge]

also in case anyone hasnt had it (since dogfish head is the topic of the moment) their india brown ale is not bad, im not wild about the hops in it, but its still a good beer.

That's their 8% brew, right?

I liked it, although it tastes a little off if you drink it too cold. It starts "hardening up". You really need it at cellar temp to enjoy it....

Oh, and it is not worth the MSRP!