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by JUTR88
I have, actually, but I recovered after a few days!!
And yes, Mensa, it would take a huge effort, but it's worth a try!!
I'm partial to "Real" German beer...the kind that is brewed right at the restaurant...but I don't get it very often
The history of beer is actually quite simple:
302BC: Beer good!
105AD: Beer good!
689: Beer good!
1464: Beer good!
1786: Beer good!
Present Day: Beer good!
Projections for the future: Beer still good!
You're either very old, or you have an antique liquor store in your neighborhood. How do you know what beer was like in those times?
Does good come in any shades of degree, is is good an absolute, as opposed to bad, with no gray areas?
I think you've already answered your own question of good beer..bad beer...It comes down to personal preference...and maybe that's why there are so many varities from the micro breweries.. not everyone likes the same thing
Microbreweries in the US need to step away from the overuse of Cascade hops in their ales. It's rare to taste a properly balanced American-brewed IPA anymore. It's becoming all about how much you can hop the beer rather than having a well-balanced flavor. We will look back at this time in microbrew history as the "Hop Wars". Horrible pun, but it's a bitter time in beer-lover's history. Even Budweiser has jumped on the bandwagon with a watery, overhopped beer.
To add some historical content to this post, the United States' taste in beer was largely shaped by the Prohibition, in which brewers could make a lot of extra money by watering down the wort in their brewing processes. Once beer was again legalized, the prevailing taste amongst Americans was for more watery beer. A couple of decades later, the bigger brewers rarely brewed anything in the more robust pre-Prohibition style because it was more expensive and didn't sell nearly as well. In the 1970's, Light beer came out which simply means, more water in the wort. Now, Miller just introduced a 64-calorie 2.8% abv beer, which again means "more water". Eventually, we're going to start drinking beer that's actually just fizzy water with a beer-flavored additive in it.
I've been around long enough that I knew what beer tasted ilke in about 1952, You can't cling to things like that, but it seems to me that it was quite different. It lacked today's mellowness, and had a more penetrating fizz-like quality to it. I can't real;ly say how much beers differed from each other, but there were popular perceptions then, as now. In the 50's, every major city still had several local beers ehat dominated the market, and there were just a few national brands: Schlitz might have been the only one that was sold everywhere, but maybe Miller and Falstaff, too. Probably Budweiser as well. Where I grew up in rural Wisconsin, Chief Oshkosh was the nickel rotgut. There was also a beer called Point, which still exists as an independent brewery. Point was the poor-mans beer locally, maybe the worst beer in America, and now it is the best---and is probably exactly the same. It is one of very few---maybe the only---small brewery from the 50s that still exists today virtually unchanged and unexploited by a major national brewer. One of the last great ones to go down was Strohs, which was excellent right up to its very last pre-merger bottle.
Microbreweries in the US need to step away from the overuse of Cascade hops in their ales. It's rare to taste a properly balanced American-brewed IPA anymore. It's becoming all about how much you can hop the beer rather than having a well-balanced flavor. We will look back at this time in microbrew history as the "Hop Wars". Horrible pun, but it's a bitter time in beer-lover's history. Even Budweiser has jumped on the bandwagon with a watery, overhopped beer.
To add some historical content to this post, the United States' taste in beer was largely shaped by the Prohibition, in which brewers could make a lot of extra money by watering down the wort in their brewing processes. Once beer was again legalized, the prevailing taste amongst Americans was for more watery beer. A couple of decades later, the bigger brewers rarely brewed anything in the more robust pre-Prohibition style because it was more expensive and didn't sell nearly as well. In the 1970's, Light beer came out which simply means, more water in the wort. Now, Miller just introduced a 64-calorie 2.8% abv beer, which again means "more water". Eventually, we're going to start drinking beer that's actually just fizzy water with a beer-flavored additive in it.
A good IPA should use some Goldings or Fruggles hops. I like a well hopped beer (I brew my own). Cascade gives a good citrus taste and aroma and lots of flavor per ounce but there are other hops out there. Hops add the taste but malts add the body. American beers rely too much on rice rather than fermentable malts. A good IPA should also be very strong and full bodied.
During prohibition the big breweries intruduced a "near beer" with unfermentable malts and rice. I think the rice stuck with them - cheap to make and adds that weak taste that Americans got used to.
Yes however, light beer just means, simply, a watered down version of the regular already weak tasting American beer.
Can't beat a good pint of Bass, if it's been kept well.
There's another real ale that's very moorish, HobGoblin.
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