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View Poll Results: Whose beer do you like better?
America 19 26.39%
Europe 40 55.56%
I don't like beer 5 6.94%
Whatever. I'll drink anything with alcohol in it 8 11.11%
Voters: 72. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 10-28-2014, 11:12 AM
 
Location: Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne
17,916 posts, read 24,234,317 times
Reputation: 39027

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Europe's beer traditions are the font of exceptional beer and an expression of regionality, that said, there is some swill and you will find many Europeans are happy to drink it. The American craft beer model is really ramping up in Britain (and to a large degree just a manifestation of re-interpretation of British styles as is how the American craft brewing movement started) and is growing elsewhere in northern Europe, Belgium's masterful tradition is intact, Germany, Austria, and Czech's lagers are par excellence (+Koelsch and Altbier!)

America's beer culture is in an explosive renaissance and there is no better country to explore not only traditional, but innovative beer styles. Nevertheless, these brews still command a fairly small percentage of beer sales compared to the mass market pale lagers. If you are into Belgian sours, interpretations of obscure German styles no longer brewed in their country of origin, the entire range of British styles from Mild, Brown (southern and northern), Porter, Stout, Pale (incl. IPA) and so on, chances are you can find them in one city, maybe even one brewery. I think the non-traditional flavors are more an experimental phase in the growing craft beer industry which is still eagerly trying to grow its market, but I think the only ones that are really likely to survive the fallout of this phenomenon are the Chocolate/Coffee Porters and Stouts and fruit Weizens. Pumpkin beer will hold on but will remain a seasonal just as Americans prefer hefe-Weizen in Summer and darker, high gravity beers in Winter,

tl:dr Whether you are in Europe or America, if you are a beer connoiseur, you are lucky.
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Old 10-28-2014, 11:27 AM
 
Location: IL
2,987 posts, read 5,234,217 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nei View Post
Anyone who actually cares about decent beer wouldn't drink those.
That's an incorrect statement. I have talked to a number of master brewers and beer snobs that also have Miller Lite in their fridge...it started when I was at a brewery and I asked one brewer what was in his fridge and that was the shocker to me. Due to that I asked more, and a decent number have this style of beer in their fridge and they seem to prefer Lite over other lights. They wouldn't announce it, but for the drinker by occassion, there is a place for American Light Lagers.
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Old 10-28-2014, 11:33 AM
 
Location: IL
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This is a tough question. I answered USA, but I am not sure if I totally believe it. US has an incredible breadth of styles and are reviving dead styles, but Europe's brewing tradition and heritage make it tough to compare. They have so many beers that are the standard bearer for a style. US takes a style and makes it more powerful, adds adjuncts to liven it up, combines styles, or just alters the style a bit which creates incredible variation. Tough call.
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Old 10-28-2014, 12:56 PM
 
Location: Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne
17,916 posts, read 24,234,317 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by almost3am View Post
That's an incorrect statement. I have talked to a number of master brewers and beer snobs that also have Miller Lite in their fridge...it started when I was at a brewery and I asked one brewer what was in his fridge and that was the shocker to me. Due to that I asked more, and a decent number have this style of beer in their fridge and they seem to prefer Lite over other lights. They wouldn't announce it, but for the drinker by occassion, there is a place for American Light Lagers.
The style, American Adjunct Lager (and it's little brother American Adjunct Light Lager) are roundly dismissed by beer snobs on both sides of the Atlantic. However, it is important to note that when the style arose in the late 19th century, it was the darling of the brewing community in Europe at a time when brewers on both sides of the Atlantic strove to take advantage of developments in malting which allowed brewers to make paler and paler beers which were in high demand by consumers. Pilsner and Burton style Pale Ale were both products of the same mentality.

The reason this style came to dominate the American market to the near exclusion of other beer styles which previously represented both German and British traditions was the increase in grain prices and rationing during WWI which encouraged the use of adjunct grains which were well suited to extra pale lagers. A parallel to this can be seen in the inception of Belgium's use of 'Belgian Candi sugar' in the WWI period to make strong, pale beers during wartime. As Belgian beers were taxed based on the amount of malted grain, the use of Candi sugar added strength to beer while preserving precious and expensive malt.

Then in 1920 the Prohibition Act was instituted which caused a disruption in drinking culture, stunted the development of a generation of palates, and halted creative developments in American breweries and the careers of thousand of brewers when thousands of breweries closed their doors forever.

When prohibition ended in 1933, only a handful of breweries re-emerged (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, et al.) and the American brewing scene was locked into this style of pale, light lagers long after they had gone out of fashion elsewhere. Since clandestine stills producing spirits continued to operate and supply Americans with alcohol, beer's role in the drinking culture took a hit from which it has taken decades to recover. Norway experienced a similar disruption in their traditional beer culture which consisted of native and German styles after their prohibition but was left with a market dominated by a rather uniform Pilsner style produced by a handful of merged breweries after.


Quote:
Originally Posted by almost3am View Post
This is a tough question. I answered USA, but I am not sure if I totally believe it. US has an incredible breadth of styles and are reviving dead styles, but Europe's brewing tradition and heritage make it tough to compare. They have so many beers that are the standard bearer for a style. US takes a style and makes it more powerful, adds adjuncts to liven it up, combines styles, or just alters the style a bit which creates incredible variation. Tough call.
I agree. Despite their reputation as experimental in terms of style and as developers of 'extreme' beers with excessive gravity, stratospheric IBUs, and unconventional ingredients, many American craft breweries, often representing the best and most experienced brewers, strive to emulate the stylistic purity of traditional European styles and flavor balancing before tampering with a successful model. It is the hallmark of an inexperienced, upstart brewery to have a beer menu of wacky, ill-conceived 'fresh ideas' that usually leave a lot to be desired in concept not to mention execution.
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Old 10-28-2014, 01:20 PM
 
Location: IL
2,987 posts, read 5,234,217 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ABQConvict View Post
The style, American Adjunct Lager (and it's little brother American Adjunct Light Lager) are roundly dismissed by beer snobs on both sides of the Atlantic.
I am aware of the derision from many beer snobs towards this style, but my point was that I have met a number of brewers (both home brewers and actually employed brewers) that stock it and drink it during the appropriate occasion. I only used my anecdotal evidence over the last decade...

I believe we are on the same page with the rise of adjuncts in beer in the US, that being the availability of 6 row vs 2 row barley when and where the original American beers were made...and the need to use adjuncts to create the beer more to original characteristics.
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Old 10-28-2014, 03:09 PM
 
Location: Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne
17,916 posts, read 24,234,317 times
Reputation: 39027
That's cool Almost3am. I am a professional brewer and I myself have the occasional megabrewery lager. I am definitely not a snob about it.
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Old 10-30-2014, 08:00 AM
 
1 posts, read 744 times
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Did someone try polish beer? I love "ciechan"
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Old 10-30-2014, 02:11 PM
 
Location: Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne
17,916 posts, read 24,234,317 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LucidSamples View Post
Did someone try polish beer? I love "ciechan"
Sure, I like Żywiec. A nice pale lager.
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Old 10-30-2014, 03:28 PM
 
1,201 posts, read 2,658,877 times
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Years ago, I would easily have said Europe, but the advent of many small micro-breweries making really fine products in the US in the past 20 years has tipped the scales to the middle. I don't think there's an easy answer to this question anymore.
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Old 10-31-2014, 09:37 AM
 
Location: Crooklyn, New York
31,943 posts, read 34,484,403 times
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I have no idea since I'm not a big beer drinker/connoisseur. I would guess Europe in a landslide. More people, more countries, richer heritage, etc.
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