Now we know why American Beer tastes like Water

[Imran Siddiqui]

Because its better than anything that Norway can produce, that's for sure.

I mean seriously, you are just proving MRT's post (#8) in this thread. Lemme guess, you'd never had a Sierra Nevada, Stone, Dogfish Head, Bells, or even Sam Adams?

[Imran Siddiqui]

It made me again wonder why would anyone drink lager that is effectively sugar water? (not just Bud, but many lagers are flavourless).

Well on a really hot day a decent Pale Lager (not Bud) is quite nice. Pilsners are considered pale lagers and I do enjoy a Pilsner Urquell from time to time.

[Kidlicious]

Why would anyone drink American beer to start with?

Because most import beer isn't any better, but it costs more.

[Dauphin]

Well on a really hot day a decent Pale Lager (not Bud) is quite nice. Pilsners are considered pale lagers and I do enjoy a Pilsner Urquell from time to time.

Not questioning lager, am questioning effectively flavourless lagers.

[notyoueither]

You mean you like the subtleties that a lack of flavour gives Bud and similar lagers?

Well, I don't drink American Bud. The 'Bud' here is a bit different. Also, there is a lot of difference in flavour among the various lagers and pilsners that I have available to me.

[Dinner]

Why would anyone drink American beer to start with?

Because they know good beer and most of the world's best breweries are here? As an example just the county in which I live has 70 different breweries which brew and bottle their own beer for sale off premises and that's not counting the dozens of brew pubs which brew their own beer but do not bottle it and thus can only sell on premises. Then there are literally the thousands of other independent breweries all across the country all of which brew their own special recipes in so many different styles it almost boggles the mind. Don't make the mistake of thinking the big five (who only really remain big because of rent seeking behavior via state distribution laws) are representative of what types of beer are available in America.

California relaxed its distribution laws decades ago (in the 1980's) and that's why so many small and medium sized independent breweries decided to locate here. They could actually get distributors to carry and distribute their products where as in many other states, to this day, there are only one or two legal distributors who aren't interested in selling anything but a few major brands. The big problem is the three tier distribution system Congress put in place in the 1930's after prohibition was repealed. It entrenches a few dominate companies and prevents smaller players from getting their products to market. Deregulation could really work effectively here to improve both market efficiencies as well as to allow both increased competition and greater consumer choice in the market place.

Care to guess who spends massive amounts of money trying to prevent deregulation though? That's right, the handful of big brewers and big distributing companies who don't want to see a bunch of new competition challenging them. States can copy California's approach and liberalize the three tier system mandated by Congress (for instance, preventing one company from having a geographic monopoly simply by legalizing other companies to open up and compete with them; in many states it is literally illegal under state law to try to open a new distribution company for alcoholic beverages) but to truly improve the market across state lines we'd have to have action at the Federal level ditching the three tier level requirement.

[regexcellent]

Molson's is very popular in the Rochester area but my understanding is that it suffers from the same problems as major American brands. By "very popular" I mean it's sold at the games in the Blue Cross Arena downtown (hockey) and in all of the grocery stores.

[Dinner]

I.E. they've got a lock on the local distribution monopoly where as competitors are either locked out by the distributor ("Sorry, we already distribute X which is a direct competitor to your brand.") or they get side lined to very small numbers simply because, by contract, Big Breweries get X percentage of the space in trucks or on store shelves. You can't even open a new competing distributing company if you wanted too because state laws are set up to prevent that; it's classic rent seeking behavior all of which harms end consumers and NY state is one of the biggest offenders.

[regexcellent]

I see loads of microbrews at Wegmans.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I don't believe in "acquired tastes" and if I have to acquire a taste, then **** it, I'm drinking a coke.

Just out of interest, have you ever gone down on a woman?

[Alexander's Horse]

enough of that, what we really need is a "why English beer tastes like cat's piss" thread

[Dauphin]

enough of that, what we really need is a "why English beer tastes like cat's piss" thread

Possibly the same reason that Findus lasagne, IKEA meatballs and various other beef products taste of horsemeat. Perhaps, even, it was a plot, brew beer that tastes like cats' piss and then perform a type of bait and switch.

[Alexander's Horse]

I got out of date (skanky) Australian beer here, it tastes just like Englsh lager.

[kentonio]

Because its better than anything that Norway can produce, that's for sure.

Huh? Norway has some awesome beers.

[Dinner]

I see loads of microbrews at Wegmans.

You Northeasterners still need to burn in hell for hoarding all that Wegman's goodness all to yourselves.