beer in America vs. else where

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

wormraper

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2011
Messages
526
Reaction score
43
Location
Tucson
why is the beer here in America so sub par in comparsion to Europe??? I have at least 20 friends who have said that once you go to Germany, Austira, Belgium or Estonia you'll never want to drink American beer again. I have one friend over in Estonia and Germany right now who HATES beer. I've given him every craft brew under the sun to try and convert him but he loathes it. He goes over to Germany and Estonia only to not be able to drink ENOUGH beer. His exact words are "American beer tastes like crap, this stuff is like crack". What's so different?
 
Might depend on what beer they are trying in the U.S., I suppose. If they are talking about Budweiser, Miller, and Coors, they might have a point. American craft beers can stand up to the best of those countries, though.
 
Might depend on what beer they are trying in the U.S., I suppose. If they are talking about Budweiser, Miller, and Coors, they might have a point. American craft beers can stand up to the best of those countries, though.

naw, I'm talking about goood craft brews like Pliny the elder, Anderson valley breweries, Hofe brau hefeweizens etc.
 
The primary reason is the bulk produced American light adjunct (corn/rice) Lager.

The secondary reason is that the American Craft brew industry has done its best to brew something completely unlike an American light adjunct lager, Often going to extremes with hops and gravity without thinking about balance or trying to reproduce classic English/European styles and methods. Just focusing on "not" brewing an American light Adjunct Lager. or "topping" an American light Adjunct Lager.
 
why is the beer here in America so sub par in comparsion to Europe???

It's not....so much anymore (IMHO). My advice is to do some traveling and come to your own conclusion related to the subject, rather than accept the opinion of others as true or not.
 
It's not....so much anymore (IMHO). My advice is to do some traveling and come to your own conclusion related to the subject, rather than accept the opinion of others as true or not.

oh I agree. I was just wondering why people who went over seas pretty much UNANIMOUSLY agree on the subject. heck even my buddy who hates beer hasn't been able to stop drinking beer in Germany since he got there. statistically I was just wondering what the reason for the discrepancy of beer here vs. there.
 
why is the beer here in America so sub par in comparsion to Europe??? I have at least 20 friends who have said that once you go to Germany, Austira, Belgium or Estonia you'll never want to drink American beer again. I have one friend over in Estonia and Germany right now who HATES beer. I've given him every craft brew under the sun to try and convert him but he loathes it. He goes over to Germany and Estonia only to not be able to drink ENOUGH beer. His exact words are "American beer tastes like crap, this stuff is like crack". What's so different?

Nothing more than old-fashioned, 1950's thinking.

I've lived in England and traveled extensively around Germany, Austria, and Belgium. No doubt, they make some pretty damn good beer over there - I'd never deny that.

However, this notion that American can't make good beer is just stupid. The craft brewing explosion in the past 20 years proves that. Unfortunately, American beer has been defined by the BMC crowd. It's going to take a few more years for the beer industry in America to redefine itself in the eyes of Eurobeersnobs. Too bad - it's really their loss.

FWIW, I've drunk some pretty nasty brews in Europe. It's not like they have a Magical Beer Unicorn that flies around turning piss-water in to World Class Ale.
 
Nothing more than old-fashioned, 1950's thinking.

I've lived in England and traveled extensively around Germany, Austria, and Belgium. No doubt, they make some pretty damn good beer over there - I'd never deny that.

However, this notion that American can't make good beer is just stupid. The craft brewing explosion in the past 20 years proves that. Unfortunately, American beer has been defined by the BMC crowd. It's going to take a few more years for the beer industry in America to redefine itself in the eyes of Eurobeersnobs. Too bad - it's really their loss.

FWIW, I've drunk some pretty nasty brews in Europe. It's not like they have a Magical Beer Unicorn that flies around turning piss-water in to World Class Ale.

I dunno man. I think I've drunk enough at times while there to see a unicorn...
 
I dunno man. I think I've drunk enough at times while there to see a unicorn...

I think you may have seen it in Amsterdam... and it wasn't summoned by the beer.

:ban:

Oh man... now I've having flashbacks to a weekend in Wales. I followed a Welsh friend to some rural, outdoor beer festival. They had one concoction that tasted like someone had tossed a live sheep in the fermenter. I got down about half the pint before my liver staged a full-scale rebellion, and the left side of my brain got on the train back to Canterbury without me.

Ugh.
 
I've been all over western Europe, consumed pub brews in any local that would have me, and my take is it's pretty much the same hit/miss rate Over There as Over Here in our brew pubs. There are great beers, and there are "Meh" beers.

So, I'll have to go with Occam's Razor on this one: your friends are all simply @sshats that hate America.

hth

Cheers ;)
 
Hmm,seems like commercially the US makes the best beer. I know i havent had much available bottled foreign beer superior here, I mean there are some great german beer and english imports but they are their own style it seems,but doesnt seem to match up really to me. Maybe the brewpubs and unavailble stuff is awesome then.I know alot of brewpubs kinda suck in the U.S as well as great ones.
I think your friend needs to bring some home.
 
We are perceived as having inferior beer because of prohibition. It killed many American breweries and traditional styles. By the time prohibition ended WWII started and things like grains were hard to come buy. So the few remaining breweries began using adjuncts like corn and rice. This became the norm and we all know how that turned out.
Luckily for us the craft beer movement has exploded in America and we now have many excellent breweries and beers.
 
FWIW, I've drunk some pretty nasty brews in Europe. It's not like they have a Magical Beer Unicorn that flies around turning piss-water in to World Class Ale.

God that's funny. Thanks for the hilarious visual, and the actual LOL :mug:

I spent a little time in Germany. Beer was good, but not what I would say 10x better than here by any means. As humans, we tend to think that whatever new cool thing we are doing (say, traveling to new countries and trying their beer...) is the best thing ever. Unless you gulp some down yourself, you wont know.
 
I don't think we in America have bad beer, we have different beer than other places do which just like any other region makes it unique to that area.

That's like saying other cultures are inferior because they have different standards of living than yours.
 
I think the US makes great beer - certainly ahead of us in Canada.

The "bigger is better" thing is getting a bit tedious though.
 
I haven't been to Europe but I will say that after drinking Thai beer for a week, Heineken tastes amazing. And I don't even like it. I would have killed for a bud or coors.
 
I haven't been to Europe but I will say that after drinking Thai beer for a week, Heineken tastes amazing. And I don't even like it. I would have killed for a bud or coors.

You can get Heineken all day long in Thailand....if one wanted to. But I would drink Tiger beer before Bud and Coors any day, and I know Tiger beer is all over Thailand as well. Were you in a cave?

Edit: Though I will say that it isn't so easy to find ales. Light lager pretty much dominates the market all over SE Asia.
 
naw, I'm talking about goood craft brews like Pliny the elder, Anderson valley breweries, Hofe brau hefeweizens etc.

That makes no sense. There is no way to make a comparison between Pliny and "European beer". Put the best IPA and the best traditional German lager in front of me and ask me to pick the best one? Can't happen. :drunk:
 
I was stationed in Germany near Belgium and drank a ton of beer but did encounter more than my share of undrinkable, unpleasant beer varieties. In fact, few beers from Germany really appealed to my tastes outside of pilsners/lagers and marzen styles.

On the other hand, there are a lot of exciting things going on in American beers. I would rather live in the USA and have access to all the various beers we have here than to live in, say, Berlin or Paris or Prague. In fact, most beer in Paris is gas station beer.
 
I was stationed in Germany near Belgium and drank a ton of beer but did encounter more than my share of undrinkable, unpleasant beer varieties. In fact, few beers from Germany really appealed to my tastes outside of pilsners/lagers and marzen styles.

On the other hand, there are a lot of exciting things going on in American beers. I would rather live in the USA and have access to all the various beers we have here than to live in, say, Berlin or Paris or Prague. In fact, most beer in Paris is gas station beer.

Where were you Boomer? I was at Spangdahlem.
 
why is the light lager beer here in America so sub par in comparsion to Europe??? I have at least 2 friends who have said that once you go to Germany, Austira, Belgium or Estonia you'll never want to drink light lager American beer again. I have one friend over in Estonia and Germany right now who HATES life. I've given him every craft brew under the sun to try and convert him but he loathes it because he associates all beer with American light lager and compares every beer he drinks to it. He goes over to Germany and Estonia only to not be able to drink ENOUGH beer. His exact words are "American light lager beer tastes like crap, this stuff is like crack". What's so different?

Fixed the OP
 
You can get Heineken all day long in Thailand....if one wanted to. But I would drink Tiger beer before Bud and Coors any day, and I know Tiger beer is all over Thailand as well. Were you in a cave?

Edit: Though I will say that it isn't so easy to find ales. Light lager pretty much dominates the market all over SE Asia.

I drank my fair share of Tiger beer in Singapore and Malaysia. It's been a few years but I remember it being pretty awful. I remember giving some advice to one of my shipmates when he sat at our table: "It's only gut wrenchingly disgusting for the first two cans..."
 
I think the US makes great beer - certainly ahead of us in Canada.
Was just up in B.C. last week. Had some great beer. Tree Brewing in Kelowna, and the Nobel Pig brewpub in Kamloops were both fantastic. There were a couple places I hit that were sub par, but for the most part the places we stopped were good. Most disappointing was the place in Whistler, but only because they were closing down at 20 to 10, so I didn't get to try their beers.
 
Mongrel said:
Was just up in B.C. last week. Had some great beer. Tree Brewing in Kelowna, and the Nobel Pig brewpub in Kamloops were both fantastic. There were a couple places I hit that were sub par, but for the most part the places we stopped were good. Most disappointing was the place in Whistler, but only because they were closing down at 20 to 10, so I didn't get to try their beers.


Oh yeah, there are some good beers around - just not enough of them!
 
That makes no sense. There is no way to make a comparison between Pliny and "European beer". Put the best IPA and the best traditional German lager in front of me and ask me to pick the best one? Can't happen. :drunk:

This. They're not comparable.

I know a lot of people into craft beer who simply aren't into IPAs. That's right, there's more to beer than bitterness. Me, I agree, Pliny is wonderful. But there's a lot more out there, and most of the good foreign beers I've tried are not even comparable to American IPAs.
 
ThickHead said:
You can get Heineken all day long in Thailand....if one wanted to. But I would drink Tiger beer before Bud and Coors any day, and I know Tiger beer is all over Thailand as well. Were you in a cave?

Edit: Though I will say that it isn't so easy to find ales. Light lager pretty much dominates the market all over SE Asia.

What I was trying to say was I was sick of drinking Thai beer and Heineken was tasting good. Tiger beer was the one we liked the best, but after a week I got tired of their beers.
 
Based on my recent travels and drinking I would take American Beer. We're currently making the most interesting, best brewed and most exciting beer in the world. We have distribution problems which sucks but while there's a bunch of mediocre mass produced crap sold in the US the craft beer movement is making better beer than anyone anywhere.
 
I always thought that American's can't make beer, until I was introducted to the craft beer industry. All I knew was Budweiser and Coors until about 2 years ago!
 
Those whole thread makes no sense. "European beer"? That itself is so general a term you can't possibly attempt to compare. Hell different small towns in germany have different ways of making hefeweizen. Which one of those towns did your friend go to? Which breweries did he like?

Me and two of my good friends went on our own little beer tour in europe with the express purpose of drinking as many different beers as possible that are hard or impossible to come by in the US. Sure there are some amazing beers, but there are also some beers that made us throw up after a sip. You've got the major German breweries that make some delicious beers like Paulaner but on the same hand you've got ottinger (the best selling german beer) that is just absolute garbage. We were told its because they just take the reject beer from the other breweries and mix it all together so no two batches taste the same. It's possible but I haven't seen any sources on that, just a drunk guy in a park. You've also got all the small town breweries that sell "export" style beer. That's basically the "ice" label ala natty ice of german beers. They're pretty gross as well.

Usually when people think "European beers are AWESOME!!!" its because they only drink the european beers that are bothered to be exported to the US. The ****ty ones dont make it.

Tell your friend to go into a german grocery store and just buy 1 of each bottle off the shelf. They cost like 0.20-0.35 euros each. Tell him to drink each one and keep a list of those he likes vs those he doesn't. I would bet he'll quickly discover how many crappy beers there are.
 
I was stationed in Germany near Belgium and drank a ton of beer but did encounter more than my share of undrinkable, unpleasant beer varieties. In fact, few beers from Germany really appealed to my tastes outside of pilsners/lagers and marzen styles.

On the other hand, there are a lot of exciting things going on in American beers. I would rather live in the USA and have access to all the various beers we have here than to live in, say, Berlin or Paris or Prague. In fact, most beer in Paris is gas station beer.

Having lived in Prague I seriously think you need to reconsider. Best time, best beer, best women of my life.

\m/ hook'em.
 
Based on my recent travels and drinking I would take American Beer. We're currently making the most interesting, best brewed and most exciting beer in the world. We have distribution problems which sucks but while there's a bunch of mediocre mass produced crap sold in the US the craft beer movement is making better beer than anyone anywhere.

This!
I live in Spain and being in Europe I have a better access to european brews than american. I agree 100%: americans are brewing better beer than anyone else. ¿Germans? they forgot what good beer was ¿english? good beer but i like the american interpretation of their styles better ¿Checz? Please i ratter drink cat pee. Belgium it´s a different story I love belgians beers but americans!!! yummy! you people have shown the world how to make good beer.
The only thing i regreat it´s distribution do you know how hard is to get good and fresh american brews here?
 
Focus on brewers, not countries.

If you say "I like European beer", I think you're a beer-snob hipster who drinks Heine/Stella. If you say I like Russian River / Weihenstephaner, I'll say I agree, let's have a pint.

There are good brewers and bad brewers in both areas, and most individuals' samples size is far too small to have a robust representation of the mean rating of each country's beer.
 
So, I'll have to go with Occam's Razor on this one: your friends are all simply @sshats that hate America.

Murica+Day.+Saw+this+online.+Not+sure+if+repost_d53b39_3865119.jpg
 
Oh,man do i love Epic IPA.Its a netherlands beer american style.:D Thats like one of those better than Pliny beers for me,i think. It may be the oak-aged one.Or could be the Armageddon.
 
Oh,man do i love Epic IPA.Its a netherlands beer american style.:D Thats like one of those better than Pliny beers for me,i think.

A lot of the best craft beers in Europe are american styles... check good italian craft beers or beers from Norway or Holland they all know how is making the best beers now. Last year I went to a beer trip trough Holland and Belgium and the most visited bar in that trip was the Beer Temple in Amsterdam that specializes in amercian craft beers. Now I have decided that my next beer trip its to US.
I think not being american helps me been a little more objective in this matter. You don´t have an idea how incredibly lucky you guys are for having the biggest and more interesting craft beer and hombrewing scene in the world.
 
Back
Top