I just find it supremely "interesting" that someone will buy beer based on a label rather than on it's flavor. But hey, we all know marketing and advertising has a way of influencing consumer behavior, so I guess it's not that shocking after all.
Yeah. But the thing is, and Maureen Ogle mentioned it in the basic brewing podcast when Ambitious Brew came out, in both the context of beer, and her next book on meat, the things that are mass consumed in western society be it beer, or food or booze,
have the least amount of actual flavor; The light lager, the fast food hamburger and vodka for example. At the lowest end of the spectrum, be it bud light, or Mcdonalds, or absolute vodka- which are all hugely popular, none of them have complex flavor profiles, especially when you consider the "gourmet" opposite of those, a nice craft beer (even a craft lager) and burger from your favorite burger joint where they actually season the meat and use a higher fat content, and some of the higher end vodkas.
American society's tastes since WWII have kind of changed and splintered in two directions, you have Mass Culture and the culture that sprung craft beers, and foodie culture. Postwar America become a time of affluence, but it also became the time of "convenience food" instead of homecooking, the rise of frozen dinners and fast food (some folks would call that "pre-digested" food) which still goes on to this day. And the light lager is perfect for that. It's not "complex." It's sweet as opposed to bitter, it's light as opposed to heavy.
The irony of it has always been that even though the majority seems to favor "fast food" and "lite Beer" the postwar period also gave rise to "Chef/foodie Culture" and "Craft Beer" (actually it started as "imported" beer, but broadened in the 70's to 80's to the craft beer scene) all the troops overseas were exposed to the foods of the world (including Pizza, French cuisine and Chinese Food) and when they came back many of them had a hunger for those foods rather than boring American food and Kraft dinners, and they parlayed their GI bills into chef training and the rise of gourmet restaraunts and to a lesser extent craft beer. Before craft beer there were "imported" beers including Guinness, that managed to stay in the american market place more than likely sustained by folks who had tasted those things overseas. Not just during the war, but also in the re-building phases in the 50's and 60's on.
Interesting you brought this up, I had a similar discussion with some brew buddies today in terms of Vondka.
I'm not a vodka drinker, but a loft of the craft breweies in Michigan are now distilling and one of my brew buddies, who's a bjcp judge, stopped by and had just picked up a bottle of vodka from one of the new micro distillers, and I tasted some...and although not my scene, it was definitely more complex and flavorful than the swill I remember drinking when I was younger and hating.
