• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

How bad bmc is

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

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

z987k

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2007
Messages
3,513
Reaction score
37
Location
Anchorage
I have never realized how bad bmc is until tonight.

The night consisted of a brewing session with an interested friend at about 6. We put back quite a few of my first batch while brewing. After brewing we got something to eat where we met up with some fellow pilots and then went to a local bar who had $.50 bottles of bmc on special. I ended up getting miller lite. Since we were already a little buzzed I didn't think it'd matter what beer I would drink at this point.
How wrong I was we both took our first drink and looked at each other and was like wtf. Tasted like ****ing water, or beer flavored water. Wow, I just couldn't bring myself to getting another, even for .50. I've drank bmc after knowing what good beer tastes like but damn, not after drinking good beer. It really sets them apart.
 
Yeah, after tasting my first homebrew (before it was carbed) i realized just how much better homebrew is, and how bad BMC is...

This came in to light last sunday. I went to my sisters and someone bought a 12 of Budweiser Select. I literally chugged 3 down and sipped down 2 other beers (1 XX and some coors winterfest [sucked badly]). I had a small, small buzz. I had to come home and drink one of our Windy Cousins just to be satisfied and get that nasty taste out of my mouth. I chugged the three because 1 i wanted a buzz and 2 they're too awful to taste. Is it just me or does it leave a bit of a soap taste or some kind of other nasty flavors?
 
BMC isn't really bad, it's just different. For those that don't understand real beer, it's really all they know.
Gottat hand it to them though, it sure is consistent.
 
If you start the day drinking it , its not as bad. Ive noticed that when I switch from micro, or homebrew to bmc through the night, it really tastes funky.

If I start drinking it, its not bad, just very watery tasting to me now that I drink better beer now.
 
There is nothing "wrong" with BMC. I think Miller Lite is an especially good example of it. They make millions of gallons of the stuff every year and they are able to make it taste exactly the same batch after batch after batch, year after year.

The "problem" is that it is so different from homebrew or brewpub beer or almost any other "good" beer. If you drink some homebrew or go to a brewpub and drink some of their beer and then go someplace where they only serve BMC, it will really suck. On the other hand, on a hot summer afternoon when you have just finished mowing a good sized lawn or played a game of softball, or ridden 10 miles on a bike, a couple of ice cold BMC's will really do the trick. I don't know if I could say the same about a couple of oatmeal stouts served at cellar temperature.
 
/agree McCall

You guys have to remember the purpose behind BMC. It's made for mass swilling. It's not made to sit down with and savor it.

It's like trying to compare dirty water dogs to a good prime rib. I LOVE hot dogs and exspecially the dirty water dogs you can get from street vendors but dont try to fool yourself into thinking it's a fine meal.
 
I really don't enjoy them anymore. Even free and ice cold, I just am not a fan. I would rather have a lesser brand like Pabst, or Old Style, or better yet a Mexican Lager. BMC gives me a chemical buzz that I just don't like. I respect their technology, but after that it is Big Mac beer in my opinion.

A funny story about Bud. We were at the GABF a few years ago with the brewery and got on an elevator with a Bud rep. One of my partners asked him what brewery he was with and he told him. Matt kind of just gave him a blank look and asked what kind of beers they made and he told him. Matt then turned and asked us if we had ever tried it or heard of it. We shrugged and Matt told the guy to hang in there and someday his company might see some success. The guy was speechless and got off the next floor. The next day he brought samples of Bud and Michelob to our booth, so we could check out his product. We howled!
 
Brewpastor said:
A funny story about Bud. We were at the GABF a few years ago with the brewery and got on an elevator with a Bud rep. One of my partners asked him what brewery he was with and he told him. Matt kind of just gave him a blank look and asked what kind of beers they made and he told him. Matt then turned and asked us if we had ever tried it or heard of it. We shrugged and Matt told the guy to hang in there and someday his company might see some success. The guy was speechless and got off the next floor. The next day he brought samples of Bud and Michelob to our booth, so we could check out his product. We howled!

That is really funny. I can picture the whole scene in my mind lol.

Bud when you get it at Busch Gardens is pretty drinkeable imo. Other than that I would always turn down a BMC though no matter what really. I'd rather have water.
 
I had this problem just last night. A few of us were going out to play pool and I had a few of my IPA's before I left. When I got to the pool hall I found I really couldn't stand the usual stuff we buy (Alexander Keiths IPA). But last week I didn't have anything at home first and I drank that stuff happily all night.
 
In the last 9mos, I have drank one BMC (Coors Light), I barely finished the bottle. BMC does serve a useful function though, it gives us something to universally dislike and is probably part of the reason alot of us started brewing.
 
Another point of why i hate BMC... I can drink 1 BMC and it gives me a headache, not a hangover mind you but a headache... It takes me about 6-10 of our Windy Cousin's (8.33%) to get me heavily buzzed > drunk and i don't get a headache afterwards...

I wonder if it's something in the water... er i mean BMC?
 
BMC and Labatts/Molson are lowest common denominator beers designed to be easy drinking by the masses as alchohol delivery devices. That is why the emphasis on being "smooth" and the push to dink beer at just above freezing.

The mainstream masses don't want flavor. Thats why beers like bud and kokanee (alchoholized water imo) are so popular. That and marketing.

Also these beers are cheaper to make than a AG beer since they use so much glucose now (used to be corn but I don't think any actually use corn anymore).

As a retired brewmaster for Labatt's told me. If everyone wanted a pale ale or whatever style, we'd make a damn good one. But they don't so we don't. And even if we did the marketing dept would work feverishly to push towards a cheaper to make beer.
 
Glibbidy said:
BMC isn't really bad, it's just different. For those that don't understand real beer, it's really all they know.
Gottat hand it to them though, it sure is consistent.

What they did was remove all the things that people don't like. Unfortunetly people have different tastes and they have had to remove a lot of stuff so that a higher % of the market like it (or not not like it!) This makes it so bland that it really appeals just to people that don't really like beer in the first place. It is in fact the Anti-Beer. :p


:off: Just had a new beer yesterday brewed in Tasmania. James Squire's "Hop Thief". Stunning beer, very hoppy as the name suggests and full of citrus tones. Good session beer.
 
Okay, now let's get real here. As Jesus said, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." If BMC is really that bad, who among us can truthfully say that we haven't gladly consumed gallons and gallons of the stuff in our day?

Let's face it-- maybe now we have seen the light and have an appreciation for really good beer, but I for one have happily guzzled huge quanities of BMC (mostly M, but still BMC) in my life. I have to say, too, that not only did I enjoy most of it very much, but also, it certainly hasn't killed me yet either.
 
Oh yeah I've had plenty of it, I was just commenting on how bad it is right after good beer.
 
"Thwack" That is the sound of the first stone being cast. I have never enjoyed BMC. I have had a few, but never gallons and gallons, and just because I consumed it does not make it good.
 
Brewpastor said:
I really don't enjoy them anymore. Even free and ice cold, I just am not a fan. I would rather have a lesser brand like Pabst, or Old Style, or better yet a Mexican Lager. BMC gives me a chemical buzz that I just don't like. I respect their technology, but after that it is Big Mac beer in my opinion.

A funny story about Bud. We were at the GABF a few years ago with the brewery and got on an elevator with a Bud rep. One of my partners asked him what brewery he was with and he told him. Matt kind of just gave him a blank look and asked what kind of beers they made and he told him. Matt then turned and asked us if we had ever tried it or heard of it. We shrugged and Matt told the guy to hang in there and someday his company might see some success. The guy was speechless and got off the next floor. The next day he brought samples of Bud and Michelob to our booth, so we could check out his product. We howled!

you need to write a book....
 
I can admit I've never had gallons of the stuff. My beer drinking experience started on microbrews and brewpubs. Shall I throw the second stone? :D
 
the_bird said:
Good thing your house is made out of stainless steel...

I love throwing stones. I am a preacher after all. Which reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:

Jesus is walking along. Suddenly he comes upon a large crowd about to stone a woman caught in the act of adultary. "Stop," he yells, "Let the one amongst you who is without sin cast the first stone." Suddenly a rock flew out of the crowd, smacked the woman between the eyes and dropped her on the spot. Jesus turned to the crowd with a look of dismay on his face. "Mom, sometimes you really piss me off."
 
oooo Virgin Mary jokes, I love hitting the guys at work with those :D
<~~ only protestant guy in the firehouse and Irish protestant to boot (it's that we bit of Scottish in me)
 
Brewpastor said:
I really don't enjoy them anymore. Even free and ice cold, I just am not a fan. I would rather have a lesser brand like Pabst, or Old Style, or better yet a Mexican Lager. BMC gives me a chemical buzz that I just don't like. I respect their technology, but after that it is Big Mac beer in my opinion.

Okay, I'm done sticking up for BMC now. Someone else will have to take over for them. Brewpastor, your story reminds me of when I was in college. The local Open Pantry store for some reason stocked a lot of "off brands" of beer. My room-mate and I would go there and purposely look for the brands that were not only unfamiliar, but also the cheapest ones they had. Surprisingly, they tended to have a lot more flavor and were much more interesting than the name brands.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top