The "I'd nevervdrink that if it were ALL that was available" thread

[crazyjake19]

The two that immediately come to mind as absolutely undrinkable are PBR and Heineken. I have no problem with cheap beers - I'll drink Coors Light or Miller, and I'm known to bring a 30pack of Milwaukee's Best Light with me to cookouts. But PBR and Heineken taste like they were either aged on zinc-coated framing nails, or they ran out of aluminum cans and used rusty old tin soup cans.

On the other hand, I've only tried maybe a half-dozen non-alcoholic beers in my lifetime, and Heineken 0.0 was by far the best one.

 

[Oleson M.D.]

The two that immediately come to mind as absolutely undrinkable are PBR and Heineken. I have no problem with cheap beers - I'll drink Coors Light or Miller, and I'm known to bring a 30pack of Milwaukee's Best Light with me to cookouts. But PBR and Heineken taste like they were either aged on zinc-coated framing nails, or they ran out of aluminum cans and used rusty old tin soup cans.

On the other hand, I've only tried maybe a half-dozen non-alcoholic beers in my lifetime, and Heineken 0.0 was by far the best one.

Have you had Heineken in The Netherlands, Amsterdam? It is a fantastic beer over there on draft.

 

[bwible]

Have you had Heineken in The Netherlands, Amsterdam? It is a fantastic beer over there on draft.

This is the thing with green and clear bottles and shipping beer long distances. I’d say 9 out of 10 Heinekens we get in the US are skunk. The other one is Corona. Bars put a lime on top of the Corona bottle when they serve it and people drink it with the lime to try to cover up the skunk flavor. If I want that kind of beer I buy Landshark. Basically the same thing and I’ve never had a skunky Landshark. Because its made much closer and is always fresher when I get it.

Then there’s the question of where these beers are actually made. All of our Heineken might not be coming from Holland, and all of our Corona might not be coming from Mexico. All of our Fosters, for example, does not come from Australia. Fosters beer for the US is contract brewed by Molson in Canada.

 

[Oleson M.D.]

This is the thing with green and clear bottles and shipping beer long distances. I’d say 9 out of 10 Heinekens we get in the US are skunk. The other one is Corona. Bars put a lime on top of the Corona bottle when they serve it and people drink it with the lime to try to cover up the skunk flavor. If I want that kind of beer I buy Landshark. Basically the same thing and I’ve never had a skunky Landshark. Because its made much closer and is always fresher when I get it.

Then there’s the question of where these beers are actually made. All of our Heineken might not be coming from Holland, and all of our Corona might not be coming from Mexico. All of our Fosters, for example, does not come from Australia. Fosters beer for the US is contract brewed by Molson in Canada.

The Heineken sold in North Texas all comes from Amsterdam. I only buy cans. If you get a fresh example, it is quite good.

 

[bwible]

Mickey’s. Makes me gag just to type it. And Rolling Rock…ugh.

Rolling Rock wasn’t bad when it was made in Latrobe, PA. The brand was acquired by AB a few years ago and now the bottles say St. Louis Mo and its just another Bud brand. Through some kind of legalese they still have the paragraph on the bottle that mentions the glass lined tanks and it could appear to the unknowing that the beer is still being made in Latrobe. Its almost false advertising.

 

[Broothru]

The two that immediately come to mind as absolutely undrinkable are PBR and Heineken. I have no problem with cheap beers - I'll drink Coors Light or Miller, and I'm known to bring a 30pack of Milwaukee's Best Light with me to cookouts. But PBR and Heineken taste like they were either aged on zinc-coated framing nails, or they ran out of aluminum cans and used rusty old tin soup cans.

On the other hand, I've only tried maybe a half-dozen non-alcoholic beers in my lifetime, and Heineken 0.0 was by far the best one.

Hah! Youngsters.....

Back in the day, BEFORE them new fangled fancy 'aluminum' cans, real men drank from STEEL cans. When you "crushed one" it actually meant something. Now you young whipper snappers try to display yur manhood and impress the lady folk by squeezing some pre-dimpled 'luminum that my grandson (who's not even "due" till next week) could smash while he's a'nursin'.

If it didn't taste like rusty nails, there'd have been no reason for them effeminate "she-males" to invent bottled beer. It's called "Iron City" for a reason!

 

[grampamark]

On a related note, who remembers the infamous Coors “push button” cans?

Edit: A little background on beer can developmemt

 

[Beer Viking]

Where I'm from in Canada there's a kind of beer that only teenagers drink to get drunk called Wildcat. I tried it a few times when I was a teenager when it used to be 8% ABV. Now I think it's 6% or something. Me and my friends all thought it tasted horrible, but had good times the few times we drank it.

 

[JPDosey]

Carta Blanca ....absolutely the most disgusting beer I have ever tasted.

 

[acrowe]

Pumpkin spice Beers. I haven't had one I liked, and most of my friends feel the same. A couple years ago I had a big fridge full of beers left over from a beer tasting event. Everything went fast except the pumpkin stuff - it was there till the end.

 

[crazyjake19]

Pumpkin spice Beers. I haven't had one I liked, and most of my friends feel the same. A couple years ago I had a big fridge full of beers left over from a beer tasting event. Everything went fast except the pumpkin stuff - it was there till the end.

I've had some that were drinkable, but I've never actually had a pumpkin beer I really liked. On the other hand I've had some really delicious pumpkin ciders that I seek out every year.

 

[Stormcrow]

Keystone Ice for me. (I might have read that they quit making it anyway.) Don't know why, but that beer always gave me an instant headache.

 

[Bill Tong]

Berliner Weiss. I know taste differs and I respect that, but why would anyone do that to themselves?

 

[Beermeister32]

Agreed on the green glass, I’m to the point where I don’t even consider it any more. Cans are great, I’m really liking the 500ml / 16.9 oz cans being used by Euro brewers and others. Also there are variations in brown glass, some are lighter color than others and I’ve detected skunk in lighter brown glass beers. I do appreciate that Pilsner Urquell abandoned the green glass. I wish Grolsh would take their lead and return to their brown glass bottles. The 500 ml Weihenstephaner bottles are superb, as are any bottles used by Ayinger, these are plenty dark enough. I save these bottles for my own bottled batches, they are great quality.

The worse part of all this are those store beer coolers that still use beer-skunking UV fluorescent light. Some have thankfully been converted to LED’s, but many still use old fluorescent technology. How many of you would drink a six pack of green-bottled beer stored 6 inches from a 40-watt fluorescent light? !!!

 

[RolandD]

I, too, have a general rule to not drink anything that comes in green bottles. My exception is Jameson Irish Whiskey. No beer in clear bottles except Modelo Especial.

 

[MaxStout]

1. Any of the "retro" brands of mass-produced lager. Schlitz, Old Style, PBR, Grain Belt, Hamm's, etc. And especially Stroh's, which I hate with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.
2. Any of the mass-produced budget beers. Keystone, Busch Light, Milwaukee's Best, et al.
3. Any beer described as "dank," "funky," "horse blanket," etc. The flavor of a month-old basket of dirty laundry does not belong in anything made for human consumption.

 

[Beer Viking]

Agreed on the green glass, I’m to the point where I don’t even consider it any more. Cans are great, I’m really liking the 500ml / 16.9 oz cans being used by Euro brewers and others. Also there are variations in brown glass, some are lighter color than others and I’ve detected skunk in lighter brown glass beers. I do appreciate that Pilsner Urquell abandoned the green glass. I wish Grolsh would take their lead and return to their brown glass bottles. The 500 ml Weihenstephaner bottles are superb, as are any bottles used by Ayinger, these are plenty dark enough. I save these bottles for my own bottled batches, they are great quality.

The worse part of all this are those store beer coolers that still use beer-skunking UV fluorescent light. Some have thankfully been converted to LED’s, but many still use old fluorescent technology. How many of you would drink a six pack of green-bottled beer stored 6 inches from a 40-watt fluorescent light? !!!

View attachment 743106

I had no idea that beer could degrade so much after a liqour store has bought it due to improper storeage. Now that I think of it though I have tasted skunk in a beer that normally tastes great to me, so this explains that!

 

[MaxStout]

The trouble with a lot of the beers in clear or green bottles, is that those bottles are often trademark/trade dress. Corona and Newcastle will never change their clear bottles, nor will Heineken, Grolsch, etc. change their green ones. A few, like Miller High Life, use a modified hop extract, so the skunk precursors are not present. But for die-hard Corona drinkers, that skunky flavor is a feature, not a bug.

The first time I had Heineken from a can in Europe, I couldn't believe I was drinking the same beer.

If I walk into a liquor store with bright fluorescent lighting (especially if it's lighting the coolers), I'll try to buy canned beers, or bottled beers in enclosed cartons. Even amber bottles let in some UV, and over time, those can get skunked. And if you are unfortunate enough to choose the sixer that's been sitting on the shelves a while, you'll be enjoying some Pepe Le Pew brew.

 

[Beermeister32]

Sometimes you just need the willpower to force the issue, these decisions are usually made by the marketing department....

 

[monkeymath]

I'm gonna come out and say I don't think a bit of lightstruck flavour is necessarily all bad. I know it is usually denoted an off-flavour, but that doesn't really say much: phenols are an off-flavour in a pilsner, but not in a Hefeweizen. It's only with regard to a specific intent that you can say if something is "off".

Of course the breweries know how they could avoid that marijuana-like dankness, and I don't think it's only a matter of maintaining the appearance that they chose not to, but because it provides a sort of trademark flavour that sets them apart from others. You take the skunk, you change the product entirely and lose the signature flavour.

 

[crazyjake19]

I, too, have a general rule to not drink anything that comes in green bottles. My exception is Jameson Irish Whiskey. No beer in clear bottles except Modelo Especial.

Interestingly, I've never had a Heineken that was remotely enjoyable, but I regularly drink Grolsch in green bottles and have never had a single bad one.

 

[Ogilthorpe2]

The trouble with a lot of the beers in clear or green bottles, is that those bottles are often trademark/trade dress. Corona and Newcastle will never change their clear bottles, nor will Heineken, Grolsch, etc. change their green ones. A few, like Miller High Life, use a modified hop extract, so the skunk precursors are not present. But for die-hard Corona drinkers, that skunky flavor is a feature, not a bug.

The first time I had Heineken from a can in Europe, I couldn't believe I was drinking the same beer.

If I walk into a liquor store with bright fluorescent lighting (especially if it's lighting the coolers), I'll try to buy canned beers, or bottled beers in enclosed cartons. Even amber bottles let in some UV, and over time, those can get skunked. And if you are unfortunate enough to choose the sixer that's been sitting on the shelves a while, you'll be enjoying some Pepe Le Pew brew.

I didn’t realize Miller used any hops at all. Could’ve fooled me.

 

[RolandD]

Interestingly, I've never had a Heineken that was remotely enjoyable, but I regularly drink Grolsch in green bottles and have never had a single bad one.

I've never had a Grolsh.

 

[day_trippr]

I didn’t realize Miller used any hops at all. Could’ve fooled me.

Dude! Not only "used" hops, it's "triple hopped"!

[Sheesh. So there's an entire expensive advertising campaign that didn't even leave a dent ]

 

[grampamark]

Dude! Not only "used" hops, it's "triple hopped"!

[Sheesh. So there's an entire expensive advertising campaign that didn't even leave a dent ]

Three pellets in every batch!

 

[OleBrewing]

So, just curious l, what are some beers that are so bad you would rather drink water than drink that beer?
I'll start with Schlitz. As a teenager we'd rather drink Mad Dog 20/20 than Schlitz. We used to call it a different name made by removing the L from the name, and fir good reason as that's what you got when you drank that stuff. Another non-favorite is Milwaukee Beast, I mean Best.

Not sure why the hate on Schlitz. Every younger person seem to have the same impression. I feel it is a great representation of one of the original commercial German American lagers. I enjoy it. If only option to choose bud light or Coors light would be top of the list.

 

[Ogilthorpe2]

Not sure why the hate on Schlitz. Every younger person seem to have the same impression. I feel it is a great representation of one of the original commercial German American lagers. I enjoy it. If only option to choose bud light or Coors light would be top of the list.

I don‘t mind it either. Bowling alley near my house has it on tap. $8 pitchers on some nights.

 

[Andres Falconer]

Pumpkin beer. Any of them. They’ll be all over the shelves any day now if they’re not already.

Gueze. Makes me wretch. My wife called it dirty sock beer.

I see your gueze and raise you… gose!

I can appreciate a well-made sour, especially if it’s Belgian. But, sour and salty, especially the variety that was briefly (thankfully) popular among hipsters in the US, HELL NO!

I‘m sure pumpkin can make good beer additive. But there is no pumpkin in pumpkin spice. And I’d rather stay away from the spice in any form other than an actual pumpkin pie.

 

[Dland]

Looking back to original post, I have to ask; is there any other potable alcohol available? If choice is only bad tasting beer(but technically drinkable) and decent water, there are times I'd have to hold my nose and drink the beer, whatever it was. If good wine or spirits were available, that's another story.

That said, I recently tried a coors light left at house, two sips and dumped the rest. I'd prefer to skip pumpkin or any other "flavored" beer as well.

If I recall from my juvenile delinquent days, me & my buddies thought schlitz malt liqueur (look out for the bull) was better than colt 45, the only two logical choices in our minds at the time. Used to give one of the dudes hanging out by the strip mall liquer store $10, and we would get a case and he would get enough to buy some night train or thunderbird. ...And off we would ride on our bicycles in the snow for some wholesome good times....

 

[Bilsch]

Rauchbier is undrinkable to me. Also any beers with nonstandard beer ingredients like peanut butter, peppers, Cap'n Crunch, doughnuts, pumpkin etc. are nasty. Especially pumpkin. How do people drink this s**t?