Light Beer: You Don't Have to Like It, but Respect It

Discussion in 'Beer News' started by sandiego67, Nov 2, 2012.

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  1. Biffster

    Biffster Initiate (0) Mar 29, 2004 Michigan

    I don't drink it. I don't like it. But I have to say that you are dead wrong about quality. I have spent almost 25 years in automotive, aerospace and other forms of manufacturing. The light beer brewers meet a quality and consistency standard that aerospace or even biomedical could never hope to achieve, to say nothing of consumer products or automotive. You might not like the product they produce, but you cannot accuse them of producing a product you may not like in a slipshod or careless way. Like it or not, there is no denying it is probably one of the most high quality, consistent products mass produced anywhere.
     
    hopfenunmaltz likes this.
  2. bdub32689

    bdub32689 Initiate (0) May 19, 2011 Massachusetts

    I would have to disagree with you on the "no more then 50-60 percent" in major grocery stores because at least regionally here in the northeast I see the biggest discrepancy in the grocery store more then anywhere else besides places like whole foods.(reasonable guess would be 75% of the space is brand BMC own or partially own) You maybe correct though that the in smaller markets like Western Washington the big companies don't have a stronghold compared to markets like Boston and New York where putting a large amount of money on branding makes sense.
    The point of my original post anyway was that taste should be the number 1 determinant of what beers people like not the exclusivity. Who cares who brews it or if its popular or not if you like it drink it. It bugs me that a lot of these threads people just post about beers they think others will be impressed by. I respect the light beer market for what it is because at the end of the day it supports the industry as a whole and is often a gateway for people to try new styles.
     
  3. sandiego67

    sandiego67 Initiate (0) Feb 25, 2008 California


    I live in Baja California Norte (aka San Diego County). There are dozens of taco shops and Mexican markets that sell Coca Cola that is imported from Mexico. There is certainly a difference in taste.

    It may be true that in blind taste tests, participants weren't able to tell which was which but I would guess that they would say that the 2 samples are from different batches.
     
  4. kingofhop

    kingofhop Initiate (0) May 9, 2010 Oklahoma
    In Memoriam

    well said, Swill. Well said my friend. BTW, I ain't seen ya on BA in a while. Howz it goin'?
     
  5. industrialswill

    industrialswill Zealot (743) Feb 5, 2010 Washington

    Hey KofH..got back into an old hobby that I turned my back on for about 15 years...[cars, man.... not pot].
    Glad to see you here holding The Fort down as one of the FEW TRUE BEER LOVERS that this forum has ever known.
    Do you still have your perfect, unblemished record intact...?
    So....What's the "Craft - to - Swill" ratio [Cr/Sw] at the stores in your area....?
    Honestly, I can not believe how good this Miller is drinking right now. I stop at just 1 TallBoy per night, figuring that I don't want the novelty to wear off.
    Pretty much the same thing happened a couple years ago when my brother in law brought over a load of Coors Lite for Xmas vacation..I couldn't believe how good it tasted, especially since I figured it would just taste like water after drinking heavier ales all the time.
    When I 1st found this website a couple years ago I was dumbstruck by all the guys who absolutely hate BMC. Back when I was a kid there were only to kinds of people who didn't like BMC...
    1. girls
    2. guys who acted like girls
    Ha-Ha....!! Take care, man.
     
    kingofhop likes this.
  6. maltmuncher

    maltmuncher Initiate (0) Aug 22, 2012

    Man this crap all ends up the same... I dont get it. Aside from a business / economy view and how everyone one here is going rant about how inbev is going to ruin the world and rig the election and cause the next zombie apocalypse. Sad thing is most of them started on the same products from the companies they bitch about.

    For what the product is/started out as... a german lager style beer made w/ american products aka now american lager-yes they have a level of skill needed to mass produces a product exactly the same. And for the masses it works, they won. Big deal-not going to crap on my day over it.

    Most people dont support gay marriage but I am not going to blame all my problems and all that is wrong in the world, cause two dudes wanna pound one another (dont ask what that has to do with this, I guess I am a homo)....

    OP-nice share, thanks for posting the rest of you need to go change your menstrual products.
     
  7. Danny1217

    Danny1217 Initiate (0) Jul 15, 2011 Florida

    When I'm on a diet I drink Guinness. Decent enough flavor at only 120 calories per pint. I also still feel like a man when I drink it. The alcohol content isn't ridiculously low either.
     
  8. UCLABrewN84

    UCLABrewN84 Initiate (0) Mar 18, 2010 California

    I saw this article through another website. I guess they have a point with the consistency issue, but other than this aspect, light beers are pretty gross in my opinion. I will still tick them though.
     
  9. deathevocation

    deathevocation Initiate (0) Nov 7, 2008 Australia

    I've had coke in a number of countries. You wouldn't even recognise the coke from Saudi Arabia as coke, it's that different. US, Japanese & Australian coke tastes pretty much the same (save Australian uses cane sugar as opposed to US which I believe doesn't).
     
  10. DaveBlack

    DaveBlack Pundit (896) Dec 19, 2009 Virginia

    Which is why every 5-gallon batch of homebrew that you've tried is better than any commercial beer you've ever bought...?
     
  11. rlcoffey

    rlcoffey Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2004 Kentucky

    As I said upthread consistency != quality.

    They dont produce a quality product. They product an amazingly consistent product.

    The term quality has been misused by the Quality Assurance folks (Im sure marquis would have a lot of fun with me making this argument).
     
    happy4hoppybeer and maltmuncher like this.
  12. herrburgess

    herrburgess Grand Pooh-Bah (3,053) Nov 4, 2009 South Carolina
    Pooh-Bah Society

    As a homebrewer, you well know that process, not ingredients, makes quality beer. Are you saying that the macros do not have quality processes in place?
     
  13. rlcoffey

    rlcoffey Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2004 Kentucky

    The processes may be "quality" (I would describe them as "excellent", as I wouldnt use the word "quality" in that situation, to avoid the later confusion) but the beer produced always isnt. It doesnt matter how excellent the processes are, Bud Light wont be a quality beer.

    That isnt saying the macros cant make quality beers, I think most GI beers are quality and there are other quality Inbev beers. Im saying that excellent process does not itself lead to quality beers.
     
  14. herrburgess

    herrburgess Grand Pooh-Bah (3,053) Nov 4, 2009 South Carolina
    Pooh-Bah Society

    So by the same token, a light lager made with American 2-row, which many consider of inferior quality compared to, say, Weyermann pilsner/Munich malt, won't be a quality lager...regardless of the U.S. craft brewer's skill? Hmmm...are we on common ground now? :wink:
     
  15. rlcoffey

    rlcoffey Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2004 Kentucky

    Your logic seems to suffer.

    If A then B, does not imply if B then A.

    I would think it would be HARDER to make a quality lager with inferior products, but it isnt impossible.
     
  16. cinghialetwo

    cinghialetwo Initiate (0) Oct 20, 2012

    Sorry if I speak , but I think a craft brewery has better quality compared to making wine. For beer ingredients are repeatable (barley, malt water) while a wine must be the same grape,in the same place . Grapes are small quantities respect water
    I just think if a brewer uses a special hops (example hops as the hill of St. John in the region of the Rhine Westphalian state collected in the month of July).
     
  17. TheHammer

    TheHammer Pooh-Bah (2,050) Feb 15, 2009 Canada (ON)
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I have to agree with rlcoffey on this one. Consistency does not equal quality and I disagree with a lot of the stuff in this article. While I have few doubts as to big macro beer being the ones who pushed the advances of beer technology and chemistry (such as pasteurizing and adding chemical preservatives to beer in order to mass market) the point I would stress is for all of these technological advances in brewing, craft beer has existed far before macro beer.

    When you have breweries like Samuel Smith's and Weihenstephaner who have been around for hundreds of years, producing consistent product, the need for said technology has never been a requirement for craft beer. The thousands of local brewers across the world, who weren't concerned with how late the barley harvest was going to be, because they didn't cater to a market that required such massive, immediate purchasing and instead purchased and grew their own barley locally to serve their local market.

    It was not until the large local market brewers like Molson, Coors, Busch...etc expanded their influence through cheaper, consistent mass brewing techniques that they began muscling craft beer out of the market. One needs only look at the Province of Ontario who's beer store distribution system catered to these larger brewers (partially as a concession to prohibitionists, partially due to their predatory practices) and the ages it's taken for any small breweries to even exist, yet alone succeed here. Prohibition also is a major blame as pretty much the only experienced brewers who didn't close shop, were only brewing for volume as the populace craved alcohol far more the quality. This has been going on for ages, as people in North America have been taught that beer should be generic lager and anything else is "terrible, bad quality beer"

    I will give the macros credit, they did provide some tools and some research for modern craft breweries to exsist, but to say they would not exist without them, especially when you have so many organic and "traditional method" craft brewers out there, I think is wrong.
     
  18. rlcoffey

    rlcoffey Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2004 Kentucky

    Let me be very clear what Im saying, since you seem to keep trying to read other things into it:

    EXCELLENT PROCESSES ARE NOT SUFFICIENT TO END UP WITH A QUALITY BEER.

    I am saying nothing else. I am implying nothing other than that. If you are inferring anything else, you are mistaken.

    Is it easier to make a quality beer if you have excellent processes? yes.
    Is it easier to make a quality beer if you use excellent ingredients? yes.
    Are either necessary? no.

    Mediocre ingredients with mediocre processes can lead to a quality beer. It would be hard and rare, but its possible.
     
  19. herrburgess

    herrburgess Grand Pooh-Bah (3,053) Nov 4, 2009 South Carolina
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Was joking.

    You are the one saying it is impossible for Bud Light (not Budweiser?) to be a quality beer. If it's not the processes or the ingredients or the consumer's "faulty" preference on which you're basing your claim, then what is it?
     
  20. TheHammer

    TheHammer Pooh-Bah (2,050) Feb 15, 2009 Canada (ON)
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I would say it's the active choice of the large brewer to brew generic uninteresting beer for as low a cost as possible, so in a sense recipe is to blame. I would make the arguement though that large brewers like Budweiser don't use quality ingredients (as evidenced by using adjuncts and chemical preservatives) and while following good quality control processes in regard to infection and consistent product have a poor record of quality control in regards to appealing flavour. I would also argue that they certainly have the capacity, knowledge and ability to brew more flavourful beer, but choose not to, as they have a market who is regrettably content with generic lager that gets you drunk.

    In a bit of an add twist of fate, some big brewers are realizing that the market is evolving and getting away from generic lager and moving towards craft beer, which is why some big beer are now producing higher quality lines under different labels, or partnering/buying out quality craft brewers to make the product for them so they can tap the craft market (Like the purchase of Creemore Springs by Molson/Coors). This for the most part is a mixed bag, for while getting more exposure is good, there is always a worry that if the craft market stalls, big beer is going to start falling back to cheaper ingredients and cheaper recipes, thus ruining that label.
     
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