I usually assume when Europeans complain about American beers, they just are complaining about our “domestic” beers like Bud Light, Coors, PBR, etc. which makes sense, they are our bottom shelf beers.
I recently chatted with someone at a party who said “no, all American beers are bad” including microbrewery beers.
I’ve never been to Europe so I wouldn’t know, but I do like my Left Handed Milk Stout, NWPAs, and hell even the hipstered out IPAs.
Are these what y’all are referencing?
The American beer you get in Canada is terrible. Budweiser and Miller and shit like that. American beer at an American pub was great, when I last visited.
Short answer: yes
Long answer: yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
The fuck? American craft beer is absolutely delicious. A lot of light beer brands are also good. Who’s saying American beer sucks?
European mainstream beer isn’t anything to brag about.
Tried different IPA from Belgium and Netherlands as sugested by coworkers and frienda and I fucking hate it. It taste like diluted beer. If you get the chance try Icnusa non filtered, IMO best beer ever. Also I dunno if it’s sold outside Italy, have not seen it in other countries
My American friends made me drink Keystone Ice and this was one of the most disgusting things I did ever drink. The rest was also not great. A few American beers were passable but I had better ones in most European countries.
We have many options for people who just want to drink a bunch of cheap beer. Bud Light, Miller Light, Coors Light, Natural Light, Milwaukee’s Best Light, the list goes on. Most agree the stuff you can buy in a 24 pack at Walmart isn’t good quality beer.
But places like Dogfish Head, Ardent, Foothills, Bell’s, Cigar City, Oskar Blues, Three Notched, Flying Dog, Elysian, Anchor, Lagunitas and many others produce some great beers.
As a vetted german beer enthusiast, may I say that the big-brand beers are on average as good (or bad) as the american beers I know. Differences imho originate from drinking preferences (light beers) and allowed ingredients or additives, but that has a minor impact on sensory quality. Personally I often missed aroma and bitterness (hops) and gravity of most beers I tried in the USA, but that‘s just me.
I mean when I was in new York they drank bud light with Tabasco on the can rim to make it taste something. So I guess it’s not only us
I think it’s of-a-kind
Domestic/mass-produced European beers are much better than domestic/mass-produced American beers.
And European craft beers are better than American craft beers.America has a lot of bad domestic and bad craft beers, but there are enough craft beers that some have gotta be good even if just by luck.
Personally I don’t think it’s a big deal: yes American beers taste like water or fruit water, but I like water, it’s refreshing. Water that gives me a buzz if I drink enough is a win in my book.
I think a lot of American breweries confuse “interesting” beer with “good” beer, because in the US, as long as it doesn’t taste like Coors, you’re fine.
It’s the chicken bacon ranch pizza problem. It’s good. I like it. But I don’t want it every time I have pizza. I definitely can’t eat a whole chicken bacon ranch pizza, even if I spread the leftovers over the week. But a slice every now and then is great.
“Good” American beer is generally pretty fatiguing to drink. Good European beer isn’t. That’s how it is for me at least.
But that’s kinda what I’m talking about: by sheer luck some of those interesting beers have gotta be good.
People hate Coors because it tastes like water, but idk why someone would hate that; water is good.
Sure it’s a bad beer in the sense that it isn’t very beer-ey, but it’s a fine drink because it doesn’t taste like anything. I don’t see how someone can like Perrier water, but not like Coors, they’re practically the same.I thought you meant chicken bacon ranch pizza flavoured beer, which I also wouldn’t be surprised about if it existed in the US
Same. Also. Now I’m hungry.
Beer is good only in Belgium.
- An Italian
Belgian beer is sooo good, but your local (southern) german beer is always better
Belgian beer is good but it is so heavy I can only drink one before I feel off.
Heavy in taste or heavy in abv? We have both light in taste and light in alcohol beers, sometimes even both at the same time :)
Heavy in taste/texture. It feels like a rock in my stomach. They still taste good!
Are you south-tirolian or why do you have a German nickname?
yes.
I’m an american who lives in france, and i brew my own beer. American beer tastes like shit, even the microbrewed stuff. Everyone wants to make an IPA, and they all taste over hopped. It’s either that swill or the staples of the American frat party: bud light, miller light, coors, etc.
Best beers are hands down made in Belgium, and i will throw hands.
Stella Artois
Meh, I prefer Pilsener. Either the Czech stuff or from Northern Germany. Sometimes a nice wheat bear is good too. The only beer one can drink in Bavaria, the rest tastes like shit.
I do like a Grimbergen Blonde every now and then though.
Alright, let me finish my beer and then we throw hands. Belgian beer is meh.
come at me bro
IPAs suck, it’s true.
the thing is, pale ales don’t have to suck. with the right hops and the right amount at the right time, it can be almost pleasant. Not my favorite, but i could understand the appeal.
However, you want a good beer, check out a lambic.
Or gueuze. They tend to be a bit hard to find in the US. Sour Flanders red ales are another good style, and also difficult to find.
IIRC, a proper lambic is made with spontaneous fermentation, which makes each batch slightly different.
Struggled to find beer that I like in usa- I’ve not been there much though.
It’s increasingly hard here though (UK).
Shitty lager, or hipster-grapefruit-jizz or guiness is the normal choice in most pubs, and even in many so called “real ale” pubs, those of them still left. A decent pint of bitter is hen’s teeth these days. I guess fashions change and there’s no money in old style beers that I prefer. You can’t argue with the bottom line.
I find shitty lager in US is not as nice as shitty european lager - it just seems to have an odd taste - but it’s not what i want to drink… I guess german/czech lager is about as good as it gets, for lager/pils - but still not very flavourful.
Belgium is good, but not really for a session beer. It’s for a different type of drinking.
A decent pint of bitter is hen’s teeth these days. I guess fashions change and there’s no money in old style beers
I hear that. I enjoy IPAs that aren’t too fruity or floral, but sometimes I just want a pint of bitter like my grandfather used to illegally buy me in his local when I was a teenager (“Yes, he’s nineteen, just scrawny. Sad really, he needs feeding up.”)
Yeah moving to the UK from Germany it was a big shock how bad the ‘standard’ beers were.
In Germany you could just order ‘a beer’ and get something good, in the UK it would be like birra moretti or something
I liked the ales though…
Im not sure about other countries but something to take note of is that American ‘light’ beers are light flavour, not ABV%.
In Australia a ‘light’ beer is usually around 3.5% ABV, but intended to taste like normal beer (i say intended because usually they taste more watery).So i personally think a bit of the hate on American beers if that they seem to be fans of the ‘light’ flavours more, (ie prevalence of Bud light, Miller Lite, etc.) and they generally taste a lot like soda water to the non-american beer drinker that is used to a lot more body and/or bitterness.
taste a lot like soda water to the non-american beer drinker that is used to a lot more body and/or bitterness.
This right here, you’ve nailed it exactly!
Otherwise described as “tastes like piss”, they usually taste like a watered down version of a proper beer.
It’s like being used to freshly squeezed orange juice, then someone comes along and adds half a cup of water and a bit of sugar because it’s “too acidic” or something.
One thing to note is that there are a lot of bad American beers in small and mid-sized cities. Basically what happened is that in the 2010s it became trendy to go to a brewery with a food truck and just hang out. As a result a ton of “breweries” opened that were more or less selling the experience, with a handful of low effort trendy selections to serve as a hook.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t good beers though. America is the land of people who do their own thing, often regardless of social norms and established conventions. There’s a lot of great beers across a broad range of categories, it just takes a bit of digging.
As a sidenote a lot of these D tier breweries are closing and/or rebranding. Changing consumer sentiment means merely being a craft brewery is no longer a hook, while rising real estate costs make the entire endeavor more expensive. The breweries in shitty locations tend to close. The ones in good locations tend to massively reduce their own output, while offering a variety of local alcohol and expanded food options.
Yes, I’ve been to quite some micro breweries in the US and most of just taste so flat. It kinda seems like all money went to creating a nice looking brewery and barely anything is invested in the craftsmanship.
The best beer I had in the US is from Ommegang Brewery, they make amazing stuff. I’ve had other good stuff too, it’s definitely there, it just seems there’s a load of commercial “microbreweries” that are just selling a story instead of decent beer
Ommegang is the shit. Heavy beer though.
Brewing is an art, and the market is saturated with micro breweries run by people with too much money and not enough actual skill or good taste, they’re fads like boba places now where I live, micro breweries all over the place serving crap
