With beer consumption on the decline in Germany, the time is ripe for an American invasion!
Once upon a time, when "American beer" meant "Budweiser", my beer snob friends would turn their noses up with disdain at anything domestic; pale, flavorless, watery, low-alcohol near-beer that it was.
Twenty-some-odd years later, the American beer market is overflowing with all kinds of craft-brewed imperial IPAs, farmhouse ales, double chocolate stouts, barleywines with double-digit ABVs, and smoked chipotle porters...
...and German lagers and pilseners seem kinda like... well, I believe the joke was something about "making love in a canoe" ...by comparison. It's times like this I wish I had a time machine, preferably one with room for a couple cases of beer to ride along with me.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS
You could probably ram one or two in there.
@LC Scotty Should work, it is bigger on the inside...
"First they came for my Beer, but since I drink Bourbon.."
People seem to miss the fact that all this creativity came about because the government relaxed the regulations on home brewing beer.
Joe:
This creativity started in Portland Oregon, because the OLCC were a bunch of little jack-booted fascists, and made anyone who wanted to open up a tavern in Oregon jump through several hundred flaming hoops to do so.
Then someone discovered that a brewery in Oregon could open a tavern to sell it's own product to the public without an OLCC license ...
I'm the only person across my various social circles that boths hand loads ammo and brews all grain beer at home.
Neighbors probably think I'm running shine at this point.
It's not just beer - American wine has become a price/performance leader as well. Not talking the very high end (the discussions there about expensive California Cabs vs. Bordeaux are amazingly like 1911 vs. Glock), but the table wine.
Particularly if you go to Trader Joe's, you get very, very good vin de table for $5. Heck, *box* wine is getting pretty good, and is really cheap.
Probably need to put up some reviews. There's a real food and drink renaissance in full bloom here.
it's a little like cheating, but this is my go-to for home made beer.
http://www.mrbeer.com/
esModa castle = my retirement house.
I still like Bud...
But,
I also like craft-micro brew beers, like Lumberyard Raspberry Ale and San Tan Mr. Pineapple.
And Killian's
Gotta have choices!
OH! I like Maker's Mark and Hornitos, too! (not together)
gfa
PS wv Farnham !
We live in a burgeoning culinary golden age! Now if only we can get home distilling legalized.
The Big Brew 2013 is Saturday at http://www.greatfermentations.com/.
200 gallons of beer 5 gallons at a time, over 40 home brewers set up brewing at once.
Also cheese making apparently. And if you don't want to mess with brewing your own, there is a brewery right next door.
Brewing yard sale 11-2 or something also.
Took a vacation in Denver two years ago just to sample the craft breweries there. I'm pretty sure I had a great time, IIRC. Still, the high point of the week was an afternoon with Cathy and L. Neil Smith. Great conversation will trump great beer, but having both!
(And I love that joke!)
Call me pedantic but do they know that IPA stands/stood either for Imperial Pale Ale? (OK some was Indian but it was standardised at Imperial)
So, Imperial Imperial Pale Ale???
See we Brits did invent something useful (and no comments on you colonials penchant for freezing the stuff either ;-) )
Able,
Imperial India Pale Ale.
We're Muricans! Our standard is to ignore standards.
Of course, the idea of making what was considered a minus, adding in nine million pounds of hops to keep the beer from going off, into a hair shirted plus is pretty British.
I have very seldom heard the I in IPA translated as Imperial, and most often see it as Imperial IPA. But I have no doubt if I looked hard enough I could find all kinds of crap telling me it was one or the other.
Though it wouldn't surprise me in a country where I'm asked my TIN number, PIN number, and the Home of the American Dodgeball Association of America.
"Double IPAs (also referred to as Imperial IPAs) are a stronger, very hoppy variant of IPAs that typically have alcohol content above 7.5% by volume."
All alcoholic beverages taste the same to me....
Ah, yes...there are some mighty nice brews to be had now.
Looked over a new Smuttynose facility this afternoon that is in the latter stages of construction. They plan to produce an additional 60,000 barrels annually at the new facility - in addition to their current capacity elsewhere.
I know that they move a lot of product out-of-state, but it sure is nice to hear that a "microbrewery" is building an additional 60K barrel facility.
Some days I still yearn for an original Nastyganset or even Utica Club, but we are spoiling these kids today with some pretty fine beverages compared to what was around when we were just of legal age. Given the lovely variety of tasty beverages today, this is yet again a category that I wouldn'
t want to have a "do over" as you had wished for a few days back.
Once upon a time, when "American beer" meant "Budweiser",
I can remember, just off the top of my head, Shlitz, Miller, Pearl, Blatz, Lone Star, and Coors. All good American beers, except for Pearl, which tasted like donkey-piss. It was the "pale, stale ale with the foam in the middle".
Pawpaw,
Not a big fan of Schlitz, Miller, or Coors. Haven't tried the others.
I recall reading that, prior to Prohibition, American beer was considered some of the best in the world. However, years of enforced neglect killed the industry as the brewmeisters either left the country or got locked up for working for Capone and the other mobsters.
When you use your time machine you could point out to your (most likely incredulous) listeners than Bud is now technically an import...
someone remind me: in the movie Smokey and the Bandit, why did they go all the way to Texarkana to smuggle Coors? it's like soda water with a little kick.
secret word: the paciddi. italian castle.
A few years ago, I was in Dublin, and every younger native I saw in the pubs drank long neck Buds. Don't remember if they'd just begun importing or what, but it was funny (in Dublin, anyway) to see the Irish drinking bud and the Americans drinking Guinness. of course, in the hinterlands, everyone drank Guinness. Maybe a few Harp, or cider.
Matt
St Paul
@1077idaho
@Critter
Back in the olden days Coors was only distributed west of the Mississippi.
Rich
Rich: True--I remember those days. When I was a teenager, I'd had Coors in Texas (back when the drinking age was a more-sensible 18--if you can be drafted, you should be able to drink, right?). It was horse-piss then too. Actually, horse-piss from a beer-drinking horse probably would've been better. I don't often drink beer, but I love the Spoetzl brewery--several nice products.
--Tennessee Budd
A lot of these craft beers can't be produced in Germany due to domestic German beer purity law, though it should be possible to import them now. Originally only water, barley, and hops were allowed ingredients; the spread of these laws (originally from a single city in the 1400s or 1500s) eliminated local beer variants that used other ingredients.
The idea of a TARDIS full of beer...
*swoon*
Tennessee Budd, that's a mighty fine selection to which to limit your consumption.
Wish they'd make Ryes & Shine a regular brew.
armedlaughing, how anyone can say they like Bud and then proceed to name actual beer, like Killian's, makes me wonder if there was a childhood accident that severely damaged your tongue.
Haven't heard that "making love in a canoe" crack since I broke out of Canada...they were so darn proud of their Labatt's and their Molson.
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