Happy birthday to me... now what?

Loading thread data ...

Dear alt.beer, Just signed up tonight to get some advice. I turned 21 in September and, naturally, persued my newfound legal ability to imbibe drinks of an alchoholic nature. Unfortunately I am unimpressed so far and I am looking for help. I've only had a couple of beers and most, I think were microbrews. A friend of mine had me try what he described as a "wheat" beer and it didn't go over well. I bought a six-pack of Budweiser recently thinking, "It's popular, it must be good." I can't take more than three drinks from a bottle. Is there anyone I can turn to for help without spending hundreds of dollars finding a beer that doesn't make me gag?

Thanks in advance! Binkman

Reply to
ßinkmån
Reply to
Jeffrey Kaplan

Well another day and another adventure. Hit up a local bar with a couple of college buddies who came to visit and have now moved on to bigger things. Both decided that I should try a Guinness. At the risk of sounding like an ignorant n00b its A HELL OF A LOT BETTER THAN BUD. That being said I still had a hard time finishing it. It's the after taste that keeps getting to me. That last wash of taste as it goes down that claws back to the recesses of your both of the deep inexorable pit of one's esophogaus. Still, it wasnt too bad and I think I could learn to like Guinness some day when I actually have disposable income. One of my friends suggested I try some cider drinks as he thought I might have better luck with something sweet. Anyway, I want to say thanks, guys, for all the help. Along the way I've discovered what kind of beer I do like and what I should never buy again as well as a great pub with awesome pitcher and pizza specials and a wonderful atmosphere. Thanks again everyone!

Binkman

Reply to
ßinkmån

Or move to England where the beer is the right temperature and we call Budweiser what it is, lager! You know why lager is served cold? Because it masks the taste. Same with Bud if you ask me. But, I found some really good beer when I was over there a couple of years ago. It was in a brewery/bar in Savannah and it brewed its own beer (name of the place was something to do with the moon), outstanding. However it was impossible to get a decent beer and somewhere nice to drink it when we were just out and about. What you need is pubs (not bars with juke boxes, neon Bud signs and pool tables.. shiver!), real ale (that's going to be a brownish colour by the way : ) @

6%+abv (most of our winter beers are at least that) . ... er no offence meant, seriously. Plenty of stuff not right in this country, customer service etc you leave us standing but beer.. get your holiday booked to Masham North Yorkshire. Small village, Theakstons AND Black Sheep breweries within half a mile, a dozen pubs, each with a log fire... and a fish and chip shop : )
Reply to
Carl Young

[...]

I appreciate your point of view, mate, but did you ever consider there's more to it than just ale vs lager. When I get off a hard days work doing manual labor in 90-100 deg F heat, I darn sure don't want to drink a nice room temperature ale. I want to inhale a nice ice cold lager. I've come in from 12 hrs in the summer heat so dehydrated from sweating all day it was nothing to inhale two full cans of beer in as many gulps. And I sure as Hell don't wanna see no log on no fire!! No doubt if I'd spent the day freezing my tail off in some wet, chilly, job, I'd surely want to warm up to a nice thick ale to put some viscosity back in my blood.

That's not to say the two can't exist in the same temperate zone. IPA's were born in the heat of the tropics. But, look where ales dominate. The rebirth of ales in the US was in the Pacific Northwest ...the wet, dank, I-ain't-seen-the-sun-since-August Northwest. But, when you're standing over a smoking BBQ rig on a hot sweltering day, an bucket full of icey lagers of

3-4% abv is gonna get you through the day without putting you belly up in the bedroom under the air conditioner.

nb

Reply to
notbob

Are you trying to torture me? I live in England. We're lucky to see the sun two days running in the middle of summer let alone see 90 F!.... BBQ, you are having a laugh!!!! But, I take your point mate. I suppose if we had the luxury of anything other than this terrible, and it is terrible, British weather I may fancy a lager as well. Until global warming kicks in (we pray for that here), I'm going to stick with my nice warming real ale : )

Nice talk>> need is pubs (not bars with juke boxes, neon Bud signs and pool tables..

Reply to
Carl Young

Plenty of stuff not right in this country, customer service etc you leave us standing but beer.. get your holiday booked to Masham North Yorkshire. Small village, Theakstons AND Black Sheep breweries within half a mile, a dozen pubs, each with a log fire... and a fish and chip shop : )

Yes, plenty not right here. Having tried 100's of brands, (living in Vegas), I always come back to my good ol' Bud Light. Your 'holiday' sounds wonderful however! DOS

formatting link

Reply to
DonShockleyYCM

, real ale (that's going to be a brownish colour by the way : ) @

an bucket full of icey lagers of

True to myth, I think you guys got it backwards- most real ale is, comparatively, low in alcohol aka "session strength" (that's why they drink it by the Imperial pint) and most "Industrial Light Lager" in the US has actually gotten higher in alcohol in the last few years- Bud is now 5%, for instance, tho' in the past it was often listed at 4.82%,

4.66%, etc.

Examples-

Fuller Chiswick 3.8% ABV Fullers London Pride 4.1 ABV Gales 4.0 % ABV Gales HSB 4.8% ABV

Budweiser 5.0% ABV Miller High Life 5.5% ABV Coors 5.0% ABV Pabst 5.0% ABV

Now, if you're looking for a lower alcohol lager with more flavor than the US ILL's, there's: Pilsner Urquel 4.3% ABV Jever 4.9% ABV

Source- For UK beers- Brewers' website

For US beers-

formatting link

Reply to
jesskidden

Popular, must be good.......? That is a big misconception in America. Popular beer like Miller, Bud, Coors, ect.... are terribly nasty. If you want to taste a good beer, they are out there. Not just micro-brews. Micro-brews might be an acquired taste. I recommend trying a Sierra Nevada pale ale. If you want a good dark, drink a Guniness (sp)? What to start off averagly good.... Molson Ice is good. Sam Adams is Great!

Try these beers along with food and you will be a beer fan. Try the Sam Adams with a fat resteraunt style burger. Try Molson with anything or,,,,, crackers&sharp cheddar with a splub of yellow mustard. Believe it or not. Try that one first. Wine and food or beer and food have the same taste excitement. It's all how the bitter clashes with the other tastes in your mouth.

My favorite beer companies of all time are Rogue, Anchor, Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Wild

No offense, but you've obviously tried the wrong "100s of brands" if you even think about Bud Light any more except as an example of bad decisions you used to make.

Reply to
Russ Perry Jr

"Carl Young" schreef in bericht news:cndisn$fo0$ snipped-for-privacy@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk...

Allow me to disagree - seriously. First. "Lager" - in fact a German word, means maturing, after brewing, leaving the beer its time to develop full flavours by natural means. As such, Bud is anything but a "lager". It's a bottom-fermented - cylindro-conical would be more accurate, though unpronouncable - force-bred pale beer, made in the shortest measurable interval of time. Second. "Masks the taste". Of those beechwood chips, I presume? There's nothing to mask. I've had mineral waters with more stamina than "Bud". Third. I'll be the last to disdain the English pub as a true institution of life, but I still have to visit the first British pub with more than 5 cask ales, where at least one of them was off - seriously infected by too slow consumption. I've been once in the US, and found myself in a pub with about

50 taps, including casks, and NONE was aged prematurely. Furthermore, the number of pubs in Brittain with EGN (TV, disco, playmachines) is ever increasing. And last but not least, service??? In a British pub? Not even when it's NOT closing time for a change.

Jorisslightlycynicalby experience.

Reply to
Joris Pattyn

Damn, that musta been one long night...

I don't know, those mega-multi-tap places usually scare me with concerns about freshness. I come across a lot of bad draft beer in places with "only" 10 beers. I've been in places with 20 or 30 or 50 beers on tap, on a weekend night, with 10 or 20 people in the place and, for me, the math just don't add up for a turnover that ensures fresh beer from every tap (especially when half the bar is drinking Bud or Coors Light out of bottles...).

There's a place I came across in the pine barrens of NJ with 30+ beers on tap, usually 3 cars in the parking lot and many of the beers I've had were "off". (It's on the way home from a market I go to, so, yeah, I keep trying...). One day I stop in, the same guy who's ALWAY there is behind the bar and I figured I'll try a new approach with, "Hmmm...I don't know what to have today. What have you tapped recently?"

"Oh, I don't know, I haven't worked in a few days...it's all fresh."

Ummm...rancid flat Hop Devil!

Reply to
jesskidden

Joris,

Unfortunately you are right about British pubs. More and more are going with Sky Sport BIG screen TVs. Even some of the older better pubs. It's a real shame. There are still places to go and plenty of them but its a downward spiral. I suppose that in the USA as well as the UK there are landlords (bar owners?) who are in it for the money and some that are in it for the love of it. Derby has a pub called The Flowerpot. Wooden floors, food you see cooked by two lovely friendly women who look like your mom, and around 30 ever changing beers and ciders, most of them straight out of the barrel, propped up behind the bar where you can see the beer being poured into your glass. Nice. One of two of what used to be excellent pubs here in Derby. The second, The Silkmill was fantastic when I moved here five years ago. Brilliant food, great atmosphere and outstanding beer. Now it just has outstanding beer plus a big screen and the local youth. I just stopped going in there a couple of years ago. As for opening hours, yes, 11pm close for pubs mostly, even in the cities. Some close from 3pm to 6pm and others like my local don't open at all some lunch times. There is talk of 24 hour opening here but do we really want it.....? F*&ing right : )

Regards,

Carl

Reply to
Carl Young

"Carl Young" schreef in bericht news:cngh57$as$ snipped-for-privacy@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...

Maybe I should have a look in Derby before the last one's gone too. ;^} Hey! I've got a niece living there, IIRC!

Cheers, Joris

Reply to
Joris Pattyn

Amen to that. For you, I hope the talk fulfills. Me, in Vegas, I have access

24/7/365 & 1/4 ~ Hell yea, that's what I'm talking, Ha DOS
formatting link
Reply to
DonShockleyYCM

Don't paint all lagers with the same brush...there are some fantastic lagers out there. Of course, Bud isn't one of them, but open your mind and look around.

--------->Denny

Reply to
Denny Conn

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.