No Fear: "Bad" Beer

4-02-2009 @5:16PM BraH said... Lone Star Beer from San Antonio in the spring and fall.
Pearl, now brewed and bottled by Miller only in the Fort Worth brewery for the summertime.
Shiner Bock from the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas.

But don't mind me, I think craft brews are a passing fad.
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4-02-2009 @5:19PM J. Wagner said... PBR, Stroh's and Old Milwaukee all have a home in my fridge.
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4-02-2009 @7:14PM Red Icculus said... I am happy that you added Schlitz, which is $9.99 at CVS Pharmacy. It's a kiss of the hops!Miller just bought them out and is going to release
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4-02-2009 @7:20PM Red Icculus said... I am so glad that you added Schlits, which is $9.99 at cvs pharmacy.

That said, Miller bought them out and is going to release the original recipe in bottles. I wouldn't hold your breath for cheap delicious beer.
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4-02-2009 @7:36PM nicole said... I don't enjoy many "good" beers apparently. There's nothing like a cold Silver Bullet on a hot night... And they have color change mountains to let you know when it's chilly enough to drink. Now that's classy. And one of my favorite local bars has PBJ & PBR night - both are a dollar. Can't be beat.
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4-02-2009 @8:12PM Marumm said... The Delta owns. Get the BBQ Tofu Po'Boy dressed with a mix of sweet & spicy, best thing in the world.

And if you're hanging out at the Delta so often with a taste for cheapie beer, maybe you should mix in one of the Rainier Lagers they also serve. While also a Pabst brew, it's not nearly as skunky as PBR.


Other 'best of the worst' cheap beers:

Old Style
Hamm's
Olympia

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4-03-2009 @9:23AM liz said... I second the Lone Star! It's the National Beer of Texas!
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4-02-2009 @9:51PM BraH said... AlexVB-

Yes, I do beleive so. Craft brews have to compete in the same free market as the mass-producers and local (read:1-5 state regional distributers) brewhouses. Crafts are profitable now because 1.) it's a relatively new phenomenon drawing adventurous people, 2.) craft beer is different and 3.) there is a psychological aspect to consuming something that few others have done so before.

Scenario A: ABC Craft Brewers make a premium beer with mass appeal. History and economics dictate that many people will purchase ABC beer infrequently due to the cost and limited initial availability. Mediocre sales will continue until DEF Craft Brewers makes a new premium beer with mass appeal and the clientele becomes splintered, making sales of both more infrequent. This repeats until production and therefore distribution of all involved is reduced, further hurting sales. Low cost can't be achieved in competition with The Norm.

Scenario B: XYZ Craft Brewers make a very different premium beer with a niche market. This market is generally more affluent and can afford the high cost of constant consumption of XYZ beer. The Brewers decide to expand as long as there is an ever-widening market. Premium prices continue. While XYZ enjoys it's steady sales, other craft brewers are always competing with new beers. Eventually, XYZ will be outdone and a large portion of the client base will be siphoned off in other directions. XYZ's overhead is now too large to support even with greatly inflated prices.

This same economic cycle is present in many industries, such as airlines, automotives, restaurants, gadgets and gizmos, clothing, anything where brand loyalty may apply.
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4-03-2009 @6:34AM hughmcmillan said... I would go for the Gusto!
Schlitz


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4-03-2009 @8:54AM J. Wagner said... Miller has brought the original Gusto blend of Schlitz and it is very good. It's readily available in the midwest. However, they've priced it in the $6-7/6-pack range which is pushing it out of the cheap beer range.
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4-03-2009 @9:01AM TJ said... I gave a solid vote for PBR, but only because i wouldve normally chosen anything from the Genesee Brewing Company. Cream Ale is so delish and cheap!
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4-03-2009 @10:19AM Gobo said... When I think of cheap beer, my mind returns to college days and sixpacks of Rolling Rock or Milwaukee's Best (aka The Beast) in the dorm fridge. Horribly nasty stuff, but that's the taste of college...
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4-03-2009 @2:39PM Bernie B said... I don't think crafted beer is an endangered species. Like many other businesses they will come and go. While I like my PBR, the mainstream stuff (Miller, Bud, etc..) is like drinking fizzy water. The alcohol industry has a history of being recession resistant as people want comfort during tough times. While junk like flavored Vodka's will fall by the wayside, a good beer/brewery will probably be just fine.
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4-03-2009 @3:24PM foxdude0486 said... Ice House used to be my cheap bear of choice, replaced by PBR. Though I have reviewed many cheap beers.

www.beersuggest.com
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4-03-2009 @6:57PM salmon said... miller high life really is the champagne of beers in that it seems to go with just about any food. viva the current #2 cheap beer according to this poll!
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4-03-2009 @7:02PM HaterTot said... High Life! Natty Boh is a close second (if it were still brewed in Baltimore, it'd be first). My hometown Iron City is terrible, but a cold IC Light is sort of not terrible. These are all beers that I'm happy to have accompany me on a lazy float down a river.

I'm headed to the beach this week (OBX) and am trying to decide what to drink. It's going to be a summery mood, but not actually summer. I am not a fan of hefeweizen (and similar) - any suggestions? When I was in college (many, many years ago) I used to love Pete's Summer Ale. Sadly it's discontinued. (My normal "go to" beer is Dogfish Head 60 minute.)


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4-04-2009 @1:07PM sf99 said... Claiming that craft beer is a passing fad is like claiming the same of fine wine. In ten or twenty years, are people like me who actually enjoy unique and flavorful beer just going to happily switch back to the cheap and tasteless BMC lagers?

The biggest brewery in the United States is a craft brewer: Sam Adams. Followed by another craft brewer: Sierra Nevada. Followed by Yuengling, who at least seem to care about taste and quality, even if they're not as adventurous as some of my favorite brewers.

See, before Prohibition, all beer was craft beer. It actually tasted like something, and quality mattered. It never stopped being this way in Europe, where you could always buy ales, lagers, porters, stouts, pale ales, India pale ales, bocks, and a number of other styles. But after Prohibition, the only survivors were the very biggest breweries, and they had to compete on volume by making a product that was inoffensive to the greatest number of people (read: flavorless). After several decades of having basically only one kind of beer produced in the US, people got tired of it, and craft breweries started to pop up, largely on the incredible strength of Sam Adams. And now, the untold thousands of different craft beers in this country mostly exist in harmony, because they're niche products.

To say that a craft beer's drinkers will move around from product to product in a way that prevents profitable operation of the brewery shows a poor understanding of beer consumers and the craft beer market especially. For example, many craft beer drinkers like, say, hops. They are likely to gravitate towards breweries that make fantastic hoppy beers, like Bell's or Sierra Nevada. Unless another brewery comes along that blow those guys out of the water on flavor and/or price, why would the drinker switch? And how would that other brewery manage to be SO much better, despite having to use all the same ingredients?

It just seems like a very poorly-considered opinion. I don't comment on posts about fine food because I don't know anything about it... perhaps BraH would be well served to do the same for beer.
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4-05-2009 @10:18AM bigsmashzone said... PBR, Stroh's and Old Milwaukee all have a home in my fridge. http://www.mp3salem.com/
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