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From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.wines
Subject: A (slight) defense of major American beers
Message-ID: <384@opus.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Apr-84 20:22:22 EST
Article-I.D.: opus.384
Posted: Thu Apr 19 20:22:22 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Apr-84 01:23:54 EST
Organization: NBI, Boulder
Lines: 24

It's popular, even stylish, to take potshots at the major American brewers,
saying that what they produce is insipid, off, tastes like h*rs*p*ss, etc.
I succumb and do that from time to time.  It would make a lot more sense if
we condemned them for what's really wrong:
	They all taste the same.
Yes, there are minor differences, but the average beer drinker won't know a
Schlitz from an Oly from a Bud unless he sees the container.  The
differences and preferences are largely developed from intense advertising
aimed at creating brand loyalty.

However, most of the beers are competently made, and it takes a lot of care
to produce consistent beer.  For example, even to professional tasters and
connoisseurs, Budweiser is regarded as quite a good beer.  It has the right
balance of malt vs bitterness, reasonable body (for its type!), etc.  But
then the same brewer produces several minor variations on the same light
lager theme, and it's boring.  It's as if all you could get at any of the
lunch places in town were hamburgers - don't say they don't make good
hamburgers just because they all make the same thing.  Criticize the fact
that nobody makes pizza or tacos.  Where are the porters and stouts, honest
dark beers, or specialties, coming out of the major US breweries?  Quite
literally, there aren't any.
-- 
...Are you making this up as you go along?		Dick Dunn
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