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?
Beer-drinking European living in 'Murica here. For certain styles, the US has fantastic beers available. In particular IPAs (which don’t always have to be mega hoppy!), pale ales, pilsners, amber ales, and stouts. Plenty of great choices to be found here, if you discover the right breweries. That’s key, because there are a lot breweries with imo questionable taste.
What’s harder to find are good beers of other styles, such as Belgian or German beers. US breweries try, sometimes, but they aren’t succeeding.
That’s kinda the difference - local specialties mostly can’t be beaten on their own turf. Also, in America you’ve got to actually seek out the good stuff and go local, the InBev stuff is meticulously targeted at swine with no taste.
I’m particularly fond of Belgian beers and my partner is fond of German beers. They’re of course not as good in America as the real thing, but there are definitely some solid options. In fact that’s what I will say is nice about American beers: you can find something decent of any style of beer you can imagine, and some truly excellent ones in a handful of styles as you mentioned already.
The Belgian and German styles are largely ignored by the national breweries, but a lot of more local or regional microbreweries are crushing it when it comes to them.
I’m curious what they have available over there. Most of our microbreweries don’t reach outside of their own state, let alone internationally.
I’m confident that we have some brews that could go head to head with their best, and I bet they have some that could compete with our worst.
There should be a beer equivalent to the movie “Bottle Shock”
Idk who you talked to, but I think most European beer enthusiasts would agree that a lot of American beers are awesome. Especially what you mentioned: various IPAs and Stouts, you guys started the modern interpretation of those styles.
Maybe someone who thinks only lagers are legit beer and everything else is “hipster crap”. I’ve met some people with those opinions.
Not a European, but a well traveled person who has drunk beers in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Botswana, Senegal, UK, Poland, China, and the UK, as well as drunk beers from Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic etc, I stopped drinking beer when I drunk American beer. Sure, there are some good microbrews, but holy moly, there are some questionable things that pass for beer in America.
American beer that is sold in Europe? All the ones I tried, yeah, absolutly.
And most of that microbrew shit doesn’t even count as beer under the Reinheitsgebot.
To be fair the Bavarian Purity law is a shockingly awful standard to apply to what should be considered beer. Using that silly standard would eliminate a tremendous amount of great beer simply because it didn’t meet one aristocrat’s measure of what should be in beer.
Yes but have you been to Europe? It’s a giant ball of idiosyncrasies created by some old dudes four or five hundred years ago. And that’s why we love it 😁.
Do not question the sanity of this.
Heresy! Burn the heathen!
As a German beer drinker I can say: fuck the Reinheitsgebot. It’s just an old law to patronize the citizen. It’s not about protection against chemicals, just take look at Radler (Beer mixed with lemon soda) for example, plenty of artificial sweeteners and E additives are allowed.
Belgium has a wonderful selection of beers of different flavors. If somebody doesn’t want to taste a nice cherry beer, don’t do it. I don’t need an authority to watch over the beer I drink.
You don’t even have to go as far as Europe. Canadians and Mexicans also think of American beer as water+.
There’s almost no good beer in Mexico
I wouldn’t know, I’ve never had Mexican beer. I just know my Mexican friends here in Canada love our beer and agree that American beer is just water with extra steps.
Then I would suggest actually trying American beer. Judging American beer by only trying BudMillerCoors would be like judging Canadian beer only trying Labatt’s or judging Canadian donuts by only trying Timbits AFTER the Burger King takeover.
Who says I haven’t tried American craft beer. I’m half American, dawg.
The opinion you previously gave is proof that it is an uninformed opinion.
American. I visit Germany once every few years. Each time, I see American beer get better and better. I think, this time when I visit Germany I’ll finally be able to say “Yes, you do beer incredibly well, but American beer has gotten much better, come visit me, I can’t wait to show you.”
I have one sip of German beer and all my hopes and dreams are shattered. We cannot make a beer as good as Kölsch, it seems. Tbf there’s cheap German beers that taste like swill, but it isn’t hard to find just amazing Kölsch in Köln.
Really? I’ve had lots of excellent Kolsch in USA . Try Rosenstadt in Portland for example.
I think this brings up another good point- some states do MUCH better than others. From what I’ve seen, the best beers come from the West Coast (especially the Northwest), the Mountain West, Midwest, and Northeast.
Someone here said they hated the beers in Texas and yea, like don’t expect a great authentic taco scene in North Dakota. The worst beer I’ve ever had was from Florida.
Part of that probably has to do with agriculture. A substantial share of the world hop supply is grown in the Willamette Valley.
75% in fact!
Full disclosure, I’m a Seattle born beer enjoyed so I mainly drink microbrews, or what some folks have told me is “fancy beer”.
My parents moved to the PNW from California in the 80s, and they were amazed at the sheer amount of options. Back then it really was just Bud, Coors, and PBR, but even back then the microbrew scene was budding in Portland and Seattle. My dad would tell me how when they would go back to visit old friends in California, it was either amazing wine of shit beer. People’s minds were blown when they would bring some stuff down from up north to the party.
Originally from the PNW as well! I have chosen “fancy beer” most of my life. When I was younger and looking to get trashed, the higher ABV and better flavor made due a good bargain. Now that I don’t really tend to get trashed, I like to drink “fancy beer” because I enjoy the flavor still.
A little tip, if you still live in the area:
If you homebrew and have soda kegs, February is about the optimal time for “no-chill” brewing. Just rack the hot wort into a corney keg, seal, and flip it to ensure pasteurization. After letting it sit for a few mins to become sterile, flip back upright and put outside in the cold (ideally in a bit of snow if available) and you get a bit of a cold crash while still not needing to use a chiller.
Personally, I’ve had plenty of good American Kolsches
I recently chatted with someone at a party who said “no, all American beers are bad” including microbrewery beers.
That person has not tried “all” American beers. So their view can be safely disregarded IMO.
I tried a Budweiser once. Once was enough.
I’ve not tasted many American beers so I could not tell if they all taste like crap, and I also do not drink at all anymore. But being French, I can say that our Belgian neighbors have some exceptionally good beers, as well as Germans do. I loved a few of those, back then. But then they may also be a tad too… tasty for an uninitiated palate ;)
I’m pretty confident there must some local breweries in a few US places that can make quality beer too, the issue would then mostly be to find enough customers willing to drink it because it’s no use to make the best beer ever if most your customers prefer Budweiser or stuff like that.
Yes. There are exceptions, but most American beer usually fall into ine of two categories:
- Water.
- Infused with a bunch of stuff that shouldn’t be anywhere near beer, in an effort to have it not taste like water.
At least these are the common denominators for most well known beers.
Exceptions, off the top of my head:
Blue Moon
Shiner Boch
Some weird local brew I stumbled across in Galveston
While it doesn’t hold a lot of flavor, I do enjoy Miller now and then.When asking the waiter for a local craft beer, got pretty decent ones.
Stuff like Miller like is just a less sugary alternative to cokeà or to pretend your drinking during a business event
I live in Europe, but was an expert taste panelist at New Belgium Brewing in the US when I lived there.
Lefthand Milk Stout Nitro is a great beer.
There’s a lot of good beer all over the world (okay, much of it anyway). Quality has a LOT more to do with freshness, cleanliness, and lack of dissolved oxygen in the beer. You can also find bad beer most anywhere. Don’t let someone making silly blanket statement get ya down.
I will just go ahead and contradict myself by making a blanket statement that the low end of food is just better in most of the EU cuz of how much stricter the rules are. From McDonald’s to the grocery store, you kinda can’t get “terrible” food.
Some are okay-ish. But there is nothing compared to european beer. German especially.
I’m a big fan of Blue Moon for a witbier.
