Arik
Member
No not really. I find it to be a useless apendege anyway so I try to keep it out of the way!
I'm curious, do you find it hard to type with yer little finger in the air?
The napkins are a waste of trees. I dislike the notion of "finding them" each time I sit my bottle down and thus you know what I think of beer glasses too.
Not a green olive fan-in or out of beer.
On the flavored beer thing- if it had no flavor I'd likely not drink it so why the fuss over adding stuff? Ingredients go into everything we eat or drink, silly boys.
I like the Michelob Cactus Lime beer but not the Bud lime. The Cactus version makes a decent Beer Grita but a lime margarita made the right way is better IMO. I'm generally into some various Mexican beers, XXX's, Modela Especiale & several others they do, Pacifico, (not a Corona fan either) and more . The Mexican's learned how to do it me thinks.
I bought a 18 pk of the newer Bud Black Crown @ last wally trip and it's a definitely great beer!
Instructions: 20-25 minutes in freezer, pop one and enjoy! Has a taste with much more interest than Yingling-another USA beer I like.
I liked Pearl on tap when I was a pro pitch player @ the Park Inn Exilir back in my Topeka, KS days...
On a slightly more serious note. The reason I say that about American macro brews is because it is a low grade beer like liquid. I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings or tell you what to drink and what you like. Do whatever makes you happy. But if you look at the history of beer and beer in the US you'd see what I mean.
The same beers you drink today were completely different prior to ww2 and prohibition. The ingredients were different and often better. Prohibition put a huge dent in the US beer business. Very few companies survived. The came ww2 and rationing. Beer manufacturers started substituting ingredients. Corn was added to replace barley, after all you still need sugar to make alcohol. A whole post ww2 generation grew up assuming that that is what beer should taste like and beer companies saw no reason to change. This went on with every generation following. Beer assumed to be this yellow liquid that had to be drank extemely cold to kill the taste and it would go bad/become skunky if not consumed within a few months.
Here's what goes into many US mass produced beers
-GMO corn
-MSG
-Propylene Glycol (an ingredient found in anti-freeze)
-Calcium Disodium EDTA (made from formaldehyde, sodium cayanide, and Ethylenediamine)
-Many different types of sulfites and anti-microbial preservatives (linked to allergies and asthma)
-Natural Flavors (can come from anything "natural")
-High Fructose Corn Syrup
-GMO Sugars – Dextrose, Corn Syrup
-Caramel Coloring (Class III or IV made from ammonia and classified as a carcinogen)
-FD&C Blue 1 (Made from petroleum)
-FD&C Red 40 (Made from petroleum)
-FD&C Yellow 5 (Made from petroleum)
-Insect-Based Dyes: carmine derived from cochineal insects to color their beer.
-Animal Based Clarifiers: Findings include isinglass (dried fish bladder), gelatin (from skin, connective tissue, and bones), and casein (found in milk)
-Foam Control: Used for head retention; (glyceryl monostearate and pepsin are both potentially derived from animals)
-BPA (Bisphenol A is a component in many can liners and it may leach into the beer. BPA can mimic the female hormone estrogen and may affect sperm count, and other organ functions.)
-Carrageenan (linked to inflammation in digestive system, IBS and considered a carcinogen in some circumstances)
Newcastle, a UK brand, confessed to using one of the most controversial food additives. Toasted barley is usually what gives beer its golden or deep brown color, however in this case, Newcastle beer is also colored artificially with caramel color. This caramel coloring is manufactured by heating ammonia and sulfites under high pressure, which creating carcinogenic compounds.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (Guinness – unable to provide an affidavit for non-GMO proof)
Corn syrup (Miller Light, Coors, Corona, Fosters, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Red Stripe)
Dextrose (Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch Light, Michelob Ultra)
Corn (Red Stripe, Miller Coors Brand, Anheuser-Busch Brands)
None of that is beer.
Where as actual beer is nothing more than barley, hops, yeast and water. Other ingredients can be added but this is the base for all beers from pilzners to heavy quad ales. The differences come from the type of barley, if it was toasted, the temp of the water into which the barley is added. Higher temps release different enzymes. How much and type of hops and of course the yeast. As a living organism yeast gives of it own flavor when converting sugar into alcohol. There are millions of strains, including wild, (if you put a bowl of water and batley outside you will get fermentation just from the yeast found floating in the air) of yeast and you can make a beer that smells and has a taste of say an orange without ever putting an orange near the brew. Bottom and top fermentation also changes flavor along with the temp in which the final product is stores while the yeast is still actively converting sugar to alcohol. The higher the temp the more active the yeast is
The only way this type of beer goes bad is if something else got inside the fermentation. Say another type of yeast that didn't vibe to well with the host yeast. Or the temp was too low or too high. Otherwise many beers can actually be aged for months and even years. Like liquor, the ingredients will mellow out and change taste over time.
Basically what mass production companies are doing is the equivalent of putting a body kit on a Fiero and calling it a Ferrari or making tofu patty and calling it a burger.
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