BEER DRINKERS OPINIONS REQUEST

I like shock-top with a nice slice of orange. I just felt compelled to say that based on the comments.
 
steveno said:
I drank Lowenbrau when I was in Germany. when I got out i found that a bar in Hastings had it so I was happy as hell until I drank it. it tasted like **** and I looked at the fine print on the label that it was made under license at some brewery in Canada. the recipe really got messed up once it left Munich.

I do remember a Danish bier called Tuborg and it was pretty good.
Click to expand...


I believe the LB brewed in Germany is not the same as that made elsewhere, or so I have read. I haven't had any of it in many years. These days, my favorite brand is whatever's on sale at the local Wal-Mart or H-E-B. At my age it all tastes pretty much the same.
 
DWalt said:
Onomea said:
I think mixing beer with lemonade is called a "shandy," and is primarily a ladies' drink in the UK. It's been around a long time.

Yes, Shandy is a mixture of beer or ale with lemonade (I suppose ginger ale or 7-Up would also work), and of British origin. I have understood it was a popular drink on Safari. Back in the late 1960s, I drank it quite a bit, and thought it a good refresher in hot weather. I used approximately half beer and half lemonade made from frozen concentrate. Don't knock it unless you've tried it, as it's pretty good once you get used to it.
Click to expand...

As for drinks on safari, per Robert Ruark's Horn of the Hunter, gin. But that was only after getting back to camp after the day's hunting. Hmm. I don't recall how he drank it...

(And, judging by the photos, I think Arik is having entirely too much fun.)
Click to expand...
 
DWalt said:
No way I would go to Juarez or any other border town today. I have a second home east of Del Rio, but haven't been across to Cd. Acuna for at least 8 years, since the Narcos took over everything. Last time I was there, downtown Acuna was just a ghost town, and most every business there was closed down. Things were much different 20 years ago. I think I have seen Chihuahua beer, but not recently, and never consumed any. I think it had a locomotive on the label. There are quite a few Mexican brands not imported into the US.
Click to expand...

If Chihuahua beer had a locomotive on the label, the lighting was too dark and my vision too blurred to see it.

When I was stationed in Thule, Greenland, we could get Tuborg cheap at the club. Really great beer.

Juarez is a tragedy: they probably have more murders than the entire state of Texas. A real pity; it used to be a really nice place to go. When we first got here in '69 ( from RVN), I was from Connecticut and my wife from northern Minnesota; that winter we had 65 days of company, and we spent many of those nights in Juarez; wonderful restaurants and bars; Martino's Restaurant was the finest for many miles around. I used to buy Mexican Cokes, Mexican limes and Mexican rum and still couldn't duplicate the Mexican Cuba Libres; I think the Mexican ice had something to do with the different flavor. I haven't been over there in 11 years and the place is a ghost town now. Don't think it will ever come back. I have the memories, though.
 
I checked on the Chihuahua beer label. I am right -- it does have a drawing of an old steam locomotive on the label, but the label does not look the same as I remembered. Maybe it's a newer design. Lots of related merchandise is listed on eBay which shows the label.
 
Like many beer drinkers I have strong preferences. But to tell the truth, there are times I can hardly tell the difference after the first 6 pack or so.

Some people talk about "12-packs", but I prefer to think of those as a "support group".

24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not! This is a sign!

As Benjamin Franklin once said, beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
 
I know plenty of people who jump on the latest trendy idea they hear or read about. They remind me of schools of fish darting back and forth together following some unknown leader.
Unfortunately they are allowed to vote too.
 
Last edited:
Arik said:
If beer is supposed to taste like Bud them all hope is lost. Too bad this is what passes as beer in the states.
Click to expand...

I'm curious, do you find it hard to type with yer little finger in the air?:D

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... ;);)
 
kantuck said:

I'm curious, do you find it hard to type with yer little finger in the air?:D

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... ;);)
Click to expand...
No not really. I find it to be a useless apendege anyway so I try to keep it out of the way! :D

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.
 
Last edited:
Way back in my 'teen years, I made home brew using one can of malt extract (is that stuff made any more?), 5 lbs of sugar, and 5 gallons of water (plus baker's yeast) in a 10 gallon glazed clay crock with a cloth stretched over the top to keep the bugs out. I had a bottle capping machine, and put it into beer and soda bottles. When I figured out the tricks after a few batches, it was actually pretty good beer. Except you had to pour the beer out slowly into a glass to drink it to keep the settled sludge in the bottle.

My only problem was that I bottled my first batch too soon, before the fermentation had slowed down enough, and all the bottles blew up, and I had a basement full of suds.

Now, if i could find some malt extract, I am inspired to try it again. It would probably be better than Corona.
-------------------------------------
This is exactly the malt extract I used. Appears to be one of those things which is no longer made, at least that brand: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-BLU...696?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d58d5bf60
 
Last edited:
That brand may not be but extract is still made and of just about anything including hops. There are brewing kits you can buy that are all extract
 
Last edited:
Yes, I saw it. eBay is full of it, but pretty pricey. Malt extract used to be a standard supermarket item. I understand that back in the day, it was a common ingredient for mixing into baby formula and had a few other non-home brew uses. And at that time it was very cheap. Not so now. It was a thick dark syrup, sort of like Molasses.
 
South Tejas is full of home brewers and the stores that supply them. Malt extract is hardly the unobtainium you imagine it to be. More costly than it was when you bought it at piggly wiggly in the dim distant past? Sure, what isn't?
 
In reference to my postings #73 and #84, I was going by the Pabst HQ(?) in San Antonio near my house this morning, and took a picture of Pabst's corporate headquarters. It's in a strip office center and what is shown is about all there is to see.

Pabst1_zpstbvamm1d.jpg
 
Way back in my college days at Arizona State, there was a pub located on Apache Boulevard in Tempe called the Little Brown Jug. I don't know if it's still there or not. At any rate, they served a "beertini" which was a beer with a green stuffed olive in it. The theory being that you drank the beer to get to the olive, and when you finished with that, the salty taste made you want another beer. It must have worked, as they sold a LOT of them.

Every now and then, I enjoy a beertini, but as I really like green stuffed olives, I put two queen-sized specimens in there. Done properly (shaking the brine off the olives before placing them in the beer), there is little or no effect on the taste of the beer, unlike the heathen practice of squeezing a lime wedge into the beer, which makes it taste like cold horse ****.

It's fun to reward yourself with a couple of tasty olives when you finish your beer. It's a great palate refresher - and it does make you want another round!

John

P.S. Two stuffed green olives in a highball glass of Bombay Sapphire on the rocks makes the PERFECT Martini. It's my favorite formula.
 
Last edited:
I drink mainly good ales, which only have 4 ingredients, 1)malted barley, 2) hops 3) yeast 4)water..

Peoples tastes vary in beer just like they do in choices of spouses/women..... I have good friends who absolutely love the different light beers and others who only drink Bud... I salute the many good styles of beer/ale that brewers offer us now, and generally I urge folks to try different varieties....there are a lot of great ones out there.

I fear by arguing points asserted in one post above, that I could cause thread drift..... but here goes anyway......

On the subject of GMO crops........ every grain that is grown now on the face of this earth is Genetically Modified... with the hybridization occurring naturally or at the hands of man..........what used to take years and even decades to accomplish by plant breeders can now occur much more quickly, and super desirable traits such as increased levels of vitamins, sugars and even proteins can be crafted into diverse crops fairly quickly....... I urge you to research a type of grain called Golden Rice.. which is a GMO crop............

A plant breeder/scientist recently said something I'll never forget....... "The only people who are against GMO crops, are those whose children will not starve or develop certain diseases if they do not eat them"...
 
The only way I can see putting olives in beer is if you are drinking the rot gut water-like stuff (out of respect, I won't say what I call it here!) - but, olives in a good beer is ludicrous... personally, I prefer Guinness Stout, Dunkels, most imports, Shiner Bach, Craft Beers, but nothing too hoppy like the IPAs. So, no you are not crazy, nor have you missed anything (other than being able to imbibe!) - I heard about the salt trick a long time ago and it really does work! By the way, the ONLY thing I've ever put in my beer is a wedge of lime in a good Corona or similar beer.
 
When I was a grocer in KS years ago we sold a case a week of Blue Ribbon to home brewers-anywhere there's some German ethnics there's people making beer-real beer. i can buy anything need to make beer @ Liquor Barn's in Lexington,KY but don't cause I like lots of the other stuff(not all!!) that just got sacked here. I'm into a Black crown Bud right now as it's my "so-called Miller Time", having got my chores done.
Don't worry i'm a one shot brewski man now days.
I buy wine supplies from a place on the web that also sells beer equipment,ingredients, nothing hard to get and never has been on that front.
Since we have a resident beer expert(I mean that in a proper way-with respect!), i have this question-

When I was a kid in KS we had 3.2% alc beer at taverns. At a liquor store you could buy what we called strong beer which was 5-6% and in MO nearby the strong beer was in taverns as in some other states where content used to vary by license or day of week concerns.
Beer I see now is often less than the 5-6% I saw back then. Understand, I'm in KY now, not KS, and only a handful of counties even allow beer sales.
Why has alcohol % changed over the years? Is it because the beer is "greener", i.e. aged less time or what?
To the OP-on a serious note my BIL, the one I don't speak to- he is a pill head and a racist and not having my respect in any way BUT, a serious BUT!-he has cancer & has spent the past several weeks trying to be treated medically(been to a bunch of hospitals all over the place) and has been turned away and generally treated badly -we think "they see" the **** in his system, meaning oxy, you name it and are leary of treating him. he is now finally on chemo this week. Sad truth about being one of those types I guess?
 
Last edited:
"When I was a kid in KS we had 3.2% alc beer at taverns. At a liquor store you could buy what we called strong beer which was 5-6% and in MO nearby the strong beer was in taverns as in some other states where content used to vary by license or day of week concerns."


Regarding 3.2% alcohol beer, that was for the under-21 college kids. When I was growing up in Ohio, the law there was that at 18, you could legally buy 3.2% beer. You had to be 21 to buy the "High-Power" beer, which was supposedly about 5% alcohol content. In longnecks, 3.2% beer had red caps, "High-Power" beer had blue caps. I imagine that law no longer exists.
 
DWalt said:
"People put lime in Corona because it is skunky, pee-tasting swill, not that I have an opinion. "

Back in the 1990-92 period I was working and living in Laredo, TX. For those of you who know little about that part of the world, Laredo is the closest you can get to living in Mexico without leaving the USA, and that is no exaggeration by any means, then or now. I came to know a prominent local businessman well who was a Mexican national, lived across the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo, but had extensive business interests and real estate holdings on both sides of the border. He told me once that he always thought it very strange that Corona beer became so popular in the US, especially among the "Yuppies." That was because in Mexico, Corona was considered as the drink of only the very lowest classes of Mexican society, and no one other than the humblest peon would even think of buying it, let alone drinking it. I guess that shows the power of good marketing and advertising.
Click to expand...
I've never lived in your neck of the woods but after years of fly & drive vacations to Mexico and several extensive MC trips there covering pretty much all of Mexico, I rarely see Corona served down there other than in the main tourist areas like Cancun,etc.. I agree with ops above that it's swill tasting and needs the lime! OTOH, Mexican beers have much to offer , even those other beers from Modela, a huge corporation at that. Beers like wine IMO, if you like it that's the one for you.
 
DWalt said:
No way I would go to Juarez or any other border town today. I have a second home east of Del Rio, but haven't been across to Cd. Acuna for at least 8 years, since the Narcos took over everything. Last time I was there, downtown Acuna was just a ghost town, and most every business there was closed down. Things were much different 20 years ago. I think I have seen Chihuahua beer, but not recently, and never consumed any. I think it had a locomotive on the label. There are quite a few Mexican brands not imported into the US.
Click to expand...
Last MC trip down to Mexico in 2012, I was "importing" some of those non-imported Mexican beers and at the Eagle Pass crossing from Piedras Negras I was sent to the Texas alcohol shack to pay the tax on my brews. Each btl got a little sticker as I broiled in the sun. One of those necessary evils in life?:rolleyes:
 
DWalt said:
"When I was a kid in KS we had 3.2% alc beer at taverns. At a liquor store you could buy what we called strong beer which was 5-6% and in MO nearby the strong beer was in taverns as in some other states where content used to vary by license or day of week concerns."


Regarding 3.2% alcohol beer, that was for the under-21 college kids. When I was growing up in Ohio, the law there was that at 18, you could legally buy 3.2% beer. You had to be 21 to buy the "High-Power" beer, which was supposedly about 5% alcohol content. In longnecks, 3.2% beer had red caps, "High-Power" beer had blue caps. I imagine that law no longer exists.
Click to expand...
All taverns were the same when I lived in KS(until 1973)-3.2% beer. All liqour stores had strong beer. States like MN have more complex laws with on/off sales. My real question stays as to why the alcohol% in beer has changed in recent years? I don't mean craft beers which are obviously brewed for creative flavor,etc., not mass production.
Yingling I like & can buy in OH when up there-wally has it on the cheap. The "who's a/the distributor" laws were tested in our last lawmaker festival. The big guys won out so beer & wine are still controlled by the few big guys , not a chance for the craft brewer as yet.
 
kantuck said:
My real question stays as to why the alcohol% in beer has changed in recent years?
Click to expand...

ABV changes as tastes change. Some craft brews are intentionally brewed to be very strong, going all the way up to >10%. Other crafts are in a more normal range of 4.5-5.5%. Craft brewers are leading the way in taste, style and ABV. The big corporate brewers try to play catch up, rebranding vaguely altered versions of their fizzy yellow stuff in fancy bottles ala Bud Black Crown.
 
chaparrito said:
ABV changes as tastes change. Some craft brews are intentionally brewed to be very strong, going all the way up to >10%. Other crafts are in a more normal range of 4.5-5.5%. Craft brewers are leading the way in taste, style and ABV. The big corporate brewers try to play catch up, rebranding vaguely altered versions of their fizzy yellow stuff in fancy bottles ala Bud Black Crown.
Click to expand...

Yep. I have seen a few exotics closer to 40%... But I ain't paying around $100 for one 12 oz beer.


Jeebus, 65% beer? Unusual ways extreme craft brewers are pushing beer boundaries | Fox News
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Puller
Teetotalers
2 3
Replies
71
Views
13K
Rustyt1953
Rustyt1953
walkin jack
How did you meet your signifigant other?
2 3
Replies
78
Views
3K
straightshooter1
straightshooter1
Faulkner
Mayhem in the Arkansas River valley
2
Replies
42
Views
2K
Faulkner
Faulkner
model70hunter
Red Beer.
Replies
11
Views
1K
model70hunter
model70hunter
B
The Most Expensive Colt I Ever Traded.
Replies
16
Views
825
brucev
B

Latest posts

Back
Top