Ask Lemmy

Generic American beer sucks. Craft American beer is fucking awesome.

I experienced the same in Australia when I visited so assume it's probably the same most places.

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.

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.

Struggled to find beer that I like in usa- I've not been there much though.

It's increasingly hard here though (UK).

Shitty lager, or hipster-grapefruit-jizz or guiness is the normal choice in most pubs, and even in many so called "real ale" pubs, those of them still left. A decent pint of bitter is hen's teeth these days. I guess fashions change and there's no money in old style beers that I prefer. You can't argue with the bottom line.

I find shitty lager in US is not as nice as shitty european lager - it just seems to have an odd taste - but it's not what i want to drink.. I guess german/czech lager is about as good as it gets, for lager/pils - but still not very flavourful.

Belgium is good, but not really for a session beer. It's for a different type of drinking.

Yes, I've been to quite some micro breweries in the US and most of just taste so flat. It kinda seems like all money went to creating a nice looking brewery and barely anything is invested in the craftsmanship.

The best beer I had in the US is from Ommegang Brewery, they make amazing stuff. I've had other good stuff too, it's definitely there, it just seems there's a load of commercial "microbreweries" that are just selling a story instead of decent beer

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.

Im not sure about other countries but something to take note of is that American 'light' beers are light flavour, not ABV%.
In Australia a 'light' beer is usually around 3.5% ABV, but intended to taste like normal beer (i say intended because usually they taste more watery).

So i personally think a bit of the hate on American beers if that they seem to be fans of the 'light' flavours more, (ie prevalence of Bud light, Miller Lite, etc.) and they generally taste a lot like soda water to the non-american beer drinker that is used to a lot more body and/or bitterness.

Not a European, but i don’t buy that. American mass-produced beers are bad. That used to be all beers, but it’s not anymore. American microbrews have come a long way and frequently win awards, including international awards. The only objective evidence shows good American beers are good.

I think it’s down to history, wounded pride or self-defensiveness, and as someone else mentioned: the aged swill you get from “imports” may not be good.

Personally, I think German beer is awful, and quite a few American microbrews do German styles so much better. But I’m adult enough to understand I’ve never been to Germany and that what we get for imports may not be their best or freshest. I’m willing to give German brewers the benefit of the doubt, despite what I’ve experienced from them

I would question your friend on what they are drinking and where.

The easiest to find Australian beer in the US is Fosters. But go to Australia and few people there actually drink it because it's not good and there are so many better options.

I once traveled to the UK and had a Newcastle Brown straight from the tap and it was delicious. Went back home to the US and picked up some bottles, it was old and tasted like barely a shadow of the fresh UK stuff.

If I judged Australia or UK beers on what I can find easily in the US, I would also think their beers are ass.

So if he is trying only what he can get in his country, 1) it's probably old and 2) it's rarely the "best" a country has to offer.

European here. Germans just think their beer is the best in the world and if you're not doing it like them, you're not doing it right.

Don't get me wrong, the standards Germans apply to their beer production means that it's rare to get a terrible beer there, but IMO it's also not that innovative and the range of styles is fairly limited. There is a ton of choice in the US both in terms of breweries and styles. The variation means you get more duds but also more excellent beers.

Tried different IPA from Belgium and Netherlands as sugested by coworkers and frienda and I fucking hate it. It taste like diluted beer. If you get the chance try Icnusa non filtered, IMO best beer ever. Also I dunno if it's sold outside Italy, have not seen it in other countries

One thing to note is that there are a lot of bad American beers in small and mid-sized cities. Basically what happened is that in the 2010s it became trendy to go to a brewery with a food truck and just hang out. As a result a ton of "breweries" opened that were more or less selling the experience, with a handful of low effort trendy selections to serve as a hook.

That doesn't mean there aren't good beers though. America is the land of people who do their own thing, often regardless of social norms and established conventions. There's a lot of great beers across a broad range of categories, it just takes a bit of digging.

As a sidenote a lot of these D tier breweries are closing and/or rebranding. Changing consumer sentiment means merely being a craft brewery is no longer a hook, while rising real estate costs make the entire endeavor more expensive. The breweries in shitty locations tend to close. The ones in good locations tend to massively reduce their own output, while offering a variety of local alcohol and expanded food options.

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.

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.

American here: American Light Lagers, like those of the BMC brands, are both one of the hardest styles to brew well and one of the worst crimes ever committed against brewery. They're hard to brew because there is so little flavor that the slightest off-taste can ruin a batch. That's also the reason that they are so terrible; they are little more than ethanol delivery systems that have enough malt proteins to sometimes have a head.

Want to get fucked up without tasting much? They're probably the next best choice after a very neutral vodka. If you have interest in anything beyond intoxication, like actually enjoying the beverage, then, pretty much any other American or European style is a better choice.

The big US and Canadian brands all taste like ass but there's thousands of small breweries that make very yummy nectar. Personally I prefer German and Belgian brews.