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Great (Beer) Replacement

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Part of it is social - English-style beverages were 'not in fashion' after the Revolution and the War of 1812, up to - maybe- WW2, and English-style beverages were typically served in taverns and pubs where females of good standing did not dare go.

A German-style beergarten, with lots of outdoor-seating, music, greenery and food service, would be more acceptable, being a place an entire family could safely go and be entertained while father (and mother, discreetly) had a pint or two.

Also there was a very large German, Austrian and Czech population in the US, so German food and culture were pretty commonly known and accepted (with the exception of 1914-18).

Another point is that German breweries really took off after the introduction of pilsner-style beers. They were lighter, crisper and (I think) stored well, and the new style was a hit in the US. Prohibition - which banned sale, not consumption - is what crippled and closed almost all of the breweries after 1920. The repeal in 1933 not only helped lift the economy out of the Depression but good internal transportation infrastructure, and the enormous size of the internal market, helped establish a small number of really large brewing companies like Anheuser-Busch.
 
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Jopa79 said:
The winter is slowly turning into spring. We are going to open the "summer cottage season" next week. I think, I'm going to have some porter. Any good recommendations regarding fine brands?
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Olut.jpg


Since nobody bothered to give any recommendations, I made my own choice:D
 
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Barsoom said:
Yeah, probably. Though, why didn't they use their old recipes?
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Here's an explanation.

www.theatlantic.com

Why Is American Beer So Bland?

Blame Prohibitionists, German immigrants, and factory workers who just wanted to drink during their lunch break.
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com

In summary: Americans (have been forced to) cultivated a taste for crappy beer for over a century.
* Premise: strong taste was associated with alcoholic strength.
* German immigrants bring lager, light hopped beer becomes widespread .
* American capitalism is unforgiving, unions weak. So workers couldn't dare drink tastier stuff at lunch or they'd risk getting fired for drunkenness. So they got opted for lighter beers and got used to it.
* Brewers then diluted it further to escape the ire of the Puritanical Temperance movement at end of 19th Century ("We swear beer is not liquor! It's a soft drink!").
* Then Prohibition kicks in and Americans forget how beer tastes for over a decade.
* After prohibition, brewers revived the blander end of their old recipes, to ease the transition to customers not used to strong tastes (but also to avoid provoking local county prohibitions).
* Then WWII grain restrictions prevent brewing of high hopped strong beers. Generation of GIs learn to drink bland beer.
* Then post-war consolidation of the industry.
* Then the health fads of the 1970s makes utter tastelessness not only acceptable, but desirable.

All pushing in the direction towards watery, bland piss-like beer.
 
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Whenever I go pubbing, I always go for whatever craft beers are on selection.

That said, my beer preferences usually depend on the season (e.g. I drink mostly lagers during spring & summer and ales during autumn & winter).

Considering how prevalent craft beers and microbrewing is becoming, I believe we're all seeing a 2nd Great Beer Replacement unfolding before our eyes.
 
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In the US, alcohol consumption is dropping, and has been for many years, along with soft drinks like Pepsi and Coca Cola.

So the Great Beer Replacement is just that - beer and hard liquor and sodas are being replaced by wine, energy drinks, coffee and bottled water.

(Someone can check me on this - it might be one of those fact that 'everybody knows'.)
 
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Director said:
In the US, alcohol consumption is dropping, and has been for many years, along with soft drinks like Pepsi and Coca Cola.

So the Great Beer Replacement is just that - beer and hard liquor and sodas are being replaced by wine, energy drinks, coffee and bottled water.

(Someone can check me on this - it might be one of those fact that 'everybody knows'.)
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Checks out. The peaks of alcohol consumption were in the 1900s and 1980s (at around 10L of ethanol per person per year).

1648423687981.png


In addition to the general trend towards less alcoholic consumption there has been a significant movement away from spirits in the 1980s and 90s, a trend that has reversed in the last 20 years (alcopops?) and a smaller but more continuous trend away from beer and to wine for the last 40 years.

For more details link
 
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Barsoom said:
It's a good example but a crap beer. It's like a McDonalds hamburger, too sweet and full of unhealthy additives.
Grolsch is both a good example and an excellent beer.

We've had our arguments before but this one is from the heart.
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Heineken isn't bad, it's like Stella Artois, but they lacked the marketing genious of late Freddy Heineken. IMHO Grolsch, Jupiler and Brand aren't bad. I actually like Hertog Jan, but Amstel, Maes or do you remember Oranjeboom.
I'm sorry I grew up in the Dutch part of Brabant very close to Belgium, so yes I got influenced by both brewing worlds. OTOH I prefer Pilseners from Austria and Czechia. for instance I like Pilsener Urquell, Gösser and Zipfer.
 
Ruwaard said:
Heineken isn't bad, it's like Stella Artois, but they lacked the marketing genious of late Freddy Heineken. IMHO Grolsch, Jupiler and Brand aren't bad. I actually like Hertog Jan, but Amstel, Maes or do you remember Oranjeboom.
I'm sorry I grew up in the Dutch part of Brabant very close to Belgium, so yes I got influenced by both brewing worlds. OTOH I prefer Pilseners from Austria and Czechia. for instance I like Pilsener Urquell, Gösser and Zipfer.
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I remember Oranjeboom, probably the worst beer our country ever produced. Worse even then Heineken and that's saying something.
 
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Barsoom said:
Germans and Belgians are true masters of brewing but it doesn't explain their success in the US because it isn't the same beer. US beer has been accurately described as "watery tiss" by the Economist, which also informed its readers that it put the t there for politeness sake. A more colorful description is "like making love in a canoo, f*ing close to water."
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this is largely a post-prohibition phenomenon from my understanding. prior to that, beer was brewed in all manner of fashions across this sauced republic.
 
Henry IX said:
Checks out. The peaks of alcohol consumption were in the 1900s and 1980s (at around 10L of ethanol per person per year).

View attachment 823249

In addition to the general trend towards less alcoholic consumption there has been a significant movement away from spirits in the 1980s and 90s, a trend that has reversed in the last 20 years (alcopops?) and a smaller but more continuous trend away from beer and to wine for the last 40 years.

For more details link
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COVID did a number on that: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7763183/
 
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Abdul Goatherd said:
English were never really into beer. They brewed ale, which is largely unhopped and spoils easily. Ales are OK if you live in the countryside, near where it is made, but not good for storage or transportation. So while there were plenty of rural alehouses, ales weren't easy to find in English towns and cities. Despite active promotion for its "healthier" content, they never really that popular until quite late - imported wine or spirits (like gin and whisky) were the traditional drinks of choice. And, of course, tea.

Germans, by contrast, were brewing beer with hops since the 9th Century. Hops is a preservative, so beer lasts much longer than ale, and can be stored and transported. Hopped beer is an old and well-established tradition in Germany. It was their staple drink - they drank it morning, noon and night. They brought that with them when they immigrated - much to the scandal of their Anglo neighbors. Beer was drunk openly by all the family (and not merely by adult male drunks in dark hidden taverns)

Scotch-Irish immigrants, by contrast, distilled whisky. Loads of it.
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Isn't ale a type of beer though?

Just like many types of wheat and lagers are beers. Wheat and lagers being popular in Germany,but they also craft ales and forms of dunkel beers.
 
How about Budweiser, or familiarly, just Bud? And what’s the thing between the American Bud and the Budvar Brewery beer from Czechia? Trademark disputes between those two?
 
From the Wiki:

Budweiser - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

In 1876, German-born Adolphus Busch and his friend Carl Conrad developed a "Bohemian-style" lager in the United States, inspired after a trip to Bohemia and produced it in their brewery in St. Louis, Missouri.

Anheuser–Busch has been involved in a trademark dispute with the Budweiser Budvar Brewery of České Budějovice over the trademark rights to the name "Budweiser".

In the European Union, except Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Spain, the American beer may only be marketed as Bud, as the Budweiser trademark name is owned solely by the Czech beer maker, Budweiser Budvar. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, both the Budvar and Anheuser–Busch lagers are available under the Budweiser name, though their logos differ.


My father's favorite beer was Budweiser, for one very practical reason: they bought a lot of the rice we grew on our family farm in Arkansas.
 
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Director said:
My father's favorite beer was Budweiser, for one very practical reason: they bought a lot of the rice we grew on our family farm in Arkansas.
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What on God's green Earth does rice have to do with beer?
 
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Herbert West said:
What on God's green Earth does rice have to do with beer?
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Lots of cheap beers are called “adjunct” beers; the grain bill of barley is mixes with other, cheaper grains. This can be corn, rice, whatever. Some Japanese beers are made entirely with rice; including some very good ones.

Budweiser is made largely with rice, a fact they will tell you with pride in a brewery tour.

-edit- here is the vinepair article on the style:

Adjunct Lager
 
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