Beers and Ales in USA

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
Well a Canuck can easily be spotted in the grocery checkout in the USA, just look for the people with no food and loads of booze.

Man the prices here are cause for clebration so i bought a few beers i aint tried before to sample while on holiday.

So first up is a beer called Red Hook. Bought a sampler pack
Here is one i am trying
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This is the color very dark but actually suprisingly smooth and nice. Not a harsh flavor. Had one that was very hoppy this afternoon.

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Red hook is a pretty good brand. Bud only owns about 35% of the craft beer alliance they belong to! :thumb:
 
Thats interesting news i was thinking the "water" beer brands like bud etc must be feeling some pinch given what i see is a craft beer invasion of their former dominant position. I love competition in a free market.


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Red Hook makes some pretty decent beers, I wouldn't kick them out of my ice chest if they happened to show up there anyway :D

I find the associations of color and taste to be interesting (not totally unwarranted mind you but not absolute) and make a few beers that defy expectations one way or another. Its interesting to have people taste them with their eyes closed first :D A lot of what people don't like about a lot of dark beers is a few of darker grain flavors primarily malt bitterness (which largely comes from grains in the mid-high end of darkness, although there are some that don't have it). The worst offender is "chocolate" malt; which while it may sound delicious has a flavor that can most charitably be described as bad diner coffee. A lot of what throws a lot of commercial beers off in this regard is they get cheap on the medium roast malts (which are more expensive than the base grains) and try to make up the color with a smaller amount of really dark malt. This ruins the body and leaves you with a thin, astringent and bitter (not in a good way like hops.. I love hops) beer. Also some people just don't like thicker bodied beers which are often associated with darker beers (but again there are exceptions you can have dark/light body and light/heavy body beers as well :D).

Unsurprisingly a rather larger % of the "craft marketed" brews on the shelves are either wholly or partially owned by the majors so they are definitely reacting to market forces. Having said that the craft brewer market share is still tiny but growing:
- The craft brewing sales share in 2012 was 6.5% by volume and 10.2% by dollars.
More fun facts on that here: http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/business-tools/craft-brewing-statistics/facts

The craft brewing sales share in 2012 was 6.5% by volume and 10.2% by dollars.

A "short" list of craft breweries is also available from the brewers association: http://ba.brewersassociation.org/memberlist/members.aspx?memtype=BREW
I can't decide if its a good or a bad thing how many I recognize from the first page :rofl:

If you weren't aware Bud is now owned by InBev - although I guess they are calling it AB-inBev inbev basically bought AB so its mostly marketing to keep part of the AB name (sheesh 5 years ago, time flies!) - who own some amazingly large share of the market - http://www.ab-inbev.com/pdf/AB_InBev_AR10_GuideToBusiness.pdf 48% US and 41% Canada. You can see most of their brands here: http://www.ab-inbev.com/go/brands/brand_portfolio/local_brands.cfm

Rob, you should definitely take up homebrewing :D Its actually a really good way to start learning the different flavor and how they come about and what you do/don't like in more specifics (also you end up with beer!). A few years back me and a couple of buddies brewed all 28 major styles in a single year (using mostly http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926 and the bjcp guidelines http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php) which was highly educational about all of the different styles and how they end up. We've also done "style tasting classes"where people bring in several examples of a specific style and everyone compares it to the baseline - although I don't really brew always to specific styles - its still useful have a common vocabulary to try and figure out your own preferences and describe what you like.
 
Ryan is definitely the expert, but I've always been amused by the association of 'strong beers' being darker. It's quite possible to make a very 'strong' beer, alcohol wise, that is quite light in color.

It's also quite possible to make what could be considered a very light in flavor and alcohol that is pretty dark in color.

Speaking of which, It's time to start on a pumpkin ale!
 
Ryan is definitely the expert, but I've always been amused by the association of 'strong beers' being darker. It's quite possible to make a very 'strong' beer, alcohol wise, that is quite light in color.

I hear that all the time as well, I've quit even trying to correct most people on that one (boy I had 2 glasses of guiness is that stuff strong :rolleyes: its 4%). The other one I hear all the time is "this ones old, I've had it for like 10 years, its going to be extra strong!!" (granted many beers that survive well are strong, but most old beer is just stale :D).

Speaking of which, It's time to start on a pumpkin ale!

I seem to recall you did one of those last year as well? I've had a few good ones and a few not-so-good ones the good ones are pretty darn good.
 
If i take on as many hobbies as you too i will find myself living alone :)

I really would like to give home brewing a try but i dont drink enough beer.
I also prefer to have company to drink with especially a decent beer. SWMBO HER name for now....:) dont drink beer unless drowned out dead in sprite or 7up.

Ryan thanks for the links.

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Well a Canuck can easily be spotted in the grocery checkout in the USA, just look for the people with no food and loads of booze.

Heh - loml just reminded me of a game we used to play at the Costco on Maui when we lived there called "tourist or local". Some were easy - two bags of rice and three cases of TP - local, the case of chocolate mac nuts three bottles of tequila - tourist. Other times it was more challenging like a cart full of booze and chips.. could be a local having a party or tourist .. having a party.. at that point we'd look at how they walked, hawaiian shuffle - local.. uncomfortable in flip flops or wearing socks.. tourist.

Where we cross the line going up to the family you can spot the returning Canucks by the shopping carts full of butter :D
 
I seem to recall you did one of those last year as well? I've had a few good ones and a few not-so-good ones the good ones are pretty darn good.

Might have wanted to, but only started firing up the brewery this year. I have made them in the past.

Actually, I'll probably make a butternut squash beer, as it looks like that's one of the few things in the garden that has been producing like crazy.

I've made 'pumpkin' pies out of butternut squash and you can't tell the difference.
 
I've got a honey ale recipe around here in one of my old brew books that I'll have to ship to Brent...won a couple competitions with it, guessing because it actually tasted like honey!!
We have some really good craft beer places in the valley, at the same time what usually shows up in the shopping carts of most people is Bud or Coors. A 6 of Firestone DBA is $8-9 when a case of Bud is $18 on sale. Just more Bud for the buck!
 
Jim Jim Jim we talking beer here not colored water with some alcohol added to please the masses. :)) Its a case of quality over quantity and appreciation for finer flavors and aroma. :) I honestly dont know how coors and bud manage to be called beer. :)

Bob will look to find one of them and give it a try.



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I also prefer to have company to drink with especially a decent beer. SWMBO HER name for now....:) dont drink beer unless drowned out dead in sprite or 7up.

Might try some of the apple ales (Redds, Angry Orchard), there's also a pear ale my wife likes. She's not a beer drinker, but does like those.
 
Jim Jim Jim we talking beer here not colored water with some alcohol added to please the masses. :)) Its a case of quality over quantity and appreciation for finer flavors and aroma. :) I honestly dont know how coors and bud manage to be called beer. :)
...

I know I'll get thrashed for saying this, but back in my drinking days, I'd rather have a Coors Light than a Sam Adams. I just never was much into most craft beers. I wanted colored water with some alcohol in it. (But I wasn't drinking for the flavor or to get drunk...it was just a beverage to have while hanging with friends or doing things around the house.) Plus, you never really buy a beer...you just rent it for a little while. :D :beer:
 
Ryan is definitely the expert, but I've always been amused by the association of 'strong beers' being darker. It's quite possible to make a very 'strong' beer, alcohol wise, that is quite light in color.

It's also quite possible to make what could be considered a very light in flavor and alcohol that is pretty dark in color.

Speaking of which, It's time to start on a pumpkin ale!

In Britain, the 'mild' beer was usually darker than the best bitter. I prefer dark beers. Thirty years ago the only beer I would buy over the border was Genessee Cream Ale, which actually had some flavour, but now when I visit my brother in PA, he usually has some really tasty American beers.

The craft beer market has taken off here, too. My favorite watering hole is a brew pub which makes a great oatmeal stout, and an IPA that is to die for. Things have definitely gotten better all round.

Oh, they make a good pumpkin ale, too.
 
I pretty much am in the same camp as Vaughn. My early drinking days go back to when I was first in the Navy and money was tight. As I recall when I got out of Boot camp as an E-2 enlisted man and was attending "A" school in San Diego my take home was $38 every two weeks so craft beer was not on the menu. Also we were under age so most of our drinking was confined to either on base at the bowling ally (they had beer machines much like soda machines) or an occasional trip to Tijuana. IIRC we could get a corona and a shot of Tequilla for less then a buck. Anyhow I don't drink a lot of beer any more but when I do I pretty much like anything as long as it is ice cold.
 
I know I'll get thrashed for saying this, but back in my drinking days, I'd rather have a Coors Light than a Sam Adams. I just never was much into most craft beers. I wanted colored water with some alcohol in it. (But I wasn't drinking for the flavor or to get drunk...it was just a beverage to have while hanging with friends or doing things around the house.) Plus, you never really buy a beer...you just rent it for a little while. :D :beer:

I have a fair number of pro brewer friends who drink PBR on their downtime (and make mostly IPAs). Part of the problem is that the more you know about beer (or a lot of things for that matter) the harder it is to isolate yourself from analyzing it.. which means you're just trying to enjoy a beer but instead you're busy picking it apart... So a mostly flavorless beer is easy to just not think about and enjoy.

Also interestingly, contrary to what you might initially think, a light lager is about the hardest beer to make (there are some others that are around . There is no real flavor to hide any flaws behind so anything you mess up - BAM there it is! Folks who can actually make a light lager :bow:
 
Rob, You sound like one of those incredibly annoying wine snobs (beer) :rofl:

Ain't nothing better than an ice cold Bud, Coors, Miller, Molson or Pabst, or my old time favorite, Knickerbocker, on a hot day after a round of golf with friends or just cutting the grass.
 
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