Craft lager conundrum

As Mr. McCarthy intimated, if you change that Tecate to a Bohemia, it's not a bad thought.

 

I don't struggle with pricing, but I agree with Chef Anthony Bourdain that Tecate is nothing less than a great sweet lager. I bet Bourdain knows something about flavor. If you have a discriminating palate, you find subtle differences that make one lager pretty darn good and another maybe not so good. In the end, I don't think Tecate has to take a back seat to any micro lager.

I have found two better: Marathon (a Greek lager) and Negro Modelo with Yuengling as a unique and close runner up. Oh! And Ol McSorley's Ale House in NYC served a damn fine house lager.

 

You're only 27, how would you know? Retro-cool nostalgia for things they were too young to experience originally affects the views of many your age - PBR anyone? Both Bud and Utica Club are rated poor on BA, with scores of 56 and 65 respectively. Do you really think you could tell that UC is nine points less poor than Bud?

 

That's a total waste of a hot summer day.

 

Anthony Bourdain has sampled lots and lots of sweet lagers, especially in Asia and Latin America. I'm perfectly willing to believe Tecate works for him. He, however, doesn't know much at all about beer at large, as evidenced by what he ordered at Toronado in the SF episode (I believe a Radeberger Pils, which he got after asking for "a lager"). Not a guy to be considered any kind of authority on beer.

 

They should have served him a bock; that would have force-educated him.

 

Isn't the whole ABV argument kind of like saying you should buy Marlboro 100s instead of Marlboro shorts cuz they're the same price?

 

While I would agree with that on food, it always surprises me what little he knows about good drink -- even his wine descriptions on his show are nothing more than, "Ooo this is good." I see him with so much Heineken in his hand, in places where there is so much better to be had, I have the feeling he has big ignorance on what's good and bad in a beverage.

 

That's what I'm talking about. There was a good Cleveland No Reservations episode where he was enjoying Great Lakes beers, but you kind of got the feeling he was enjoying them because he felt he had to enjoy them.

 

This is the thing that I don't understand about Jack's Abby. Who cares if they are lagers if they taste like ales? Is it just technical sleight of hand? I'm not asking rhetorically, I really want to know what difference it makes. I like their beers but I'm not sure that this makes me a fan of lagers in any meaningful way. BA Framinghammer tastes like a slightly thinner BA stout.

 

Anthony Boudrain has been ‘schooled’ about Czech Pale Lagers by Evan Rail: beers from Pivovar Kout na Šumavě? The brewery is in the western Czech Republic very near the German border.

Evan Rail (a beer writer who really knows his stuff) stated this brewery has the “best pale lagers in the country if not the world”. Start watching at 11:24 of the embedded video.

Na Zdravi!

 

Easy now, brother. By saying "agree to disagree" I was saying that you have an opinion on how these two beers taste, and I have a different opinion. Moreover, PBR is absolutely tasteless beer. Budweiser is not, and neither is Utica Club. It is my opinion that the taste of Utica Club is rather distinct from that of Budweiser, not that it's necessarily better. I like it better, but that's beside the point.

And you are correct, I am 27—but that says nothing about who I am or what trends I ascribe to or anything else. And, I've been familiar with the tastes of both Budweiser and Utica Club for nine years now. If there is a probationary period that precedes license to express opinion on shitty beers, I'm all ears.

 

To make the point, because this comes up pretty often, a drinker's palate tends to start light/safe, work its way to bigger, more complex flavors -- learning and adjusting along the way, then allowing it to go back to those lighter, cleaner beers and understand their characteristics and appreciate them for what they are.

I first heard of this with wine drinkers who started off "safe" with less intimidating white wines then worked their way thru oak aged Chardonnays to reds and bigger reds. The education along the way allowed them to recognize flavor and aroma characteristics which then allowed them to go back recognize -- even appreciate -- what they may have missed in those "less intimidating" wines they started with.

I can see this in my own wine, beer -- even food enjoyment evolution. That point to be made is that once you've made this evolution it doesn't mean you discard any enjoyment for that big Cabernet or Barley Wine, you just make the realization that there are many layers of enjoyment to appreciate -- and that's far from a bad thing!

 

Okay -- have to reply to this because I remember watching this episode (and loving the tour -- and sadly, not realizing that was Evan), but what I really recall is that Bourdain is just reading a script -- you can tell in his voice that he doesn't really care. You almost expect him to say, "Yeah, that's beer."

C'mon Tony, tune up that palate like you've tuned it up for food -- Evan is right, that area is probably making the best pale lagers in the world. To quote the rather skeptical Tony, "Really?" Yeah bubba, really.

 

Okay, as much as I agree with the post by Tut to which you're responding, this is a very impressive and well thought out reply. Bravo.

But yeah, nine years of tasting "shitty beers" doesn't hold a candle to the same beers being the only ones available 35 years ago and the only thing available for almost that same 9 years hence (gawd, I'm old).

 

Oh, I'm sure. I totally respect that. At no point was I claiming to be the expert here, just saying that I have an opinion that isn't automatically invalidated by my age.

Edit: truth be told, it's all good. I got no beef. I just felt it was worth giving an articulate response.

 

Shame there is no Jacks Abby out your way- you'd love it.

 

Jack's Abby out of Framingham MA specializes in the lager brewing process but gets a tremendous amount of flavor behind them. I order beer for a retailer in MA and this stuff FLIES off the shelf. about a dozen different brews (90% or so are lagers) that are light, refreshing, and packed with great flavor. around 3 bucks for a 16 oz bottle (some $2 some 4$) but each one worth it and if my information is correct i believe the main brewer spent a decent amount of time at cantillon learning some tricks of the trade. I know for most of you in the thread on the west coast its out of reach but worth an inexpensive trade if you are curious.

 

When ppl try to or worry about disntinguishinguishing or getting pilsner & instead of a lager vica versa as Stanlely would say....well, they are usually full o shit way above their ears.

 

what?