Tell us why you hate AAL beers

@AlfromPA Yeah, that's what it was.

 

It is an American tradition. Why hate them? They are great for a bbq,super bowl party,setting at a bar for hours,etc. No real beer drinker will turn them down. Not many men will turn one down. most all men will enjoy them at a get together. Be happy and enjoy post prohibition American tradition.

 

In the 1980s California had Liquor Barn which sold a huge variety of imports sold as singles.

 

Yes, I think there's a Blue Mountain near Jim Thorpe. In any case there's a "Blue Mountain Resort" up there. That's about 50 miles from Reading. Perhaps the mountain chain descends down to Reading. A hydrologist friend advised me not to drink the water from the streams in the mountains in Centre County (PA), but what the heck...

 

Schlitz is one of the AALs brands I consider purchasing each Summer. Budweiser, Moosehead and Old Style are the others.

RIP Michelob, OG Michelob Light and Fully Krausened Old Style, which they are not bringing back with their return to La Crosse.

Kolsch, Pilsners, Saisons and Fruit Beers (New Glarus and Founders both have a few offerings) are the other lighter beer styles I enjoy picking up each Summer. I’ll still drink Pale Ales, IPAs and other styles, but they can feel heavy at times.

I find many other AALs lack flavor, or lack a flavor I enjoy, so certainly understand the blanket dislike many have of the genre. Really don’t hate any type of beers or styles.

 

I enjoy Moosehead very much. It’s as good as any “craft” AAL I’ve had.

 

Easy-peasy. There's never a time I want one.

 

Literally the only time I will drink one is if I'm out, like seeing a band, and somebody hands me one. It would be rude to refuse it, so, I drink it quickly, and head to the bar and grab something I'll actually enjoy.

 

That unfortunately happens to me rather often. As I’m about to go grab a whiskey, bourbon, or something with vodka in it, somebody will toss me Bud or the like and I’ll be forced to smile and say “thank you”. It really sucks when they hand you a second, and then a third, but I make sure to get the fuck outta there before the fourth!

 

To be fair to the pro-corn advocates, here is a list from Rate Beer of highly-rated beers brewed with corn. I do not recognize most of them, so I assume NONE of them are AALs.

I am tickled by the Colonel Kernel name:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/tag/corn/

 

Yes, I'll vouch for this post - I remember reading and being perplexed by such contradictory opinions about AAL's and "Light Beer" often when I first came upon this website 20 years ago. Can't say I shared either one.

In fact, it's seems like only yesterday I was commenting about the same thing...

 

In general, I see AAL as an alcohol delivery system and not something with much merit past that. If beer remained unchanged but somehow all alcohol disappeared from them, I would still be a big fan and seek out new experiences and creative/skilled producers of them. I think many AAL drinkers would mostly stop consuming them and find another means to their end.

 

The use of corn syrup is likely the same reason it is common in a massive amount of food/drink. Corn prices are subsidized by tax dollars. Corn derivatives are some of the cheapest things you can use to make food/drink products and are generally the primary reason they are in use. A LOT of money has been spent to figure out how to use corn in as many ways as possible because of this fact. In a way, AAL is even more "American" as a result. We all contribute to its production ;p

 

I don't think perceived "corn" flavor in beer is tied to corn-derived ingredients. A craft brewer describes tha role of corn in brewing: https://www.lowercasebrewing.com/beer-blog/what-is-corn-lager. He says the "corn" flavor is not due to corn, but a DMS presence due to flawed processing. I'm not aware of any chem. analysis that identifies corn-derived taste components in beer. In the 60s and 70s, most brewers used corn flakes or grits and/or rice, converting the starch in the cereal cooker. I really didn't notice any identifiable corn or rice taste, but really wasn't looking. Modern big beer AALs usually.have corn syrup. This is a fairly well refined product that is the sugar derived from corn starches that will be fully fermented to alcohol. Fermentation might be affected by the sugar balance, and affect flavor. But I'd guess that almost all the body in AALs is due to the malt component, as minimal as that has become.

 

Back in the early 2000s a friend was researching to open a brew-pub and we went to the restaurant show in Chicago to look at equipment and everything else.

Miller Brewing had a booth pouring samples, so we opted to try and also chat with the reps.

I'm not sure just which beer it was (probably MGD), but my first swallow was like eating a tortilla chip! I'd never experienced such clear corn flavor in a beer before, but wow -- there it was.

Maybe because they had ultra fresh product for the show? Maybe a very clean palate? Dunno, but it was eye-opening.

 

That might be difficult to prove since US lager brewer have been using corn since the 1860s, including glucose (what was once called 'grape sugar') "made commercially in this country from the starch of Indian corn."
"How Lager Beer in Made", New York Times 8/20/1881.

 

Corn prices are actually relatively high. The jump in prices had been primarily attributed to the use of corn-derived alcohol in gasoline. One stated reason for this use is to reduce greenhouse gases. However, most experts think that gasohol is, at best, break even. Another bad outcome with the higher price is that low income populations (see Mexico) are severely impacted by the high costs.