Back to my roots...AAL

I've been drinking my way through a variety pack of Mexican AALs (plus Dos Equis Ambar) lately and I've been pleasantly surprised by them. I didn't start out with AALs, so this isn't quite a "going back" for me, but it's pretty interesting to find that beers I might have otherwise avoided are actually not bad, and in some cases actually pretty tasty.

The thing I've found with the standard pale AALs is that the worst (of those I've had) are just very bland rather than ever actually tasting outright bad. Maybe I just haven't stumbled across the absolute worst of the worst examples of the style yet, but I've had a couple that people rate very, very low on here and didn't find them that bad -- not nearly as good as a lot of the other beers I've had, but nowhere near undrinkable either.

On the other hand, I've had a couple of darker/amber macro beers that were truly awful (Foster's Ale was the worst offender, I couldn't even finish the second pour from one of those big cans... Busch Signature was also pretty bad, had to keep that one ice cold with a frosted mug to stand drinking it)... and bizarrely enough they're both rated above the 3-out-of-5 mark on here while some of the "just kinda bland, not truly offensive to the taste buds" stuff struggles to get more than half a point above a 2.

 

B..b..but big corporations maaan. Drink local maaan.

Anyone who cares about what you drink or enjoy is a tool. Be on your budget, handle your biz, get your buzz and live a good life.

AALs are the devil to morons.

 

I like an AAL and cortland naked lap lager and genesee cream ale are two that I buy. One of my favorite all time homebrews is @JackHorzempa 's classic american pilsner . genesee and cortland are local and Jack is almost local.

 

I willingly drink miller high life now and then, and throw in some old style for memories sake.

 

Nice try Mr. Anheuser

 

I'm sure you already know this, but Straub has some really good and affordable stuff out there, and has variety in styles as well.

 

I'd rather drink fewer Boston Beer Company, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium or other affordable larger craft breweries compared to more BMC. As a plus less beer would be better for my health and those are affordable enough that'd it's not like I'd be hording them for special occasions and the pricing of the variety packs means I can get some nice variety going on (though I could just mix it up between Boston Lager and say Torpedo to keep things mixed up).

Note, I wouldn't turn my nose up at a High Life, and I'm not trying to sell AALs as horrible beers that nobody should enjoy, but there is a nice place between AALs pricing and trying to keep the fridge stocked with the latest Imperial Barrel Aged offering. It's a bit like presenting a false dichotomy between English Farmhouse cheddar and Kraft Singles, there exists a middle ground. In the end though, you do you, I'm not gonna grandstand and declare your drinking habits should mirror my own.

 

I had some Miller High Life a few week ago and was very surprised how many boxes it checked, this was the first time in years. It hit the glass with a nice 2 inch of dense head and maintained a 1/4 head or more to the end of the glass, it showed nice lacing. Like I said in another thread if I had this blind I would have swore it was a Vienna Lager of some type. So not all AAL are yellow over carbonated fizzy yellow water. For Super Bowl it was priced at $14 a case, I'd try a few and see what you prefer, but I definately prefer Miller over stuff like Bud, PBR, Rolling Rock. I might also give Naragannsett a try their 16 OZ 6 packs are $5.99.

 

I just bought some dos Equis Amber, yes I know it's a Vienna lager, and natty ice before the Super Bowl, I could never exclusively drink aal, but I do enjoy one from time to time.

 

Miller high life isn't bad as long as it's in cans, but I definitely prefer pbr and rolling rock to it.

 

I actually like most AALs, I would leave out most light stuff and really lower end stuff, and most AB stuff which I think is just over carbonated. But that 12 pack of Miller I would say was better than pretty good even by craft lager standards. Whether that was an ultra fresh batch I dont know I didn't look to see dates, but it was as good or better than quite a few craft lagers. That 12 pack was bottles as well. Ya never know, I think putting canning dates on every beer would a sew so many questions. Could be a good bit of the stuff on the shelf is say 2-3 months old, you grab one under 30 one day and what do you know, fresh beer is better than older beer. Could be the case here.

 

high life is definitely solid, It just tends to get skunked out a bit in those clear bottles. If its in cans it can definitely hold its own with the best in the styles. I have others I like better, but I can't really hate on it.

 

@Giantspace, permit me to recommend an AAAL (American Amber Adjunct Lager) to you of Genny Bock. That beer is out now and as I understand it folks in Central PA can buy it. Unfortunately Genny Bock is not distributed in SEPA but I will be in Lake Placid in a couple of weeks and I will be buying a 12-pack (or two?) of that beer. IMO, Genny Bock wins the best beer for the buck contest.

My favorite Yuengling AAL beer is Lord Chesterfield. Yuengling also makes very good to excellent seasonal beers at a reasonable price: Summer Wheat, Oktoberfest, IPL,...

Cheers!

P.S. If you don't count labor time you can save a lot of money via homebrewing. I brew two cases of Belgian Ales (Quad, Tripel, Dubbel,...) for less than 50 bucks in ingredient costs. If I went to my local beer store to buy those beers it would be well over 200 bucks for two cases of those beers.

 

My go to at Mexican resturaunts, it does great with spicy foods. My AAL time is summer when it's stinky hot and I want ice cold beers after work, grilling , at the pool etc. A time and place for everything.

 

OOH! Is this a boring lager thread? (steps up on soap box)

I've never understood the disdain (even outright "hatred") for pale lager in general and "cheap" adjunct lager in specific. In my thirty-odd years of imbibing I've found that almost all beer market segments have a time and a place which makes them the right choice for the occasion.

After a long day of pixel-pushing or number crunching of kid-teachin' or whatever you do to pay the bills, do you always want to pop the top (after cutting the wax) off that $50 whale you chased a truck or waited many hours in line for? Uh uh.

I've been recommending heritage lager brands for a while now on a personal level, as I do think they achieve the right balance of drinkability and affordability -- sometimes even sessionability (though that's a proper British term and my years in Beer Advocate have me convinced that it's a sin to use it offhandedly, here in the States.)

Allow me linger upon the "affordability" aspect for a moment, as several distinct factors are a part of that mental construct. For one, pale lager brands are often only slightly less expensive at retail than many of the more well-distributed Craft brands (good luck finding many on draught -- another matter), so that is but a small consideration.

More to the point is that said Craft brands are now competing for shelf space with a large influx of brands from local (many "True Micros") breweries. What this means is that paying attention to package dates is increasingly time-consuming -- maybe more so than ever.

And whereas your local packie's staff might miss some of the past-code Craft brands, there's a better-than even chance that a route delivery driver (or even an intern) has rotated-out the past-code heritage pale lager brands in advance of your purchase.

I know that this sounds like a quibble, especially since a growing number of Craft brands are only slightly more expensive than the big "Macro" brands), but that freshness makes a big difference: I can't tell you how many 12-packs of past-code Sierra Nevada Pale Ale* I've grabbed "on sale" where I'd rather have had a fresh 12 of Miller High Life.

*Not to use them as a punching bag, here, but of the national Craft brands that's my go-to. It's also easier to use a single example than to name the dozens of less well traveled, past-code brands that I've guzzled down in the past few years.

 

What!?!

No specific mention of Carling Black Label!?!

Cheers!

 

That's the issue where I live. While I can enjoy Dos Equis from time to time, it is the same cost as way better beer so I typically won't bother with it. Will I drink it while out and when there is a special or something? Surely, but outside of that...

AALs do have their place and I have been surprised lately at how decent some tasted after not touching them for a long, long time. But they are made cheaply generally speaking and I have to be careful, as cheaper stuff can give me hangover like symptoms, even when drinking less of it (I did some research and there is a science behind this so I found that it wasn't just in my head...pun intended?).

Drink what you like. I cut way back on beer for health reasons but the financial gains were nice too.

 

Quite a few good craft lagers out there depending on your area. Seems the OP was more referring the non-hoppy kind so I'll leave out pilsners from the post. On the macro side I think both High Lite or Coors Banquet are just well made and sometimes your best option if it fits your mood. It would be nice to see the craft community have a better appreciation for flavorful lagers & ales from small, medium or large breweries. They hit the spot a lot of times.

On the craft side one I enjoy is Upslope Craft Lager from Colorado. I don't mind paying an extra $ or two for something from a smaller craft brewery doing it right as they just are not going to have the scale to hit the same price points as a macro brewery.

 

Some of my choices as well. Curiously, Genny Bock is available here (on the State list) but the local distributor doesn't stock it. Genny Light, yes, but no bock.

For years we bootlegged in Lord Chesterfield Ale from an adjoining State but haven't seen it over there in quite awhile.