Light Beer: You Don't Have to Like It, but Respect It

I refuse to respect a mass produced "beer" (if you want to call it that) that cares so little about its quality, and yet still refers to itself as "king of beers." But I do understand that there are decent light beers out there. Narragansette is one.

 

If there's one thing brewing my own beer has taught me it's that even if I don't like 'lite" beers, they truly are remarkable from a production standpoint. Possibly the hardest possible beer to brew IMO. Good article and worth the read.

 

This is the only light beer I really mess with. Pretty damn good for what it is.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/261/23628

 

Actually, they care quite a bit about their quality. The only thing they might care more about however is advertising.

 

not much of a light beer drinker but I like Amstel light.

 

Great article, and while to do respect the quality assurance they have, they need for so many brew-masters that the macro's take away from the craft brewing industry upsets me. I have to believe that one or two of the brew-masters they hire would have been able to create a brewery as great as Stone or FFF, if it were not for a job offer at In-Bev

 

Yea from a production standpoint I have a ton of respect for what big brewers at companies like AB do. I mean to make at what is it like 10 different breweries across the US (with different water supplies) and ingredients that vary from year to year and make it taste the same every time, without things like massive hop profiles to hid things that are different, would have to be super difficult.

 

Ha!

I came to post that..........

Cheers

 

Who cares?
It takes a lot more skill, planning, and dedication to have a McDonalds (BMC) cheeseburger taste the same across the globe. But I'd much rather go to my local joint (Ladyface), or fire up my backyard grill (homebrew), or even go to the awesome regional burger chain In-n-Out (Sierra Nevada).

Something being "hard to do" doesn't mean it gets automatic respect from me.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that the feats they accomplish are amazing. The brewmasters there are some of the most talented around. However, the problem is that the top priority of AB/Miller/Coors is to create a beer culture that just settles for something that's easy drinking. That would be like all of the soda drinkers just settling for club soda..

 

I'm going to maintain that respecting the brewing process of brewing macro lagers is entirely different than respecting everything else that is associated with them. I dislike pretty much everything these beers stand for. Massive and always changing marketing campaigns, gimmicks, the continual charge to buy up the competition and become larger and market dominant, people insisting that their brand is different and superior to all others (despite most AALs being quite similar), the idea that it is okay to drink mass quantities of light beer because it is "light", the big brewers continually striving to create even lighter beers with less and less calories and more resemblane to water than beer, and these beers frankly just not tasting good. /rant

 

I completely respect the technical proficiency with which macro light lagers are made. The consistency is astounding, really. But the end product still isn't very good.

 

Does anyone believe that nonsense? Gee, let's see, I can go through a lot of extra steps in the brewing process to reduce flavor, calories and ABV, or I can just add......... WATER!
Which do you think they really do?

 

How do you define quality?

 

IMHO quality is inversely proportional to quantity.

 

While I can appreciate a well painted house I don't think it compares to a Van Gough, yet both are paintings.

 

Industrial manufacturing != Craftsmanship, regardless of whether the manufacturing is of high quality or not.

 

And yet, the lower quality beers from my closet taste better.

So which is really of higher quality in the end?