Beer That Tastes Like Beer?

Just saw an ad on my FB page on a beer I haven’t thought of in 40 years. San Miguel, come in real beer flavor and also Apple and another fruit I can’t remember. Apple flavored beer there ya go.

 

"There are many people in the world, and certainly readers of this blog, who believe that beer has a fixed, permanent, and knowable essence. It has a defined scope. Beer should taste like beer. At the risk of alienating 80% of my readership: this is an ahistorical view. Beer can and has tasted like anything."

That's a straw man argument. I've never heard anybody articulate anything like, "beer has a fixed, permanent, and knowable essence." The people who claim "beer should taste like beer" (emphasis mine) -- certainly the ones who read the Beervana blog -- are well aware that many beers don't taste like beer and that some brewers have employed flavoring adjuncts for a very long time. Ironically, the "ahistorical view" is the position that people who want beer to "taste like beer" aren't grounded in history. Rather, they're making an aesthetic argument. The idea, promulgated by some of the usual suspects in this thread, that this argument emerges from a position of ignorance is demonstrably false.

From everything I've heard about Great Notion, it sounds like it makes good liquid muffins (if that's what you're into) / terrible beer. I do think the vast majority of people prefer the taste of muffins (and fruit juice and desserts) to that of beer, and that's why NEIPAs, pastry stouts, and heavily fruited kettle sours have taken over the craft beer world. I personally think good beer tastes better than the best of muffins, fruit juice, and desserts, and I think alcohol-filled liquid imitations of those things taste worse than the real deals. I'd much rather drink a "real" IPA and an orange juice or consume a pure imperial stout and a brownie back-to-back than suffer through most NEIPAs and pastry stouts.

 

Enjoyed a couple Yards loyal lagers that a buddy left in my fridge. Not DDH, not barrel aged, just good old fashioned beer. And at 5% I had three or so and was still quite functional.

 

I agree with you here. It will be interesting to see how well this newly released brand sells.

Cheers!

P.S. I still have three bottles of my recent 6-pack purchase in my fridge.

 

Yeah, “sounds like” an adjunct lager, but the ingredients and ABV also sound like Rodenbach Classic.

 

A short story. About 25ish years ago I was in Brussels for a business trip. There were signs for Jupiler everywhere (billboards, on the sides of buses, etc.). I never heard about this beer before. At a Belgian Cafe I ordered one and needless to say I was not too impressed. Luckily I 'discovered' Duvel. That beer was wonderful!

Cheers!

P.S. That was the first time I heard of Duvel too. I was basically a complete novice about Belgian beer at that time.

 

ISO exceptionally lagery lagers

 

Ayinger has more beer flavored beers to me than any other brewery. Their yeast expresses a bit of sulfur which I love in a lager and almost require in beer flavored beer.

 

My wife is hooked on Lindemans Lambics, especially the Pesche. I really like them too, but my taste buds have a hard time saying I’m drinking a beer, and my brain says flavored malt beverage. Is there something out there kinda like Lindemans, but just a bit more funky on the finish? I think New Glarus beers fit that profile, but NG is obviously a no go.

 

One thing which sets Swedish macro beers apart from American macro beers becomes apparent the more you drink it. American macro beer is mild enough to where the 6th glass will be as mild tasting as the first, but with a Swedish 5.3% abv, 23IBU Export beer the flavor builds to where the bitterness sticks to your tongue and starts to act drying, even though the malt sweetness is elevated (the flavor profile might go from being balanced, to sweet, to bitter over the course of an evening). Reductions in hopping rates, original gravities and final gravities appears to be universal, but breweries all around the world want you to drink their beer throughout the night, and breweries in different countries have different expectations as to what beer drinkers will tolerate over the course of an evening drinking beer. Only focusing on the initial flavor impact doesn't provide us with the full picture in my opinion. An evening drinking Budweiser wont be the same as an evening drinking Bitburger or Gambrinus, or Pripps Blå, or Tyskie.

I think a similar concept is on display in Al Haunold's description of Coors adoption of Cascade hops:

"So years later after we had the capabilities and well, you know, the humulone, cohumulone in particular, in our Cascade is much higher than a European aroma hop. But we didn't know it at that time. Then Coors thought they would do a hundred percent substitution, which they did, and the beer tasted okay except when the beer drinker will have another bottle of beer and then he burp, something come up through the nose and it's an aroma that he isn't familiar with. We know now this is geraniol, which is one of oil components there. But again, we didn't know. We didn't have the instrumentation at that time."

The first beer might taste similar, but when you've had your second, third or fourth, the difference starts to become apparent. The flavor builds.

 

I love when that happens when I drink a hoppy beer such as an IPA. It is like enjoying the hoppiness twice - nothing like a 'twofer'!

Cheers!

 

Newcastle: Malt, clean ale, easy to drink as its not too dry and some hope. Also one of the few good Ales that is macro priced.

 

LOL

 

San Miguel Apple? How can there possibly be a demand for that?

 

Don’t know, I’m always curious about the demographics on this kinda stuff, but Bud Light seltzer is everywhere right now as well. White Claw and Truly are amazingly popular, current trend? Don’t know.

 

An impossible qualification that spans a broad spectrum of beer. Food that tastes like food. I don't think you can push this point much further.

 

DBA, German Exports just taste like beer to me

 

I think the further reason (beyond the obvious ones) there is no consensus on a meaning of the nonsense expression, "what beer tastes like", is that it has no application, therefore can have no consequential meaning. A consensus isn't necessary, since there is no chance of mistake due to the the expression's misuse.

Okay, you could make the case that allowing nerds to debate the meaningless express is an application, and, judging by this discussion, some folks probably would do a good job of stringing together sentences to make that case

 

I've drank many beers that taste like they are supposed to for the type/style of beer that they are. Thousands of different ones at this point.

Eric