Ever experience a macro beer snob?

Can you provide some evidence to back this up? I groped around on teh googles and couldn't find any recipe details. Additionally, Wikipedia says that their annual production is less than 250K bbl which would put them outside of the top 20 breweries here in the states. So it would seem that they certainly have no need to use the sorts of industrial production methods you're suggesting.

 

Maybe it wasn't exactly what you were getting at, but a sentiment I see on here often is "If you can't drink an AAL then you don't like beer". This is probably hyperbole, and I see plenty of "If it's all AAL I'll take water" as well. But I feel like saying the first thing is like saying "You don't like airport bestsellers? You obviously don't like books."

I'm also not going to do a line of blow just cause my friends are enjoying it. Doesn't make them not my friends or me able to not experience fun times with people.

 

I've been on this site for a few years and never knew the exact acronym. Figured it was like beer macro company or something.

 

I think all he's saying is that while it's not the type of beer he prefers, or would buy himself, crappy beer is still better than no beer at all (kind of like bad sex still being good?)... I don't think he meant it as drinking it because his friends were.

 

Well, I've got a Chevy and a Subaru and I love craft beer, so...I guess that doesn't always work.

 

behold your bjcp douche quote of the day!

 

I am a macro beer snob. If forced to drink a macro beer I will only drink PBR. Grew up with it and still love an ice cold PBR; its like Gatorade for nonathletic people.

 

Every time I discuss beer online, I hear a lot about Stella snobs...I guess they'd qualify as a macro snob. Like others have been saying, I too get called a snob and a hipster for enjoying craft beer while they suck down some 4% tasteless swill. Meanwhile they're swearing left and right that Heineken is better than Bud, Coors is better than Miller, etc....

 

So you don't like the style - Duvel isn't the equivalent of BMC lagers, it's an excellent example of it's style.

 

The one thing I have always tried to do is educate people
Wise people understand
Dyed in the wool BMC people dont ,wont and there is no need to worry about it.
Just leaves more of the great stuff us who know !!

 

I agree. That guy's full of it. I had my first Duvel in Belgium in the mid-nineties. It's a fine beer and well respected by beer writers and authorities worldwide.

 

To expand on the quick answers you got - while the letters stand for Bud, Miller, Coors, the term has traditionally been a reference to all mass produced, thin, fizzy, yellow, adjunct lagers. PBR, Labatt, Genesee, Molson, etc. ,are also BMC beers.

As in the statement " My brother is a BMC drinker". That means ANY of those type beers.

 

It's produced on a massive scale, using the same high grav processes as BMC lagers. Every aesthetically pleasing thing about it is due to chemical additives. Flavor is average at best. I fail to see the part where I'm full of it.

Look: I'll definitely admit that your own opinion will always be the authority when quality or flavor of a beer is concerned. That I can't take away from you, I will respect it and would fight for it to be respected. My statements, be they a tad harsh, are merely about the fact that people will go at it tooth and nail about Duvel being the nectar of the gods and an amazing craft beer, when it's simply a factory-produced golden ale like so many others here. Some of these breweries are about the same size as what roughly still counts as a "micro brewery" in the States, but proportionally they're catering to a much bigger audience here, us only being a country of 11 million.

When you taste a basic Duvel and look past the marketing and hype, depending on the batch, you'll taste some off residual cardboardy flavors, which are nothing but a sign of sloppy brewing. The adding of hop extract in the Tripel Hop versions masks these with big citrus and hop aromas, and that makes them so popular.

I don't want to completely crush everyone's love for Duvel. Hell, it's my beer of choice when I'm in a really basic bar that has no "craft" options available. All I'm saying is that the line between BMC and craft is extremely fine here in Belgium, with actually MOST of the options on the Belgian market lying in this "gray zone" somewhere in between the two. From what I understand from American beer geek friends, or from anywhere in the world in that matter, we're pretty unique that way in a global sense. People that seriously consider Duvel to be anywhere close to one of the best golden ales to come out of Belgium, have more than probably not been shown a decent alternative. That, or they don't understand that the "Brewed in Belgium" label doesn't justify anything and everything.

TL;DR: Anti-Duvel rant, but I still hit it

 

That's a pretty good way to put it. I don't mind putting down a few PBRs if I'm at a campfire or a huge party.

 

Please provide citations for your claims about their brewing process and chemical additives.

Duvel has its own maltings, uses a unique single-cell yeast strain isolated (interestingly) from McEwans back in the 1920s-30s by Jean de Clerck, undergoes a complicated and fairly lengthy maturation and fermentation process at both ale and lager temps, and is bottle conditioned for secondary fermentation. All of these things -- plus a perfect balance of spicy Saaz hops -- contribute to its unique and very complex palate.

Where your comments are most "full of it," however, is where you mention people falling for what you consider the "brewed in Belgium" marketing ploy; actually it is you, not them, who has fallen for a marketing gimmick: namely U.S. craft marketing B.S. that anything "fizzy and yellow" is simply and necessarily bad.

Careful what you wish for in your zeal to not be like "macro beer snobs."

 

At the risk of derailing the thread, do you have any evidence to back up your claims of the brewery using chemical additives, hop extracts, etc.? I don't really care one way or the other, but it's a generally well-respected beer. Do you actually have some hard evidence of that or is that just your your taste buds deciding that they must be using chemical additives because it tastes off to you?

edit: huh, beaten. Go figure.

 

I think you missed the part where I whole-heartedly that Duvel is my go-to beer without strong alternatives.

I also admit I admire the technicality used to obtain the desired effect. The D engraving, the perfect tulip shape of the glass, all those things. The beaten eggwhite head does throw me off significantly, which is mostly what I refer to when I say chemical additives. I'm sure with the (for me excessive) carbonation, the beer would develop a beautiful and natural head all by itself. The high grav brewing... well, let's just say I'm sceptical about a 300,000 hL company going all-natural. Also: I always get that yeasty, corn-like flavor that I get from watered down high-grav brews.

That being said, I'm always open to criticism. In fact: I haven't had Duvel in a while and I hear they've been bottling the non-pasteurised version again. I need to pop down the supermarket anyway in a few, so I'll grab a few and pop one open today. We'll see how it stands up today

I knew I'd raise some eyebrows with this, but no idea it would be that bad. Maybe I can prove myself wrong

 

Ok, so basically you have no real proof, you're just kinda assuming it "has" to be chemical additives because of... the beer head? How the hell does that even work? And also because they brew a lot? Seriously? That's your argument?

edit: Just to clarify, I don't really give a shit if you dislike the beer, but to start saying that they use chemical additives and suspect brewing practices just because you find the head color off and you think it's somehow impossible to brew large volumes of the beer is pretty ignorant, man.

Actually, now that I think of it, that's a pretty brilliant plan. I think I'll start saying shit like that about all beer I don't like. Mediocre IPA? They must be using chemical additives and hop extract, I can taste the chemicality and hop-extractness of it in my taste buds. My taste buds are never wrong, BTW.

 

I could be very wrong here, but I don't think a meringue head like that can be achieved solely through pH-control. I believe the addition for that is E405, an algenate.

Edit: I've been snooping around a bit. I can't find any real evidence of macro brewing processes (quite to the contrary, in fact) and therefore think it's wisest I shut up and stick to the fact I don't love it all that much. Will give it another shot soon. Ignore my foolish interpretations

I like how I'm ripping on people falling for bullshit and then... yeah. Ironic I can be ridiculously persistent at times.

 

Again, man, do you have any basis in facts on the matter? We could literally be arguing about what seems right or wrong for ages. Are you an experienced chemist, knowing exactly what adding E405 to a beer (is that pre-fermentation or after?) does to its head color? Have you brewed a beer similar in recipe to Duvel and gotten a completely different head color? I'm just trying to understand where you're coming from with this.

Personally I have no idea what E405 even is and I'm too lazy to look it up. I know that everyone in Romania, where I lived for a couple years, was completely obsessed with these supposed chemical additives and would find them literally everywhere, which obviously meant you would get cancer in a couple years after ingesting said product. It's pretty much a witch hunt and I've since started completely disregarding people screaming up and down about the evilness of E-s.

At the same time, I'm genuinely curious to hear how your opinion was formed. Ok, so Duvel has an off-white head. Literally every other pale ale, IPA or Belgian pale I drink has an off-white head. I fail to see what's so alarming about it. You know what, I'm gonna pick up a bottle of Duvel tomorrow, just to see exactly what's so amazingly evil about its head color. I haven't had it in about 5 years so this should be pretty good.