Micro or Macro?

Depends. I have a personal definition for Macro and Micro beers. I know Blue Moon is Macro because of who owns it and at the volume it is produced, but personally I don't label it as Macro, I do enjoy it.

Macro for me is just Bug Light, Coors Light, Natural Light, Tecate Light, Corona, Heineken, Stella Artois, Negra Modelo etc. Pretty much everything inside the ultra mass produced american styles: Standard, Light, Dark, Premium, etc.

Hell, even Shocktop is not Macro for me, but I don't like it anyway.

 

In all likelihood, it will be the "government" - in the form of the Antitrust Division of the US Justice Department - that will not allow ABInBev to own the 58% of MillerCoors that SABMiller now owns and will have ABInBev divest itself of that ownership and most of the US rights to the traditional "Miller" brands, before allowing the buyout/merger to go through. (Most likely purchaser - and by contract, the company with the right of first refusal - is MolsonCoors).

 

I'm a 95% craft /5% macro these days I'd guess. I'll still occasionally buy a 6-er/4pack of Coors Banquet, Gansett Lager, or High Life. I like those 3 quite a lot actually. Several others I'll drink in a pinch.

 

Since I started drinking craft beer I haven't really bought any macro brews. We get a slow but steady stream of new beers for me to try which keeps me very happy and busy. I drank Coors, PBR and the like for 30 years so I feel like, been there, done that. No going back, for me. If I want a macro-like beer I grab a Nooner Pilsner and still get better flavor than the BMC stuff.

 

I prefer to think less of macro vs micro/craft as about breweries and more about the beers themselves. We can all agree that Bud Light is macro. We can all agree that Pliney is micro. Yuengling - depends on who you ask. What about NB Fat Tire, SNPA, or SA Boston Lager? All three breweries officially fall under "craft" guidelines, but those beers are all completely ubiquitous. What about removing the guidelines for the breweries altogether? This would allow us to call a spade a spade. The three beers above are macrobrews. Le Terroir, BA Narwhal, and Utopias are craft brews. Same breweries, different scale. I have no idea, what the production threshold would be, but I'm sure someone in the industry could conjure up a good number. Thoughts?

 

I like them both but im continually growing more fond of micro

 

Until 23 or so, macro. Since then, micro all the way. I'd rather personally know my brewer, and keep my local economy going. But I slip into meso all the time (Ballast, SN, Stone...). :l

 

The recent USDA study showed that macros use 1/4 of the barley that micros do, and less hops, and other good stuff. Plus using corn sugar, beet sugar, and other stuff that they shouldn't [IMHO]. ( Loaded up with Roundup, & who-knows-what else) So macros are generally a rip-off.
That said, if it's made well enough to taste good, then fine. I'd rather go with the micros, but it's not an absoute.