Shaun Hill thinks Miller High Life & Budweiser are "perfectly crafted"

The consistency is what amazes me with those beers. Imagine creating the same off flavor on purpose every time for millions of batches at breweries located all over the country..

 

*watches rating of Miller High Life rise to 95*

 

Yes. I just did my review of Budweiser yesterday. Why ? Because I refuse to hate this beer ! Sure , I pass by it more than I did before I found about ipa's, stouts, and what have you. And I agree that Budweiser is not the "king of beers" (anymore that is) but it just seems to me that people are hating on this beer and others like it just so they can remain feeling "enlightened".

 

He's not the first high profile brewer to say this. Sam Calagione amongst others have said this before.

 

I honestly have no idea how to digest that quote. It sounds like one of those things people will sometimes say just to be contrarian--not saying that's what he's doing, but it is a perspective that I have a hard time understanding.

My guess is that the head brewers at Miller, Coors, Bud, etc. wouldn't tell you they intentionally include "off" flavors if you asked them.

And personally, I don't find them easy to drink at all. Yes, they are low in alcohol and don't have an aggressive flavor profile, but the fact that they have so little flavor and are so fizzy makes them feel prickly and harsh to my taste. My dislike of those beers has nothing to do with anything other than not liking the taste.

 

Talk to enough brewers and you will find a pattern - they value and admire the technical wizardry involved in the production of mass market beer. The notion that one can produce hundreds of millions of gallons of beer across dozens of facilities worldwide and have every sip be precisely consistent is a mind-boggling technical achievement, marking the Big Beer companies as the most meticulous, consistent, and efficient brewers in the world. I don't know that many brewers who actually prefer the taste of Miller or Bud to the craft stuff, so Hill's comment is unusual to some degree (perhaps a deliberate provocation), but the general notion of admiring the prowess of Mass Market breweries is not unusual in the least. In fact, a couple of craft brewers I have encountered come directly from that world. A good example is the newish Carneros Brewing in Sonoma County, California, where the brewer Jesus Ceja was a brewmaster and corporate executive at Anheuser-Busch for a good many years before InBev bought him out. He used his payout package to come home and partner with his winemaking brothers to set up a very credible craft brewery in Wine Country. He speaks with great passion and authority about the virtues of AB beers and yet he produces a craft brew that would not embarrass anyone on BA if they were caught drinking it.

 

I hate on this beer because it sucks and it tastes terrible...not to feel enlightened.

 

Eh, I don't know. My wife needed a beer to cook with last night and we just happened to have a Miller High Life still in the fridge from when we had our last big beer party and had some friends that aren't craft beer savvy show up with it. She didn't use it all (as it was a classy 40oz), so I took a few swigs and while it did bring me back to my early college years, I really did not miss the taste or mouthfeel it put out there. While it was a good starter beer, and I'll agree it's an easy lay-by-the-pool drinking beer, I'm not going to purchase it anytime soon.

 

pfff It tastes like very little other than corn/biscuits (no hops), it doesn't taste "terrible."

1) Hill is probably trying to get a rise out of "people."
2) With or without his comment, I'd take Budweiser over all of the poorly made "crafty" stuff. Budweiser, you get what you get at face value. And its cheap!

 

ISO: HF FT: Miller High Life.

 

My understanding is that many bartenders, especially those who's bars specialize in craft beer, often prefer AALs at the end of a shift precisely for the consistency and ease of drinking. I prefer to stick with seltzer for that reason, but that's just me.

 

Hal and Al's is a nice little craft beer bar near where I live with vegan bar food (what?) and a great selection of craft beer. They also have those little 7oz bottles of High Life, and I drink a couple almost every time I am in there. I thought maybe it was nostalgia for the old days when my buddy and I would literally drink a case of High Life and watch 70's and 80's horror movies on VHS. Maybe its just because High Life is the right beer for the right time? Maybe the guys at Hal and Al's are geniuses?


Maybe they are crazy, the DO have vegan bar food.

 

Who is Shawn Hill?

 

What a cool thing to say. Shaun Hill = the Kurt Cobain of craft.

 

Shaun not getting enough attention in his day job apparently.

 

But the strange thing is that he didn't exactly "admire" the technical prowess of consistently produced beers. He specifically said that there are "off flavors". It's sort of a backhanded compliment. That's what is confusing to me. Well, I say confusing, but I am leaning towards the idea that he is saying it just to say it because people will talk about it. At face value, his comment doesn't really make a lot of sense. Intentional "off" flavors? I guess...

I totally get the appreciation for the crazy widespread production and brewing consistency that craft brewers would have for the BMCs of the world. If he'd said that, I wouldn't have even batted an eye--inconsistency is one of the largest hurdles for all brewers, so it makes sense that they'd appreciate the way the macro breweries manage to keep their product consistent. It *is* mind-boggling the way every Bud Light tastes exactly the same over the millions of bottles they produce. But that isn't really what he said.

 

Sours have "off flavors" that people find enjoyable. I don't think it's a backhanded compliment, just a description.

 

I don't think his comments are a ploy to get more attention, he's just being honest. A lot of craft brewers enjoy beers like High Life, PBR, Old Style etc. from time to time. I've been in the industry for a long time and shared drinks with many craft brewers, and believe it or not they don't always enjoy a craft beer.

 

I guess it depends on how you define "off". And using the term "off" to describe the unexpected twists and turns that a wild yeast inoculated beer might take is one thing. Using that term to describe beers that tend to be the most consistent from bottle to bottle in the entire industry is another.