When beer isn't really beer anymore..

I'm here to drink rare beer.

 

There are many good points here. But remember this...if it wasn't for the innovative, experimental side of craft brewers, we wouldn't have any craft beer at all. No Heady, no Pliny, no BCBS or whatever. What is happening now is the further evolution of the innovative side. Brewers have been there and done that and are therefore moving on to other innovations. You get tired doing the same old shit all the time.

 

I'm not going to get into a pissing match over this, because I have better things to do, but there are historians who agree with your position and there are historians who agree with mine.

 

Most of us would prefer a pissing match. This is BA after all. Hops have nothing do with anything.

 

If big beers are adult candy, just call me Willy Wonka.

 

1- brewers yeast will not ferment starch.
2- the starch has to be converted into sugars in the mashing process to make beer.
3- malted grains need to be used in the mash, if not you just get starch, and no beer. See 1.

 

cool, what sort of program are you procrastinating on applying for?
Some beers really aren't beers. I still like them (ex. hell or high watermelon) but I find myself prefacing my comments about them by saying "it's really good... as long as you're not expecting a beer"... so for me, when I make that disclaimer, I know I don't think it's a beer.

 

Really? even chelada? how about lime-a-rita or what ever the fuck bud is advertizing on a loop these days on TV?

just wondering if you mean only the commonly accepted beer styles, or if you really mean everything called "beer".

 

What are you expecting me to say? You've said it all: people like flavor...the more of it the better. So while a skilled brewer can extract chocolate, vanilla, tropical fruit, etc., etc., etc., flavors from quality malted barley, yeast, and hops, for many BAs, that's not enough flavor. Therefore brewers have begun adding actual chocolate, vanilla beans, fruit to the beers in any number of ways (in the boil kettle, during fermentation, through a randall, on the rim of the glass). And they get called "innovate" for their efforts by fans of "craft" beer because, I can only assume, flavor trumps skill/craft...even if those flavors come from things that aren't the base ingredients for "beer."

Also I have no problem with "big" beers per se; my all-time favorite beer is often described as like drinking liquid ham (without containing any actual pork products).

 

Trolls will be trolls... You just can't resist can you Mr. I'm better than everyone else? I don't care if kuhnhenn makes other stuff, they make guezes and lambics as well. Maybe I should have said Drie Fontienen as a better example. My point is that it looks like fucking juice, not beers. Nothing you say contributes to any conversation. You are a malevolent worthless troll.

 

No, I'm just correcting you since you're WRONG! Please, tell me, what guezes or lambics have they ever done? Maybe a one-off draft only nobody has ever heard of, but please, really? do your research first, bro...

Nothing you say contains anything remotely factual or well-founded, who is the troll here?

Also, most juice is not carbonated as well, so wrong again.

 

"Bro" I'm referring to the color of the liquid not the carbonation content. When I think of beer I think of a golden brown or amber or dark brown/black liquid with a foamy layer of head on top. When I see a bottle of lambic that is red the fucking color of wine, it doesn't look like a beer to me. That is the whole point I am trying I make here. I'm sorry I upset the armchair snob
Police chief, but you misunderstood my point from the beginning. Nowhere did I mention a goddamn thing about carbonation, because until you open the bottle up you do not see the carbonation. Am I making sense to you now?

 

A radler is more of a soda pop than a beer. That's when a beer is no longer a beer. Radler is the answer!

 

I would consider anything called a Shandy a beer cocktail and it should be labelled as such.
I bought a 12 pack of the Leinenkugel Summer Shandy one time (Beer and Lemonade) and I had to drainpour 11.5 of 12 cans. Actually, I drainpoured the one I opened. and put the other 11 directly in the recycling bin unopened.
I can't forget that horrid taste two summers later. And would be embarassed to serve this even to my least favorite friend.

 

I mean accepted styles. I was responding more to the people saying BA beers and sours are not beer.

 

The reinheitsgebot was a political move and that fucking bastard duke or whatever was steady drinking hefeweizen the whole time.

 

* hits head on desk*. Just because you don't understand a style or like it, does not mean you get to define what makes it "valid" beer. You could use this concept for a lot of other types of beer commonly being brewed that are takes on historical styles. Micheal jackson would not approve!

 

That's all well and good--being concerned with labels as a means for understanding one another and sharing similar knowledge bases is important. However, this thread started out as a question about what defines a label (beer with a capital "B") that, unless you're deferring to the German Purity Law, is extremely broad-based.

I mean, there are some people in here insinuating that lambics/gueuzes are on that fringe area of "real" beer, and those are incredibly pure/traditional styles.

Others talk about lagers and pilsners and other Reinheitsgebot favorites are "pure" beers, which seems incredibly restrictive and exclusionary to me.

I realize that you weren't necessarily making this points, but your comment gave me a good launching point to express my general feelings about the idea that a beer ceases being beer at some point based on adding ingredients besides water, hops, yeast and barley. Just imagine if we redefined anything that had more just flour, eggs, butter, fat/oil and sugar as something other than cake.

 

I can taste alcohol when the ABV gets north of 9%. And when I can taste the alcohol, it begins to taste like wine or liqour to a degree. It's still beer, but it sure seems to be crossing over into non-beer territory. With that said, I LOVE Rodeo Clown, and it's 9.something% ABV.

I've yet to try a barrel-aged beer, but I've got an espresso Yeti in the fridge waiting. The whole barrel-aged thing doesn't even sound like beer to me, but I figure what the hell? I'll try at least a handful before deciding it's not my bag ... beer or not beer.