When beer isn't really beer anymore..

I'm surprised nobody has said the following yet:

the point at which beer isn't really beer anymore is when it's triple-hops brewed, comes in a vortex bottle, and tastes like little other than carbonated water. I hate light beer, I can barely taste anything other than water, some slight breadiness, but most of all - carbonated water flavour. I just don't get it as a style.

 

I'm a fan of describing beer as "A non-distilled fermented beverage in which more than half the fermentable sugars came from grain." As for additions to the beer, I would use the similarly-broad "a beer ceases to be a beer with an additive when the base beer accounts for less than 50% of the total volume," which is just a simple statement of major composition.

Both of these are super-general, but they cover just about everything we think of as beer without getting too arbitrary in our limitations. Of course, it also covers a lot of things we don't usually think of as beers for whatever reason. For instance, some wine coolers fall under it. As does sake, but that's the price to pay for using this definition.

 

Like many posters, I like my beer to taste of beer.I'm not to keen on some of the modern brews which taste of grapefruit , much as I like grapefruit it's much cheaper to buy juice from the supermarket.
But as long as I can continue to find beer which suits me let's live and let live.

 

Didn't read all the responses, sorry if this has been said, but beer has been around too long, and too many others who came before us have had their say, for us to wonder what is beer and what is not. If it is brewed with malt and fermented naturally it is beer. Once it is distilled, however, by ice or otherwise, I believe it is not beer.

 

Well said. Worrying about if it is still beer would take half the fun out of it for me. The first beer was more than likely some stuff that happened to ferment in a puddle on the ground. If we worry too much about being history perfect we should have to go back to that. Drink what you like and have fun.

 

At what point does a malt beverage go from being a beer to being a cooler?