I usually assume when Europeans complain about American beers, they just are complaining about our “domestic” beers like Bud Light, Coors, PBR, etc. which makes sense, they are our bottom shelf beers.
I recently chatted with someone at a party who said “no, all American beers are bad” including microbrewery beers.
I’ve never been to Europe so I wouldn’t know, but I do like my Left Handed Milk Stout, NWPAs, and hell even the hipstered out IPAs.
Are these what y’all are referencing?
Generic American beer sucks. Craft American beer is fucking awesome.
I experienced the same in Australia when I visited so assume it’s probably the same most places.
Not a European, but i don’t buy that. American mass-produced beers are bad. That used to be all beers, but it’s not anymore. American microbrews have come a long way and frequently win awards, including international awards. The only objective evidence shows good American beers are good.
I think it’s down to history, wounded pride or self-defensiveness, and as someone else mentioned: the aged swill you get from “imports” may not be good.
Personally, I think German beer is awful, and quite a few American microbrews do German styles so much better. But I’m adult enough to understand I’ve never been to Germany and that what we get for imports may not be their best or freshest. I’m willing to give German brewers the benefit of the doubt, despite what I’ve experienced from them
It’s true they really don’t cross the Atlantic all that well but they’re great fresh
One of these days I hope to find out. Several times Ive had internal conversations debating whether it’s reasonable to organize a trip around beer
I took one of those once. I think at least. I can’t actually remember…
I would question your friend on what they are drinking and where.
The easiest to find Australian beer in the US is Fosters. But go to Australia and few people there actually drink it because it’s not good and there are so many better options.
I once traveled to the UK and had a Newcastle Brown straight from the tap and it was delicious. Went back home to the US and picked up some bottles, it was old and tasted like barely a shadow of the fresh UK stuff.
If I judged Australia or UK beers on what I can find easily in the US, I would also think their beers are ass.
So if he is trying only what he can get in his country, 1) it’s probably old and 2) it’s rarely the “best” a country has to offer.
It’s funny as I was reading the comments and I was actually thinking about fosters specifically and how ass nasty it is
I have had a good Newcastle and boddington’s and Sammy smith on tap in the states at a Irish bar so frigging delicious although Sammy smith is good in general but probably some of them are too sweet to be considered beer.
As a commonwealther who has tried American beer when she turned 21, I can tell you the complaints are just Europeans making a big deal as Europeans do. Err, I should clarify; American beer is an acquired taste, yes, but all beer is an acquired taste. I didn’t like European beer any more.
Rule of thumb, if a European is complaining about American customs, it’s most likely their pessimism for the sake of it. They hate American beer. They hate velveeta and decry it as fake cheese even though fake cheese wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction. They hate that Americans put dressing on salad, saying “why don’t you want to taste the salad”. They hate Americanized spaghetti even though it was Italians that Americanized spaghetti. They hate New York pizza. They hate the American fast food industry. All while they seldom question why they consider haggis, snails, casu marzu “delicacies”. The only stereotypical thing I’ve never seen them hate on, ironically, is Buffalo wings.
I live in Europe, but was an expert taste panelist at New Belgium Brewing in the US when I lived there.
Lefthand Milk Stout Nitro is a great beer.
There’s a lot of good beer all over the world (okay, much of it anyway). Quality has a LOT more to do with freshness, cleanliness, and lack of dissolved oxygen in the beer. You can also find bad beer most anywhere. Don’t let someone making silly blanket statement get ya down.
I will just go ahead and contradict myself by making a blanket statement that the low end of food is just better in most of the EU cuz of how much stricter the rules are. From McDonald’s to the grocery store, you kinda can’t get “terrible” food.
Woot! I drink fat tire from new Belgium as a everyday beer, although right now I am drinking modelo especial lol…
Love that you randomly called out left hand and new Belgium. Good name drops 💜
Wow, care to tell us more about New Belgium?
How do you become an expert taster? Did you have to taste every batch to make sure it comes out tasting “correct”? How do they manage that on such a large scale?
Sure! The tasting part is complex but to grossly simplify it:
Each site has a bunch of people who are taster verified and have other jobs (rigorous program that takes a while to be part of) and they 1+ taste panel per day on each site which has a mix of new beers, old shelf beers, all the new releases, all from all of the sites, plus other market stuff (competitor products). You don’t usually know what you’re tasting outside of trainings so you just use a bunch of chemical words to describe the beer (no, you don’t say “fruity”, you talk about the specific fruit compound like acetaldehyde or ethyl hexonoate).
They only use the data of attributes you’re best at, so each taster is like an instrument that they’re also Corsa calibrating with spiked samples throughout all of that.
The best part, by far? Free snacks; good ones too. We already had limitless free beer so that doesn’t incentivize anyone
Beyond that NBB was dope. Love the people, love the beer, the company actually stands up for what it believes in. Based af, if it was in Europe I’d 100% work for them still. But we did wanna leave the US so…
New Belgium is amazing.
1554 is one of my favorites, and I introduced my friend to the Voodoo ranger series and that’s how he left the land of domestic beers.
Thank you for your service. 🫡
Ooh I haven’t had the porter in a while actually… go Colorado!
I recently chatted with someone at a party who said “no, all American beers are bad” including microbrewery beers.
That person has not tried “all” American beers. So their view can be safely disregarded IMO.
European here. Germans just think their beer is the best in the world and if you’re not doing it like them, you’re not doing it right.
Don’t get me wrong, the standards Germans apply to their beer production means that it’s rare to get a terrible beer there, but IMO it’s also not that innovative and the range of styles is fairly limited. There is a ton of choice in the US both in terms of breweries and styles. The variation means you get more duds but also more excellent beers.
American craft beers get pretty crazy and experimental! You also have styles like black IPA, hazy IPA, cream ale, pumpkin ale, steam beer, and bourbon barrel beer that are all very American
Beer-drinking European living in 'Murica here. For certain styles, the US has fantastic beers available. In particular IPAs (which don’t always have to be mega hoppy!), pale ales, pilsners, amber ales, and stouts. Plenty of great choices to be found here, if you discover the right breweries. That’s key, because there are a lot breweries with imo questionable taste.
What’s harder to find are good beers of other styles, such as Belgian or German beers. US breweries try, sometimes, but they aren’t succeeding.
That’s kinda the difference - local specialties mostly can’t be beaten on their own turf. Also, in America you’ve got to actually seek out the good stuff and go local, the InBev stuff is meticulously targeted at swine with no taste.
I’m particularly fond of Belgian beers and my partner is fond of German beers. They’re of course not as good in America as the real thing, but there are definitely some solid options. In fact that’s what I will say is nice about American beers: you can find something decent of any style of beer you can imagine, and some truly excellent ones in a handful of styles as you mentioned already.
The Belgian and German styles are largely ignored by the national breweries, but a lot of more local or regional microbreweries are crushing it when it comes to them.
American here: American Light Lagers, like those of the BMC brands, are both one of the hardest styles to brew well and one of the worst crimes ever committed against brewery. They’re hard to brew because there is so little flavor that the slightest off-taste can ruin a batch. That’s also the reason that they are so terrible; they are little more than ethanol delivery systems that have enough malt proteins to sometimes have a head.
Want to get fucked up without tasting much? They’re probably the next best choice after a very neutral vodka. If you have interest in anything beyond intoxication, like actually enjoying the beverage, then, pretty much any other American or European style is a better choice.
The big US and Canadian brands all taste like ass but there’s thousands of small breweries that make very yummy nectar. Personally I prefer German and Belgian brews.
I’m curious what they have available over there. Most of our microbreweries don’t reach outside of their own state, let alone internationally.
I’m confident that we have some brews that could go head to head with their best, and I bet they have some that could compete with our worst.
There should be a beer equivalent to the movie “Bottle Shock”
Idk who you talked to, but I think most European beer enthusiasts would agree that a lot of American beers are awesome. Especially what you mentioned: various IPAs and Stouts, you guys started the modern interpretation of those styles.
Maybe someone who thinks only lagers are legit beer and everything else is “hipster crap”. I’ve met some people with those opinions.
American, but I enjoy beer and have tried hundreds. I tend to like sweeter or richer Belgian and German ales the most. Things like König Ludwig, Tripel Karmeliet, Augustiner, Weihenstephaner, Ayinger, Paulaner, and St. Bernardus will always top my list.
If you like those, here are some US recommendations that are also damn good. Note, some of these are quite regional.
- Tröeg’s - Mad Elf
- Fat Heads - Alpenglow
- Boulevard - Bourbon Barrel Quad
- Royal Docks - VLAD
- Dark Horse - Scotty Karate
- Descutes - The Abyss
- Fat Heads - Goggle Fogger
- Sierra Nevada - Kellerweiss
- Terrestrial - Blue Dream
- Thirsty Dog - Irish Setter Red
- Penn Brewery - Penn Weizen
- Ommegang - Manhattan Shine
- Sibling Revelry - Lavender Wit
- Ithaca - Apricot Wheat
Also, shoutout to almost anything by Unibroue - They’re from Montreal, but hey that’s not Europe.
Glad to see Tröeg’s in that list! Their Perpetual IPA has been my favorite beer for years.
I tried a Budweiser once. Once was enough.
Not a European, but a well traveled person who has drunk beers in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Botswana, Senegal, UK, Poland, China, and the UK, as well as drunk beers from Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic etc, I stopped drinking beer when I drunk American beer. Sure, there are some good microbrews, but holy moly, there are some questionable things that pass for beer in America.
