Do you drink crap or quality beer?

g5fd6ow0hseima

That_Guy wrote: »

I can understand coffee snobs to a certain extent but beer snobs????

It all goes out the same way regardless of what you drink.

How does a coffee snob differ to a beer snob? Also, what is your definition of a beer snob? Somebody who refuses to drink piss / seeks a quality product?

moonage wrote: »

I drink for the effect (like everyone else), which sometimes involves getting hammered.

It makes me laugh that some people think they mainly drink alcohol because of the taste.

Of course we all drink alcohol for its effect, otherwise why would one bother to drink? But my question is: Why would you drink a low-quality beer when there are far better beers out there - usually for little extra cost (if one cares to go to a decent off licence)

To me, alcohol is an anomaly in the consumer world. Consumers will always seek the highest quality product, yet with alcohol, people are more than content to drink piss week in, week out, while being totally ignorant of the plentiful (& superior) other options out there.

empirix

erdinger krystle - all the way baby!

bnt

Tiffany Tall Sandbag wrote: »

Of course we all drink alcohol for its effect, otherwise why would one bother to drink?

I'm not sure I agree with that. I mean, I rarely drink these days, and would have stopped altogether, except that a good beer or shot of Cognac hits flavour spots that soft drinks just can't reach, even when I drink too slowly to get drunk. (I can make a shot of good Cognac last half a night.)

I was kinda spoiled at a young age, since the first beers I ever paid for were good. I was living in South Africa, and discovered that their local version of Amstel was my favourite, with Castle Lager not far behind. Years later I tried the Amstel you get here and was bitterly (lagerly?) disappointed - no comparison barring the name. South African Breweries has since grown to the point that it now owns half the US beer industry (as SAB Miller), and I can't comment on the quality now.

Of the non-Stouts brewed here, I'll go for the Miller if there are no decent alternatives (much better than the others the OP mentioned IMHO), but otherwise it's a bottled beer. Often a Weissbier such as Erdinger or Paulaner. I tried the Weissbier that Lidl carries at about €1 a can, and it's not half bad on a hot summer's day, but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Another nice one is the Young's Honey Dew you can buy in Tesco - brewed in London and served cold.

It's probably a good thing I don't live in the North of England - I was amazed to find out, on a trip to Manchester a few years ago, just how good a pint of Director's Bitter you can get for £1.25 in a Wetherspoon pub. :pac:

The Maverick

Heineken in the pub, can't stomach the bottles and cans though.

Cans of Hollandia at 99 cent more than make up for what it lacks in taste.

Bonito

Kopparberg. Currently the Strawberry & Lime one.

M.J.M.C

Bonito wrote: »

Kopparberg. Currently the Strawberry & Lime one.

Did you read any of the other posts in this thread?

Talking about Beers.....

DirkVoodoo

I've stopped going for quantity, I can never drink piss beer anyway so I've decided just to buy fewer, better beers.

I like Leffe blonde.

Just under 7 euro for 4 in Dunnes.

Bonito

M.J.M.C wrote: »

Did you read any of the other posts in this thread?

Talking about Beers.....

It can't be a cider?

M.J.M.C

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I've stopped going for quantity, I can never drink piss beer anyway so I've decided just to buy fewer, better beers.

I hear ya

M.J.M.C

Bonito wrote: »

It can't be a cider?

If the thread was called "Do you drink crap or quality Cider?" I guess it would yeah

Bonito

M.J.M.C wrote: »

If the thread was called "Do you drink crap or quality Cider?" I guess it would yeah

Alcoholism! :mad:

Wait, that's not right.

Suggestions please. Something smoothe but strong.

ItsAWindUp

I drink Budweiser, Miller and Carling.

Duggy747

Ah......how unemployment hit me, I went from Heinekin Harry down to Bavaria Barry.

Still, can't knock 8 cans for €8.

Though if the current economic climate continues I'll be downgrading even further to Binwater Bosco. :pac:

Username37

I drink Corona Extra with a lime. Everyone always goes on about how its a crap, overrated beer and I look like a knob drinking it in bars, but I don't care because I think its delicious.

ItsAWindUp

Username37 wrote: »

I drink Corona Extra with a lime. Everyone always goes on about how its a crap, overrated beer and I look like a knob drinking it in bars, but I don't care because I think its delicious.

Its lovely.

Rented Mule

Username37 wrote: »

I drink Corona Extra with a lime. Everyone always goes on about how its a crap, overrated beer and I look like a knob drinking it in bars, but I don't care because I think its delicious.

You do realise that the lime is there to disinfect the bottle and was never meant to be shoved down into it.

Username37

Rented Mule wrote: »

You do realise that the lime is there to disinfect the bottle and was never meant to be shoved down into it.

You do realise that shoving the lime down makes Corona taste even more delicious? I don't care why the lime is there I am just happy that it is

Eoin

If I see Urquell or Brahma in an offie then I'll pick them up, but I do like Heineken as well. Just because a beer is very popular doesn't automatically mean it's shìte. Some people here sound like the type of people who hate a band as soon as other people start liking them.

I tried some Samuel Adams last time I was in the States but didn't like it very much - Anchor Steam was quite nice though. It's great going to places like Germany or the Czech republic where you know that a local draft beer is going to be nice.

Greyfox

I drink whichever beer I THINK tastes better and can't stand ignorant beer snobs who can't seem to grasp the fact that some people prefer the taste of Bud/Heiniken to the taste of stronger beers. What's so difficult to understand? Sadly theirs a lot of beer snobs on here that don't realise that people are allowed to have an opinion that's different to their own

These snobs like to think your not alowed enjoy the taste of Bud/Heiniken/Calsberg etc and wrongly persume that if you drink these beers you haven't tried that many other beers ...only an braindead idiot would listen to these snobs!

James_LWAU

Pints of Harp

M.J.M.C

I wouldn't consider myself a beer snob, far from it / nor would I consider anyone in this thread.

My outlook is - there is millions of beers there to be tasted.
Why limit myself to just one.

Fair enough if someone loves Miller etc and wants to stick to only that drink, then fine. It's all down to personal choice.

James_LWAU wrote: »

Pints of Harp

Have you heard Tommy Tiernan's joke about Harp? (not saying its a bad or good beer i just love the joke)

"harp's a bad bastard of a drink. you can start the night of a harp binge in the best of form and end up standing over your cousin with a shovel roaring, "take it back you bastard! take it back!" - Tommy Tiernan

r3nu4l

Greyfox wrote: »

I drink whichever beer I THINK tastes better and can't stand ignorant beer snobs who can't seem to grasp the fact that some people prefer the taste of Bud/Heiniken to the taste of stronger beers. What's so difficult to understand? Sadly theirs a lot of beer snobs on here that don't realise that people are allowed to have an opinion that's different to their own

These snobs like to think your not alowed enjoy the taste of Bud/Heiniken/Calsberg etc and wrongly persume that if you drink these beers you haven't tried that many other beers ...only an braindead idiot would listen to these snobs!

Not quite true, what you've posted here is merely inverted snobbery.

I accept Heineken/Carlsberg and their ilk for what they are. They are pretty flavourless beers designed to attract huge sales from the mass market and people who don't care for or appreciate deep flavours. That's fair enough and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.

If I'm out in a pub at a social occasion I don't get in a strop because the bar doesn't stock my favourite Belgian beer, British Real Ale or Irish Craft Beer. Instead I just order a pint of cold lager or Guinness and enjoy it for what it is.

However, give me the choice of a free pint of generic lager or paying for a proper flavoursome, well brewed beer and I'll go for the latter every time. I like craft beer/real ale festivals, I love the fact that a pint of brown ale can taste deeply malty, chocolatey or even herby. I love discovering a deep flavoursome draught and savouring the taste. I'd much rather savour the taste of one of these beers over the course of 45 minutes or so than skull back two or three pints of cold, flavourless generic lager in the same time.

However, if that's what you're into then that's fine by me, I couldn't care less but it does sound like you have a right chip on your shoulder about this.

marcsignal

When I can get my hands on them in Dublin, either Augustiner or Maierbraü.

Failing that, Erdinger, or Becks.

Sengoku79

If i'm out and about with friends I will usually drink Guinness, maybe carlsberg, but if it's at home or at a house party, definitely good bottled beer.

Holden Caulfield

Some people have some horrible taste in beer here!

I mean Carlsberg, Bud and Miller? Awful.

Why get Carlsberg when you can just get Carlsberg Export anyway? It's a no brainer.

Turpentine

Promac wrote: »

And there's a feckin load of beer snobbery in here - nothing wrong with heineken. It's a quality beer. People just think that whatever is popular is piss and that they look a lot cooler drinking obscure czech beers.

Beer snobbery my arse, the only people getting their backs up here are the people who drink "sh1te" beer and think that we should all only be able to drink "sh1te" beer, in high quantities in a short space of time because all beer is "sh1t".

There's nothing wrong with spending your weekend drinking Budweiser if you want. Fair enough. I think it tastes like piss. Am I supposed to drink what I think tastes like piss just because you like it? Am I not allowed to mention different varieties of beer because you and your ilk get offended?

Anyone can drink what they want. If you are afraid of experimentation you probably stay away from a thread recommending new things.

Copper23

Confab wrote: »

Well? Do you? I used to drink piss. Bud, Carlsberg, Heinken, Miller, I used to drink them all. But I've had an epiphany.

Most beers aimed at the Irish market are piss.

So I decided to start drinking the good stuff. Gulden Draak and Delirium Tremens/Nocturnum, Chimay Red/Blue, champange... it just makes drinking more pleasant. Gone are the days when I'd try to swallow the dregs of a warm Pisswater and gag violently, thinking someone had violated my pint with their urine. Now beer actually tastes nice.

Who's with me? We're supposed to be one of the biggest drinking countries in Europe and we have the taste in alcohol of a sixteen year old French teen drinking Corona near a puddle. Without the lime.

Edit: Am imbibing Gulden Draak at the moment. Oh dear god is it good.

What about the recession... yadda yadda yadda....

marcsignal

Copper23 wrote: »

What about the recession... yadda yadda yadda....

best reason in the world to drink

.

Greyfox

Turpentine wrote: »

Am I supposed to drink what I think tastes like piss just because you like it? Am I not allowed to mention different varieties of beer because you and your ilk get offended?

Well i'll listen to opinions of other beers that I have not tried and will try the odd alternative in an off licence/tesco or if i'm in something like the porter house but overall I still prefer the taste of Bud to the 25 or so other beers I have tasted in my life.

Turpentine

Greyfox wrote: »

Well i'll listen to opinions of other beers that I have not tried and will try the odd alternative in an off licence/tesco or if i'm in something like the porter house but overall I still prefer the taste of Bud to the 25 or so other beers I have tasted in my life.

There's nothing wrong with that at all. Each to their own. At least you're open minded.

sock puppet

Username37 wrote: »

You do realise that shoving the lime down makes Corona taste even more delicious? I don't care why the lime is there I am just happy that it is

The lime totally overpowers the taste of the beer though. You're ordering a beer and then putting something in it that makes it taste like... not beer

Prof.Badass

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

I like the taste of a decent chilled beer & its nothing to do with anything you've said here^. I think you have a few hang ups about not being able to drink beer.

Did you even read my post. Where did i ever say i can't drink beer;

Prof.Badass wrote: »

That said I do drink beer a lot (as it's cheaper in pubs) and i get whatever goes down easy and is cheap.

FruitLover wrote: »

Why do you even bother to reply to this thread when you don't know WTF you're talking about?

Well first of all i drink beer often enough so this thead is relevant to me. And i've tried many of these so called "quality" beers and found them to be less pleasant tasting than many so called "crap" beers.

But mostly to give out about the growing trend for snobbery around beer in ireland (a few more years and it'll go the way of wine snobbery or coffee snobbery. Seems people are just predisposed to thinking they're better than others for what type of products they buy ).

Promac wrote: »

Are you 12?

If no-one enjoyed the taste of it they'd just be injecting alocohol straight into the bloodstream and bypassing the taste of it altogether.

People can grow tolerant to the taste of beer, and then maybe with a little help from classical conditioning (i.e their brain begins to associate the taste of beer with the pleasureable effects of alcohol) they may even begin to start enjoying it. Which is fine. But if someone chooses not to drink beer, or would prefer to drink milder tasting beer then that's fine too.

The reason beer is still so popular is mostly because of tradition and personal habit, but also in part because there is pressure put on men to enjoy beer (and to a lesser extent wine for women), to the point where a huge proportion force themselves to like these drinks to fit in and avoid society's judgement (i.e that men who don't enjoy beer are somehow less manly or less mature). Idiotic attitudes such as this one;

Promac wrote: »

Are you 12?

and this one;

CiaranC wrote: »

Youll understand when youre an adult

seem widespread throughout society.

Let people drink whatever the fuck they want. The things people look down on others for .

Also, I love the "injecting alcohol" line :rolleyes:. As if drinking alcohol for the effects is akin to injecting heroin. I'm fine with my naggin+mixer thank you very much :P.

aDeener

I have been enjoying kilkenny draught as of late. delicious

Rented Mule

sock puppet wrote: »

The lime totally overpowers the taste of the beer though. You're ordering a beer and then putting something in it that makes it taste like... not beer

It's not even worth arguing.

honru

Don't know if it's been mentioned but Hoegaarden is one of my favourites. I could be wrong but it seems less places in Dublin do it on tap these days.

az2wp0sye65487

Can't believe some of the attitudes here... "all beer is crap" - "just drink the most tasteless one to get drunk" etc etc etc.

I also can't understand how it's perfectly acceptable to be a 'wine snob' but not a 'beer snob'. Not just here, but in general - like when you go to a good restaurant. They have great food & an extensive wine list, but when you ask "what beers do you have?" they usually just say "Bud, Heineken, Miller and Coors Light...." and that's it!!! WTF?!?

I love the taste of a good beer. Some of my personal favourites are Leffe, Erdinger and Hoegaarden. I don't drink beer to appear 'more manly' or to fit in, as someone suggested earlier. I like a nice beer even if I'm home alone watching the TV. Even just one sometimes.

I can't believe nobody here has mentioned Kwak yet either. (Maybe you have, but I didn't read every post)... AFAIK it's hard to get here. I got a gift box of their special glass and 4 bottles of it last Christmas, and it's really lovely stuff.

To the people who don't know about their beers and would like to know more, get yourself over here

gurramok

Well said steviecakes, its quality over quantity that counts nevermind the after shock of zero headaches in the morn like Bud drinkers do have!

johnmcdnl

Greyfox wrote: »

I drink whichever beer I THINK tastes better and can't stand ignorant beer snobs who can't seem to grasp the fact that some people prefer the taste of Bud/Heiniken to the taste of stronger beers. What's so difficult to understand? Sadly theirs a lot of beer snobs on here that don't realise that people are allowed to have an opinion that's different to their own

These snobs like to think your not alowed enjoy the taste of Bud/Heiniken/Calsberg etc and wrongly persume that if you drink these beers you haven't tried that many other beers ...only an braindead idiot would listen to these snobs!

Have you ever drank anything bar Heino and Bud.... nope - didn't think so

come back when you've tried both

Lapin

Confab wrote: »

Well? Do you? I used to drink piss. Bud, Carlsberg, Heinken, Miller, I used to drink them all. But I've had an epiphany.

Most beers aimed at the Irish market are piss.

So I decided to start drinking the good stuff. Gulden Draak and Delirium Tremens/Nocturnum, Chimay Red/Blue, champange... it just makes drinking more pleasant. Gone are the days when I'd try to swallow the dregs of a warm Pisswater and gag violently, thinking someone had violated my pint with their urine. Now beer actually tastes nice.

Who's with me? We're supposed to be one of the biggest drinking countries in Europe and we have the taste in alcohol of a sixteen year old French teen drinking Corona near a puddle. Without the lime.

Edit: Am imbibing Gulden Draak at the moment. Oh dear god is it good.

In Ireland you have a choice of draft beer.
Guinness, Smithwicks, A multitude of mainstream Lager, or Bulmers.

Thats what you get from Kerry to Derry - Take it or leave it.

In England you can travel from one village to another and sample different flavours of local brews from Cornwall to Cumberland.

Bottled continental beer has its place, but it is vastly overpriced over here.

For a nation that prides itself on fertile land we have a sorry history of brewing. We have the best ingredients growing on our land, but the vast majority of that produce goes to feed the multinational tourist trap, advertising agency owned by Diago.

We like to buy into the old lark about "A pint of plain being yer only man."

But the truth is - We have little chance to try anything else.

gsxr1

name me all the crap beers and all the good ones.

Is this not just a matter of personal taste?

Naikon

All I can say, Carlsberg is the worst mass market beer. Terrible ****e. Chimey/Duval ftw!

Quality > Quantity

moonage

If some people like the taste of beer as much as they think they do, I wonder why non-alcoholic beers aren't more popular.

The fantastic taste of beer without the inconvenience of the alcohol! Beer for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Bonito

moonage wrote: »

If some people like the taste of beer as much as they think they do, I wonder why non-alcoholic beers aren't more popular.

The fantastic taste of beer without the inconvenience of the alcohol! Beer for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

You can't smell like beer going in to work.

moonage

Bonito wrote: »

You can't smell like beer going in to work.

If there's no alcohol in it, you won't smell like beer.

Bonito

moonage wrote: »

If there's no alcohol in it, you won't smell like beer.

So it's the alcohol in beer that makes it smell like beer? All 6% or so of it. It wouldn't be the yeast or hops or barley or the likes?

ardinn

OPENROAD wrote: »

Is there a reason for this? We always hear the hype about the "Irish pub" being the best in the world

The selection of beers on tap is awful.

The reason is that these beers are just awkward to get in, wont be drank by anybody except 1 in every 400 people, will end up going off and will cost a fortune if this happens - if a pub was to get on tap all the beers listed here you would not have anywhere to put you pint on the bar due to all the taps - Also the ice banks used for cooling the beer come in 16 line units (usually) and if you take a pub with 2 banks of 7 taps = 14 taps and want to bring in 2 or 3 more beers you going to have to install a new ice bank (a nice €7000.00) and rip up half you bar installing lines etc - Not worth it for anyone!

Porterhouses etc were set up in a fashion to enable easy installation and removal of lines so this is no problem - but for 1 or 2 people to go into a rural pub and ask for these beers to be put on tap - even if you drink 5 pints every night for a year - it probably still wouldnt be worth it.

moonage

Bonito wrote: »

So it's the alcohol in beer that makes it smell like beer? All 6% or so of it. It wouldn't be the yeast or hops or barley or the likes?

The smell of alcohol comes from alcohol.

Bonito

moonage wrote: »

The smell of alcohol comes from alcohol.

Well alcohol is hardling going to smell like beer now, is it?

Havermeyer

I don't drink beer. But ye olde stonehouse is where it's at.

Strong dry cider trumps pissy beer any day of the week. It's also cheapish.

moonage

Bonito wrote: »

Well alcohol is hardling going to smell like beer now, is it?

No. Just suck a mint then.