How did we get from Nordic grog to Bud Light?
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ObsidianJester
Well-Known Member
I think that much of this could be attributed at least in the United States to a bit more than say the German purity law, though it can be traced to that point in time for some of the reasons main stream drinking is focused apparently on the lite beers of BMC, etc.
My personal thoughts based off what research I've found out there and my own opinion is there is a lot of this based strictly off the prohibition. The lager class of beers were already starting to be very big but there was a significant amount of ales, and other sorts of beer drinking options out there at least in local markets. Enter the prohibition and most of those went extinct with only the biggest players able to survive. Those years with out any one able to legally brew or drink started to strip an entire generation of those various drinks. Now many of us today started drinking beer in the BMC style of lagers, simply because to untrained taste buds or by peer review of what was "good."
I suspect that may have happened post prohibition which made those beers such as ales, and whatever else was out there seem strange and outlandish. Couple this with the issue that most of those non lager producing companies ceased to exist and you have the evolution of going from some sort of fermented beverage consisting of nearly anything under the sun to what is commonly commercially available today.
However there is something to be stated about the raw marketing power of the German purity law that could and probably has been harvested to some degree by companies at least in Europe.
Just my two cents worth. Cheers.
My personal thoughts based off what research I've found out there and my own opinion is there is a lot of this based strictly off the prohibition. The lager class of beers were already starting to be very big but there was a significant amount of ales, and other sorts of beer drinking options out there at least in local markets. Enter the prohibition and most of those went extinct with only the biggest players able to survive. Those years with out any one able to legally brew or drink started to strip an entire generation of those various drinks. Now many of us today started drinking beer in the BMC style of lagers, simply because to untrained taste buds or by peer review of what was "good."
I suspect that may have happened post prohibition which made those beers such as ales, and whatever else was out there seem strange and outlandish. Couple this with the issue that most of those non lager producing companies ceased to exist and you have the evolution of going from some sort of fermented beverage consisting of nearly anything under the sun to what is commonly commercially available today.
However there is something to be stated about the raw marketing power of the German purity law that could and probably has been harvested to some degree by companies at least in Europe.
Just my two cents worth. Cheers.
Beer has gone from a part of life and cultural activity to a way to get drunk. I'd rather drink vodka shots than BMC. If your goal is getting drunk, why would you want to pee so much.
BTW, I don't drink much vodka, I enjoy slow sipping of home or craft brews.
BTW, I don't drink much vodka, I enjoy slow sipping of home or craft brews.
I think you have nailed it with this commentary.
Beer used to be a regular part of everyday life. Now its just about getting a cheap buzz for more than 90% of the market that buys beer. If I wanted to get drunk, I'd drink whiskey over beer too.
I'd have to say that marketing goes a long ways now days. Recently at a family function I was handed a bud light for a beverage, in which I drank slowly. In the mean time a distant relative found out I was a home brewer and gave me an Oktoberfest from Germany. Now my 3 year old daughter saw this told me I should be drinking the fancy shiny blue can instead of the brown bottle. It summed it up from me, most of the nation are controlled by commercials. Now hopefully I can convince my daughter the correct way of society
Beernik
Well-Known Member
Beer by committee: let's make a beer that is the least offensive to the most people and do it as cheap as possible.
norsk
Well-Known Member
Well... my Nordic ancestors would probably shudder to think that the beverage they made and drank was being linked in anyway to anything from Budweiser or other BMC beers....
BreezyBrew
IPA is my spirit animal
Completely agree. As humans certain tastes are better received than others. For example, pizza. Not many ingredients in that, yet it's delicious and people love it. It's cheap to make and to sell, so there's a lot of incentive. BMC marketing has convinced us that light pale lagers are "fun" to drink. Society has told us you are a real man if you can drink a lot of beer. You can only do this with BMC. The masses will generally choose a drink that's lower in alcohol because it doesn't contain a lot of alcohol. People generally think alcohol taste is bad. Consumer behavior... because if there's a lot of a certain type of beer on a shelf, it must be well liked. Less of one type of beer = crappy. Last point - brand loyalty not willing to try some something new and getting burned by poor examples of craft beer.
drainbamage
Keep HBT weird.
In short, that's pretty much it. Remove any and all strong flavors, streamline the production so every batch tastes exactly the same, then market the hell out of it so your customers feel less cool if they don't like it.
However, this article leaves a lot out of the history, like the introduction of hops in the 1300s, and the progression from darker beers to lighter ones like pale ales and eventually Czech pilsener. They were new and exciting because they were light and you could actually see through them.
They also don't mention that lite beer started as a way to save money on barley during WWII and was geared towards female drinkers while their husbands were away at war. Always something useful to keep in mind the next time somebody tells you your IPA is more of a sissy drink than their BMC
Arrheinous
Well-Known Member
You take all the majesty of the wolf and breed it down into a puggle. I prefer to call BMC "domesticated" beer rather than domestic.
JoefromPhilly
Well-Known Member
Think before you drink!
You guys are letting your thinking be clouded by the "craft beer vs BMC" paradigm people obsess about around here. The article isn't about that. It refers to "Bud Light" because it happens to be the most popular beer in the world, not because they're trying to frame the article in a "good beer" vs. "bad beer" light.
If that same line read "how did we go from rudimentary aboriginal slop to the highly refined craft brews we have today" the article would read much differently with the same basic info being presented.
If that same line read "how did we go from rudimentary aboriginal slop to the highly refined craft brews we have today" the article would read much differently with the same basic info being presented.
jitteringjr
Well-Known Member
Actually it is the German's fault that American beer became what it did. No really it is. During world war 2, because of increased food demands, wheat acreage allotment provisions were suspended. This meant farmers would make much more money harvesting wheat than barley and wheat production skyrocketed and barley dropped.
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT85840110/PDF
This forced brewers to react by changing recipes to include more readily available corn adjuncts to their beer which significantly lightened the beer. It wasn't because of BMC which included many more than those three breweries, trying to save a buck. Barley simply wasn't available in the quantity needed.
Maybe because of how the younger drinkers control the market by shear volume even today, all these younger returning GI's liked the lighter taste and it stuck. But you can simply blame the US government's meddling with the free market caused by the German onslaught. That is how American beer became the adjunct laden recipe we see now with the BMCs.
Taste some surviving pre WW2 beer recipes: Batch 19 from Coors, anchor steam, Sam Adams brewed from Jim's grandfathers recipe- American beer used to be good beer and I am blaming it on the Germans.
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT85840110/PDF
This forced brewers to react by changing recipes to include more readily available corn adjuncts to their beer which significantly lightened the beer. It wasn't because of BMC which included many more than those three breweries, trying to save a buck. Barley simply wasn't available in the quantity needed.
Maybe because of how the younger drinkers control the market by shear volume even today, all these younger returning GI's liked the lighter taste and it stuck. But you can simply blame the US government's meddling with the free market caused by the German onslaught. That is how American beer became the adjunct laden recipe we see now with the BMCs.
Taste some surviving pre WW2 beer recipes: Batch 19 from Coors, anchor steam, Sam Adams brewed from Jim's grandfathers recipe- American beer used to be good beer and I am blaming it on the Germans.
Exactly. Home brewing is all about crafting something "slow," something unique, something special. It is rebellion against mass produced, middle-of-the-line, insipid beer.
It is interesting how many craft movements are abounding today, getting back to ancient roots of society. Homebrew, BBQ, Food TV, home fermenting, farmer's markets on and on. Getting back to how things were done 2 centuries ago- natural, local, family, community.
The mass production and industrialization of food and drink is being fought against, and hooray
This article demonstrates how when it comes to mega produced foods, we have regressed. McChilisWeiser food and beverage. But brave souls are rediscovering the past, and how much better in some ways food and beverage were then.
If we weren't so obsessed, what would be the point of investing our time and money in a hobby such as homebrewing.
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