Beer sales are down. The makers believe the way forward is to attract more women to drinking beer. Thus all the flavored new ones. The latest from Anheuser-Busch, Natural Light (Strawberry Lemonade flavored beer).

We've had Bud Light Lime, then Bud Light Orange. Now they are coming out with Bud Light Lemon Tea.

They are going to make sissies out of all of us.

I started brewing my own several years ago. Not hard to do and much better than the crap that passes for beer in the marketplace.

Find you a homebrew store, buy a book or take a class...in no time you'll be brewing a bottle so much better than you can buy.

-G

Several years ago I quit drinking beer for a while;it just did'nt taste the same anymore. A buddy told me,You picked a helluva time to quit drinking as now they have all these micro breweries + not just your old standard redneck beer.Hell,I always liked "redneck beer".Lone Star back in the 70's was a good beer but they sold out + the recipe changed.

Just saw this today:



" Enjoy a pub-inspired indulgence. Rich chocolate ice cream is infused with Stout for notes of toasted malt, then mixed with crunchy chocolate covered pretzels and decadent fudge."

My mother in law will 102 next month. She lives in an assisted living community. Although she still loves her ice cream,she also loves her one beer every evening before supper (her happy hour). I have to get her a pint!

I have drank quite a bit of beer so-far. The new designer beer are just different to me and hard to say which is great or not,,I hit Anchorage once or twice a year for a week and drink Alaska Amber on tap, consistently good. Once a month we can legally order 5 cases of beer, 7 1/2 gal of distilled spirits and a case of wine,,because of living in native country. To maximize efficeincy we always get Ice beer,, sort of a modern Colt 45. And we do brew beer too but a steady diet adds about 15lbs a winter. Still and wine too,,no fun to run out in the bush!

IMHO, these are great days to be a beer drinker.

Ales, Porters, Stouts, the selections/choices are amazing!

ya!


GWB

There certainly have a lot to choose from these days.I was in Bitburg Germany for 3 years.They make a fine Pilsner called Bitburgerbrau. I know some of the Whole Foods stores carry it.Its worth a try.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
There certainly have a lot to choose from these days.I was in Bitburg Germany for 3 years.They make a fine Pilsner called Bitburgerbrau. I know some of the Whole Foods stores carry it.Its worth a try.

Germans have strict regulations on what constitutes beer going back a couple of hundred years, fruit flavor isn't one of them. But then, some of us up here refer to American beer as horse piss.

Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by Kensco:
Beer sales are down.

I wonder if this is actually true.

I owned a liquor store a few years back but have been out of the loop lately.

I ask the question as to the validity of the statement based on context.

Is it that beer sales of the leading US beer makers (Bud, Coors, etc.) are down or is it that beer sales in total are down?

I would suspect with all the new offerings out there, taking into account specialty brews, people have developed an appreciation for more substantial brews. I suspect total beer sales are stable or up and it's just that the traditional US beer makers are suffering the consequences of pushing their "white bread" offerings.

Putting fu fu fruit flavors on that "white bread" is one way of attracting new underdeveloped beer tastes. Personally, what makes me want to try a new offering is seeing a new amber or stout on the market. If you start pushing those ambers and the like, you are naturally going to pull from the pilsner drinker market.

The fruit flavoring to attract new beer drinkers is a bit like Harley Davidson's current offering of Sportsters. You can get into one for about 1/2 the money of a real Harley and the company is now offering to buy back the Sportster for full value when you trade it in for the big bike. It's their gateway drug. Same same with the fu fu beers.