chicagojlo

Mmmmm give me a nice vaasje of Heineken straight from the tap, or even better, a Palm.

tonrob

It's always the beers with the most marketing clout behind them that tend to be the weakest examples of their type due to them often being "dumbed down" so as to minimize the risk of offending anyone's pallette.

Stella, Heineken - both (marginally) better than Bud but still piss poor examples of European pilsner-type lagers. Practically any Pils from Germany is far nicer.

Hoegaarden - not bad but plenty of better wheat beers out there, Belgian or German.

Guinness - you get my drift.

The great thing about the US craft beer scene is that there are many, many faithful reporoductions of European styles (and a few interesting unfaithful ones) that, with a few exceptions, do a better job of it than the imported so-called "premium" brands.

Hiro11

Exactly, I'll never understand why people like that stuff, it's indistinguishable from Bud and usually skunked as a result of the green bottle anyway. Hoegaarden is 10 times the beer Heineken is. They have it on tap at my local place. Awesome brew for mainstream stuff. Guiness tastes like crap here. Luckly, there are plenty of great micro stouts that are easy to find, though.

Spaten is awesome if you can find a fresh bottle, but it's often skunked by the time you buy it here. Sadly, the same is true of most import lagers, pilsners, bocks and porters. They don't seem to travel well.

Ayinger Celebrator is an amazing German dopplebock that's easy to find around here and seems to survive the journey a little better.

Also, Carling, Harp, Stella and Newcastle Brown are essentially indistinguishable from Budweiser, IMO. maybe the versions they sell in the UK are different than the domestic versions, but they are all exactly the same in taste over here.

ugacrew

Hiro11, do you smoke? I can actually tell the difference between a Budweiser and a Stella. Stella being the better one.

Hiro11

The difference between a domestic Stella and a Bud is nothing compared to the difference between Bud and a proper Pilsner like Victory Prima Pils or Paulaner. Yes, Stella is ever so slightly better, but why not get a real beer?

Optimus Prime

What an absolute load of utter bollocks. If you cant taste the difference between a Budweiser and Newcastle brown ale (even a US bottle of Newcastle ) then you need to go see a Doctor to get your taste buds sorted out. Either that or actually drink some and find that the quoted statement above is ridiculous.

ugacrew

Just seeking clarification because you said you couldn't tell the difference which I find quite odd.

Jerseygirl

Are you sure it was Guinness? I would never in a million years describe it as a chocolate flavour.

tonrob

I think his point is a bit like saying why quibble over two Windows PCs that are very similar (even though one is probably slightly better than the other one) when there's an Apple store around the corner!

Hiro11

Have you ever had a domestic, Foster's-brewed Newkie Brown? night and day compared to the UK-brewed stuff. You can get both in my local liquor store.

tonrob

It's usually a combination of the dark colour, consistency and bitterness in stouts that people find akin to chocolate. Some stouts are actually marketed on this basis (and some actually have chocolate thrown into the mix to boot!)

RoadWarriorFromLP

Guinness does not travel well. I had heard this from others and didn't believe it until I saw it for myself.

But it is much, much better in Ireland than it is anywhere else. Night and day difference -- here, it's akin to drinking motor oil, but in Ireland, it is actually smooth and quite easy to drink. It's almost as if they are two completely different drinks.

tonrob

Different recipe perhaps? I certainly enjoyed it more in Ireland than the couple of times I had it over here.

Optimus Prime

Never mind the difference between US and UK Newcastle brown ale...you said it was hard to distinquish between that and Budweiser and Im still calling bullshit on that statement.

Optimus Prime

You're not alone.