Why does cheap beer taste better than expensive beer?

[Mayne]

For the longest time I thought the Beer Store was owned b y the government...hence the stupid prices...turns out its owned by multi-national companies like anheuser busch, sapporo and some other foreign company...its kinda ridiculous.

and they have the nerve to charge me .5 cents for a fricking bag for my beers.

 

[Iron Woode]

For the longest time I thought the Beer Store was owned b y the government...hence the stupid prices...turns out its owned by multi-national companies like anheuser busch, sapporo and some other foreign company...its kinda ridiculous.

and they have the nerve to charge me .5 cents for a fricking bag for my beers.

everyone but you knows it's owned by the brewing companies. It's old name was The Brewers Retail.

nickel a bag is Ontario law.

 

[NAC4EV]

I used to make my own,
Just add your boiled water and hops and enough dextrose [3lbs] to make 8% lager beer.

 

[zinfamous]

I used to make my own,
Just add your boiled water and hops and enough dextrose [3lbs] to make 8% lager beer.

D:


Hey, without yeast, you're just going to have a nauseating, sweet bitter beer with all of that glucose/dextrose and nothing to process it. 😀 ....and why no malt? yuck...

 

[Scarpozzi]

The cost of beer is subject to a number of factors. These days, big brands like Miller/Coors/AB are all buying up smaller labels to help squash micro-brew growth by competing as directly with them as they can. They pick companies that have solid sales and are willing to cash out....then they inch the prices up and streamline their operations.

The actual process of making consistent light beer is difficult. Lighter beers have less hops and dark malts aren't there to help mask any off-flavors. If there's too much sugar or a bad yeast mix or inconsistent temp during fermentation for lagers vs ales...the result can be a beer that's just funky. Quality control is serious business in beer making and it starts with clean equipment and being extremely careful with ingredients going into each batch. That's why most smaller breweries that aren't making HUGE volume stick to hoppier beers and try to differentiate in the ale space. Young Hipsters like that kind of beer too because it kills off the bacteria that's likely growing in their mouths from the food truck shit they eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (yeah, apparently the beer isn't the only thing that's bitter...I am)

In my old middle age, I've actually switched to the cheaper beers because it gets the job done, saves money for more important things in life, and is drinkable. If you drink beer to be cool or think girls care that you only drink IPAs, you don't get it. Beer should be cold, refreshing...not necessarily light, but balanced. Too much acidity makes a nice beer to drink from a shot glass, but I don't diet that way. I want to drink by the pint or pitcher.

Now...Drinking an unfiltered lemon lager or hefeweizen at a baseball game isn't a half bad way to spend an afternoon...but only if the price is right and it's made well. I'll revert back to Miller Lite or PBR or Old Style or Hamm's or Budweiser before I order a second of a bad beer. I'm not suggesting I'd order a 12 pack of the Beast...I put my college days behind me.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I used to make my own,
Just add your boiled water and hops and enough dextrose [3lbs] to make 8% lager beer.

I always found the coopers beer kits to be subpar. I'm not trying to diss your brand...just trying to help. What I found was the malt concentrates I tried from Coopers were hopped...meaning, the hops weren't as fresh and the beer wasn't as flavorful as if you'd used un-hopped malt and ordered your own hops to add.... It's kind of like the difference between a fresh cup of coffee and a stale cup of coffee....both are coffee, but the stale cup loses a lot of flavor. Hard to place what changes, but it's obvious in the finished product.

If I were going with LME (liquid malt extract), you can find a few shops that carry different light ones that may work good. I prefer german hallertaur hops for bittering (1oz per 5 gallons) and then tettnanger 1oz for aroma at the end. I typically stuck to those hops unless I wanted more acidity, then I might throw centennials at the end for more grapefruit aroma. It's something to play with if you still brew. I'm about 6 years out of practice because I had kids, but I'm getting back into it soon when I get more time and can hide my processes from my wife. 😉

 

[Mayne]

I like you Scarpozi. you explained it to me in simple layman terms.

 

[KMFJD]

i'm enjoying a carling ice right now

i just got a headache thinking about how bad that beer tasted....

 

[FerrelGeek]

Very well said, sir!

Cheap beer is not literally "watered down" so much as not "brewed up."

Think of it like you might think of coffee. First, the ingredients matter. GIGO: Garbage in, garbage out. And then, beer is brewed. Brewing is a process. Good beer uses premium hops and malt and grains and such, commodity beer doesn't. And, with commodity beer, shortcuts and outright BS are taken in the brewing process. Think of the egregiously disgusting ICE beers. Ugh.

Anyway, in order to save the corporation brewing it pennies on each . . . can . . . crap materials and a hurried, cheap-ass process are used.

The result? This BUD's for YOU! 😱

 

[Scarpozzi]

I like you Scarpozi. you explained it to me in simple layman terms.

It's beer. Not meant to be overthought....but here's a chart that shows some of the brands and their parent companies. Pick one that fits your budget that you like to drink....or go with something local...or make your own.

 

[NAC4EV]

D:


Hey, without yeast, you're just going to have a nauseating, sweet bitter beer with all of that glucose/dextrose and nothing to process it. 😀 ....and why no malt? yuck...

Hey dumb-ass it's oblivious you never made beer before!!!!
Most people who make their own beer know that the Coopers Lager "KIT" is the malt concentrate with the yeast included in a separate package.
You added the yeast after your boiled ingredients have cooled down, otherwise you will kill the yeast.

 

[Thebobo]

I used to make my own,
Just add your boiled water and hops and enough dextrose [3lbs] to make 8% lager beer.

Use to make my own beer and some of the batches were damn good, but it was a lot of work espcialy the sanitation part. And then I started drinking white russians.

 

[Mayne]

get in here beer snobs. The discussion is only starting.

 

[Thebobo]

get in here beer snobs. The discussion is only starting.

Hey I rarely drink but I still enjoy a PBR now and then.

 

[KMFJD]

 

[FerrelGeek]

I like a good IPA on a warm summer day after yardwork. The hoppy flavor is very refreshing. That being said, there are WAY TOO MANY IPAs on the market today thanks to the whiny hipsters who want a drink as bitter as they pretend their worthless, nihilistic lives to be. Give me a good Belgian style strong ale. Oh yeah, thos pumpkin ales need to diaf too.

Well there are some cheap beers that are good and some expensive beers that are bad. I guess its personal preference. IPAs are usually expensive but a lot of people think they are too bitter.

 

[FerrelGeek]

Bro! Move to a real state!

that's standard around here, but then MD is the shittiest place for alcohol that I have ever experienced. Everything is needlessly expensive because distribution is so limited.

OP should just stick to weed.

 

[zinfamous]

Hey dumb-ass it's oblivious you never made beer before!!!!
Most people who make their own beer know that the Coopers Lager "KIT" is the malt concentrate with the yeast included in a separate package.
You added the yeast after your boiled ingredients have cooled down, otherwise you will kill the yeast.

Well I made beers pretty regularly for about 3 or 4 years. ...I am a biologist, mang. I am not familiar with what is in a "Cooper's kit," so the terms were strange to me: Dextrose is simply another word for Glucose. It isn't anything more than that (we keep it in the lab here, for making live cell media). So, what you're calling Dextrose really isn't dextrose. it's clearly something else.

I wasn't being jerky, or meaning to be. Just confused with how you were making beer without malt or yeast. 😉 I was even trying to be extra polite by going with the big bold words because I know you have eye issues. 🙁

 

[Scarpozzi]

Hey I rarely drink but I still enjoy a PBR now and then.

I mentioned Hamms earlier. Has anyone else tried it? My local stores started selling it....it's a dollar cheaper than PBR and in the style of Miller Light (Milwaukee Style lager). I've been drinking it because, like PBR it comes in 6 of tallboys under $6....which is cheap for here. You don't get good discounts on beer until you buy 18-24 packs. I don't want that much beer in my fridge because my wife tends to drink more of it and I'm trying to keep her ass skinny (it really looks good these days)

 

[NAC4EV]

I always found the coopers beer kits to be subpar. I'm not trying to diss your brand...just trying to help. What I found was the malt concentrates I tried from Coopers were hopped...meaning, the hops weren't as fresh and the beer wasn't as flavorful as if you'd used un-hopped malt and ordered your own hops to add.... It's kind of like the difference between a fresh cup of coffee and a stale cup of coffee....both are coffee, but the stale cup loses a lot of flavor. Hard to place what changes, but it's obvious in the finished product.

If I were going with LME (liquid malt extract), you can find a few shops that carry different light ones that may work good. I prefer german hallertaur hops for bittering (1oz per 5 gallons) and then tettnanger 1oz for aroma at the end. I typically stuck to those hops unless I wanted more acidity, then I might throw centennials at the end for more grapefruit aroma. It's something to play with if you still brew. I'm about 6 years out of practice because I had kids, but I'm getting back into it soon when I get more time and can hide my processes from my wife. 😉

The yeast for Coopers is a high heat tolerant yeast.
There many great beer kits out there.

Use to make my own beer and some of the batches were damn good, but it was a lot of work espcialy the sanitation part. And then I started drinking white russians.

I used Star-San sterilizer.

 

[Thebobo]

I mentioned Hamms earlier. Has anyone else tried it? My local stores started selling it....it's a dollar cheaper than PBR and in the style of Miller Light (Milwaukee Style lager). I've been drinking it because, like PBR it comes in 6 of tallboys under $6....which is cheap for here. You don't get good discounts on beer until you buy 18-24 packs. I don't want that much beer in my fridge because my wife tends to drink more of it and I'm trying to keep her ass skinny (it really looks good these days)

I've had Hams out west and it was drinkable, came in those keg style cans,

 

[Carson Dyle]

there are a lot of additives in cheaper beer or adjuncts as they are called.

beer requires high quality ingredients to make great beer. Water, hops, yeast, malt etc... needs to high quality not to mention their equipment needs to be good, too.

"Additives" and "adjuncts" are two very different things. I'm not sure who puts additives in beer, as there's little need to. Adjuncts are simply alternative grains other than barley. The main purpose of adjuncts is to lighten the taste and color of the beer, as consumers have increasingly preferred since the repeal of prohibition. There's some debate (or myth) about whether or not they decrease the cost of producing beer. Are corn and rice that much cheaper than barley?

The equipment used to brew "good" and "bad" beer is exactly the same.

 

[Mayne]

I mentioned Hamms earlier. Has anyone else tried it? My local stores started selling it....it's a dollar cheaper than PBR and in the style of Miller Light (Milwaukee Style lager). I've been drinking it because, like PBR it comes in 6 of tallboys under $6....which is cheap for here. You don't get good discounts on beer until you buy 18-24 packs. I don't want that much beer in my fridge because my wife tends to drink more of it and I'm trying to keep her ass skinny (it really looks good these days)

my drunken thoughts will be about your wife's fine ass. I need this.

 

[NAC4EV]

Well I made beers pretty regularly for about 3 or 4 years. ...I am a biologist, mang. I am not familiar with what is in a "Cooper's kit," so the terms were strange to me: Dextrose is simply another word for Glucose. It isn't anything more than that (we keep it in the lab here, for making live cell media). So, what you're calling Dextrose really isn't dextrose. it's clearly something else.

I wasn't being jerky, or meaning to be. Just confused with how you were making beer without malt or yeast. 😉 I was even trying to be extra polite by going with the big bold words because I know you have eye issues. 🙁

Thank you for the bold...😉
My apologizes for being snarly.

Dextrose/Glucose/Corn Sugar.....The obvious choice in brewing sugars, dextrose boosts alcohol content without altering much in terms of flavour. It is very easily fermented.

 

[JM Aggie08]

my drunken thoughts will be about your wife's fine ass. I need this.

LMAO, wtf?