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I usually assume when Europeans complain about American beers, they just are complaining about our "domestic" beers like Bud Light, Coors, PBR, etc. which makes sense, they are our bottom shelf beers.

I recently chatted with someone at a party who said "no, all American beers are bad" including microbrewery beers.

I've never been to Europe so I wouldn't know, but I do like my Left Handed Milk Stout, NWPAs, and hell even the hipstered out IPAs.

Are these what y'all are referencing?

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[-] nicgentile@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Not a European, but a well traveled person who has drunk beers in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Botswana, Senegal, UK, Poland, China, and the UK, as well as drunk beers from Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic etc, I stopped drinking beer when I drunk American beer. Sure, there are some good microbrews, but holy moly, there are some questionable things that pass for beer in America.

[-] Hikermick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Long time American beer drinker here. The craft breweries here brew some strange stuff these days. There are sooo many breweries now it's hard to stand out brewing something as simple as a porter. Now it has to be chocolate pecan graham cracker infused porter.

[-] remon@ani.social 4 points 1 month ago

American beer that is sold in Europe? All the ones I tried, yeah, absolutly.

And most of that microbrew shit doesn't even count as beer under the Reinheitsgebot.

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[-] Ziggurat@fedia.io 4 points 1 month ago

When asking the waiter for a local craft beer, got pretty decent ones.

Stuff like Miller like is just a less sugary alternative to cokeà or to pretend your drinking during a business event

[-] hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

One thing to note is that there are a lot of bad American beers in small and mid-sized cities. Basically what happened is that in the 2010s it became trendy to go to a brewery with a food truck and just hang out. As a result a ton of "breweries" opened that were more or less selling the experience, with a handful of low effort trendy selections to serve as a hook.

That doesn't mean there aren't good beers though. America is the land of people who do their own thing, often regardless of social norms and established conventions. There's a lot of great beers across a broad range of categories, it just takes a bit of digging.

As a sidenote a lot of these D tier breweries are closing and/or rebranding. Changing consumer sentiment means merely being a craft brewery is no longer a hook, while rising real estate costs make the entire endeavor more expensive. The breweries in shitty locations tend to close. The ones in good locations tend to massively reduce their own output, while offering a variety of local alcohol and expanded food options.

[-] zout@fedia.io 3 points 1 month ago

I'm from the Netherlands, and we say the same for Heineken and also for the Belgian variant Jupiler. The truth is, at a party or festival it's mostly these or Bud that are available, and people drink a lot of it. At home I'll mostly drink Krombacher, or some other German brand since I live close to the border.

I've been to the US once, and stayed in the Boston area. I drank a lot of Sam Adams lager there, which was decent enough for me. I'd assume every region will have it's own decent brand of lager, just as it is here in Europe.

[-] Jackhammer_Joe@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Short answer: yes

Long answer: yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

[-] Deconceptualist@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

American, but I enjoy beer and have tried hundreds. I tend to like sweeter or richer Belgian and German ales the most. Things like König Ludwig, Tripel Karmeliet, Augustiner, Weihenstephaner, Ayinger, Paulaner, and St. Bernardus will always top my list.

If you like those, here are some US recommendations that are also damn good. Note, some of these are quite regional.

  • Tröeg's - Mad Elf
  • Fat Heads - Alpenglow
  • Boulevard - Bourbon Barrel Quad
  • Royal Docks - VLAD
  • Dark Horse - Scotty Karate
  • Descutes - The Abyss
  • Fat Heads - Goggle Fogger
  • Sierra Nevada - Kellerweiss
  • Terrestrial - Blue Dream
  • Thirsty Dog - Irish Setter Red
  • Penn Brewery - Penn Weizen
  • Ommegang - Manhattan Shine
  • Sibling Revelry - Lavender Wit
  • Ithaca - Apricot Wheat

Also, shoutout to almost anything by Unibroue - They're from Montreal, but hey that's not Europe.

[-] Grimm665@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

Glad to see Tröeg's in that list! Their Perpetual IPA has been my favorite beer for years.

[-] Libb@jlai.lu 2 points 1 month ago

I've not tasted many American beers so I could not tell if they all taste like crap, and I also do not drink at all anymore. But being French, I can say that our Belgian neighbors have some exceptionally good beers, as well as Germans do. I loved a few of those, back then. But then they may also be a tad too... tasty for an uninitiated palate ;)

I'm pretty confident there must some local breweries in a few US places that can make quality beer too, the issue would then mostly be to find enough customers willing to drink it because it's no use to make the best beer ever if most your customers prefer Budweiser or stuff like that.

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this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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