Tippler Tips: Budweiser, the Emperor of Beers

It started in the town of Plzn over five hundred years ago when a brewer decided to create a crystal-clear pale yellow beer. It was made with noble hops, traditional malted barley, clear water and local yeasts. This beer was named for the area in which it could be found: Pilsner.

However, if you ask the average American what a Pilsner beer is, they just put down their bottle of Budweiser and exclaim, "That sounds like one of those fru-fru beers."

Surprise! That bottle of Budweiser is actually a Pilsner-style beer! I say Pilsner-Style because real pilsners don't have corn or rice in the mix. Then again, how many people know what goes into a real Pilsner beer anyway?

It's inexcusable that the average American knows so little about what they put into their mouths. Ask anybody about what goes into wine and I would wager a guess that 100% would answer: grapes. Almost everybody would also identify that there is yeast in wine as well. So, if you gave somebody a bottle of wine with a label that says, "Contains grapes, rice and yeast" almost every wine drinker would question how good that wine would be.

But ask the average American what goes into a beer and they'll shrug and say "I dunno". Maybe they'll be able to give one or two ingredients... but how many people know that the only things in a classic beer are: Malted Barley, Yeast, Hops and Water?

It's that sort of ignorance that allows Americans to continue to drink crappy beer.

If somebody doesn't know to question why there is rice in their beer, they'll just accept it. For the record, the major breweries use rice because it is cheaper than malted barley... and because it doesn't add any flavor to the resulting beer. Corn has a similar place in beers like Budweiser and Miller, but Corn adds a yellow color and a sugary-sweet taste when used in a beer.

Face it, the reason that Bud and Miller use corn and rice is because the average Bud and Miller drinker is too ignorant to know that they're getting a beer that uses the cheapest possible ingredients.

Most people have their first beer when in college (ok, the first time most people legally have their first beer is in college). Assuming that most college kids are more interested in quantity of beer over quality of beer... This means that most when they make package runs, they're most likely they're buying cases of Milwaukee's Best or some other rot gut sort of beer. These beers are loaded with mostly corn and rice, with a minimum of barley malt. The resulting brew is strong and sweet.

When they get out of college, these cheap beer drinkers start looking around for a more respectable beer... which usually becomes a choice between Bud, Miller or Coors. Why these beers? Well, they're still pretty cheap... and you can find them in almost every package store in the United States. Plus, they don't taste all that different from "The Beast."

Sure, these beer drinkers will occasionally try a more exotic beer in order to broaden their horizons. They'll try Heineken (Bud of Holland), Amstel Light (Bud of Germany), Corona (Bud of Mexico), Red Stripe (Bud of Jamaica), Fosters (Bud of Australia) and Labatts or Molson (Bud of Canada). Notice the pattern? All of these beers are the lackluster rice and corn filled Pilsner-style beers that were addressed earlier in this article. They aren't broadening their horizons, they're just playing it safe.

The problem is that a person weaned on this type of beer has a hard time learning how to drink a real craft-brewed beer. The most common complaint overheard at The Toronado, a great beer bar in San Francisco that has none of the offending rice/corn mass produced beers, is that the craft brewed beers are just to strong (or commonly called thick) tasting. Well, if you're used to drinking Folgers freeze-dried coffee, an espresso would seem almost overwhelming... but who can honestly admit that the Folgers is better than the espresso?

I didn't appreciate my first espresso... I had to learn how to like it. So I started off by trying a mocha (espresso, chocolate and milk)... then I moved on to a cappuccino. Finally, once I was used to the stronger taste that the espresso imparts to the cappuccino, I had another espresso, and I could really appreciate it.

So, how do you convert your Bud loving friend into a craft beer drinker? Take the baby steps. First, try moving them towards the classic Pilsner beers like: Urquell (from the city of Plzn), Stella Artois (a Belgian Pilsner) or even a domestic Pilsner like Sam Adams. Once they're used to the slightly fuller flavor of these real Pilsners, try moving them to an amber beer like an Anderson Valley Boont Amber, Cottrell Old Yankee Ale or a German Oktoberfest beer (like the Spaten or Paulaner versions). From there, it's just a small jump to wheat beers, India Pale Ales, stouts and all of the other myriad beers available! Within a short period of time, even the most steadfast Bud drinker can be appreciating and even preferring a better class of beer! Then the next time they see someone order a Bud at their corner bar, they can look at the just-out-of-college kid and tell them that corn is better on the cob, not in a beer.