Now Im working under the assumption that macro lagers are bad. However does a macro brewed beer have to be bad? When does a beer go from micro to macro? I can think of several beers that you can get in many places that are still very good and are conistently of good quality. For instance Chimay Blue that keep popping up in the most unexpected places. Is it the big productions that draws the quality down or is it just that when it gets this big the thought of making more money and reducing costs becomes more important then the quality of the beer?

first of all: ”Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences at the University of California” Doesnt exactly scream credibility. He is basically just doing his job promoting this kind of beer. Or am I missing something?

Also while you could argue that it’s the beer geeks bullying the big breweries you could also turn it around. Just look what Guiness are doing on Ireland and Carlsberg here in Sweden. Threatening to withdraw support if the pubs sell something besides their products. Basically using their overpowering capital to drive out competition.

I’m not sure if I agree to the whole: ‘Yeah its great that they make crap beer it sells and more people will like beer’. Pubs that sell allot of ”stor stark” seems to only sell that kind of beer. At least I can’t think of an example where they sell a ton of Carlsberg but also stocks up on some quality stuff. It would be allot better if the sense of quality spreads to more people and the bigger breweries would have to adopt. But as you mention yourself it feels like we on our way towards that.

But Im biased, I can hardly drink the beer S & C brew. Think it tastes like a mix of water, booze, chemicals, metal and with a hint of puke (not kidding). I usually buy a drink, a glass of wine or just water if I dont have any other choice. However I let people drink what they want. That’s their choice. but I usually share my beer with friends and most prefer a micro beer before a macro. However most think it’s to expensive and stick to their Sofiero anyway. But allot of them have gone from ‘Sofiero is the way a beer should taste like’ to ‘tonight I’m going to award myself a Chimay’.

Hmm this all became a bunch of drivel

Also, I belive that unconsistancy is a natural part of any experimental creative output and as long as brewerys are experimenting we will see less good beer, exploding beer, flat beer, infected beer and so on. But, we might also get those gems, those amazing beers that takes it to a whole new level. Those beers that makes us think ”why would I drink anything that tastes less good?” and no, that does not have to be an ”imperial” this or that, it could very well be a perfectly balanced bohemian pilnser from a Swedish microbrewery, I doubt we would see one of those made entirely with high quality ingrediens from Carslberg for example.