Spring Break
Brew's Clues: The Party Beer Edition
Dennis Mongello
Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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The American Style Pilsner is a true bastardization of a classic foreign style, and there is no one to blame for it except for the Sixty-fifth Congress of the United States of America who passed a joke of a constitutional amendment. The 18th Amendment is the only amendment to take away rights, in this case the right to alcohol. In doing so, they not only dumped gallons of alcohol down the drain, but they also dumped over 100 years of American brewing tradition with it, as most of the American brewers were driven out of business. The only companies that could afford to stay in the black were the ones mass-producing cheap beer with cheap ingredients: the beer that wasn't made with love in mind, but dollar signs.
Anyway, fast-forward 14 years and prohibition was over. What better way to celebrate than to drink a distinctly American beer? Thus began the great party beer tradition. Since the only beers left were the cheap, low quality ones, that's all the national populace had access to, and so the tradition of partying with low quality beer began. It makes sense though; the great American tradition of partying deals with excess, and you don't want to buy a ton of expensive beer. Plus, once you get drunk, you won't even be able to tell how good it is. Finally, with all the chugging going on, even the biggest hop head among us is going to want a beer that tastes more like water than a heavy libation. So crack open a cold one, this is going to be one hell of a party!
Busch
Busch poured a clear straw-yellow color, with a bone white head that pours big but dissipates quickly. There was almost no lacing. The smell was heavy on the corn side. It seems like they didn't even try to hide the fact that they go heavy on the adjuncts for this beer. All that filler leads to a thin flavor. Nothing is really noticeable, just a whole lot of filler. Nasty aftertaste, it is lightly bitter, but the aftertaste is not made up of the malts, but mostly rice and corn. It is lightly carbonated and light bodied. This isn't a light beer, but certainly feels like one. Overall, it goes down like water. That's not really a bad thing here, because when you are playing flip cup, you need to be able to transition from flip to chug efficiently.
Anyway, fast-forward 14 years and prohibition was over. What better way to celebrate than to drink a distinctly American beer? Thus began the great party beer tradition. Since the only beers left were the cheap, low quality ones, that's all the national populace had access to, and so the tradition of partying with low quality beer began. It makes sense though; the great American tradition of partying deals with excess, and you don't want to buy a ton of expensive beer. Plus, once you get drunk, you won't even be able to tell how good it is. Finally, with all the chugging going on, even the biggest hop head among us is going to want a beer that tastes more like water than a heavy libation. So crack open a cold one, this is going to be one hell of a party!
Busch
Busch poured a clear straw-yellow color, with a bone white head that pours big but dissipates quickly. There was almost no lacing. The smell was heavy on the corn side. It seems like they didn't even try to hide the fact that they go heavy on the adjuncts for this beer. All that filler leads to a thin flavor. Nothing is really noticeable, just a whole lot of filler. Nasty aftertaste, it is lightly bitter, but the aftertaste is not made up of the malts, but mostly rice and corn. It is lightly carbonated and light bodied. This isn't a light beer, but certainly feels like one. Overall, it goes down like water. That's not really a bad thing here, because when you are playing flip cup, you need to be able to transition from flip to chug efficiently.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Bob Skilnik
posted 9/20/07 @ 7:37 AM EST
I know you're trying to set up the "cheap beer" premise for the story, but the argument that Prohibition led to the brewing of cheap beer as presented here is much too simplistic. (Continued…)
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