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?
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.
To be fair the Bavarian Purity law is a shockingly awful standard to apply to what should be considered beer. Using that silly standard would eliminate a tremendous amount of great beer simply because it didn’t meet one aristocrat’s measure of what should be in beer.
Heresy! Burn the heathen!
Yes but have you been to Europe? It’s a giant ball of idiosyncrasies created by some old dudes four or five hundred years ago. And that’s why we love it 😁.
Do not question the sanity of this.
Your reluctance to purge monarchy from your ranks made it obvious that the European Way is letting old rich people dictate social norms.
Monarchs nowadays can’t do shit though. They’re just rich and represent the country somehow. Old rich people is very true for America though.
They’re a legally mandated, inherited upper class with distinct privileges and guaranteed wealth. Doesn’t matter what else is going on, that’s indefensible in the modern world.
As a German beer drinker I can say: fuck the Reinheitsgebot. It’s just an old law to patronize the citizen. It’s not about protection against chemicals, just take look at Radler (Beer mixed with lemon soda) for example, plenty of artificial sweeteners and E additives are allowed.
Belgium has a wonderful selection of beers of different flavors. If somebody doesn’t want to taste a nice cherry beer, don’t do it. I don’t need an authority to watch over the beer I drink.
That why it’s called Alsterwasser (or Radler if you really must) and not beer. I actually like the law as it prevents the market from getting flooded with all kinds of shit that calls itself beer. We can still buy Lambic and whatnot here in Germany. It’s just not called beer, and rightly so.