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Author Topic: Looking for input from others on not so bad, mass produced, commercial beers  (Read 703 times)

Offline brewthru

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I always enjoy trying beers to give me ideas for homebrewing. What I may enjoy, what I may not enjoy, etc. If I’m at the local grocery I’ll purchase beer to try/compare against brews I’ve made.

Must say I do enjoy the Narragansett Lager and the Hamm’s Classic Premium Beer.

I realize Hamm’s is now owned by Coors.

I haven’t had a Hamm’s since the 70’s and was surprised to find locally (Northern Virginia).

Still looking for a local place carrying National Bohemian aka “Natty Bo” as this is another mass-produced commercial beer that I haven’t drank since the 70’s.

Next time I’m in Pennsylvania I look forward to purchasing/drinking the new Stroh’s (as PA is the closest to me where the new Stroh’s is available). I brew my own Stroh’s (it’s good and very, very close to the original. I do have an idea to try for the next time I brew to “nail it”.)

For me these are fun brews to make, analyze, think about, critique, etc. For example, taking a sip of the Hamm’s I recently purchased, I knew, from homebrewing, sugar was fermented. I give credit to Hamm’s as printed on the can “Ingredients: Water, Barley Malt, Corn Syrup (Maltose), Yeast, Hops. Corn syrup is used as part of the brewing process only. Hamm’s never uses high fructose corn syrup.”

Others thoughts and input on their favorite not so bad, mass produced, commercial beers?

Offline fredthecat

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one thing to note, since i do end up drinking random industrial beers fairly often is that the north american ones get decidedly worse as they warm up and as carbonation leaks out of them. ie. the farther down you get in the glass/can the much worse it tastes for some reason.

looking at my drinking record file - honestly can't think of any surprises.

a lot of german beers are mass produced, commercial beers and are obviously good. ie. wernesgruner, jever, the usual bitter suspects

a lot of the big name english commercial beers are pretty good and can be gotten anywhere in the world. fullers, greene king, speckled hen etc

i think the less common, surprise choice could be some of the flagship brand polish beers that are pretty cheap, but lacking faults and have a good enough malt n hop backbone to be great cheap yellow quaffers. im rarely let down by random polish beers, though i have been HORRENDOUSLY let down by some really cheap ones before, and from eastern europe in general.

Online Bob357

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I keep either PBR or Miller High Life on hand for when I just feel like something wet and cold. Other than that, American Lagers are at the bottom of my list.
Beer is my bucket list,

Bob357
Fallon, NV

Offline Drewch

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What's your tipping point for "mass produced"?

Sierra Nevada makes an awful lot of SNPA, Torpedo, and [insert adjective here] Little Thing (1.25 million bbl per year is pretty "mass" to me).  New Belgium is now owned by Kirin, and Fat Tire is available in every state I've visited recently (I just bought some at Disney World of all places . . .). Do they count?  What about midsized regional brewers (e.g. Abita, Faubourg, Lazy Magnolia) in the 25,000 - 150,000 bbl range?

But if we limit ourselves to stuff big enough to be disqualified from the BA's "small" definition, I lean towards the amber/dark Mexican lagers: Dos Equis Ambar, Modelo Negra.  Almost ubiquitous and way tastier than BudMillerCoorsLite.
The Other Drew

Home fermentations since 2019.

Member at large of the Central Alabama Brewers Society and the League of Drews.