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fletcher

bibo ergo sum
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after doing a lot of searching on this forum for different styles and flavours, i've noticed a lot of distaste or a general 'snubbing of the nose' toward people who are interested in making mildler-tasting beers that resemble commercial ones such as corona and bud and lighter lagers. why the hatred? i just read through some threads that talk about adding cat piss to it and keeping it in the sun to get the right tastes and it just seems a bit over the top and almost akin to bullying because it's often made those posters apologise for asking. i hate seeing people having to apologise or lie and say they're making it only for their respective wife or girlfriend. it seems a bit unfair. i'm not the internet police but why just leave the thread alone if you can't or don't want to help?

i love those beer styles (they are, after all, what started me off liking beer in the first place). i'm sure many seasoned brewers much much more experienced than i'll ever be enjoy them too, or have in times passed.

i'm not talking to everyone here, but to those who attack the styles; why bother? you're picking on someone's taste preference like you would be picking on their not liking a spicy food dish.

rant over.
 
I was the same, I never liked beer (My introduction to drinking was scotch) but slowly got into beers with Corona, XXXX Gold, Tooheys Extra Dry and similar.

I think the stigmata is that people drink these not for the taste but to get blind raving drunk.

This "coin" also has two sides and I know when I start talking IBUs and EBCs when I'm with people or a group of friends who have no idea what I'm talking about they think I'm so snob nosed beer taster who would rather spend $20 on one bottle then $40 on a slab.

I think the blander tasting beers have there place. I just made a blonde which is super light, not much on the pallet or nose but I wanted something very light for summer which I can knock back over the BBQ or down at the beach kind of thing.

/rant

I still will drink a Corona after Corona when I'm with a certain crowd and will also take forever to finish one glass of something hop crazy beer and then talk about it for 20mins. Every beer has its place!!
 
I was the same, I never liked beer (My introduction to drinking was scotch) but slowly got into beers with Corona, XXXX Gold, Tooheys Extra Dry and similar.

I think the stigmata is that people drink these not for the taste but to get blind raving drunk.

This "coin" also has two sides and I know when I start talking IBUs and EBCs when I'm with people or a group of friends who have no idea what I'm talking about they think I'm so snob nosed beer taster who would rather spend $20 on one bottle then $40 on a slab.

I think the blander tasting beers have there place. I just made a blonde which is super light, not much on the pallet or nose but I wanted something very light for summer which I can knock back over the BBQ or down at the beach kind of thing.

/rant

I still will drink a Corona after Corona when I'm with a certain crowd and will also take forever to finish one glass of something hop crazy beer and then talk about it for 20mins. Every beer has its place!!

100%

it's just a preference of taste. if i was to write, "i want to make a beer to get shit faced and fall over myself stupid and vomit on my wife, and make it taste like carlton" or something stupid like that, well then i'd expect the criticism on myself and probably the style i liked. i like beers of a million different styles and tastes and will never not try one i've not had before; it's awesome. i love a nice crisp 'bland' light lager also and like you say, it does have its place. end bland beerism!
 
All threads on the internet are like that its more that you have to sift out the bull shit and go from there. Those threads still have some great information in them and good recipes too. Some take the piss and then follow up with great advice. Its just the balance of the internet and brewers love a good stir whirlpool.
 
All threads on the internet are like that its more that you have to sift out the bull shit and go from there. Those threads still have some great information in them and good recipes too. Some take the piss and then follow up with great advice. Its just the balance of the internet and brewers love a good stir whirlpool.

very true. yeah. all good.
 
I made a mexican style AG a few months ago so I had a summer type lager beer to drink on hot days. After trying it I thought i must have stuffed up somewhere whilst brewing it because it tasted horrible. Its been sitting in the fridge for a few months not being touched. Then the other day bought the wife a bottle of wine and got a free six pack of SOL mexican beer, had two mouth fulls and and tipped the rest of the first stubbie, what shit. Done a tasting against my version and the SOL actually made my beer taste drinkable.

Nothing wrong with a mid strength mild flavoured crisp beer but I went back to just dropping the mash temp to 61- 62 bring IBU down to 15 -20 and you get an easy drinker. Mexican style beer is shit IMO.
 
I bought a carton of Han Super Dry as a fridge filler over the break for friends and family. I gave it a try will playing back yard cricket. 1 was enough.....sickly sweet, no backbone, a dirt taste or something I don't relate to a good beer. A home brew of a single base malt and single bittering hop addition would have me happy with as simple and fresh as it gets, doesn't need to be complex to get mt attention.
 
There's nothing wrong with Corona as a style. Their particular execution of it leaves something to be desired however.

I brewed a pale lager with 50% sugar by fermentables once (high mash temp, very careful fermentation). Dead ringer for megaswill in a lot of ways, but not without its merit. I think if it was ramped down to 30% it would have been pretty good.
 
I made XXXX Gold a few batches back. Except I replaced the Aussie malt with Wey Pils, and didn't use any sugar like castlemaine do. It was really nice.

Oh, also I used Simcoe instead of Cluster.

And US05 at 18C instead of 34/70.

Threw in a sprinkle of caraaroma too IIRC.

Bland Megaswill beers are supurb ... if you replace all their ingredients with nice tasting ones. :D
 
There's nothing wrong with Corona as a style. Their particular execution of it leaves something to be desired however.

I brewed a pale lager with 50% sugar by fermentables once (high mash temp, very careful fermentation). Dead ringer for megaswill in a lot of ways, but not without its merit. I think if it was ramped down to 30% it would have been pretty good.

you do bring up an interesting point there re style and execution and not the actual beer itself. i see what you mean; well said.
 
you do bring up an interesting point there re style and execution and not the actual beer itself. i see what you mean; well said.

He does have a good point. What gets me with a lot of megaswill is it's downright cheap (and often nasty). They skimp on nearly every process.

I guess sometimes "cheap" shows through in "lacking taste". That said: I like bland beers, but not on cold winter days - right now they go down supurbly.

The point of my post above is that if you take out all the adjuncts, the warm ferments, the lack of anything resembling hops going in the kettle ... you can make a "bland megaswill" that is truly supurb.
 
I agree with Nick, on a really hot summers day, a cold megaswill lager can hit the spot. In the winter it's nice to be able to make a really tasty ale with a lot of body. Something the magaswill just can't cater for.
 
True. As a fairly new AG brewer I would hope to be able to replicate a nice easy drinking megaswill. This is the sort of beer that would impress by non-craft-brew friends and is great on a hot summers day.
 
He does have a good point. What gets me with a lot of megaswill is it's downright cheap (and often nasty). They skimp on nearly every process.

I guess sometimes "cheap" shows through in "lacking taste". That said: I like bland beers, but not on cold winter days - right now they go down supurbly.

The point of my post above is that if you take out all the adjuncts, the warm ferments, the lack of anything resembling hops going in the kettle ... you can make a "bland megaswill" that is truly supurb.

of course. i agree too. a lot of those beers in that particular style (or styles) can leave a lot to be desired, and mainly for the exact reasons you point out.

strangely too they might be some people's cups of tea but that's their lot. horses for courses. i just saw people apologising for asking about them and it seemed wrong, but admittedly i'm probably barking up the wrong tree; it is the internet after all.
 
True. As a fairly new AG brewer I would hope to be able to replicate a nice easy drinking megaswill. This is the sort of beer that would impress by non-craft-brew friends and is great on a hot summers day.

Thing is, you can make a version of XXXX or Tooheys or gawg help us, VB that will be familiar to them - but knocks their socks off.

100% Euro Pils malt, US/NZ hop @ 60 minutes only ... and a clean Wyeast lager yeast at 12C, and you have something the megaswillers will freak out over.

Gotta be crystal clear, about 20 IBUs, pale as you can get it, 2.5-3 volumes of Co2 and above all - clean. Hints of bready pils and fruit from hops, but only hints. It's an IPA to them.
 
I enjoy the XXXX bitter in the wooden casks when I am over in QLD - I find that actually pretty awesome at the time.
 
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