To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, America can't get no respect.
There are 1,500 breweries in the United States, the majority putting out good pale ales and porters. But when it comes to the way the rest of the world sees us, it all of that beer might as well be Budweiser.
In the travel Web site Titanic's survey of 1,600 people from 80 countries, America received 23 percent of the vote for "makes the world's worst beer" and Budweiser received the most nominations for worst beer. China was second in the category with 5.2 percent of the vote, followed by Britain and Australia. America was also voted as the second worst cuisine behind Britain.
To judge America based solely on Anheuser-Busch products is narrow-minded -- as Daily Fork put it. It's like judging Steven Spielberg's career on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull alone. It's also geographically incorrect. Anheuser is technically a Belgian company now. Same with SABMiller Coors, which is based in South Africa.
So which country actually does have the worst (and best) beer? There's obviously no scientific way to tell but Beer Advocate might give a clue.
Of 400-plus beers ranked In the lager category, only three earn a
dreaded F-rating. (Budweiser ranks a solid D+.) Those
three beers are Meister Brau from Chicago, Stite Golden Brau from
Minnesota and Carlton Cold from Australia.
Meister Brau receives the most scorn,
with one reviewer actually rewarding it extra points for achieving the
exact "looks, smells, and tastes of cold piss." But that's to be
expected of a beer with the slogan "Tastes like Bud, but
half the cost."
But keep in mind that the second-highest-ranked beer is also an American beer -- Pliny the Elder from the
Russian River Brewing Company in California. The third and fifth highest-ranked beers also come from our shores.
So consider it a wash. Let's just give the title of worst beer to Australia, which has no beers ranked in the top 25 and, along with the Carlton Cold, has Tooheys Brewing which scores an impressive four Fs.
(Image via Flickr: Gyazickr)
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with one reviewer actually rewarding it extra points for achieving the exact "looks, smells, and tastes of cold piss."
Anybody else wonder how he knew this?
I'll put American beer up against anybody's, but I'm not talking about Budweiser. The products from Boulevard, Anchor Steam, Mendocino Brewing Company, and a host of others are just as tasty and refreshing as any other country's brews in my not-so-humble opinion.
Judging American beers by Budweiser is like judging our wines by Thunderbird and Night Train while ignoring the Napa Valley.
Whether it's beer, food, home decor, whatever: the tastes of the masses usually suck. That's not specific to the US; we're just the most visible example because the more things you have (and export), the more things you have that suck.
That means that even though we have more shitty beers than anyone else, we probably have more really, really good beers than anyone else.
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