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Let’s talk Macrobrews

FSUTribe76

HR Heisman
Jan 23, 2008
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It’s late night and my AC is out at the house so I’m traveling down various google holes of info and started on Top Gun Maverick articles but moved on to old school Top Gun and then moved to Smokey and the Bandit which led me to reading up on some of the history of “Yellow Jackets“ or Coors Banquet. Growing up a Floridian made Coors Banquet inaccessible just Coors Light but being an FSU fan led me to the love of the Bandit and his mission to get Yellow Jackets from Texarkana to Atlanta.

So that got me thinking about macrobrews in general and which ones I love and which ones I can barely stomach.

For purposes of this discussion, Macrobrews doesn’t include Sam Adams/Boston Beer, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Bell’s, Stone and others of their pretty large and pretty national coverage ilk (we’ll call those Medium sized Enterprises). But it does include Yeungling and Pabst as they both have beers in the top 25 most consumed in the US and are more comparable to other macrobrews. Basically if it’s a beer from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors, Heineken, Pabst, Diageo, Constellation Brands (Corona, Modello, etc..), then you’re in.

If you need a refresher on America’s most consumed Beers look here


And if you’re a top 20-50 international brand you’re in (like Tsingtao, Asahi, Kronenbourg, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Becks, Pacifico, Red Stripe, Sapporo, St Pauli Girl). For example see this list


My favorite American, Canadian and Mexican macrobrews are in order:

1) Kokanee Glacier Fresh
2) Coors Banquet/“Yellow Jackets”
3) Modelo Negra
4) Miller High Life
5) Yeungling Lord Chesterfield Ale
6) Yeungling Traditional Lager
7) Blue Moon Belgian White
8) Coors Light
9) Bud Light
10) Dos Equis

Strongly Considered: Labatt Blue, Landshark, Shocktop, Budweiser “Heavy”, Killian’s Irish Red and Michelob Amber Bock

And my favorite macrobrews from outside of North America are:

1) Asahi Super Dry
2) Boddington Pub Ale
3) Guinness Stout
4) Pilsner Urquel
5) Weihenstephaner’s Hefe Weissbier
6) Warsteiner Verum
7) Okocim OK Beer
8) Kirin Ichiban
9) Ayinger Marzen
10) Stella Artois

Strongly Considered: Becks, St Pauli Girl, Grodziskie, Paulaner, Heineken, Carlsberg and Victoria Bitter
 
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It’s late night and my AC is out at the house so I’m traveling down various google holes of info and started on Top Gun Maverick articles but moved on to old school Top Gun and then moved to Smokey and the Bandit which led me to reading up on some of the history of “Yellow Jackets“ or Coors Banquet. Growing up a Floridian made Coors Banquet inaccessible just Coors Light but being an FSU fan led me to the love of the Bandit and his mission to get Yellow Jackets from Texarkana to Atlanta.

So that got me thinking about macrobrews in general and which ones I love and which ones I can barely stomach.

For purposes of this discussion, Macrobrews doesn’t include Sam Adams/Boston Beer, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Bell’s, Stone and others of their pretty large and pretty national coverage ilk (we’ll call those Medium sized Enterprises). But it does include Yeungling and Pabst as they both have beers in the top 25 most consumed in the US and are more comparable to other macrobrews. Basically if it’s a beer from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors, Heineken, Pabst, Diageo, Constellation Brands (Corona, Modello, etc..), then you’re in.

If you need a refresher on America’s most consumed Beers look here


And if you’re a top 20-50 international brand you’re in (like Tsingtao, Asahi, Kronenbourg, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Becks, Pacifico, Red Stripe, Sapporo, St Pauli Girl). For example see this list


My favorite American, Canadian and Mexican macrobrews are in order:

1) Kokanee Glacier Fresh
2) Coors Banquet/“Yellow Jackets”
3) Modelo Negra
4) Miller High Life
5) Yeungling Lord Chesterfield Ale
6) Yeungling Traditional Lager
7) Blue Moon Belgian White
8) Coors Light
9) Bud Light
10) Dos Equis

Strongly Considered: Labatt Blue, Landshark, Shocktop, Budweiser “Heavy”, Killian’s Irish Red and Michelob Amber Bock

And my favorite macrobrews from outside of North America are:

1) Asahi Super Dry
2) Boddington Pub Ale
3) Guinness Stout
4) Pilsner Urquel
5) Weihenstephaner’s Hefe Weissbier
6) Warsteiner Verum
7) Okocim OK Beer
8) Kirin Ichiban
9) Ayinger Marzen
10) Stella Artois

Strongly Considered: Becks, St Pauli Girl, Grodziskie, Paulaner, Heineke, Carlsberg and Victoria Bitter
you put Guinness ahead of pilsner urquell? That’s a no for me dawg. I am intrigued by the Asahi super dry.
 
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It’s late night and my AC is out at the house so I’m traveling down various google holes of info and started on Top Gun Maverick articles but moved on to old school Top Gun and then moved to Smokey and the Bandit which led me to reading up on some of the history of “Yellow Jackets“ or Coors Banquet. Growing up a Floridian made Coors Banquet inaccessible just Coors Light but being an FSU fan led me to the love of the Bandit and his mission to get Yellow Jackets from Texarkana to Atlanta.

So that got me thinking about macrobrews in general and which ones I love and which ones I can barely stomach.

For purposes of this discussion, Macrobrews doesn’t include Sam Adams/Boston Beer, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Bell’s, Stone and others of their pretty large and pretty national coverage ilk (we’ll call those Medium sized Enterprises). But it does include Yeungling and Pabst as they both have beers in the top 25 most consumed in the US and are more comparable to other macrobrews. Basically if it’s a beer from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors, Heineken, Pabst, Diageo, Constellation Brands (Corona, Modello, etc..), then you’re in.

If you need a refresher on America’s most consumed Beers look here


And if you’re a top 20-50 international brand you’re in (like Tsingtao, Asahi, Kronenbourg, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Becks, Pacifico, Red Stripe, Sapporo, St Pauli Girl). For example see this list


My favorite American, Canadian and Mexican macrobrews are in order:

1) Kokanee Glacier Fresh
2) Coors Banquet/“Yellow Jackets”
3) Modelo Negra
4) Miller High Life
5) Yeungling Lord Chesterfield Ale
6) Yeungling Traditional Lager
7) Blue Moon Belgian White
8) Coors Light
9) Bud Light
10) Dos Equis

Strongly Considered: Labatt Blue, Landshark, Shocktop, Budweiser “Heavy”, Killian’s Irish Red and Michelob Amber Bock

And my favorite macrobrews from outside of North America are:

1) Asahi Super Dry
2) Boddington Pub Ale
3) Guinness Stout
4) Pilsner Urquel
5) Weihenstephaner’s Hefe Weissbier
6) Warsteiner Verum
7) Okocim OK Beer
8) Kirin Ichiban
9) Ayinger Marzen
10) Stella Artois

Strongly Considered: Becks, St Pauli Girl, Grodziskie, Paulaner, Heineke, Carlsberg and Victoria Bitter
Just replaced both units. It’s insane how expensive a/c is these days.
 
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Banquet or Pabst. When I lived in St. Louis a couple bars near the brewery always had fresh Budweiser served at 31 degrees. That was pretty decent too. Bud light is a tailgate beer, but I've quickly been moving towards All Day IPA for that.
 
In no particular order:

Alexander Keith's
Guinness
Paulaner
Molson Canadian
Molson Ex
Pacifico
 
You spelled Yuengling wrong twice. Sorry, I was born in Pottsville, PA so it's tough to not correct that.

I would have Sam Adams Boston Lager on my top 10 macro brew list.
 
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Banquet or Pabst. When I lived in St. Louis a couple bars near the brewery always had fresh Budweiser served at 31 degrees. That was pretty decent too. Bud light is a tailgate beer, but I've quickly been moving towards All Day IPA for that.
I’ve never had banquet but with heavy endorsements I will give it a whirl.
 
My favorite domestic would be Coors banquet. I discovered them working in Nebraska and was shocked how good it was.

International is Guinness from the tap. Hard to beat it. Fun fact - many folks always talk how they don’t like Guinness because it is “to heavy” but it is a borderline light beer.
 
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Never had a Coord original?
No. Didn’t serve it at the golf course I worked during summers, then in college it was the ice beer craze, then Sam Adams took over after college. Then I didn’t drink much beer after that as I moved into gin and whisky. Starting to drink more beer now while out on the deck/patio.
 
I would have never guessed Steel Reserve was top 25. That is like drinking metallic piss.

But to answer the question, Blue Moon for sure. Actually has flavor. A bunch of the others you could put them in different cups and not know which is which, other than the Mexican beers.
 
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I can drink Bud Light all day and not even feel buzzed.

Miller Lite hits more like Bud heavy so that's my go-to every day beer.
 
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Ts & Ps for your A/C system.

Just replaced both units. It’s insane how expensive a/c is these days.

This is an annual event once it starts getting really heavy use. I’ve got American Home Shield so it’s just a $75 service call but they keep patching it up rather than doing a full replacement. I’m tempted to accidentally drop my hammer a few times on it so that they actually do the full replacement.
 
For American macro it would be these three.

Coors Banquet
High Life
Yeungling Summer Wheat

I am not sure if Summer Wheat is still made as I haven’t lived in a Yeungling distribution area in four years. For an inexpensive American style Hefeweizen it was quite good.

I lived in Germany for three years and tried an extensive amount of brews from different countries. German and Belgian brews were consumed the most frequently. Here is five to keep it simple.

Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen
Rothaus Pils
Fuller’s London Porter
Tripel Karmeliet
St Bernardus Apt 12

CSB time. I had a friend in Dover, DE that was a C5 pilot. He would fly to Ramstein occasionally and bring back racks of German beer. Great way to get it fresh.

I don’t have a well informed opinion on beers from Asia to comment.
 
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For American macro it would be these three.

Coors Banquet
High Life
Yeungling Summer Wheat

I am not sure if Summer Wheat is still made as I haven’t lived in a Yeungling distribution area in four years. For an inexpensive American style Hefeweizen it was quite good.

I lived in Germany for three years and tried an extensive amount of brews from different countries. German and Belgian brews were consumed the most frequently. Here is five to keep it simple.

Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen
Rothaus Pils
Fuller’s London Porter
Tripel Karmeliet
St Bernardus Apt 12

CSB time. I had a friend in Dover, DE that was a C5 pilot. He would fly to Ramstein occasionally and bring back racks of German beer. Great way to get it fresh.

I don’t have an well informed opinion on beers from Asia to comment.
That is a CSB. I was in the USAF but didn't have that kind of hook up.
 
This is an annual event once it starts getting really heavy use. I’ve got American Home Shield so it’s just a $75 service call but they keep patching it up rather than doing a full replacement. I’m tempted to accidentally drop my hammer a few times on it so that they actually do the full replacement.

I detest AHS. I wish you the best when the system finally goes out for good. They are very unlikely to replace it. They certainly didn't for me as well as about 4 or 5 other people I know. I only know of one person who got them to replace anything. My roommate out of college somehow got them to put in a brand new roof when his started leaking. I don't know how he did it and either does he. The was a score for sure.

They're all about patching things up and ignoring the root problem.
 
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It’s late night and my AC is out at the house so I’m traveling down various google holes of info and started on Top Gun Maverick articles but moved on to old school Top Gun and then moved to Smokey and the Bandit which led me to reading up on some of the history of “Yellow Jackets“ or Coors Banquet. Growing up a Floridian made Coors Banquet inaccessible just Coors Light but being an FSU fan led me to the love of the Bandit and his mission to get Yellow Jackets from Texarkana to Atlanta.

So that got me thinking about macrobrews in general and which ones I love and which ones I can barely stomach.

For purposes of this discussion, Macrobrews doesn’t include Sam Adams/Boston Beer, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Bell’s, Stone and others of their pretty large and pretty national coverage ilk (we’ll call those Medium sized Enterprises). But it does include Yeungling and Pabst as they both have beers in the top 25 most consumed in the US and are more comparable to other macrobrews. Basically if it’s a beer from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors, Heineken, Pabst, Diageo, Constellation Brands (Corona, Modello, etc..), then you’re in.

If you need a refresher on America’s most consumed Beers look here


And if you’re a top 20-50 international brand you’re in (like Tsingtao, Asahi, Kronenbourg, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Becks, Pacifico, Red Stripe, Sapporo, St Pauli Girl). For example see this list


My favorite American, Canadian and Mexican macrobrews are in order:

1) Kokanee Glacier Fresh
2) Coors Banquet/“Yellow Jackets”
3) Modelo Negra
4) Miller High Life
5) Yeungling Lord Chesterfield Ale
6) Yeungling Traditional Lager
7) Blue Moon Belgian White
8) Coors Light
9) Bud Light
10) Dos Equis

Strongly Considered: Labatt Blue, Landshark, Shocktop, Budweiser “Heavy”, Killian’s Irish Red and Michelob Amber Bock

And my favorite macrobrews from outside of North America are:

1) Asahi Super Dry
2) Boddington Pub Ale
3) Guinness Stout
4) Pilsner Urquel
5) Weihenstephaner’s Hefe Weissbier
6) Warsteiner Verum
7) Okocim OK Beer
8) Kirin Ichiban
9) Ayinger Marzen
10) Stella Artois

Strongly Considered: Becks, St Pauli Girl, Grodziskie, Paulaner, Heineke, Carlsberg and Victoria Bitter
As a spinoff/hijack, what are everyone's favorite lawnmowing/day drinking beers? The kind of beer you drink on the patio/deck when you get down mowing, and you sit there and the sweat dries off. For me, these are light domestics kept ICE COLD. I would probably rank them:
  1. Coors Light
  2. Busch Light
  3. Bud Light
  4. Miller Lite
 
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Well it didn't used to be that way. Light was a 4.2 and Lite was a 4.8 or a 5. Maybe they've reformulated?

Anyway, Bud Light tastes like slightly beer-flavored water.
They are both 4.2 and have been as far as I can remember. As noted in my lawn-mowing post, they are both great options for what I like to call crispy water when cooling off.
 
That is a CSB. I was in the USAF but didn't have that kind of hook up.
My wife, no pictures available, and his wife are both active duty dentists and worked together at Ramstein. My wife got orders to Dover as did the C5 pilot and his wife. Whenever he went to Germany he asked if I wanted anything. One trip he came back with 35 racks of beer. Currently he is flying the U2.
 
I still prefer IPAs but quickly realized when moving to Florida that I needed to go back to something that I could drink all day in the heat. I love all the Mexican beers with Modelo Especial and Corona my favorites. More often though I get PBR, Landshark, or Miller Lite since they come in 16oz cans.
 
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As a spinoff/hijack, what are everyone's favorite lawnmowing/day drinking beers? The kind of beer you drink on the patio/deck when you get down mowing, and you sit there and the sweat dries off. For me, these are light domestics kept ICE COLD. I would probably rank them:
  1. Coors Light
  2. Busch Light
  3. Bud Light
  4. Miller Lite
1. High Life
2. Banquet
3. Coors Light
4. Natty Boh for when I lived in Delaware
 
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As a spinoff/hijack, what are everyone's favorite lawnmowing/day drinking beers? The kind of beer you drink on the patio/deck when you get down mowing, and you sit there and the sweat dries off. For me, these are light domestics kept ICE COLD. I would probably rank them:
  1. Coors Light
  2. Busch Light
  3. Bud Light
  4. Miller Lite

1. Busch Light
2. Busch Light
3. Busch Light
4. Bud Light
 

Shiner is fantastic both in its original “Bock” form and in a lot of its variations like Redbird. But it’s an example of a medium brewing Enterprise like Abita, Sierra Nevada, Bell’s, New Belgium etc…. The Gambrinus Brewing Company which owns Spoetzle Brewing is too small to be considered a macro.

Shiner is definitely one of my favorite medium breweries Ie not micro regional but big enough to have a nationwide or at least very large distribution where you will find it at most Total Wine and other larger liquor stores.

I’d rank the medium sized breweries (100k barrels plus) as:

1) New Belgium
2) Abita
3) Victory
4) Shiner
5) Harpoon
6) Bell’s
7) Sierra Nevada
8) Troegs
9) Kona
10) Anchor (but only because of a lack of variety, I love Anchor Steam with seafood)

Strongly Considered: Sam Adams/Boston Beer Company, Stone, Cigar City, Funky Budha, Deschutes, Kona, Terrapin, Lazy Magnolia, 420, and Founders.
 
My wife, no pictures available, and his wife are both active duty dentists and worked together at Ramstein. My wife got orders to Dover as did the C5 pilot and his wife. Whenever he went to Germany he asked if I wanted anything. One trip he came back with 35 racks of beer. Currently he is flying the U2.
Pic of German rack?
 
As a spinoff/hijack, what are everyone's favorite lawnmowing/day drinking beers? The kind of beer you drink on the patio/deck when you get down mowing, and you sit there and the sweat dries off. For me, these are light domestics kept ICE COLD. I would probably rank them:
  1. Coors Light
  2. Busch Light
  3. Bud Light
  4. Miller Lite

For any hiking, beach day, lawn mowing or other sweaty outdoor activity, my favorites are:

1) Kokanee
2) Miller High Life
3) Coors Light
4) Bud Light
5) Miller Lite

One of my favorite things to do is to make a Redneck Shandy which is 2/3s Miller High Life and 1/3 Publix Lemonade. You can sub in any light crisp beer and any decent lemonade but the High Life plus Publix is the best mix I’ve found.
 
@FSUTribe76 Kokanee is the only beer I drink while in Canada. It’s the bee’s knees.

I tried it the first time while literally hiking around the Columbia Iceshield after leaving Banff and Jasper and chewing some blue ice we chipped off the glacier. So it helps that I have that ultra positive first impression.
 
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Pic of German rack?
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North American, in no particular order:

Yuengling
Dos Equis Amber
Modelo Negra
Iron City

Imports:
Ayinger Celebrator (great, great beer)
Harp lager
Leffe Brune
 
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North American:
Negra Modello
Modello Especial
Yuengling
Coors
Old Milwaukee

Euro:
Guinness (draft)
Guinness Extra Stout (bottle)
Pilsner Urquell
Hofbrau
 
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