Lew Bryson wrote:

"Oh, Guess" wrote in message

On Tue, 7 Oct 2003 17:58:20 -0500, "fastfwd"
wrote:

OP said... I am looking for a

beer thats not so bitter as budweiser, maybe a little sweeter taste?

can

If you think Budweiser is bitter, you should probably give up beer
altogether. Budweiser is deliberately formulated to have as little
bitterness as any hopped beverage might have.

Why be such a beer snob?

'Cause it's fun! C'mon, try it!

Jeez, Don, so's shooting fish in a barrel, then, I guess.

Okay, so I was being just a wee tad smartass here... well, a
very big wee tad.

If the guy wants to try something better why would
you discourage him so much?

Because sometimes, a person has to recognize a fundamental truth.
And that truth just might be that said person doesn't really like the
taste of beer.

How the hell would he (or you) know that if all he's tried are Bud,
Foster's, and Guinness? You're cutting him off too soon. (Yes, I realize he
may have just been trolling...but then why feed him?)

Point.

The more people drinking something besides the
macros the better in my opinion.

You're right in this regard, but if a person doesn't like the taste of
beer - robust malt, perhaps some hop bitterness (but not always!),
maybe an interesting fruity flavor from the yeast - why shove it down
that person's throat? There are people out there who simply don't
like the taste of honest, well-made beer.

But you didn't know this guy WAS one (because what he said he didn't like
was mass-made stuff!), and you wrote him off and jumped up and down on his
head with your golf spikes on! Hell, we don't even know if he DOESN'T like
hops, just that he thinks Bud is too bitter. He CAN'T really think that,
it's physically impossible...unless what he really doesn't like is the
carbonation level, and we can address that.

The OP gave precious little other info, though. In the absence of other
info, what do you have to go on?

I'm thinking cask-conditioned
Troegs Hopback Amber as a control.

How do you know that this beer is available to the OP?

Anyway, the problem here is that you've
got a guy ASKING for help, a NEWBIE in our dying newsgroup, someone who
might blossom into a regular like Bill Becker...and you pilloried him. Oh,
HE'S gonna be back, you bet.

Perhaps he ain't. Perhaps he's ballsy and he will. Perhaps if he had
Bill's attitude in the first place? Bill doesn't come across as a troll
and never had. I can't say that about the OP (Dustin) in this thread.
Of course, the OP is quite welcome to disclaim that he intended to
troll, and that indeed it was a bonafide question.

Dustin, I'm fairly new to all of this, but I would say try something like
Newcastle Brown.

Why?

Cuz it's not bitter? Maybe? Cuz he actually read the guy's post?

Newky Broon doesn't taste much of anything, though. But if ya gotta
start somewhere, okay.

I asked the question of what to offer somebody new to good
beer not too long ago and that was the answer. Goto:

www.beeradvocate.com

and sign up there. Lots of helpful info and helpful people. The

question

you ask is a valid one in my opinion.

Of course it's valid. I asked the question myself once - long before
I knew of such a thing as Usenet and rfdb. It was the dark, primitive
era of the 1970's, after all.

So he's an idiot because he's asking it now? He's what, calendrically
challenged?

*sigh* No. He came across as a troll. Back in the good ol' daze,
you didn't troll Usenet because you wanted to see what the beer geeks
would say. You headed down to Ye Olde GoodBeer Shoppe in your town
(if there was such a thing) and asked the proprietor questions. Or
you picked up books - y'know, like those things you've written which
are getting the good reviews and all - and read 'em first. Or, in the
more modern context, you lurked on the newsgroup for a while, to see
what was up and what was discussed, before making a post that was
either kinda naive (in which case, yep, I was OTT in my reply), or
a troll.

It's perfectly normal for you to take a little while to acquire the taste
for good beer.

Point. But first - one must learn to drink, enjoy, and savor good
beer. And one must be motivated to do so.

So...it's going to take you a while to acquire the taste for good beer, but
you've got to learn to enjoy and savor it first? BLAT, that's noise. And as
far as the motivation...he's HERE, isn't he?

He's here (or was, anyway). Whether the OP is actually motivated that
way is still uncertain.

The plus side is that there are thousands of them out there
to explore once you get hooked on the flavors. You may find yourself
wanting to travel a bit to find beers that aren't available in your area.

[...] So, fine. Dustin, get out
there and hang those cojones over the razorblade. Please, realize
that bitter flavors are to be savored, not abhorred. Learn to enjoy
the robust maltiness of a rich ale, the piercing hop flavors of an
IPA, the rich fruity flavors of a Bavarian-style hefeweizen. But
whatever you do - quit drinking Bud. Bud is a beer made with one
thought in mind: people don't really want beer with rich flavors.
The premise of Bud is to offer a beer with as bland a flavor profile
as possible. Eschew this. Learn to savor the very things that make
beer good. M'kay?

Hold on. Not everyone likes and savors every flavor component possible in
beer. I know significant numbers of people who don't like IPAs that roll
like kitties in catnip over weizenbock;

Damn. You been drinkin', aintcha? I only wish that *I* had composed
that sentence.

similarly, there are a LOT of people
I would consider bona fide geeks who "just don't get Belgians." Are they
idjits? Nay.

Fair 'nuff.

And I'd have to say that Bud and its ilk are not about bland. They're about
alcohol, and that's what gets the whole industry in trouble.

Then my advice is still right: quit drinking Bud. A-B sells half the
beer in the USA anyway.

I like you, Don, you know that. You know a hell of a lot about beer,
particularly about out-of-the-way places to find really great beer. But man,
you got a bad habit of dropping on newbies like a ton of blivets. It ain't
doing the cause a bit of good, and in the end, that doesn't do us -- or
you -- any favors. JMO.

Yeah, you have a point. Perhaps my troll detector has a bit of a hair-
trigger, and went kerblooie on the wrong target. Okay, so we got a noob
who may or may not be here again, and so far, there have been a few
suggestions: a casked amber ale, Newkie Broon, ... what else? A fruit-
flavored sweet lambic, like Belle-Vue or De Troch or Lindemans? Or a
fruit-flavored Belgian brown like Liefmans Kriek? Ephemere from
Unibroue? Hoegaarden Wit to get away from the allegedly-bitter flavors
that the OP claims not to like?
--
DGS