wrote in message
...

Just to start off, I did miss a couple of your points first time around.
I'll blame it on the very non-session-like 22 oz bottles of Racer 5 I was in
the midst of consuming.

Well, I, too (in a snipped portion) thought it too high and would say that
his choice was probably also limited by what's available in the US market
but, agree that much of the American audience isn't familiar with good
tasting lower alcohol beers - thus we see posts like "When will we get
REAL BEER" in such-and such a state which was a ABV limit of 6% or so or
the "surprise" to many people when they learn that Guinness Draught Stout
[considered "strong" tasting to the typical US beer drinker] is lower in
alcohol than a Budweiser.

And this is perhaps what annoys me more than anything else about the modern
American craft brew drinker. This whole "bigger = better" thing is nonsense
(and not just limited to beer; it's one of the absolutely most annoying
things I find about living in this country). One of the most impressive
beers I've ever had clocks in at 3.5 percent abv. JW Lees Mild, on cask.
Blew me away. Outstanding. Full of flavor.

Any yutz can brew a flavorful 1075, 8 percent abv, 75 IBU beer. It's not
hard.

It's incredibly challenging to make flavor stand out from (relatively
speaking) next to nothing. A brewer like Lees frankly kicks the sorry ass of
a brewer like Rogue all over the place.

And yet the American craft beer consumer rewards the easy, not the
challenging. Becuase somehow so many have developed this notion that
something has to be overly assertive to be noticed. And I have nothing
against big beers. Some of my absolute favorites are big: Rochefort 8,
Andechs dunkel, Augustiner Maximator. Then again, all those are quite
complex and not one note or muddled.

Yes, my observation (which pertained to changes in the US on-premise
market) was based on the *combination* of the move to larger glasses and
increased availability of higher alcohol beers.

Good point. There comes a point where an 8 percent abv beer in an Imperial
pint gets a bit silly.

Then again, the pub down the street from my old flat in Munich was tied to
Augustiner, and served half-liters of Maximator (their doppelbock) during
Starkbierzeit. It worked. My motor skills in the 30-meter walk home didn't
work so well, though.

But, I come across a bar with a good selection so seldom in my part of the
US, that when I do, I'd like to re-visit old favorites (HopDevil, Brooklyn
beers) and at the same time, try something new or a limited release

That makes sense. I guess I've been lucky to live in locales where I get a
pretty decent selection. But even when I travel to a location that has a lot
I don't get out here in LA (or didn't get in Chicago when I lived there), I
find myself quickly settling into something I like. Comes a point I don't
want to think too much about my drinking.

-Steve