best beer that you can buy for under $20
Peter A. Cheplick
the best beer that I can buy for under $20 a case. The reason why I am
posting is this is that I am a poor graduate student at PSU looking for
some good beer that is not so heavy on the wallet. Maybe in a few years
when I graduate, I can hopefully affording the eccentric brews, but for
now I will settle for just the $20 a case maximum. Thanks for your
help.
Jon Ingram
Lewis Bryson
the Pale Ale and Black & Tan are delicious. Stegmaier Porter is a steal
at about $17 a case.
Lew Bryson
SMS...@prodigy.com
"Do the best thing you can for your beer -- drink it."
Reaper Man
(Lewis Bryson) wrote:
> Under $20 a case?
Homebrew.
--
Reaper Man
ol...@augsburg.edu
Bruguru2
<PAC...@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
To be honest, price should not be your main consideration, no matter what
your budget. A good friend of mine can't understand why I pay $6 a six for
Harpoon or Geary's, when he can buy Miller Lite for about $1.75 less per
six. Yet, he consumes a twelve pack in the same time I drink a six, and my
beer actually had FLAVOR! In the end, who is saving money?
Prost!
John Staradumsky
**************************************************************************
"Ware ich ein General und verstunde soviel von Strategie wie vom
Bier, so wurde ich Euch ein Andenken mitgeben!"
- Paraphrase of Ludwig Van Beethoven
**************************************************************************
Michael Stewart
>In article <96113.114...@psuvm.psu.edu>, Peter A. Cheplick
><PAC...@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>> I was wondering if some of you could respond to my question, to
>> which is the best beer that I can buy for under $20 a case.
> To be honest, price should not be your main consideration, no matter what
> your budget. A good friend of mine can't understand why I pay $6 a six for
> Harpoon or Geary's, when he can buy Miller Lite for about $1.75 less per
> six. Yet, he consumes a twelve pack in the same time I drink a six, and my
> beer actually had FLAVOR! In the end, who is saving money?
Just to add to the Bruguru's advice:
Although I pretty much stick with homebrew (by far the most cost
effective alternative), imports and microbrews, about 7 or 8 years
ago, in my pre-homebrewing days, I embarked on a quest to find the
cheapest beer I could actually drink. On a flavor/cost basis the
large industrial beers are extremely poor performers: they are bland
and they command premium prices. In my experience, it's better to
look for beer from older, regional breweries. For the price of Bud,
you can sometimes get a drinkable darkish lager or a not-so-hoppy pale
ale. It won't be Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, but sometimes you have to
sacrifice a little flavor in your ordinary drinking beer.
Also, you will be able to feel proud by supporting a more local
product. The few independent regional breweries that are left are a
part of U.S. brewing history that I would hate to see squeezed out of
the market by new microbrews on one side and AB/Miller on the other.
--
Michael Stewart ste...@monk.csl.uiuc.edu
"Good people drink good beer." Hunter Thompson, the bottle for Road Dog Ale
Lewis Bryson
Yeah, it's an article of faith with all homebrewers that their beer is
cheap. I've found that to be pretty much true: cheap homebrew tastes
cheap.
I don't homebrew anymore because I don't have to. I can routinely buy
great tasting beer. I don't have to brew it myself.
Michael Stewart
SMS...@prodigy.com (Lewis Bryson) writes:
> Yeah, it's an article of faith with all homebrewers that their beer
> is cheap. I've found that to be pretty much true: cheap homebrew
> tastes cheap. I don't homebrew anymore because I don't have to. I
> can routinely buy great tasting beer. I don't have to brew it
> myself.
Over the last 18 months I've been judging at homebrew competitions
pretty regularly. Homebrew of the quality of a really top microbrew
in fresh condition is extremely rare. However, there are a lot of
really awful microbrews out there and in many places the best
microbrews are fairly stale by the time the consumer gets them. The
freshness problem is even worse for most imports. This makes
homebrewing a more attractive alternative.
While I'm pretty skeptical of people who claim that they brew
something better than Sierra Nevada Celebration, my experience
suggests that you have really missed the boat on the cheapness issue.
If anything, cheap homebrew is almost always better than it's more
expensive counterpart. Consider: the homebrewers who make the
cheapest brew are typically brewing all-grain with malt bought in bulk
quantities and yeast taken from slants. Considering the time
investment in these more advanced techniques, I'd say these people
aren't doing it to save money; they are typically more concerned with
quality and the challenge of mastering the brewer's craft.
I don't mean to imply all-grain brewers don't occassionally make some
pretty nasty brew (I've certainly done it myself from time to time),
but on average it is much better than the very common and very
expensive beer based around canned malt syrup/dry yeast/no additional
hops. And I don't mean to insult extract brewers. Within certain
style limits and with careful brewing methods it is possible to make
excellent beer using a good brand of fresh extract, fresh hops,
specialty malts and a good, pure strain of yeast.
Bruguru2
In article <4lvsfi$5...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, mast...@ux7.cso.uiuc.edu
(Michael Stewart) writes:
>While I'm pretty skeptical of people who claim that they brew
>something better than Sierra Nevada Celebration, my experience
>suggests that you have really missed the boat on the cheapness issue.
>If anything, cheap homebrew is almost always better than it's more
>expensive counterpart. Consider: the homebrewers who make the
>cheapest brew are typically brewing all-grain with malt bought in bulk
>quantities and yeast taken from slants. Considering the time
>investment in these more advanced techniques, I'd say these people
>aren't doing it to save money; they are typically more concerned with
>quality and the challenge of mastering the brewer's craft.
I think in this instance it is important to seperate INEXPENSIVE from
CHEAP. I don't think Lew was referring here to inexpensive all-grain
setups, rather I believe he meant cheap homebrew kits. Remember what
started this thread, someone asking about decent beer under $20 a case.
Someone else suggested he homebrew, and more than likely this person would
be starting with kits. In that case, I agree with Lew, you are going to
get cheap tasting beer if you buy a cheap kit, just as you get cheap
tasting beer when you buy cheap beer. A friend of mine has never been what
I would call a beer afficionado, yet he began homebrewing a few years ago.
He raves about how much better his beer is than anything on the market,
even though he has probably tried only a few micros. He likes to brag
about how he can make 2 1/2 cases for less than $15. Tastes like it, too.
Michael Stewart
brug...@aol.com (Bruguru2) writes:
> Remember what started this thread, someone asking about decent beer
> under $20 a case. Someone else suggested he homebrew, and more than
> likely this person would be starting with kits. In that case, I
> agree with Lew, you are going to get cheap tasting beer if you buy a
> cheap kit, just as you get cheap tasting beer when you buy cheap
> beer.
Most of the canned extract/dry yeast kit beers are pretty bad. But
these days a lot of people, on the advice of more experienced friends,
get warned off the kit beers altogether and start directly at the
decent extract, specialty malt, hops, and liquid yeast level. These
beers can be good, sometimes as good as a good all-grain brew, but
they are also the most expensive to make. I agree with Lew insofar as
most homebrewers will either pay a good bit for quality extract, hops
and yeast at the beginning or make some really rancid stuff. Also,
getting into brewing just to save money probably isn't the best
attitude; anyone who looks at it that way will make bad beer forever.
However, there are exceptions: after having a friend of mine over for
brewing a few times, I convinced him to start homebrewing at the
all-grain level. The first few batches had problems and he isn't
currently brewing Sierra Nevada(I'm not either.... yet), but he
typically makes nice beer and he's still going strong after a couple
of years. And, although cost wasn't his original motive, he's doing
most beers for under $15 for 2 1/2 cases.
> He likes to brag about how he can make 2 1/2 cases for less than
> $15. Tastes like it, too.
Some homebrewers don't really have a gift for objectively evaluating
their own brew. They don't tend to improve their skills. The fact
that this guy doesn't have a broad experience drinking good beer might
be part of the problem.
Lewis Bryson
mast...@ux7.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael Stewart) wrote:
BIG SNIP HERE
>
>Also,
>getting into brewing just to save money probably isn't the best
>attitude; anyone who looks at it that way will make bad beer forever.
Michael--
All your points are well taken, and I concur with you on most. What I
quote you on above was my slant in my original post, and I'm glad to see
we agree on that. I should have been more precise.