Susan picked up 2 sixers on her first trip back. They are great, $5.99 a sixer makes them a bargain.
Yep, Jack’s Abby and Von Trapp both make excellent lagers. And there are a few places near me that get relatively fresh imports and store them cold.
Lagers are something I seek out. I can find decent ones in New Mexico.
If we get back to NM, I will let you know. Our spring trip got postponed a year.
Definitely reach out if you’re down this way. As I say, still some breweries I haven’t made it to here, and I believe there is more focus on lagers than was true a few years back. A friend is opening a brewery here later this year (ReSource Brewing) and plans to focus somewhat on lagers and generally on lower ABV beers. I’ll be doing free “quality checks” for him ;D
I’ve always found the store brand beers at Aldi to be a bit off, but I haven’t tried that one.
Also, unoriginal IPAs and you’re looking for a Pilsner? The style that’s best known for not having a lot of variation in yeast, hops, malt, IBU, or ABV?
Finding the right store is key. I know a few hole in the walls owned or managed by beer lovers who have limited space but nicely curated variety. I more often find places with plenty of cold storage that could have fantastic selection but obviously have what the distributors want to pawn off on them, a combination of BMC and “craft” beer that is in line with what the OP described.
or i’m looking for a pilsner and there nothing but unoriginal IPA’s
It’s not necessarily that some IPAs are unoriginal, some are a little too original and not necessarily well crafted.
Those breweries would probably make a terrible pilsner too. As it is, I guess you’ll have to settle for Pivo, victory prima, founders, spaten, ayinger, Brooklyn, six point the crisp, Austin pearl snap, pfriem pilsner, rogue yellow snow, Oscar blues pils, schlafly pils, revolution pils, perennial pils, new Belgium blue paddle, etc. I guess you could go for one of the identical styles and grab harp, tsingtao, asahi, Sapporo, or kirin. Yep, it’s tough that IPA took over as the most popular style after a century of everyone drinking nothing but dark mild. 
i completely agree, craft brewing has been an illusion for a long time, people with little talent focusing on branding and crowding on board whatever trendy ship is in now, IPAs. I don’t even like them anymore.
i have been a decade long fan of wernesgruner. Favourite german pils.
Occasionally I want to drink industrial strength malt-liquor shit cause I am forced to drink it much more slowly than something that actually tastes good.
It’s kinda like since IPA is trendy it’s trendy to not like it! ;D
i don’t dislike IPA, i just dislike the amount of shelf space they take up in my beer store and esp dislike any beer that has wacky ingredients in it but that’s just me, if people like buying/making beer with oysters and crab legs in them for example, go for it but its not my bag, i think the best brewers can use extremely simple basic ingredients and make unbelievable awesome beers without putting a chocolate cake in the mash, you know beer flavored beer
While that may be true for many, I’ve long had a personal distaste for the hop blasters that IPA became in America. When you enter a brewpub, look at a brewery’s range and see that most of their offerings are 75+ IBU I tend to look elsewhere. I have the same issue with a majority of a brewery’s portfolio in the 7+% ABV range. A lot of people must like extremely hoppy high ABV beers because the supply certainly seems to be meeting the demand. I guess I’m just not in that market.
I realize the BU:GU ratio has issues and may not tell the whole story, and likewise the IBU calculation is suspect, but it’s what we have so I use them as a benchmark to evaluate beer. A BU:GU ratio of around .75 is a ‘very hoppy’ beer in my world and I prefer more like .6-ish for balance. When everyone started hitting a BU:GU of 1, 1.5, 2… I baled. I recall having this conversation with Tommy years ago. I simply don’t enjoy that much bitterness.
Having said all that, you have one of my reasons to brew my own. My goal with hops is not primarily bitterness. Of course I need some bitterness for balance but I am primarily shooting to use hops for flavor like I do spice/seasoning to flavor food. (see: techniques to maximize hop flavor thread)
Most beers I brew are 1048-1054 SG and 30-45 IBU. My beers have gotten hoppier overtime though. I’ve been brewing Czech and Classic American Pilsners lately and loving them.
I like IPAs but rarely make them myself. They are readily available at craft breweries and I tend to want one once only a month or so.
another good reason to be sick of “craft beer” is simply the price. this isn’t usually on my radar because i completely block out the obviously trendy “our beer is expensive so it MUST be good” stuff. but just saw someone post about an 18 dollar /750ml bottle “tart” sour from well known but imho not actually respected regional microbrewer.
18 dollars for 750ml of malt and hops? are you out of your f—ing mind??? and… wait who are you again? i could get world class beer from extremely solid and time-tested european breweries for a quarter that price… why would i put down 18 dollars on that?
on beer review sites it gets completely middling reviews. these craft breweries are so into themselves its just pure delusion.
I regularly pay $16-18 forma bottle of Alesong. Amzingly good beer and I dont drink it every day to, so to me it’s worth it.
I have a wide range of options in my area but I have absolutely gone into small craft brewpubs and found myself scratching my head over what to get. I generally do not brew stouts, IPAs or Belgians so right there I could be in trouble at a brewpub. I also generally dislike “gimmick beers” like the ones mentioned in the OP. Hey, how about a nice American Pale Ale? They’re getting hard to find. I walked into a place once and there were 10-12 beers on tap. Every one of them looked like a gimmick and every one of them was 8% or more. I was in another place that was similar but wait, what’s this? A Mexican Dark Lager named something like El Varon Viejo (old man?). Oh, it’s 9.7%… forget it. I see dry hopped pilsners, a never-ending river of citrusy IPAs and IIPAs, whacked-out stouts and funky Belgians and for those reasons I am very happy I brew my own… mostly Helles, Pilsner, Viennas, Festbiers, Dunkels, Bocks, etc.
18 bucks for a 750 of barrel aged heaven is relatively cheap, not that there is any barrel aged beer available here for any price.
I like the way this Fredthecat guy thinks.
Personally, I kinda like to drink beer I brew myself. Although PBR will do in a pinch.