thoughtnot

I like beer… It makes me a jolly good fellow… I like beer… It helps me unwind and sometime it makes me feel mellow… ~ Tom T. Hall

As most of my friends and family know, I like beer. Not so much that I drink too much of it… I just enjoy having a cold one on a hot day or when I’m relaxing. I might have one or two every few days. Back in college I was a “Miller-Lite man”, but for some reason that beer now bloats my stomach something crazy. I can barely stand it. As I went through my 20s, I worked part time for an upscale liquor store and got into “boutique” and “craft” beers. I enjoyed them, but they are pricey and full of calories. I even attempted to brew my own beer for a while, but mainly just managed to produce vinegar. Later I switched to “less complicated” beers like Michelob Ultra Light and Bud Select, figuring I would save the calories, but it I wasn’t drinking enough to make it worth the difference. 

Lately I’ve enjoyed drinking Bud Light Lime (thanks to T-bone), which is great on a hot day after riding. But to be honest, I’m tired of paying $10-12 for a 12-pack of beer! Ironically I enjoy it less often because the cost adds up pretty fast! So with that in mind, I’ve decided to SIMPLIFY. I have chosen six “cheap” beers that cost under $15 for a 30-pack. Most of these have actually been brewed for quite a long time. The way I see it, people have enjoyed them for years, so why should my tastes be any more refined?

That said, I have completed ROUND 1 of the “Cheap Beer Playoffs“. Generally, I consider a beer to be the ‘winner’ if I either find myself NOT drinking it because I want to get the other one “out of the way” first, OR if I find myself drinking it because I enjoy it more than the other one. The winner is in blue. The ultimate goal is to choose ONE beer that I can keep “stocked” in my fridge and enjoy when I want. A secondary point was to switch to canned beer, because I can recycle the cans for money as opposed to getting nothing for bottles. I also don’t have to worry about knocking over cans in the garage and having one break.

The contenders and results are as follows:

Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) vs. Strohs
These were the only two beers that I tried that were not “light” beers. However, I actually (and even surprisingly) enjoyed the PBR. It has just the right amount of “malt” flavor I enjoy. It can be a tad bit bitter, but it didn’t bother me. I was disappointed by the Strohs, which is a beer I often drank in college (after I turned 21, of course!). Apparently my memories of the beer were better than the beer itself. I found it to be too sweet, and kind of flat tasting. Perhaps it was flat or skunked… not many places carry it, so who knows how old it was. But I didn’t care much for it, and probably won’t buy it again.

Keystone Light vs. Busch Light
Hands down the Keystone won this contest. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I actually used to drink Keystone “back in the day”, and it’s similar to Coors Light in taste. Like the PBR, it had a nice “malty” taste, though more “full bodied”. I found the Busch Light to be WAY too “sugary” and watery for my taste… it actually soured my stomach! I can drink it if it’s super-cold, but outside of that I didn’t really enjoy it.

Miller High Life Light vs. Old Milwaukee Light
The competition was originally going to be between the four beers listed above. However, these were last second “entries” and it turned out to be perhaps the closest contest of the bunch. The Old Mil Light actually wasn’t bad — better than I anticipated. But it has kind of a sharper, more “alcohol” taste than I usually enjoy, which makes it a bit inconsistent when drinking (it wavers between malty and sharp). I still found it drinkable, but not as enjoyable as the High Life Light. Honestly, I didn’t even know they MADE the HLL, but it turned out to have a nice malty flavor. The HLL is a tid-bit flat tasting, though, so this contest was close to being a draw. I found them both “drinkable”, but the HLL won out based on consistency. It is probably one of the more expensive of the six I sampled.

So that completes round one!! I’ll keep you posted as I begin Round 2! =)