Is all Macro Beer Really that bad?

[phynes1]

I love my craft beer, but a good pint of guinness is hard to beat!

[imark]

So the answer to the thread title is no. No correlation between quantity and quality as far as I can see.

[Leann ull]

If the definition of quality is taste uniqueness character and flavour then macro is not quality. If however your definition is consistency, universality, well that's a different story.
Interesting that a lot a comment about commercial lagers and not as much negativity towards commercial stouts.
Anyway as Homebrewers we probably have skewed views as we are chasing those attributes in the first sentence and so anything bland will never cut it.

[Shanna]

Macro beers go through tasting panels all the time and have the recipe change depending on what they think the market wants, hence why Budweiser has halved their IBUs over the past 20 years. Guinness sent to Britain isn't even the same recipe as Irish Guinness either so that shows how far down their recipe targeting goes.

My thinking is that Guinness used to be a "stout" beer (in the literal sense of the word) and with the increasing popularity of lighter lagers they had to alter the recipe to stay more in line with those beers.

That is fine, but don't try and hide the fact and insist that its the same recipe as it was when your Dad or Grand Dad drank it. I had a publican in the city centre almost bust a blood vessel when I remarked that guiness is very different to when I first drank it over 20 years ago. He spent the night insisting that its exactly the same drink which is a bit of stretch.

Shanna

[imark]

If the definition of quality is taste uniqueness character and flavour then macro is not quality.

Disagree. The examples of kozel, Duvel, Guinness Foreign Extra, etc are flavourful  and some of the best examples of their respective styles.
But you're right about consistency in quality. That's a hands down win for macro.

[Bubbles]

I've just realised that nobody has mentioned any English breweries yet.. The likes of Fullers, Adnams, Young's are as far from "micro" as you could get. Great examples of their style too.

I'm rather partial to a pint of Spitfire, it's a cracking beer.

[Leann ull]

Hmm maybe I should have qualified the op by saying Macro produced on the Island

[delzep]

Guinness sent to Britain isn't even the same recipe as Irish Guinness either

Really? Where did you get this info from?

[Qs]

I've just realised that nobody has mentioned any English breweries yet.. The likes of Fullers, Adnams, Young's are as far from "micro" as you could get. Great examples of their style too.

I'm rather partial to a pint of Spitfire, it's a cracking beer.

Not really Macro either though are they? A lot smaller than the likes of Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams I believe.

[irish_goat]

Guinness sent to Britain isn't even the same recipe as Irish Guinness either

Really? Where did you get this info from?

It's got a different alcoholic percentage.

[Bubbles]

I've just realised that nobody has mentioned any English breweries yet.. The likes of Fullers, Adnams, Young's are as far from "micro" as you could get. Great examples of their style too.

I'm rather partial to a pint of Spitfire, it's a cracking beer.

Not really Macro either though are they? A lot smaller than the likes of Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams I believe.

I'd have thought so tbh. Nearer macro than micro in terms of output.

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Guinness sent to Britain isn't even the same recipe as Irish Guinness either

Really? Where did you get this info from?

It's got a different alcoholic percentage.

It's brewed in Dublin to the same recipe, and exported to the packaging plant in the UK at high gravity and diluted to sales gravity there, the theory was no point in sending water over water, so transporting at high gravity reduces transport costs.

[Leann ull]

I assume RO in UK?

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

There are big differences in the resources available to big breweries and small micros, eg the amount of automated instrumentation and control available along with lab support etc.
I imagine some of the micros are stumbling along in the dark and they pick up experience as they go. That's not to say that some are not making great efforts despite these shortcomings. In many ways it's like comparing chalk with cheese,
Recipes evolve from time to time to suit markets and raw material shortages etc. The experience at macro level is that there can be an accumulative taste build up, so a beer which tastes great for the first pint or two can seem overpowering after a few. (Sessionability tests are performed to test this) The consumer's taste can become saturated and he changes onto another product, whereby the breweries will always stress and espose their support for sensible drinking, they don't want you to drink one or two and move onto vodka and redbull for example. If you're going to drink in an insensible way they want you to do it with their products. This is one of the reasons that IBUs and colour have reduced over the years in macros. Where they have been caught out is many people want to drink sensibly but want a lot more flavour.
To their credit Guinness produced a number of craft beers in the 1990s, I remember a spiced ale, a dark lager, a weiss beer there was a fourth one but I can't remember it now. They were called something like the St James Gate series. But as with Guinness light they were ahead of their time and Irish consumers didn't want them. The weiss beer developed into Breo and ran for a while but was eventually stopped as it failed to reach target sales. It did however cut the furrow for the success of Erdinger and Hoegaarden in Ireland, which was in my opinion the opening of the market to different styles of beer here.

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I assume RO in UK?

Yes