Is all Macro Beer Really that bad?

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Should have gone the Mexican route with slices of lime, could have saved themselves a fortune, or packaged in brown glass like everyone else

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[Eoin]

No micro really gets lager very good.

The Five Lamps is an alright example, but in totality they are crap and done with the wrong (i.e. local) hops and this just doesn't work for me.

Are Irish micros making lagers with local hops though?  Have you tried the Lidl Crafty Lager? It's a gem.  Five Lamps are owned by C&C (owners of Bulmers).

Well they always taste shite  for some reason....The hops never taste correct to me and the malts have to be local malts too and they are never up to the Bamberger standard.

[DEMPSEY]

And so applying the rule, " It's not real butter mom".

[Keg]

I agree with most of the comments here about macro/micro, and from my own point of view having a real choice of styles & a locally produced option is important - I might be missing out but I generally only drink foreign craft beers when I'm in those countries.

Anyway, I wonder if there is some 'perception bias' (may not be a real term) at play here too in how we judge the beers. 

I've seen a few people rate some German beers from Spaten/Paulaner/Erdinger etc as being good beers, however, when in Bavaria I've had drinking buddies call them and other German Macros 'international piss' compared to the Helles/Pils/Weisen/whatever from their local breweries.   

The one exception seems to be Augustiner which seems to be recognised by the locals as the best Munich brewery - I'm assuming they're considered a macro if they produced 1.59 million hectolitres last year (http://aktiongutesbier.de/statistik-bier-und-brauereien/).

[cruiscinlan]

Well they always taste shite  for some reason....The hops never taste correct to me and the malts have to be local malts too and they are never up to the Bamberger standard.

I've not heard complaints about Irish pilsner malts before, any macro or other lager is hardly being made with malt from Bamberg either.  Ditto with the hops.

[Pheeel]

Most Micros don't get lagers right because they're not brewing lagers. The bulk use hybrid yeast or ale yeast

[Qs]

The Wicklow Brewery Helles is pretty spot on. Not a big Helles fan myself but its a well made beer.

[johnrm]

Galway bay Dortmunder is pretty good.
Marginally better than my attempt.

[Eoin]

Yellowbellys lager must be fairly passable they've weaned a few auld men off the heino/bud/carlsberg...never tried it myself!

That's not exactly David Copperfield level stuff, The beers you mention are made with a sessionable purpose, but flavour is not one of them.

[Eoin]

Well they always taste shite  for some reason....The hops never taste correct to me and the malts have to be local malts too and they are never up to the Bamberger standard.

I've not heard complaints about Irish pilsner malts before, any macro or other lager is hardly being made with malt from Bamberg either.  Ditto with the hops.

The IMC lager malts which we had were terrible conversion wise. Into the 60's-70's where I can normally achieve 80% with a UK or German malt.

[Andrew]

I never thought that I'd ever be defending Heineken or Corona but it should be corrected that they don't use preservatives. The Heineken use a special hop product which is not light sensitive, these hops are extremely expensive and Corona stick a slice of lime in the bottle to cover up the skunk flavour 😆

Nearly, they use reduced isohumulone extracts- most likely tetra-isohumulone (rho- and hexa- are also possibilities). It's quite an involved chemical process to make these modified alpha acids.

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I never thought that I'd ever be defending Heineken or Corona but it should be corrected that they don't use preservatives. The Heineken use a special hop product which is not light sensitive, these hops are extremely expensive and Corona stick a slice of lime in the bottle to cover up the skunk flavour 😆

Nearly, they use reduced isohumulone extracts- most likely tetra-isohumulone (rho- and hexa- are also possibilities). It's quite an involved chemical process to make these modified alpha acids.

But they are not preservatives

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[Andrew]

/quote]
They are to the extent that they are being used to increase shelf life by inhibiting the formation of 3MBT.

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Putting a cap on the bottle extends the shelf life,  but it doesn't make it a preservative, the reduced iso hops protect the beer from UV light damage in the same way that brown glass prevents UV damage, they dont impact on shelf life.
The original statement was that preservatives are added to Heineken, and quite simply this is not true.
Getting back to my original point, this is a homebrew forum not Beoir.(which had a stated agenda) There's a political agenda against macros from some members, aired in the public area of the forum, but when someone questions some of the infected Irish craft beers there's a rush to put it in the members area with a suggestion to go easy on the brewers, a bit of balance is all I'd like, or preferably rant away on Beoir and leave this forum to homebrewing.

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[Andrew]

Putting a cap on the bottle extends the shelf life,  but it doesn't make it a preservative, the reduced iso hops protect the beer from UV light damage in the same way that brown glass prevents UV damage, they dont impact on shelf life.

Of course they impact on shelf life- do you think a beer made with natural hops and packaged in green glass would last as long as Heineken?