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carla griffin

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by carla griffin » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:02 pm

My daughter, who abhors all most all alcohol, does enjoy unfiltered beers and that's about it for her. Maybe Michelle would find those more to her liking.
I want to point out too something that hasn't been mentioned here yet.
About .05% of the population (although some argue the figure may be higher) have a sensory trait called synesthesia. Briefly it's an overlapping of the senses... people hear a song and see it simultaneously as colors or read a word or letter and see it as a specific, constant color or "taste" it as a flavor. Food may not only have flavor but also shape or color. For instance celery may taste red or soft drinks may taste steely. Basically what may taste great to you may have a whole new dimension of shape or color that just may not be pleasant to a synesthesiac. Both my daughter and myself are synesthesiacs. As I mentioned above, Sarah enjoys unfiltered beers because they taste "soft" to her whereas most any other beers (including boutique beers) taste too "glassy". I'm not saying Michelle is a synesthesiac but I did notice she mentioned in an earlier post that she has a problem with some foods because of their texture. It makes me wonder how much of taste is in our mouth and how much is in our brain.
Carla
There is one thing more exasperating than a wife who can cook and won't, and that's a wife who can't cook and will. ~Robert Frost
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Shawn Vest

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by Shawn Vest » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:26 pm

"unfiltered" may be too broad of a term
as a wide variety of beer styles are unfiltered

unfiltered means exactly what you think
the beer has not been filtered and thus retains certain "floaties" in the liquid, usually yeast, sugars, hops, or other spices are left to float around

shawn
Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. D Barry
www.ctownpizzaco.com
850 MAIN 812-256-2699
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Ron Taglieri

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Theory on popularity of Mass-market beers

by Ron Taglieri » Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:11 pm

First, a disclaimer. I am not that big of a beer drinker, so do not hold myself out as an expert.

However, I believe one reason why mass-market beers are preferred is that people's first exposure to beer is as an adolescent and those are the beers that kids can get their hands on fairly easily. Thus, the "taste" for this is acquired early in life.

For many, there first exposure to a more exotic beer is a foreign beer, which tends to be much heavier in nature (think Bass or Guinness Stout). The difference between the two is dramatic and not always for the good when you are used to drinking many lighter beers.

In fact, I would liken it to changing from drinking 1% or skim milk to drinking whole milk. The first time I did that it felt like I was putting motor oil in my mouth. The taste is overcome by the thickness of the drink. "Tastes great, less filling" was not only effective against regular beer, but other heavier beers as well.

Thus, the 2nd beer "experience" many have is an unpleasant one. Combine that with the price differential and you have locked in clients for life. Same could be said of fast-food. It is no accident that kids' meals are priced very competitively.

Anyhow, not an excuse for anyone, but it is the reality.
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Shawn Vest

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by Shawn Vest » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:38 pm

ok
the adolescent argument doesn't hold true with wine? many first exposures to wine are to lower quality more readily available wines (my first wines were Boone's Farm and the ever popular Mad Dog - all of which can be argued are not even really wines)
but as adults, we don't stick with the drinks we had in the secrecy of our underage drinking extravaganzas

additionally, i differ in opinion about many first exposures to "exotic" beer
Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams may well be as available and popular as Guinness and Bass
but you are right the first transition from a domestic lager to either an import or a micro/macro brew can be an adventure fraught with peril and contradiction
but any new experience with food/drink can be just as adventurous if not more
(consider going from a fast food fish fillet to a blackened salmon or raw Ahi tuna)
my first exposure to beers were as follows - Lite beer by Miller (a horrible childhood experience that left me despising beer for a good long while) - Sam Adams Boston Lager - (to this day my least favorite "micro" brew) - then i found La Chouffe and the world of Belgium beer

and the price differential that everyone talks about
essentially a good beer will cost about twice that of a domestic swill beer - either in the retail, wholesale, or restaurant environment

good beers are not meant to be consumed in the same quantity or manner that swill beers are
- you drink bad beer to git rid of it and get the alcohol into your system, so you drink as many as possible, as fast as possible, the colder the better, the less you taste the better
- good beer is meant to be enjoyed, like a good wine, not up ended in the bottle and finished in a few swift gulps, but poured into a glass and enjoyed at a leisurely pace

SO YOU DON'T NEED TO DRINK 6+ good beers
in a typical sitting, i may only drink 15 or 20 ounces of great Belgian beer

compare that to what you would drink of a common domestic lager

Additionally, the price point is equivalent with a certain level of quality

the comparison between, fresh tuna and canned tuna is a good example
canned tuna is cheaper and most of us enjoyed it as kids, but when we go out to dinner at a nice restaurant - would we order a tuna fish salad sandwich or seared Tuna?

there is no question that mass market beers dominate the market and account for the majority of beer consumption

but the fact that they are still present in the fine dining world is inexplicable to me
Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. D Barry
www.ctownpizzaco.com
850 MAIN 812-256-2699
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Shawn Vest

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by Shawn Vest » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:37 pm

this thread has received some attention

mostly from beer geeks that read Roger's blog, but attention all the same

http://hoosierbeergeek.blogspot.com/200 ... table.html

http://www.brookstonbeerbulletin.com/fi ... -bad-beer/

a related link of interest
http://www.beveragenet.net/cheers/2003/0309/0309bs.asp

thanks
shawn
Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. D Barry
www.ctownpizzaco.com
850 MAIN 812-256-2699
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