The answer, of course, is not “Tilt.” Drinking in this country is just fine, thanks.

For me, pretty much unless it’s IceHouse or somethin’ superghetto like Old English I stick with imports.

cheap scotch is harsh, and the more expensive the smoother (which is bad for the bank account, but i do love scotches that are close to my age… or at least in highschool). then there’s the difference between a nice speyside/highland scotch and an islay. i need alot of ice to handle islay’s but love balvennie or macallan’s 12 years and up… love the macallan 18 and the balvennie double wood 15s…mm

but beer in general is horrible, outside of real ales, wheat beers, and the trappist stuff

I wonder if that wine came in a box, or in a jug.

“do you know what would make a great drink? half wine cooler, half Red Bull!”

vile. but it’s what They (seem to) want.

I still get comments like American’s don’t have any good beer. Not if you only pay attention to the multi-nationals or huge nationals.

Sam Adams actually brews some good beer. Here in Maine and around the region there are several good micro-brewery’s. So the beer question is answered.

As for other drink, if we have no taste then why do stores stock the nice scotch I buy? Or the nice wine? I say bah, it’s too easy to generalize based on some commercial advertising. It’s like bumper-sticker diplomacy.

There has never been general taste. Some have it, some don’t, and the twain rarely met. People who drink Thunderbird usually don’t read publications that advertise Bordeaux, and vice versa. There was always a nice insulation.

But since there are no new ideas (witness the Dukes of Hazzard movie), and advertisers continues to chase the elusive younger dollar, everything has to be EXTREME! That explains this particular A-B atrocity of course, but in general, any American and mass-produced is by definition crap. Bud, Miller, etc. Fucking rice beer.

When I brew my beer, I use nothing but barley, malt, hops, and yeast. No rice and other fillers. Lo and behold, beer with color and flavor! Oh, and brewer’s yeast has all the Vitamin B you need already in it! What a bargain for me! Great beer, no hangovers.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hell of a lot more money now at 36 than I did at 24, but they don’t market to me any more. They assume I’m set in my ways and brands. Really shortsighted. If they can hook me now, on a serious product, they’ll still get 30-40 good years of my money. But oh well, I’m just and old fart.

Jeff, surely you jest. Are you forgetting such classics as Mad Dog, Thunderbird (fortified wine? fortified with what, exactly? turpentine?), Boone’s Farm (Strawberry Hill being my favorite), Schaefer (The one to have when you’re having more than one), Chile Beer (bottle of beer with a pepper in it), Fighting Cock bourbon, Purple Passion. And let’s not forget all those nostalgia beers long considered garbage but now sipped in irony by hipsters (many of whom don’t realize that most of them are brewed by the same brewer using the same recipe): Blatz, Pabst, Schlitz, etc. Oh, the list could go on. Even Michael Jackson (the beer guru, not the pedophile) has turned up hundreds-year-old recipes for Chicken Beer (“Hey guys, it really does taste like chicken!”).

Oh, and Riuniti on Ice. So Nice.

Bad booze will always be with us. What else will the kids drink?

As far as The Death of Beer goes… yes, slick marketers grasping at straws for the most part. Then again, if they hadn’t been so focused for the last 20 years chasing each other in chasing only the 21-27 year old male target, they wouldn’t be in this pinch. 20 years of chicks with fake tits in bikinis, talking animals, fart jokes, etc. … and they wonder why beer isn’t aspirational? That’s all fine and well for the occasional keg party or bladder bust, but even slightly dim-witted frat boys want to grow up and be men. I’d say a fair number of the younger guys drinking scotch these days wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference between good and bad in a blind taste test… but they think they can, and they think it makes them, dare I say, sophisticated. And that image is half the battle.

There aren’t really any ways around it. We need something in the US like the Campaign for Real Ale in the UK. http://www.camra.org.uk/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=ShowCat&CatID=1

Will this strategy “save” beer? Um, no. As many people commented in response to the AdAge article, the objective should be to build brand loyalty, not to assume that there is none to be had. Better products and better marketing generally do the trick, even for beer.

Here’s an example I heard at an advertising conference a couple of years ago: In the late 90s, Stella Artois, the Belgian lager, had virtually no presence in the UK market. The few who knew of it at all considered Stella a workingman’s beer, which in fact it was in Belgium. Since there were plenty of domestic lagers, Stella found it very difficult to penetrate the UK market.

Someone – I can’t remember whether it was at the agency or the client – reasoned that since Stella had so little awareness in the UK, there was no reason not to reposition the beer as an upscale alternative to Kronenbourg and the similar Continental lagers which were very popular with British yuppies. Among other initiatives, the client distributed special branded beer glasses and required that pubs use them exlusively for Stella. The agency produced a brilliant campaign that demonstrated, humorously but poignantly, the lengths people would go to get their Stella. In almost no time, Stella was considered elite, exclusive and aspirational. Unit sales took off and, since the product had a premium positioning, the client was able to raise prices.

It can be done, people. It can be done.

“Quit Smoking By Drinking Special Beer”

HAVE FUN READING AND LAUGHING…IT GOT A NICE PHOTO TOO

Anyway, that stuff was *vile*. I only tried it because my wife thought I might like to. Despite that, we’re still married.