How's the craft industry going these days in the US? In Australia many are struggling. Some bucking the trend but it's hard work as far as I understand.
In NC it's stagnant, mostly because the distributors/distribution laws are corrupt. There are plenty of bottle shops and breweries in the cities but a lot of them are pretty bad. If you want good beer you have to drive to specific breweries. The local and regional breweries that find it economical to sell their beer in grocery stores here, well, they usually aren't to my liking, with some exceptions. The Sierra Nevada and Footills Oktoberfests were sold out in pretty much every grocery store and total wine by the first week of October (although that may be because their facilities were affected by the hurricane). Bottle shops are a bad bet; the succesful ones are mostly just bars that happen to possess some shelves of dusty, expired beer cans and bottles. I've heard this is a problem in other states too: there's plenty of good beer to be had but you have to plan your week around driving to a brewery in another county to go get it.
It's still remarkable how many more breweries there are in the sparsely-populated northwoods of Wisconsin and Michigan than in the rural deep south. Like, it looks like there are more breweries in Wisconsin north of WI Hwy 29 than in the whole state of Mississippi.
I should note, alcohol regulation is still pretty strong in the South; especially Mississippi and neighbors. Granted, my info is about a decade old now, but when I lived in Jackson back in the late 2010s, there were some local breweries, but they weren't allowed to sell beer for consumption on-premises, and most alcohol was sold through ABC - a state-run alcohol wholesaler. Hell, half of the counties in MS still banned alcohol sale and consumption outright.
There is a map plotting areas based on bars vs. Grocery stores. Where there are more grocery stores, there is an amber spot. Where bars outnumber grocery stores, there is a red spot. There is a pretty good smattering across the midwest. Illinois is mostly filled in. Wisconsin is almost completely painted red, to the point that you can clearly make out its entire shape.
@@PhilEdwardsInc there was a documentary called Beer Wars in 2009 but it seems obsolete now. If you're making a sequel (or a reboot) let me know. I'd love to contribute :)
@@ChadzBeerReviews yeah i'm sorry i didn't run into you before! i did a little call out on my community tab for beer youtubers, but the community posts always get a bit buried. next time!
That shot of the map at the end, I *HAD* to know what the hell was the brewery on the far far left of Alaska. It appears to be the Tundra Tavern in Adak, Alaska. With a total population of 171 and is the westernmost town in the US.
@@blairhoughton7918 I don't make beer because I can't (it's incredibly expensive and I can't make a return on my investment due to the fact that I'd drink it all)
@@adamk.7177 It's not expensive. The specialized equipment is minimal (something to measure alcohol, a bubbler for your fermenter bucket, a bottle capper) and none of those is innately costly. After that it's stuff you might have or can get cheap. Ingredients are cheap, sanitizer is cheap, water is cheap. With luck and legwork you can get into it for well under 100 bucks. But the time and the risk of wasting time on bad batches is what keeps me from bothering.
I’d love to see you cover the history of cider in the US and how incredibly popular this was until beer and soft drinks (relatively) suddenly made it pretty much disappear from American drinking.
Just as prohibition killed Breweries, prohibition killed cideries. I also wouldn’t be surprised if because of its higher alcohol content cider was viewed more poorly compared to beer for the temperance movement. Also it’s incredibly easy to make Applejack from cider(Another strike for the temperance movement). You just need a cold winter. Whereas making whiskey is much more involved.
@@micahbonewell5994 Have you made applejack?[1] You are right it is easy, I got 3L of organic apple juice from an Aldi, whacked in some yeast, something like cream of tartar etc, and it fermented. Tossed it in the freezer, I'm in Perth, Australia - not a place known for snow, did the freeze distillation and ended up with something that was probably about 50% alcohol but as rough as hessian undies.... Only tried a small amount then dumped it. If you did a big session on it , I think the next morning hangover would make your head fall off. [1] That's not an accusing "Have you...", just a wondering "Have you..."
There's a reason for the adjuncts like corn or rice in American pilsners and lagers left out of the video. In the mid 19th century when pilsners in central Europe blew up in popularity, German and Czech immigrants tried to replicate the traits of pilsners in America using locally sourced ingredients. Unfortunately, the barley grown in the Americas have an extra protein that causes a cloudiness in beers which is an unwanted trait in a beer known for it's clarity. The brewers found using an adjunct helped reduce the cloudiness to bring the look closer to the pilsners from Central Europe. Americans that weren't used to or didn't like a full body beer were much more inclined to these lighter options thus expanding the beer drinking population and markets. Cheers from Milwaukee!
This is why I always read the comments on interesting videos. Every so often someone's answer teaches me something I'd always wondered about. Thanks, and cheers to you, from Edmonton!
@@georgeburns7251 Rice+Corn+American-grown 6-row barley=Brewery cost accountant's wet dream. European 2-row barley was better quality, but more expensive. Chasin' that dollah....
a Belgian here that loves a good beer. Stouts, Porters and red Beers were in the 1700/1800s more in favour since they dont go spoil after a long storage and/or transport to more rural areas. refridgration made Pilsner/Lagers more and favor after that thats something ive learned from my local brewery history thats famous for making a red sour beer ( wich is also older than my country)
I think it's not the storage, but the fact you have to brew it in cold conditions for bottom fermenting yeast to work that made it difficult to produce in pre-industrial times.
@@yuriydee Lager literally means storage beer, so I really don't think they spoil faster than other beer. The whole purity law is very overhyped, I think it was mainly to get brewers to only use barley so they didn't buy grain that were used for bread. It really doesn't have that much to do with actual purity. And there were a lot of botanicals used in brewing before that have disappeared. But in Belgium you can have beer brewed with cherries or coriander and orange peel and it's delicious.
Agreed! It's an ever changing market and craft breweries copy each other and outdo each other to try to stay relevant. But most craft breweries I visit now are offering a variety of lagers and pilsners as an option to pallet wrecking, high octane IPA's. There is a reason that light lagers dominate the world in virtually every country. You can have a few and not get trashed. Even in Belgium lagers are king (Jupiler, Maes, Stella). Yes they are known for their high ABV beers, but these are generally consumed with meals, and treated like wine and are consumed slowly and enjoyed, not pounded. Cheers
They like it because it's easy, you don't need to control the fermentation very well because you overpower every other flavor with hops. A good lager now that's hard to do.
The documentary "Beer Wars" goes over a lot how the AB's and Coors would squeeze out the small breweries from shelf space and such. That doc is 15 years old now but it's interesting to see how things changed since then (mainly the big breweries just buying up the craft breweries themselves- which was sad to see)
They had the regulations in their favor, It's call regulatory capture and I'm bummed it didn't come up in this video since the beer industry from prohibition to the late 70s is a great example of regulations being written in such a way as to make it either illegal or prohibitively expensive to compete with them.
I enjoyed that documentary, but yah its main premise that the big boys buy up shelf space to squeeze the little guy was somewhat flawed. All I had to do was press pause, good to the grocery store and seem the little guys getting some space because the demand was growing, and the space got bigger and bigger with the demand. Now its smaller because well the demand has shrunk
Fun fact: 9/10 hops grown in America come from WA and OR because of their unique geography and soil composition. So if you drink a beer from America you at least have a small thanks to give those two states. And if you're wonder about that last 1, Michigan a couple years ago started to grow their. It's a slow but steady thing
I grew up in the Denver area in the 50’s and 60’s so of course I was raised on Coors “Banquet Lager.” Coors was cold filtered but because it was not pasteurized it couldn’t be shipped out of the state back then. So if you lived outside of Colorado it was unlikely you had tasted Coors Banquet.
"IPA, the best type of beer." Imma stop you right there... Nah. You'll figure it out eventually. When you stop making yourself feel pain to feel something.
I can tell by your awesome comment that you’re probably a pretty cool and sophisticated guy with lots of friends. Keep fighting the good fight super cool and humble internet stranger 🫡
Phil, great video and the timing could not have been better. With the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) finally wrapping up Oregon took home 3 of the 6 "Best Brewery" awards with respect to their volume output. Alesong being one of them. Amazing brewers.
I have a history degree and I love beer. Been to probaly over a 100 breweries, have made my own beer and even grown hops. As someone that already know alot about this subject I found this video to be incredably well done, accurate, and informative. Bravo!
It's wild to me as an european that those flavorless american beers were supposed to in any way resemble pilsners, cause the czech lagers and the pilsners we have over here are freakin delicious
The problem is you only see the american crap beer like bud, Miller, coors, but pretty much every winery in missouri makes there own beers which are awesome but because distribution laws are stupid you can only get them on site
If you can find it, Pilsner-Urquell, if bought in the completely light-proof package is one of the best beers I've ever had, especially in pilsner style. If you find it in green bottles in a regular six pack, don't buy it, for green glass has no UV protection and it will be a six pack of skunk juice.
Totally agree. I wish more American bars would feature German, Chek and Belgian Pilsners. One of my favorite bars is the Trappe Door in Greenville, SC. It’s a beautiful Belgian Pub and almost all the beers they serve are totally unavailable anywhere else.
I feel like the first 20s of this video is a perfect way to introduce a sponsor of the video. It's related to the rest of the video, noto formulaic, doesn't break up the flow, and overall i think it showed what storyblocks can do better than the later typical sponsor segment
@@PhilEdwardsInc IPAs got so hoppy in the 2010s that it seemed sadistic. Stouts, on the other hand, are by far my favourite. Porters are also excellent.
Listening from flood-torn Asheville NC. This is a great reminder of how far we've come as brewers in spite of adversity and the odds stacked against us. We'll keep brewing 'em if you keep drinking 'em. Cheers, Phil
Love to encounter a fellow ashevillain in the wild. Currently in Raleigh with my damn parents cuz my job has temporarily transferred me until January. Miss it like crazy!
As a expat Brit living in Eugene, Oregon (love Alesong!) I'd never really put the pieces together about how the German immigrants arriving in the late 19th century put them in the "right place at the right time" for the lager/pils style to take off and dominate the market. I do miss the classic traditional British "Real Ale" and cask-conditioned drinks which you don't see much of really, but it makes a lot of sense why as a brewing style it wasn't compatible with the geography/transportation needs for America AND that the brewers probably weren't making up that much of the immigration boom to the states at that point in history.
I really enjoyed this video! As an middle aged, avid craft beer drinker, I oddly had no recollection that craft brewers could not sell their own beer up until 1980. It's probably wasn't drinking beer back then. And when I heard a shout out to Utica Club (I lived in Utica, New York for many years), I knew this was a video well done. Thank you!
Loved the video. I live in Australia, and the large variety of beer-drinking cultures means a huge variety of beers from all over. Our craft brew scene is now going off. It's a nice time.
As someone from the Pacific Northwest that enjoys a huge variety of regional craft beer (mostly from the Portland and Seattle metro areas) at nearly every grocery store, it’s always a culture shock to see only a few macro options when I travel to the Southern US or Mexico. British Columbia also has an awesome craft beer scene.
I have drunk lagers most of my life but was introduced to stout during the pandemic. It's my go-to now whenever I drink beer - it tastes so much better than the bland stuff. Interesting to see that America actually started with stout and gravitated towards to bland stuff because of the various factors in history you covered
I don't think America is really any different to any other country. Lager wasn't number one anywhere if you go back far enough, but it is now. Even in like Ireland Guinness is the most popular beer, but lager still makes up for over half of all beer sold. They are just different drinks for different purposes. But lager isn't very exciting and there's not that much you can do with, for better or for worse, it was already perfected 200 years ago in Plzen. Probably why smaller breweries lean towards other stuff. I don't drink much lager either, but if I'm just thirsty for "a beer" I'm having Urquell if it's available nine times out of ten.
Ha its the complete opposite for me now. When i started drinking (even before 21 lol) I was into Stouts, starting from the classic Guinness and moving on. I loved stouts into my 20s and would try every kind of stout and porter. But now that Im 30 i actually went to drinking light lagers more mainly due to lower calories and being able to drink longer. I still love a nice Guinness or even a nice German Lager dont get me wrong, but if I know it will be a whole day of drinking, Ill go towards something lighter like a Miller Lite even if the taste is mediocre.
At 13:39 you show a map from, I'd guess mid-20th century, showing the majority heritages in the US states, I can't find it in your sources? Thanks for the video. It's light pilsners for me... Modelo Especial is pretty good, but expensive. Coors Banquet and Miller High Life is what I prefer.
sorry i missed that on the links! www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~342601~90110851:A-Nation-of-Immigrants-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:a%20nation%20of%20immigrants;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=4
I'm a brewer and history buff. I recently spent a good chunk of time diving into the drinking habits of the late 19th century for a presentation I gave at a local museum. Great video, but I want to expand on two points that were made: 1) AB and other breweries at the time were adding rice and corn to their beer because their primary barley was 6-row - rather than the 2-row commonly used in Europe. 6-row has more more protein and fewer carbohydrates, which results in a lower yield. It's arguably easier to brew with, but the resulting beer will likely be heavier, chewier, hazier and much more likely to express some off-flavors. Many would describe the flavor of 6-row as "rustic" or even "dirty". So yes, adding corn or rice makes the beer more bland, but it certainly beats the alternative. 2) German drinking culture compared to the American drinking culture - at least historically - is much more moderate. Germans would spend all day drinking in biergartens and beer halls with others and family. Meanwhile, Americans would drink in dark taverns hidden away from the rest of society as a result of it being culturally as taboo or sinful (thanks, Puritan founders!). So in the mid to late 19th century, Americans are drinking spirits HARD and there's an attempt made at prohibition, which ultimately fails. There was also a rising trend in a clean/pure food movement at this time. So prominent German Americans make the case that beer is a temperance beverage - and it's pure! Look how it's made out of just barley (and corn/rice), hops, water. I found a local newspaper that detailed a trial where it is claimed that "lager is not intoxicating". Which worked for a little while. Unfortunately, anti-German sentiment was on the rise... and it wouldn't be too much longer before America had another go at prohibition. I'm over-generalizing of course. Similarly, Americans now consider anything under 0.5% ABV non-alcoholic. Russia had that cutoff set at 10% ABV until 2011, making a Double IPA a temperance beverage ;)
Homebrew is one of those hobbies that's just not getting old. I started in ~2002, still have a 3 keg system in my dining room today. So very glad I made a friend who opened my eyes to all the different beers available in the mid-late 90's because I *hated* BMC (still do). My personal highlights are brewing on the Navajo reservation (dry, illegal), brewing for a wedding reception and doing a beer tour of Bavaria (they trying to replicate at home). Wish the same opportunities were afforded to distilling, let us make our own at home without breaking federal law....
Only old if you're digging the West Coast IPAs vs the New England Hazy craze (which is honestly past its peak)! A deep dive into NA beers would be cool though - I've read a bit about it and it sounds more like rigorous science than brewing - and some of them are actually pretty tasty!
East coast hazy is just west coast hazy with burnt maltrd grains added. I am glad the west coast race to 10% is done, but west coast hazy fruity hops IPAs are where it is at now. I recently took a trip down from.new england down the west side the Appalachians. Fruity hazy like the west coast has been pushing is the getting popular. The New England style is tailing off, and I saw almost no old school west coast tripple ipa. I got to talk with a few brewers on the way down and they were all excited for specialty hops.
hey that map at 5:33 is being sold many places at blurry/unreadable resolutions online.. can you give a hint where to find a full resolution print? or can you share the image?
I've never found a beer that I really like, but I don't like most foods or beverages if they have any hint of bitterness. On the other hand, I really like a good Scotch whisky, and most Tennessee style whiskeys and Kentucky bourbon. I'd enjoy seeing a similar video chronicling the history of spirits, particularly European traditions and the earliest distilling operations anywhere.
I'm from Oregon, born in the early 80s. I mention when I was born, because by the time I was old enough to drink, the idea of *not* having access to hundreds of different local craft beers was completely alien to me. Other states are catching up, but Oregon really is a beer drinker's paradise.
@@Lex_Lugar If Colorado has better craft beers than Oregon, I see this as an absolute win. And personally, I'd rather have a beer *drinking* contest. :)
Just one point in need of correction @2:02: darkness and lighness has nothing to do with whether something is an ale or a lager; ale yeasts are typically Saccharomyces cerevisiae, while lager yeast is Saccharomyces pastorianus. There are PLENTY of lagers as dark as porter, such as a Schwarzbier, or many bocks, which are lagers, and there are very pale ales. Darkness is a function of how much the malt is roasted.
One aspect of beers I really get into is the seasonal beers. I get excited for the Oktoberfest beers to come in, the summer beers, the winter ales. All pretty exciting
I'm glad most muricans don't know about German Weissebier. Franziskaner would then be even harder to find than it already is. If it doesn't have the word Reinheitsgebot on the label somewhere, I'm not drinking it.
My favorite kind of beer, aside from cold and free, is a citrus wheat. I hated wheat beer up until I got stationed in Germany, where I very quickly learned to love it.
I lived in China teaching English after I finished my undergraduate degree in 2013. It was myself and a similar aged guy from the Czech Republic who worked at this one school. I remember telling him how amazing American beer is because of all the craft breweries and the sheer variety we have outside of Bud and Miller. He genuinely wouldn’t believe me and thought all we had was Bud Lite. He went on and on about how Pilsner started in his country and how they knew beer better than anyone. Fast forward to us being able to import a few beers from the US around Christmas and he fell in love with American beer 😂 I totally understand the misconception but once he was able to try some locally sourced beers from my state (GA) it blew him away. American Beer 🦅
Shenzhen is having it's 10th annual craft beer festival in November. For at least 7 of those years they have only had Chinese craft beer and it's an amazing festival! There's a lot of craft beer in China now!
I worked on a hops farm in Oregon in 2020 and the owner told me how back in the day their contracts would just cycle through the big breweries who all wanted uniformity in hops. These days, they have a ton of different varieties including some experimental. Sometimes microbrewers would show up and pick up the bales as we finished drying. Which I personally think is way cooler.
It sped up the process. Modelo was forecast to overtake Bud light by mid 20s. The backlash just accelerated the transition. Most people drink Bud light because that's all they've ever had and it's cheap. Taste something with more flavor and you realize how bland it really is
Related - I have an old coffee ad from a newspaper I got at a thrift store (looks like it came out of a TGIFridays or similar, was clearly screwed to the wall through the frame). It literally tells you drinking coffee will help you sleep in addition to many other "benefits".
Thank you. My father worked at Pabst in Peoria Illinois as a lab tech. He was able to retire from the company who bought Pabst out when they left in the 80s. All of my grandparents were born in Mexico and settled in northern Illinois. I was born in Peoria and attended Bradley University, then worked and retired from Caterpillar. When I was working, I traveled extensively and realized US beer tastes like water. To have Modelo as #1 beer now is a completed circle of life.
I grew up in Peoria (b. 1971), and my memory was that when the brewery closed, everyone in Peoria punished Pabst by completely shunning them. I got older, moved away, and remember seeing Pabst for the first time on store shelves and offered in restaurants. It had only disappeared in Peoria, it turned out!
My son played collegiate volleyball with a man from the Czech Republic. At a national championship tournament they did what college players always do, sent out for pizza and beer. The man from the Czech Republic was given a red plastic cup with an American light beer. After taking a sip he asked what it was. He was told it was beer. His response was "this is not beer!" I would agree. Give me a porter or stout any day. Fortunately we have some incredible micro and local breweries here in Michigan.
I really tried to come in with an open mind but 1:27 in and it’s already cooked. IPA the best type of beer? Come on. I’m still hopeful for the rest of the video tho.
Are you as heartbroken as I am at how badly the beer selections at supermarkets in Oregon have declined since 2005? For me, as a young person who had grown up in Eugene drinking Pabst and Old Milwaukee, seeing the expansion of craft beer was like getting an X-Box, a new bike, a BB gun and a kiss from a pretty girl. And then the rug was pulled out from under me and now the only thing on store shelves is 100 IPAs and one stout. Thank God for Black Butte porter, or else I'd be forced to drink tap water.
You made a concise piece about the geography of beer so I assume you went to Madison, but I’m more curious where you went to high school. Yes it makes a difference.
Yes had the same reaction. You can like them or some fine, but to claim "IPA is the best beer" is a lot like saying "Crown Royal is the best whiskey" or "Burger King makes the best burger".
Here in Washington we went from one local brewery in the 90’s, to more than can count today. I can walk to three different breweries that make wildly different and spectacular beers. What a time to be a beer drinker!
Never drank beer (I just drink Bourbon and Rum on occasion) before, but this is the perfect length to go on my "RUclips Docs for Shower time" playlist. I'll need to see if youve got any 40 minute vids for my driving playlist
@@gobblox38 That may be true... but I've yet to go to a bar where 80% of the taps are sours. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for IPAs. IPAs are like crabgrass... in both taste and invasive sprawing growth.
I really wish there was a cite for that newspaper ad. I’ve been doing a lot of Minneapolis historical research lately, and I would love to nail down which of two possible establishments at that address it could have been.
good information. but why do you say that more drinkable beer is bad? I like lagers, darks, bochs, weisbeer, pilsners, ales, ambers, but I find IPA to be far too bitter.
It's only the case when regulation is specifically tailored to concentrate power into the hands of a few big breweries. Normal regulation is there for safety and quality purposes - Germany very tightly regulates its beer production, but it still has over 1300 breweries in the country.
00:35 one of my favorite beers comes from Oregon, Session Lager by Full Sail. They are great after a long day of work in the summer sun. And the 11 oz stubby bottles feel great in your hand.
My dad worked for a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch called Metal Container. They made the pop top lids that went on beer and Pepsi cans. He worked there my entire life until Inbev bought A-B. Inbev sold a lot of the lid and can plants to Ball. Ball gave the employees of my dad's lid plant two options: relocate across the country to another Ball plant or take severance. They closed his plant. My dad decided to retire 3 years early and take severance. The coolest thing about him working for a company owned by A-B was that we are Florida natives and A-B owned theme parks. So, employees got free tickets every year to Busch Gardens, Sea World, and Adventure Island. I always wondered why it wasn't called Anheuser-Busch Gardens. But I spent a lot of my summers at Busch Gardens growing up. I did work with my dad for about 2 weeks at the end of high school. It wasn't for me. I just did it hoping to get more tickets to the parks. What's my point? I dunno. I just have a little bit of a personal connection to A-B and wanted to share it. My dad has a pretty awesome collection of A-B decorative beer beer steins. Most of them have a depiction of the clydesdale horses on them. They were often Christmas gifts from the company to employees so he has one for just about every year he worked there which was 25+ years. I'm pretty sure Inbev moved all A-B beer production to Mexico. I could be mistaken about that. My dad was mad about them moving something to Mexico. Inbev is a Belgium company but I think it's cheaper to make things in Mexico which is why they moved a lot of A-B production there. But that was 15 years ago when he retired? He's 75 now so yeah, that checks out. Maybe they brought a lot of it back to the US since then. I dunno. Anyway, really cool video, as always. I love the decision to show some of the trickery used in product photography like spritzing things with water to make them look cold and frosty.
Hey Phil, I just went to the City Museum in St. Louis and it made me wonder the history of children's museums. You see them in just about every city but they all seem to have unique ( and frankly quite wacky) architecture. Anywho, great video as always!
1:57 The beers may have been darker than lager, but they weren't *stouts.* They would have been brown ales. Nowhere near that dark. And you say "there weren't many lagers" - there wouldn't have been *any* lagers as we know of them today, they weren't invented by then. Probably some basic facts worth getting right if you're making a video on this subject?
I've been going to Coachella for almost 20 years, and the campground there has been the ultimate macrocosmic window to watch the trends in beer consumption. Used to be 70% bud light, and now it's like 40% Modelo, 40% seltzers, and 20% frat boys drinking Michelob ultra
This was a great video man. Would love to help you with a follow up too. I grew up in Michigan and loved craft beer (shout out to your founders beer). I moved to California and started homebrewing beer and mead. I would say mead is starting to really gain popularity which is neat!
I was fortunate enough to visit Japan for the first time this year. The beer there is mostly pilsner, but by far the best I had during my visit was an IPA from a "Portland themed" pub in Tokyo that only served beer from Oregon.
There is an annual summer beer fest in Portland that celebrates Portland & Japan's close brewing relationship, and has collaborations between Oregon and Japanese brewers. I went to it for the first time this year, and it was a lot of fun and extremely crowded. Edit to add: actually it might be every other year in Portland, and every other year in Japan. I think it's evolving year by year.
I was about to leave when you said IPA is the best beer but you saved yourself with stout at 2. Bavarian Märzens are #1, I’m partial to spaten and Paulaner mainly because it’s hard to find many others here
I recall in the early 80s a family friend who was a classically trained baker started a beer brewery. His beer was pretty good and became quite successful
As a Canadian, I’m absolutely baffled that Modelo is the #1 beer in America. I see it as Corona’s “fancy” cousin. A somewhat niche beer that you might grab instead of Corona for a slight change in flavour. Had to google it and sure enough, Corona Extra is the #1 beer in Canada, and Modelo doesn’t even crack the top 10 here.
Great stuff! from a geography Ph.D. and a craft beer geek!--and resident of Washington state, one of the craft beer epicenters. Back in the late 1980s when the movement was taking off I made a point of going to every new brewpub. This trend continued into the 1990s when I traveled more frequently. But the curve of new breweries soon overtook the curve of travel--not to mention the need to be moderate. What was once a bucket list (or is that mug list?) to visit every brewpub became impossible--there are some 6,000 of them now. I still like to do a lot of road trips so now the strategy is -- make sure there is a brewpub near my evening's lodging. Pretty easy to do anywhere.
I'm lucky to live in Cleveland - even during Prohibition beer was made and enjoyed. Having a city that's heavily German, Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, etc. ensured our beer has always been good and plentiful. We even have one of THE premier regional breweries around - The Great Lakes Brewing Co. - their brewpub has a bar with bullet holes from a raid by Eliot Ness.
I’d love to see Football Map-splained it mostly seems to come from England but changes so much everywhere it goes from Rugby School to the American and Australian versions.
i've been a homebrewer for 30+ years (Oregon native). since i started tracking (in 2012) the various beers i've tried (current total is over 2700 different beers), 700 of those were IPAs. generally speaking i don't tend to really enjoy IPAs. but i enjoy trying new things... and there are a lot of IPAs out there. my go-tos are things like farmhouse ales, belgian tripels, witbier, and the like
Shout-out to all the thick necked guys named Gunther out there
RIP Martin Mull
@@RedUmbre Cheers, mates!
@@RedUmbre I found out today how much that commercial is burned into my brain.
@@Antilles1974 Aww, I didn't know he was dead. :/
I guess I'm thick necked and my name is Gunther now
Finally, USB.
USB - C?
Nah this is USB - A
UNITED STATES OF ROOT BEERICA
United States of Beermerica
Huh? Upper side band?!?
(Yes. I get what you really meant. But as a radio nerd, there is where my mind initially went. ;) )
@@ryans6280what about mini USB or micro USB, or even the rare USB B?
that inside the fridge shot worthy of alton brown.
As a person who owns a brewery, and has worked in the industry since 09, this is very well done.
appreciate it!
How's the craft industry going these days in the US? In Australia many are struggling. Some bucking the trend but it's hard work as far as I understand.
@@scottclare7502inflation era
@@scottclare7502 I'm in Canada but in general the industry is struggling. Going to see a lot of closures while the rest of us weather the storm.
In NC it's stagnant, mostly because the distributors/distribution laws are corrupt. There are plenty of bottle shops and breweries in the cities but a lot of them are pretty bad. If you want good beer you have to drive to specific breweries. The local and regional breweries that find it economical to sell their beer in grocery stores here, well, they usually aren't to my liking, with some exceptions. The Sierra Nevada and Footills Oktoberfests were sold out in pretty much every grocery store and total wine by the first week of October (although that may be because their facilities were affected by the hurricane). Bottle shops are a bad bet; the succesful ones are mostly just bars that happen to possess some shelves of dusty, expired beer cans and bottles.
I've heard this is a problem in other states too: there's plenty of good beer to be had but you have to plan your week around driving to a brewery in another county to go get it.
It's still remarkable how many more breweries there are in the sparsely-populated northwoods of Wisconsin and Michigan than in the rural deep south. Like, it looks like there are more breweries in Wisconsin north of WI Hwy 29 than in the whole state of Mississippi.
I should note, alcohol regulation is still pretty strong in the South; especially Mississippi and neighbors. Granted, my info is about a decade old now, but when I lived in Jackson back in the late 2010s, there were some local breweries, but they weren't allowed to sell beer for consumption on-premises, and most alcohol was sold through ABC - a state-run alcohol wholesaler. Hell, half of the counties in MS still banned alcohol sale and consumption outright.
Many southern counties are still dry, I wish I was kidding lmao
One word. Moonshine
There is a map plotting areas based on bars vs. Grocery stores. Where there are more grocery stores, there is an amber spot. Where bars outnumber grocery stores, there is a red spot. There is a pretty good smattering across the midwest. Illinois is mostly filled in. Wisconsin is almost completely painted red, to the point that you can clearly make out its entire shape.
Wisconsin: where Lederhosen and Dirndls are not out of place.
I feel like this was the opening segment of a 90 minute documentary. We want more!
probably could be!
@@PhilEdwardsInc there was a documentary called Beer Wars in 2009 but it seems obsolete now. If you're making a sequel (or a reboot) let me know. I'd love to contribute :)
Goated story telling
@@ChadzBeerReviews yeah i'm sorry i didn't run into you before! i did a little call out on my community tab for beer youtubers, but the community posts always get a bit buried. next time!
More like 10 episode Ken Burns - style epic documentary
That shot of the map at the end, I *HAD* to know what the hell was the brewery on the far far left of Alaska. It appears to be the Tundra Tavern in Adak, Alaska. With a total population of 171 and is the westernmost town in the US.
You have to make your own because those boats don't show up very frequently
@@johnleo2668 Something's bringing the barley and hops. It could bring beer. I think they do it because they can.
@@blairhoughton7918 I don't make beer because I can't (it's incredibly expensive and I can't make a return on my investment due to the fact that I'd drink it all)
@@adamk.7177 It's not expensive. The specialized equipment is minimal (something to measure alcohol, a bubbler for your fermenter bucket, a bottle capper) and none of those is innately costly. After that it's stuff you might have or can get cheap. Ingredients are cheap, sanitizer is cheap, water is cheap. With luck and legwork you can get into it for well under 100 bucks. But the time and the risk of wasting time on bad batches is what keeps me from bothering.
@@blairhoughton7918
Youre not wrong, but one tonne of barley malt, yeast, and hops (combined weight) makes makes 4-5 tonnes of beer.
I’d love to see you cover the history of cider in the US and how incredibly popular this was until beer and soft drinks (relatively) suddenly made it pretty much disappear from American drinking.
that chart blew my mind, even though i was vaguely aware of it
Johnny Appleseed planted cider trees, since sweet apples don’t grow from seed.
Just as prohibition killed Breweries, prohibition killed cideries.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if because of its higher alcohol content cider was viewed more poorly compared to beer for the temperance movement. Also it’s incredibly easy to make Applejack from cider(Another strike for the temperance movement). You just need a cold winter. Whereas making whiskey is much more involved.
@@micahbonewell5994 yeah my cursory understanding is that the pre 1850 temperance movement did hurt it.
@@micahbonewell5994 Have you made applejack?[1] You are right it is easy, I got 3L of organic apple juice from an Aldi, whacked in some yeast, something like cream of tartar etc, and it fermented. Tossed it in the freezer, I'm in Perth, Australia - not a place known for snow, did the freeze distillation and ended up with something that was probably about 50% alcohol but as rough as hessian undies.... Only tried a small amount then dumped it. If you did a big session on it , I think the next morning hangover would make your head fall off.
[1] That's not an accusing "Have you...", just a wondering "Have you..."
Thank you Storyblocks for helping Phil expense his beer budget for the rest of the year. We need our man hydrated and staying at the Ballmer peak
(shouting DEVELOPERS to an empty room, three stouts in, while writing a video about pizza)
There's a reason for the adjuncts like corn or rice in American pilsners and lagers left out of the video. In the mid 19th century when pilsners in central Europe blew up in popularity, German and Czech immigrants tried to replicate the traits of pilsners in America using locally sourced ingredients. Unfortunately, the barley grown in the Americas have an extra protein that causes a cloudiness in beers which is an unwanted trait in a beer known for it's clarity. The brewers found using an adjunct helped reduce the cloudiness to bring the look closer to the pilsners from Central Europe. Americans that weren't used to or didn't like a full body beer were much more inclined to these lighter options thus expanding the beer drinking population and markets. Cheers from Milwaukee!
This is why I always read the comments on interesting videos.
Every so often someone's answer teaches me something I'd always wondered about.
Thanks, and cheers to you, from Edmonton!
Plus it was cheaper. Which do you think was the leading reason to use rice? Ha ha, Walmart beer
@@georgeburns7251
Rice+Corn+American-grown 6-row barley=Brewery cost accountant's wet dream. European 2-row barley was better quality, but more expensive. Chasin' that dollah....
a Belgian here that loves a good beer.
Stouts, Porters and red Beers were in the 1700/1800s more in favour since they dont go spoil after a long storage and/or transport to more rural areas. refridgration made Pilsner/Lagers more and favor after that
thats something ive learned from my local brewery history thats famous for making a red sour beer ( wich is also older than my country)
also the Anheuser-Busch, area where they are from was sometimes the Missouri Rhinelands, since it looked a bit like the old country
I think it's not the storage, but the fact you have to brew it in cold conditions for bottom fermenting yeast to work that made it difficult to produce in pre-industrial times.
Wait but then how did Bavaria have the beer law since the 1500s if Lagers would spoil so fast without refrigeration?
Rodenbach?
@@yuriydee Lager literally means storage beer, so I really don't think they spoil faster than other beer.
The whole purity law is very overhyped, I think it was mainly to get brewers to only use barley so they didn't buy grain that were used for bread. It really doesn't have that much to do with actual purity. And there were a lot of botanicals used in brewing before that have disappeared. But in Belgium you can have beer brewed with cherries or coriander and orange peel and it's delicious.
I wish craft beer could get over the idea that IPA is the best beer
Agreed! It's an ever changing market and craft breweries copy each other and outdo each other to try to stay relevant. But most craft breweries I visit now are offering a variety of lagers and pilsners as an option to pallet wrecking, high octane IPA's. There is a reason that light lagers dominate the world in virtually every country. You can have a few and not get trashed. Even in Belgium lagers are king (Jupiler, Maes, Stella). Yes they are known for their high ABV beers, but these are generally consumed with meals, and treated like wine and are consumed slowly and enjoyed, not pounded. Cheers
Sorry that you don't like flavor
They like it because it's easy, you don't need to control the fermentation very well because you overpower every other flavor with hops. A good lager now that's hard to do.
I like flavor. I just don’t like the flavor of bitter.
@@SMURFSMURFETTEChristmas tree water mixed with dog piss is not a good flavor
The documentary "Beer Wars" goes over a lot how the AB's and Coors would squeeze out the small breweries from shelf space and such. That doc is 15 years old now but it's interesting to see how things changed since then (mainly the big breweries just buying up the craft breweries themselves- which was sad to see)
They had the regulations in their favor, It's call regulatory capture and I'm bummed it didn't come up in this video since the beer industry from prohibition to the late 70s is a great example of regulations being written in such a way as to make it either illegal or prohibitively expensive to compete with them.
And now the beer shelves are full of undrinkable IPAs that sell for $9 a can. It's enough to drive a guy sober.
@@TestUser-cf4wjIPA stands for Its pretty ass.
I enjoyed that documentary, but yah its main premise that the big boys buy up shelf space to squeeze the little guy was somewhat flawed. All I had to do was press pause, good to the grocery store and seem the little guys getting some space because the demand was growing, and the space got bigger and bigger with the demand. Now its smaller because well the demand has shrunk
Fun fact: 9/10 hops grown in America come from WA and OR because of their unique geography and soil composition. So if you drink a beer from America you at least have a small thanks to give those two states. And if you're wonder about that last 1, Michigan a couple years ago started to grow their. It's a slow but steady thing
New York State used to grow a ton of hops!
Love American history and how influential some cities were. Philly called the shots for the nation for a bit! Cool video
love philly, but i forget it too
High school and college in Wisconsin? Maybe that’s why I vibe with your humor so much! Another fantastic video!
I grew up in the Denver area in the 50’s and 60’s so of course I was raised on Coors “Banquet Lager.” Coors was cold filtered but because it was not pasteurized it couldn’t be shipped out of the state back then. So if you lived outside of Colorado it was unlikely you had tasted Coors Banquet.
Next time you're here, give Bierstadt a try. Honestly the best lager brewer around.
@ Ha! Bierstadt was my first solo winter 14er. Haven’t tried the beer though. Looking forward to that.
"IPA, the best type of beer."
Imma stop you right there...
Nah. You'll figure it out eventually. When you stop making yourself feel pain to feel something.
not wrong
@@PhilEdwardsInc The fact that it's used to described a lazy, mediocre beer is still only the second-worst thing about the initialism "IPA".
Might as well lick a lawnmower blade.
I can tell by your awesome comment that you’re probably a pretty cool and sophisticated guy with lots of friends. Keep fighting the good fight super cool and humble internet stranger 🫡
@@Syzygy77for real. Or lick a pine 🌲 😂
Phil, great video and the timing could not have been better. With the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) finally wrapping up Oregon took home 3 of the 6 "Best Brewery" awards with respect to their volume output. Alesong being one of them. Amazing brewers.
I have a history degree and I love beer. Been to probaly over a 100 breweries, have made my own beer and even grown hops. As someone that already know alot about this subject I found this video to be incredably well done, accurate, and informative. Bravo!
It's wild to me as an european that those flavorless american beers were supposed to in any way resemble pilsners, cause the czech lagers and the pilsners we have over here are freakin delicious
yea it is crazy - really a stain on all other beers and pilsners.
The problem is you only see the american crap beer like bud, Miller, coors, but pretty much every winery in missouri makes there own beers which are awesome but because distribution laws are stupid you can only get them on site
If you can find it, Pilsner-Urquell, if bought in the completely light-proof package is one of the best beers I've ever had, especially in pilsner style. If you find it in green bottles in a regular six pack, don't buy it, for green glass has no UV protection and it will be a six pack of skunk juice.
That's what I was thinking when I heard that they were adding rice and corn to make the beer blander!
Totally agree. I wish more American bars would feature German, Chek and Belgian Pilsners. One of my favorite bars is the Trappe Door in Greenville, SC. It’s a beautiful Belgian Pub and almost all the beers they serve are totally unavailable anywhere else.
Hi Phil, first time viewer here. Your editing & filmaking skills really elevate the video & drive the story home. A+
thank ya!
Super cool - and perfect timing with Great American Beer Fest going on this weekend.
I feel like the first 20s of this video is a perfect way to introduce a sponsor of the video. It's related to the rest of the video, noto formulaic, doesn't break up the flow, and overall i think it showed what storyblocks can do better than the later typical sponsor segment
yeah it was legitimately kinda fun to just cut like a mad man
Thanks for calling an IPA the best type of beer only 1:34 in. It immediately let me know who I was dealing with.
i believe in transparency possibly at my own expense
@@PhilEdwardsInc IPAs got so hoppy in the 2010s that it seemed sadistic. Stouts, on the other hand, are by far my favourite. Porters are also excellent.
Idk man but assuming a person's whole identity based off of what their favorite style of beer just sounds stupid
@@akm7463 Lighten up, Francis. It's a joke.
Na, sorry, lambics are the best style.
Listening from flood-torn Asheville NC. This is a great reminder of how far we've come as brewers in spite of adversity and the odds stacked against us. We'll keep brewing 'em if you keep drinking 'em. Cheers, Phil
thanks and godspeed!
Love to encounter a fellow ashevillain in the wild. Currently in Raleigh with my damn parents cuz my job has temporarily transferred me until January. Miss it like crazy!
As a expat Brit living in Eugene, Oregon (love Alesong!) I'd never really put the pieces together about how the German immigrants arriving in the late 19th century put them in the "right place at the right time" for the lager/pils style to take off and dominate the market. I do miss the classic traditional British "Real Ale" and cask-conditioned drinks which you don't see much of really, but it makes a lot of sense why as a brewing style it wasn't compatible with the geography/transportation needs for America AND that the brewers probably weren't making up that much of the immigration boom to the states at that point in history.
Real ale mmmmm
I really enjoyed this video! As an middle aged, avid craft beer drinker, I oddly had no recollection that craft brewers could not sell their own beer up until 1980. It's probably wasn't drinking beer back then. And when I heard a shout out to Utica Club (I lived in Utica, New York for many years), I knew this was a video well done. Thank you!
Nothing goes better with NC barbecue than a nice Red Oak lager
Loved the video. I live in Australia, and the large variety of beer-drinking cultures means a huge variety of beers from all over. Our craft brew scene is now going off. It's a nice time.
great video as always phil! 🍻maybe too similar to beer, but would love to see something along the lines of the spread of "coffee culture"?
oh that's a great one
As someone from the Pacific Northwest that enjoys a huge variety of regional craft beer (mostly from the Portland and Seattle metro areas) at nearly every grocery store, it’s always a culture shock to see only a few macro options when I travel to the Southern US or Mexico. British Columbia also has an awesome craft beer scene.
I have drunk lagers most of my life but was introduced to stout during the pandemic. It's my go-to now whenever I drink beer - it tastes so much better than the bland stuff. Interesting to see that America actually started with stout and gravitated towards to bland stuff because of the various factors in history you covered
I don't think America is really any different to any other country. Lager wasn't number one anywhere if you go back far enough, but it is now. Even in like Ireland Guinness is the most popular beer, but lager still makes up for over half of all beer sold. They are just different drinks for different purposes. But lager isn't very exciting and there's not that much you can do with, for better or for worse, it was already perfected 200 years ago in Plzen. Probably why smaller breweries lean towards other stuff. I don't drink much lager either, but if I'm just thirsty for "a beer" I'm having Urquell if it's available nine times out of ten.
Ha its the complete opposite for me now. When i started drinking (even before 21 lol) I was into Stouts, starting from the classic Guinness and moving on. I loved stouts into my 20s and would try every kind of stout and porter. But now that Im 30 i actually went to drinking light lagers more mainly due to lower calories and being able to drink longer. I still love a nice Guinness or even a nice German Lager dont get me wrong, but if I know it will be a whole day of drinking, Ill go towards something lighter like a Miller Lite even if the taste is mediocre.
A beer you can eat
I’m so glad I found this channel. More Mapsplained! All your content is super interesting. Thank you so much. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
At 13:39 you show a map from, I'd guess mid-20th century, showing the majority heritages in the US states, I can't find it in your sources? Thanks for the video. It's light pilsners for me... Modelo Especial is pretty good, but expensive. Coors Banquet and Miller High Life is what I prefer.
sorry i missed that on the links! www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~342601~90110851:A-Nation-of-Immigrants-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:a%20nation%20of%20immigrants;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=4
I'm a brewer and history buff. I recently spent a good chunk of time diving into the drinking habits of the late 19th century for a presentation I gave at a local museum. Great video, but I want to expand on two points that were made:
1) AB and other breweries at the time were adding rice and corn to their beer because their primary barley was 6-row - rather than the 2-row commonly used in Europe. 6-row has more more protein and fewer carbohydrates, which results in a lower yield. It's arguably easier to brew with, but the resulting beer will likely be heavier, chewier, hazier and much more likely to express some off-flavors. Many would describe the flavor of 6-row as "rustic" or even "dirty". So yes, adding corn or rice makes the beer more bland, but it certainly beats the alternative.
2) German drinking culture compared to the American drinking culture - at least historically - is much more moderate. Germans would spend all day drinking in biergartens and beer halls with others and family. Meanwhile, Americans would drink in dark taverns hidden away from the rest of society as a result of it being culturally as taboo or sinful (thanks, Puritan founders!). So in the mid to late 19th century, Americans are drinking spirits HARD and there's an attempt made at prohibition, which ultimately fails. There was also a rising trend in a clean/pure food movement at this time. So prominent German Americans make the case that beer is a temperance beverage - and it's pure! Look how it's made out of just barley (and corn/rice), hops, water. I found a local newspaper that detailed a trial where it is claimed that "lager is not intoxicating". Which worked for a little while. Unfortunately, anti-German sentiment was on the rise... and it wouldn't be too much longer before America had another go at prohibition. I'm over-generalizing of course.
Similarly, Americans now consider anything under 0.5% ABV non-alcoholic. Russia had that cutoff set at 10% ABV until 2011, making a Double IPA a temperance beverage ;)
there's some interesting stuff in the 1930s where the abv rises to like 3% i think - and people were ok with it! lotsa weird twists and turns
Pizza. It will give you an excuse to visit Wichita KS and visit the first Pizza Hut.
Homebrew is one of those hobbies that's just not getting old. I started in ~2002, still have a 3 keg system in my dining room today. So very glad I made a friend who opened my eyes to all the different beers available in the mid-late 90's because I *hated* BMC (still do). My personal highlights are brewing on the Navajo reservation (dry, illegal), brewing for a wedding reception and doing a beer tour of Bavaria (they trying to replicate at home).
Wish the same opportunities were afforded to distilling, let us make our own at home without breaking federal law....
Only old if you're digging the West Coast IPAs vs the New England Hazy craze (which is honestly past its peak)! A deep dive into NA beers would be cool though - I've read a bit about it and it sounds more like rigorous science than brewing - and some of them are actually pretty tasty!
East coast hazy is just west coast hazy with burnt maltrd grains added. I am glad the west coast race to 10% is done, but west coast hazy fruity hops IPAs are where it is at now.
I recently took a trip down from.new england down the west side the Appalachians. Fruity hazy like the west coast has been pushing is the getting popular. The New England style is tailing off, and I saw almost no old school west coast tripple ipa. I got to talk with a few brewers on the way down and they were all excited for specialty hops.
Hazy IPAs are a plague on the local brewery scene up here.
hey that map at 5:33 is being sold many places at blurry/unreadable resolutions online.. can you give a hint where to find a full resolution print? or can you share the image?
www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~342601~90110851:A-Nation-of-Immigrants-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:a%20nation%20of%20immigrants;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=4
I dont drink anymore but i love maps and history
I don't map anymore but I love drinking and history.
Me neither brother. Keep it up!
Congrat! Keep it up!
@@lephtovermeetI don’t history anymore but I love maps and drink
I've never found a beer that I really like, but I don't like most foods or beverages if they have any hint of bitterness. On the other hand, I really like a good Scotch whisky, and most Tennessee style whiskeys and Kentucky bourbon. I'd enjoy seeing a similar video chronicling the history of spirits, particularly European traditions and the earliest distilling operations anywhere.
I'm from Oregon, born in the early 80s. I mention when I was born, because by the time I was old enough to drink, the idea of *not* having access to hundreds of different local craft beers was completely alien to me. Other states are catching up, but Oregon really is a beer drinker's paradise.
Idk man. This damn state seems to brew 90% IPAs...
Same for Colorado and if we’re going to do a craft beer pissing contest, Colorado likely beats Oregon at any point in the last 30 years.
@@Lex_Lugar If Colorado has better craft beers than Oregon, I see this as an absolute win. And personally, I'd rather have a beer *drinking* contest. :)
Just one point in need of correction @2:02: darkness and lighness has nothing to do with whether something is an ale or a lager; ale yeasts are typically Saccharomyces cerevisiae, while lager yeast is Saccharomyces pastorianus. There are PLENTY of lagers as dark as porter, such as a Schwarzbier, or many bocks, which are lagers, and there are very pale ales. Darkness is a function of how much the malt is roasted.
"lagers as dark as porter"
We can confuse the matter by talking about Baltic Porters, which are traditionally lagers, but most people think are ales.
Would love a beer video on Belgian styles
One aspect of beers I really get into is the seasonal beers. I get excited for the Oktoberfest beers to come in, the summer beers, the winter ales. All pretty exciting
3:25 wow, what a pour
I was just gonna say
i lol'd
This was such a high quality production. Thanks for putting it together so well
Was hoping to see my family's beer (Schaefer) mentioned; but you mentioned Eugene & Modelo and that kinda makes up for it.
Just came from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
I'm glad most muricans don't know about German Weissebier. Franziskaner would then be even harder to find than it already is. If it doesn't have the word Reinheitsgebot on the label somewhere, I'm not drinking it.
German Weissebier is about the only respectable beer category I can stand. Otherwise I’ll take the mainstream stuff the snobs disparage.
My favorite kind of beer, aside from cold and free, is a citrus wheat. I hated wheat beer up until I got stationed in Germany, where I very quickly learned to love it.
6:43 “Pilsners don’t have to be blander than lagers.”
But Pilsner are lagers.
Pilsner are a type of lager. By the comment he meant pilsner don't have to be blander than other lagers.
@ he probably should have said Pilsners don’t have to be blander than OTHER lagers.
As a craft beer enthusiast, I really enjoyed this video! How about a video on my second passion that may have experienced a similar path: coffee?
I lived in China teaching English after I finished my undergraduate degree in 2013. It was myself and a similar aged guy from the Czech Republic who worked at this one school. I remember telling him how amazing American beer is because of all the craft breweries and the sheer variety we have outside of Bud and Miller. He genuinely wouldn’t believe me and thought all we had was Bud Lite. He went on and on about how Pilsner started in his country and how they knew beer better than anyone.
Fast forward to us being able to import a few beers from the US around Christmas and he fell in love with American beer 😂 I totally understand the misconception but once he was able to try some locally sourced beers from my state (GA) it blew him away. American Beer 🦅
you are doing good work!! 🦅🦅🦅
I just got back from China, and was honestly blown away by how good the local brews have become since the 2000's. It's not just Tsingtao any more.
Shenzhen is having it's 10th annual craft beer festival in November. For at least 7 of those years they have only had Chinese craft beer and it's an amazing festival! There's a lot of craft beer in China now!
I worked on a hops farm in Oregon in 2020 and the owner told me how back in the day their contracts would just cycle through the big breweries who all wanted uniformity in hops. These days, they have a ton of different varieties including some experimental. Sometimes microbrewers would show up and pick up the bales as we finished drying. Which I personally think is way cooler.
I think one of the bigger reasons why Modelo is so popular now is because of the backlash against Bud Light, not necessarily because of how it tastes
true. - a whole nother story there...
Also latinos make up much larger group in US than before.
Be a REAL American! Drink Mexican beer! I'll never understand some of this world.
Modelo taste way, way better.
It sped up the process. Modelo was forecast to overtake Bud light by mid 20s. The backlash just accelerated the transition. Most people drink Bud light because that's all they've ever had and it's cheap. Taste something with more flavor and you realize how bland it really is
Loved this video! The quality of your videos is off the charts!
thank ya!
can you do one on soda?
oh that's a good idea!
@@PhilEdwardsInc and make sure to explain the pop, soda, (soda pop) & coke regional names.
Another banger video. Keep up the great work!
7:45 So if you're suffering from sleeplessness you want to be stimulated? I think that's why you're having trouble sleeping...
Related - I have an old coffee ad from a newspaper I got at a thrift store (looks like it came out of a TGIFridays or similar, was clearly screwed to the wall through the frame). It literally tells you drinking coffee will help you sleep in addition to many other "benefits".
Thank you. My father worked at Pabst in Peoria Illinois as a lab tech. He was able to retire from the company who bought Pabst out when they left in the 80s. All of my grandparents were born in Mexico and settled in northern Illinois. I was born in Peoria and attended Bradley University, then worked and retired from Caterpillar. When I was working, I traveled extensively and realized US beer tastes like water. To have Modelo as #1 beer now is a completed circle of life.
I grew up in Peoria (b. 1971), and my memory was that when the brewery closed, everyone in Peoria punished Pabst by completely shunning them. I got older, moved away, and remember seeing Pabst for the first time on store shelves and offered in restaurants. It had only disappeared in Peoria, it turned out!
My son played collegiate volleyball with a man from the Czech Republic. At a national championship tournament they did what college players always do, sent out for pizza and beer. The man from the Czech Republic was given a red plastic cup with an American light beer. After taking a sip he asked what it was. He was told it was beer. His response was "this is not beer!" I would agree. Give me a porter or stout any day. Fortunately we have some incredible micro and local breweries here in Michigan.
@hellmuthschreefel9392
I don’t think Czechs drink that much stouts or porters.
Favorite beer 1906 from Galicia Spain, that beer honestly hits the spot. Not too heavy not too light, but someone managed to hit the taste buds.
Great beer, we get that over here in the uk. Top stuff
I really tried to come in with an open mind but 1:27 in and it’s already cooked. IPA the best type of beer? Come on. I’m still hopeful for the rest of the video tho.
🍺< free non ipa beer for you as penance
Bro looks like a ipa drinker
I can't remember the last time I saw the title of a video and legitimately full-belly laughed. Well done.
Czech Republic 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Krteček gang rise up 🥃🥃🥃
First time here. This was really good. A lot of hard work going on here.
Coming from a German from Stuttgart who moved to Oregon, who has also lived in Eugene and Portland, thank you. I felt seen.
Are you as heartbroken as I am at how badly the beer selections at supermarkets in Oregon have declined since 2005? For me, as a young person who had grown up in Eugene drinking Pabst and Old Milwaukee, seeing the expansion of craft beer was like getting an X-Box, a new bike, a BB gun and a kiss from a pretty girl. And then the rug was pulled out from under me and now the only thing on store shelves is 100 IPAs and one stout.
Thank God for Black Butte porter, or else I'd be forced to drink tap water.
@@TestUser-cf4wj I'm a huge Hefeweizen enjoyer so I'm little more spoiled with selection. Tangerine Wheat is one of my favorites
You made a concise piece about the geography of beer so I assume you went to Madison, but I’m more curious where you went to high school. Yes it makes a difference.
Im not intaking beer information from a guy who likes IPAs
Wtf do you like
A portland hipster who likes IPA, who would've guessed haha
Yes had the same reaction. You can like them or some fine, but to claim "IPA is the best beer" is a lot like saying "Crown Royal is the best whiskey" or "Burger King makes the best burger".
Here in Washington we went from one local brewery in the 90’s, to more than can count today. I can walk to three different breweries that make wildly different and spectacular beers. What a time to be a beer drinker!
"an IPA, the best type of beer."
Okay, I'm out.
i have to be honest about my weaknesses
Never drank beer (I just drink Bourbon and Rum on occasion) before, but this is the perfect length to go on my "RUclips Docs for Shower time" playlist. I'll need to see if youve got any 40 minute vids for my driving playlist
IPA is the worst kind of beer, sorry to break the news.
You're thinking of Sours.
@@gobblox38 That may be true... but I've yet to go to a bar where 80% of the taps are sours. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for IPAs.
IPAs are like crabgrass... in both taste and invasive sprawing growth.
@@eddiemalvin oh I agree that many bars have too many IPAs on tap. I like an occasional IPA, but not all the time.
I really wish there was a cite for that newspaper ad. I’ve been doing a lot of Minneapolis historical research lately, and I would love to nail down which of two possible establishments at that address it could have been.
ack! email me philedwardsinc@gmail.com
Enjoyed the video and good timing as I am currently taking a geography of beer course at my university.
good information. but why do you say that more drinkable beer is bad? I like lagers, darks, bochs, weisbeer, pilsners, ales, ambers, but I find IPA to be far too bitter.
Hello from Tillamook, Oregon and Pelican Brewery. 🍻
11:28 - You've encapsulated in one line what is /what could be the death knell of many craft breweries.
It's only the case when regulation is specifically tailored to concentrate power into the hands of a few big breweries. Normal regulation is there for safety and quality purposes - Germany very tightly regulates its beer production, but it still has over 1300 breweries in the country.
@@ValleysOfRain Interesting - I said nothing about regulations, nor was I implying anything about regulations.
00:35 one of my favorite beers comes from Oregon, Session Lager by Full Sail. They are great after a long day of work in the summer sun. And the 11 oz stubby bottles feel great in your hand.
Hey, Phil. We love you
As an Argentinean craft beer snob, this was fascinating! Keep up with the great work Mr Phil! hahaha!
My dad worked for a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch called Metal Container. They made the pop top lids that went on beer and Pepsi cans. He worked there my entire life until Inbev bought A-B. Inbev sold a lot of the lid and can plants to Ball. Ball gave the employees of my dad's lid plant two options: relocate across the country to another Ball plant or take severance. They closed his plant. My dad decided to retire 3 years early and take severance. The coolest thing about him working for a company owned by A-B was that we are Florida natives and A-B owned theme parks. So, employees got free tickets every year to Busch Gardens, Sea World, and Adventure Island. I always wondered why it wasn't called Anheuser-Busch Gardens. But I spent a lot of my summers at Busch Gardens growing up. I did work with my dad for about 2 weeks at the end of high school. It wasn't for me. I just did it hoping to get more tickets to the parks.
What's my point? I dunno. I just have a little bit of a personal connection to A-B and wanted to share it. My dad has a pretty awesome collection of A-B decorative beer beer steins. Most of them have a depiction of the clydesdale horses on them. They were often Christmas gifts from the company to employees so he has one for just about every year he worked there which was 25+ years.
I'm pretty sure Inbev moved all A-B beer production to Mexico. I could be mistaken about that. My dad was mad about them moving something to Mexico. Inbev is a Belgium company but I think it's cheaper to make things in Mexico which is why they moved a lot of A-B production there. But that was 15 years ago when he retired? He's 75 now so yeah, that checks out. Maybe they brought a lot of it back to the US since then. I dunno.
Anyway, really cool video, as always. I love the decision to show some of the trickery used in product photography like spritzing things with water to make them look cold and frosty.
cherry picking from your comment to express my jealousy of extra trips to busch gardens!
I've been a home( craft) Brewer for over twenty years.
Well worth the effort.
And YES. Im a " Beer Snob"
Hey Phil, I just went to the City Museum in St. Louis and it made me wonder the history of children's museums. You see them in just about every city but they all seem to have unique ( and frankly quite wacky) architecture. Anywho, great video as always!
1:57 The beers may have been darker than lager, but they weren't *stouts.* They would have been brown ales. Nowhere near that dark.
And you say "there weren't many lagers" - there wouldn't have been *any* lagers as we know of them today, they weren't invented by then.
Probably some basic facts worth getting right if you're making a video on this subject?
I've been going to Coachella for almost 20 years, and the campground there has been the ultimate macrocosmic window to watch the trends in beer consumption. Used to be 70% bud light, and now it's like 40% Modelo, 40% seltzers, and 20% frat boys drinking Michelob ultra
This was a great video man. Would love to help you with a follow up too. I grew up in Michigan and loved craft beer (shout out to your founders beer). I moved to California and started homebrewing beer and mead. I would say mead is starting to really gain popularity which is neat!
I was fortunate enough to visit Japan for the first time this year. The beer there is mostly pilsner, but by far the best I had during my visit was an IPA from a "Portland themed" pub in Tokyo that only served beer from Oregon.
May I ask which pub in Tokyo?
There is an annual summer beer fest in Portland that celebrates Portland & Japan's close brewing relationship, and has collaborations between Oregon and Japanese brewers. I went to it for the first time this year, and it was a lot of fun and extremely crowded.
Edit to add: actually it might be every other year in Portland, and every other year in Japan. I think it's evolving year by year.
@@sagittated Very cool.
I'll have to keep an eye out for it in Japan.
Do you have any more details about it?
@@dampaul13 PDX Taproom in Shibuya City
@@thunklayer Thank you.
I'll check it out.
I was about to leave when you said IPA is the best beer but you saved yourself with stout at 2. Bavarian Märzens are #1, I’m partial to spaten and Paulaner mainly because it’s hard to find many others here
Great content as always.
This was really educational - thank you!
I recall in the early 80s a family friend who was a classically trained baker started a beer brewery. His beer was pretty good and became quite successful
As a Canadian, I’m absolutely baffled that Modelo is the #1 beer in America. I see it as Corona’s “fancy” cousin. A somewhat niche beer that you might grab instead of Corona for a slight change in flavour. Had to google it and sure enough, Corona Extra is the #1 beer in Canada, and Modelo doesn’t even crack the top 10 here.
Bud Light being idiots with their marketing killed them and Modelo took over. Plus it’s just better.
I thought it was illegal to sell anything other than Molson or Labatt in Canada.
Great stuff! from a geography Ph.D. and a craft beer geek!--and resident of Washington state, one of the craft beer epicenters. Back in the late 1980s when the movement was taking off I made a point of going to every new brewpub. This trend continued into the 1990s when I traveled more frequently. But the curve of new breweries soon overtook the curve of travel--not to mention the need to be moderate. What was once a bucket list (or is that mug list?) to visit every brewpub became impossible--there are some 6,000 of them now. I still like to do a lot of road trips so now the strategy is -- make sure there is a brewpub near my evening's lodging. Pretty easy to do anywhere.
I'm lucky to live in Cleveland - even during Prohibition beer was made and enjoyed. Having a city that's heavily German, Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, etc. ensured our beer has always been good and plentiful. We even have one of THE premier regional breweries around - The Great Lakes Brewing Co. - their brewpub has a bar with bullet holes from a raid by Eliot Ness.
I’d love to see Football Map-splained it mostly seems to come from England but changes so much everywhere it goes from Rugby School to the American and Australian versions.
I think a great knowledge dive would be to look at who owns those top brands you listed including Modelo. Kind of mind blowing when you dive into it
i've been a homebrewer for 30+ years (Oregon native). since i started tracking (in 2012) the various beers i've tried (current total is over 2700 different beers), 700 of those were IPAs. generally speaking i don't tend to really enjoy IPAs. but i enjoy trying new things... and there are a lot of IPAs out there. my go-tos are things like farmhouse ales, belgian tripels, witbier, and the like