Breweries: Micro VS. Mega

The demand for beer in north America grows with each passing day, breweries, in an attempt to keep up with this massive demand have been trying to develop ways of brewing bigger batches and as well keeping a consistent taste so customers will continue to purchase their products. They've achieved this, unfortunately this consistency developed into something rather bland. This is mostly due to them trying to cut costs wherever they can by substituting barley, the standard grain in beer, with other grains. Sure it's good for the companies to lower the cost and in turn good for the consumer, but at what cost to the brew? Budweiser, the self proclaimed "king of beers" is hardly deserving of that title. Yes it outsells the competition across the boards, but that's because it's affordable and has a rather built up image, not due to exceptional taste. Canada is dominated by the big two, Molson and Labatt (interesting side note, both founders were named John). All three of these companies make up the majority of sales in north America (Miller and Coors are in there too), and they all produce lagers that don't vary much in flavor. People most likely couldn't tell their favorite Mega-brew from any other on the market (with a few exceptions). There's a reason that North American beer is supposed to be ice cold, it's to numb your taste buds so you don't actually have to taste it.

Now there is an alternative out there for those of you who wish to drink beer but still want domestic, Micro-breweries. They make their beers in smaller batches, to them, brewing is an art, and that which they produce reflects that. A few of my favorites that come to mind (Canadian that is) are Sleemans Brewery, Grandville Island Brewery, and my personal favorite from right here in Alberta, Big Rock Brewery. Sure you pay a bit more for a six pack (12$ as opposed to 10$) but it's worth every penny. You can get much more variation in what you drink too. Wheat ales, honey brown lagers, maple lagers, cream ales, old style Irish ales, and much more. Pretty much there's something out there for absolutely everyone. I'm a big advocate of Micro brewed beer, I honestly try to avoid the megas as much as I can.

-Matt

The secret is caffeine

In about the past few weeks there's been a new beer introduced into the market. What is it exactly? Well it's caffeinated beer of course, this beer has been highly anticipated and if it catches on will probably be a HUGE hit with the younger crowd, solving their problems of late night parties ending because of tiredness. Sure it was just waiting to happen, what with the success of mixing energy drinks with hard alcohol despite warnings from physicians that it can be hazardous for you to consume it because it masks how drunk you really are. My opinion...Well combining a stimulant (caffeine) with a depressant (alcohol) doesn't seem like the best idea especially since it'll make you a more alert drunk and make you believe you're not impaired when you are. Obviously a concoction "brewed" for disaster. Although Beer companies say that they're not trying to market this as an energy drink if you look at the packaging of these products they look rather similar to those of energy drinks. Sadly this is not a product that was well thought out.

As for how the caffeine affects the taste of the beer, so get your hopes up that it'll be some super beer that'll blow your taste buds away. Molson Kick (the one I tried) tastes EXACTLY the same as molson Canadian. That is to say that it still tastes like mega-brewed swill. I could drink it but I'd just prefer something that tastes a whole lot better (and doesn't screw around with two different drugs that conflict in how your body reacts). I'm curious about the products from other companies, Budweiser came out with Be (pronounced "B to the E") beer as their caffeinated product back in october in the states, apparently tastes like redbull. And the product that Labatt came out with is Shok, it has an even higher alcohol content then regular beer (at 6.9 abv it's a pretty heavy hitter) but it won't be coming to western canada til later in the year.

Form your own opinion on this product, i probably won't drink it because it tastes like crap, but then i'm different in how i choose to drink something compared to others my age. Most of them pick something cheap or "cool".

-Matt