From: Gene McAloon 

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 01:09:04 GMT, doug.bryce{at}sympatico.ca (Doug Bryce) wrote:

>I tend to think it's more a case of the nationals brewing their very
>bland, appeal to 'Joe Six-pack' beers to the extent that that's what
>everyone thinks beer should taste like.  The smaller brewers, be they
>micro. local, or regional, tend to brew beer that is more flavourful
>and has more 'character'.  'Joe Six-pack' doesn't like that very
>much....so going national may not be feasible when one considers the
>market size for real/good beer .

I don't see it that way. I have been around long enough to remember when
few people complained about the national beers. The complaints began in the
late
'60s and '70s when they started to change their beers to capture that half of
the potential drinkers that traditionally didn't drink beer, women.

There was never any question of anyone accepting that lousy beer without
complaint. And Joe-six-pack exists in places like Dubuque as well as
everywhere else. The older people in such places still don't accept it. It
is the young people and women who are perfectly content to drink the
national's rotgut because they don't know any better.

Another aspect of this is the 3.2 rotgut the military served to its people
during WW II and the Korean war. Given that they were serving it to kids
who might have been getting their first taste of beer, that might have set
in motion
the acceptance of lousy beer.

Some sociologist should write a paper on this stuff.

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