Beer-drinking European living in 'Murica here. For certain styles, the US has fantastic beers available. In particular IPAs (which don’t always have to be mega hoppy!), pale ales, pilsners, amber ales, and stouts. Plenty of great choices to be found here, if you discover the right breweries. That’s key, because there are a lot breweries with imo questionable taste.

What’s harder to find are good beers of other styles, such as Belgian or German beers. US breweries try, sometimes, but they aren’t succeeding.

I recently chatted with someone at a party who said “no, all American beers are bad” including microbrewery beers.

That person has not tried “all” American beers. So their view can be safely disregarded IMO.

European mainstream beer isn’t anything to brag about.

European here. Germans just think their beer is the best in the world and if you’re not doing it like them, you’re not doing it right.

Don’t get me wrong, the standards Germans apply to their beer production means that it’s rare to get a terrible beer there, but IMO it’s also not that innovative and the range of styles is fairly limited. There is a ton of choice in the US both in terms of breweries and styles. The variation means you get more duds but also more excellent beers.

I’m curious what they have available over there. Most of our microbreweries don’t reach outside of their own state, let alone internationally.

I’m confident that we have some brews that could go head to head with their best, and I bet they have some that could compete with our worst.

Not a European, but i don’t buy that. American mass-produced beers are bad. That used to be all beers, but it’s not anymore. American microbrews have come a long way and frequently win awards, including international awards. The only objective evidence shows good American beers are good.

I think it’s down to history, wounded pride or self-defensiveness, and as someone else mentioned: the aged swill you get from “imports” may not be good.

Personally, I think German beer is awful, and quite a few American microbrews do German styles so much better. But I’m adult enough to understand I’ve never been to Germany and that what we get for imports may not be their best or freshest. I’m willing to give German brewers the benefit of the doubt, despite what I’ve experienced from them

Not as bad as American “chocolate” .

I think it’s of-a-kind

Domestic/mass-produced European beers are much better than domestic/mass-produced American beers.
And European craft beers are better than American craft beers.

America has a lot of bad domestic and bad craft beers, but there are enough craft beers that some have gotta be good even if just by luck.

Personally I don’t think it’s a big deal: yes American beers taste like water or fruit water, but I like water, it’s refreshing. Water that gives me a buzz if I drink enough is a win in my book.

The big US and Canadian brands all taste like ass but there’s thousands of small breweries that make very yummy nectar. Personally I prefer German and Belgian brews.

I’ve had plenty of really good craft beer but anything mass produced is fine at best and gutter water at worst.

Beer is good only in Belgium.

• An Italian

yes.

I’m an american who lives in france, and i brew my own beer. American beer tastes like shit, even the microbrewed stuff. Everyone wants to make an IPA, and they all taste over hopped. It’s either that swill or the staples of the American frat party: bud light, miller light, coors, etc.

Best beers are hands down made in Belgium, and i will throw hands.

Im not sure about other countries but something to take note of is that American ‘light’ beers are light flavour, not ABV%.
In Australia a ‘light’ beer is usually around 3.5% ABV, but intended to taste like normal beer (i say intended because usually they taste more watery).

So i personally think a bit of the hate on American beers if that they seem to be fans of the ‘light’ flavours more, (ie prevalence of Bud light, Miller Lite, etc.) and they generally taste a lot like soda water to the non-american beer drinker that is used to a lot more body and/or bitterness.

One thing to note is that there are a lot of bad American beers in small and mid-sized cities. Basically what happened is that in the 2010s it became trendy to go to a brewery with a food truck and just hang out. As a result a ton of “breweries” opened that were more or less selling the experience, with a handful of low effort trendy selections to serve as a hook.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t good beers though. America is the land of people who do their own thing, often regardless of social norms and established conventions. There’s a lot of great beers across a broad range of categories, it just takes a bit of digging.

As a sidenote a lot of these D tier breweries are closing and/or rebranding. Changing consumer sentiment means merely being a craft brewery is no longer a hook, while rising real estate costs make the entire endeavor more expensive. The breweries in shitty locations tend to close. The ones in good locations tend to massively reduce their own output, while offering a variety of local alcohol and expanded food options.

My American friends made me drink Keystone Ice and this was one of the most disgusting things I did ever drink. The rest was also not great. A few American beers were passable but I had better ones in most European countries.