So this is going to be an unusual one – it’s going to be me defending the addition of having a macro lager or beer on tap at your favourite craft beer bar. But bear with me for this one as it will make sense in the long run.
I started drinking, like most people back in the UK at that time, as an uneducated drinker who didn’t enjoy the taste of beer. Drinks, such as Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezers, WKD – those alcopops that pack a bang for the price, and taste more like alcohol infused juices than actual beers. It was more common than not to go around to someone’s house, while their parents were out, and drink with friends while perhaps listening to some music, playing video games, or chasing after someone. Young and dumb as the phrase goes.
Then one day, for some reason that even now I don’t understand why, I chose to drink lager – some Fosters, some Carling – nothing out of this world or even remotely decent in hindsight. But I hated the taste of it at the time. I still can’t drink those two beers but they brought me into new beers – I tried drinking Budweiser, Rolling Rock, Labbatt’s Ice – these beers that, at the ripe old age of 16, seemed exotic and worldly.
In the UK, drinking real ales, which ranged from 3% to the heady heights of 4.5%, were seen as drinks for old bearded men, complaining about how life was better in earlier times. The real ales were served from these weird contraptions called beer engines, where someone would have to really pull on the handle to get beer to spurt out into a pint glass. They were served at cellar temperature, so not cold enough to be crisp but cold enough just to take some of the edge off. None of this was appealing to a 16 year old who wanted something cold and crisp to drink over and over again.
Those lagers than gave way to more European style lagers, with Kronenbourg, Stella Artois, and German Pilsners making their way into my drinking repertoire. Nights were spent in the local drinking pints of Staropramen, Budvar (the original Czech recipe), Erdinger, and the occasional Köstritzer Schwarzbier when it was on tap. Throw in some pints of Guinness in there and you could see how my taste buds were slowly starting to develop away from the alcopops – though don’t worry, I still like the occasional chu-hi on a hot summer’s day, in a pint of ice.
Why not cider some of you may say? Yes, the UK is a hotbed for cider production but like real ale in the day, it remained in the realm of hairy old people or those from the countryside who were deemed to be of either inbred stock or uneducated. It’s a stereotype that has thankfully been shed and no doubt there are those people who still think it’s that kind of drink, but I will happily drink it when I am back in the UK.
Yet throughout all this time of random drinking, my taste buds were changing – they were working out what they like, and what they don’t like. Same with food – the food I liked as a teenager is vastly different to what I like now. Yet it was all about taking those small steps into new realms of flavours.
I remember the first American IPA I had like it was yesterday. It blew my taste buds out of the water and I was not prepared for it, and in all likelihood, you, the reader, weren’t probably ready for your first American IPA either. I was blown away by this brand new flavour of citrus dank notes, lemons and grapefruits, caramel dankness, and an underlying sweetness. I remember sitting there thinking what the heck was going on and how did someone make it?
It was a Stone IPA and it wasn’t the best beer to get someone into these “new” styles of beer really. In hindsight, a pale ale would have been much better but you know what happened? The next time I had one, I was a bit more prepared for the flavour profile – the hoppiness still kicked, the bitterness made my face screw up, the body was happy. But with the higher strength alcohol, I was drunker than I thought I would ever be after a couple of beers.
For a long time after, I didn’t drink craft beer due to not being able to find it that readily in the UK. It was mostly real ales and they didn’t appeal to me – little did I know, 20 years on after leaving the UK for these Japanese shores that I’d find myself wanting a pint of Doom Bar, some Fuller’s London Pride, and maybe even some Shepherd Neame Spitfire. It was when I was snowboarding in Niigata back in the winter of 2005 that I found some local craft beer – it was German based of course at the time but again, curiosity got the better of me and I was delighted. Flavourful beer that changed during drinking. The Niigata 90 Day Stout, a 7% stout, packed a roasted black malt flavour, a chocolate aroma, and a lingering bitterness and I was hooked.
That was back in 2004 and now it’s 2024 and with BeerTengoku having turned 10, I can’t imagine my life without a decent pint of craft beer. But it wouldn’t have happened if I had not had my first pint of a macro lager. Seeing a macro lager on tap list at a craft beer isn’t a bad thing by any means at all. Some of my favourite craft beer bars have a macro on tap and for good reason – it gets new drinkers in.
I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been able to go with people to a bar, people who’d never step foot in, let alone drink anything from, a craft beer bar because they don’t know what those beers are. I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve had friends who have been inquisitive to ask about what beer I’d recommend and, through my own follies, I’ve told them about lighter beers to start off with – a pale ale, a hefeweizen, a fruit beer. I’ve been lucky enough to see their faces change with interest and excitement as they have found something they like to drink and will order it again. And that step in the door was because of a macro lager on tap.
So next time you go to a craft beer bar and you see a macro beer on tap, take a friend along with you who hasn’t drunk craft beer before, buy them a macro beer and a light craft beer and guide them on the exciting journey. And remember, macro beer can be a support to their journey but let them take their time and find what they want. At the end of it all, thank the macro lager for being on tap as it was the gateway beer that got them out.
